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| Tom at Mt. Washington Summit |
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| Tom at Mt. Washington Summit |
Tom's Mt. Washington Climb
February/March 2002
(AKA. Explorers Club of
Pittsburgh Mountaineering School Graduation Trip)
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" The difference between the impossible and the possible
lies in a person's determination."
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| - Tommy Lasorda |
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| Huntington Ravine |
| February 27 | February 28 | March 1 |
| March 2 | March 3 | Links |
I put this page together to share my experience on a Mt. Washington Trip that was part of the ECP Mountaineering School. Hopefully, with some of the details, future mountaineering students will find it helpful. I know I had a lot of questions!
As for the events that transpired, I've tried to piece them together not having
all the facts. Hopefully though it will convey the general idea of what happened.
If you have corrections or additions let me know at tom@tomcentral.com.
Wednesday February 27th (weather archive 2/27)
This odyssey started back in October. The crazy notion that I wanted to climb a snow covered mountain. Well the culmination of many hours of instruction, training, reading and practicing was quickly approaching. Mt. Washington, which seem so far off back then, was upon us.
After weeks of scrambling to get the gear I didn't have I was as ready as I would ever be. I had been running around right down to the wire. The night before I picked up my last, but much needed, item. My climbing gloves! I actually took the bus from downtown to Shadyside, at lunch, to pick these up at Mountain Dreams. I ended up with Patagonia's Stretch Triolet®. Nothing like making a $100 panic purchase. That's what credit cards are for I guess. Between them, Exkursion, Campmor, Outdoor Research and Mountain House I did my part to help the economy! :-)
I took a half day at work, arriving home at noon. Talking to Brian earlier, he was to pick up Aaron at 1:30. They expected to be at the airport at 2:15. I ate lunch quickly, did that last check "did I leave anything" crazyness and headed out the parkway.
I was in line and on time at the airport when Brian walked up. Stepping out of line to talk to him, I decided to use the new e-ticket kiosks that USAir has. Following Aaron over I watched him and tried it. As it turned out they were pretty slick. No lines and easy to follow. I would recommend using them.
That went too smooth though I thought. Hmmmm, it was then I realized I left my gloves in my car! That meant I had to take the shuttle back to Park USA to retrieve them. Luckily though we had a long time before boarding. It turned out not to be a problem. I met up with those guys at the gate. Soon we were boarded and backing away. Since it was snowing we had to be deiced. That was a short delay but then we were in the air and on our way.
Arriving in Manchester, NH at 6:30, we rented a Chevrolet Impala and loaded it up. As we were pulling out we noticed that the washer fluid light was on. Asking the check out guy about this, he gave us a sufficiently vague answer about not to believe it. So believing him we left. Brian was driving and Aaron sat up front navigating. My upstanding companion in the back was large 65lb cylindrical fellow. He didn't talk much but had the nasty habit of leaning on me in turns. :-)
Soon our navigator had us going up Interstate 93 towards the White Mountains. The wet condition's meant using our wipers a lot cleaning the windshield. See where I'm going with this? Yes we ran out of fluid. The check out guy was wrong! We pulled into a small service station and I bought a gallon of fluid. The guy who sold it to me closed the placed as I was pouring it in. I guess we got there just in time. That car hadn't been serviced for awhile as it took the whole gallon and there was still room in the reservoir. Anyway around 2.5 hours or so later we arrived in North Conway. Food was in order so we stopped at a place called Horsefeathers. We were all a very hungry and it was good. Brian ordered Thai soup and practically licked the bowl. :-)
The weather in North Conway was cold but there really was not any precip. No snow. We started the drive out of town about 10:00pm and came to the Intersection of route 16 where we needed to turn to go to Pinkham Notch. First, however, we stopped in the mini mart there to pick up some supplies (Aaron's lunches). After Brian figured out reverse from forward we drove out of the parking lot instead of through the building. :-)
It wasn't long on Rt16 before we started to hit weather. As we gained elevation it turned into snow and blowing snow. Yes it was definitely winter at the Joe Dodge Lodge! Pulling into the parking lot we unloaded and went into the building. We were greeted by Paul, James and others who had arrived there before us. Aaron, Brian and myself took a corner room at the end of the hall. Two bunk beds, one with a double underneath and a roll-a-bed cot in the center which we secretly moved across the hall (well it was a secret until now). Proceeding to unpack we got stuff ready for the next day.
It wasn't long before we were ready to crash. It had been a long day. I turned in on a top bunk. I can't remember sleeping that close to the ceiling before. Did I say sleep? I shouldn't have. Unfortunately a regular occurrence on these outings is that I don't sleep a wink the first night. It happened to me at Seneca and it happened here also. Someone was snoring next door. Boy did I envy them!
Thursday February 28th (weather archive 2/28)
This was a busy morning. I was climbing with David and he had just arrived! We were to go over to Willey's Slide to practice. I needed to go into North Conway to rent boots and crampons from IME. As it turned out I was the only one who had to rent anything. Unfortunately Steve had to leave the day before and I was unable to get the club's boots and crampons he had. They were the same as I was renting. Anyway it was no big deal since a pair of Koflach Degre® boots and Grivel G-12® crampons only cost $30 for 4 days.
After picking those up we headed out of town past the intersection of route 16. Soon we came to an area where cars were parked. We put on our gear.
This was the first time I had ever used crampons. The step in kind, they were easy to put on. We hiked into the woods and it felt kind of strange walking in the things. I think we are all used to sliding our feet forward or backward as we walk. With spikes you pretty much have to pull your feet up and plant on each step. I trudged along getting used to them. The slide was about 15 minutes up the trail. Eventually, we came to an open area. Sans the ice it looked like a giant sled riding hill.
Roping up I was first a bit confused. We had two ropes. This, I found out, was for back up in case one got sliced by a tool or crampon. I just treated the two ropes as one and that made it fairly easy. I put David on belay. Before he started up on lead I was given a bit of instruction. Basically, paraphrased, he said "plant the tools, kick your front points in the ice and .... don't fall cause it's not an option" :-)
Ok, so I stood there wondering what it was going to be like. I had never removed an ice screw before and was trying to think how hard that was going to be. I was told that you need to remove the ice from the core immediately before it freezes. You do this by tapping it with the biner or axe in the non-threaded area (so you don't dull them).
Soon I heard the call of off belay and I was put on. Starting up the snow pack I saw the first ice wall in front of me. Slamming the axe in and front pointing I was over it rather quickly. That was a good confidence builder. There were a lot of us on the hill. Several people were clearing out belay stations or just slamming the ice.
Coming to the first piece of pro I proceeded to unscrew it. It was actually not a problem to pull and I was surprised when the ice came easily out of the center. Arriving at the belay station I tied in and we started setting up for the next pitch. As David started up he began to converge with Brian's team. Since they had not cleaned their pitch yet, he clipped into one of their runners. I then followed and just unclipped out of theirs. That was one less piece of pro I had to clean. :-)
We continued the process until the last pitch when I passed up the belay and climbed to the woods. Once I was safe and off belay, David started to come up. While I was getting the ropes and tools in order I kept hearing a voice. I thought people were talking to each other off in the distance, whatever. It was persistent though and I kept thinking, is someone talking to me? I thought I was going crazy. Finally I looked to my right and James had dug a pit around a tree. I wasn't crazy, there he was, this talking head speaking to me. :-)
Once we had everything in order it was time to glissade down. This was a bit of a challenge. I didn't take my crampons off which was a mistake. I started going too fast and reached back with my axe to stop myself. I twisted my shoulder in a weird position and it hurt the rest of the day. I ended up down climbing.
When I arrived I decided to eat. With Suzanne on lead David left to do it again. After some food I practiced self arrest techniques. Trying to get yourself upside down on your back, on a slope, is not an easy task! After a few tries I felt I had it down so I just stood around and watched everyone else.
After a couple of hours they came down and I got the key to the truck. David free climbed it one more time while I hiked down the trail to the parking. There I met up with Paul and Jason who had been sitting in the comfort of Paul's van.
The day was good. I was happy. I felt a bit better having actually climbed ice now. That bit of anxiety was finally out of the way!
We went into town and stopped at EMS and IME. Once we had the group together we went to a restaurant. We had a large crew and that provided for some entertaining moments. Our waitress was a real trooper. John spilled his water all over table and Brain's jacket. For that he got a "sippy" cup replacement.
Once back we found Tom & Jen asleep in our room. It was only 8:00! I guess they were exhausted from the trip up. Dragging everything out of the room, into the hall, seemed to be the thing to do. The rooms were so small there was no floor space to pack. As I proceeded to stuff my pack I knew I was in trouble. It was getting heavy. This mountain was psyching me out. I thought I needed a bunch of clothes and extra food. Aaron was standing next to me. Picking up my pack he laughed. I definitely knew I was in trouble. ;-( He asked "what do you have in there?" As I started to pull things out, while explaining their presence, he would just say "don't need it, don't need it..." Well you get the point. This helped as I was able to chuck some weight. That didn't make it light but it was better. Then I kept thinking I have to add a rope on top of this? Damn. I went around and checked some other people's packs for a reference point. I wasn't the only one. Many people were carrying a lot of weight. Here's a list of the gear.
Soon it was time to crash and get some sleep.... right. I have to find a way to sleep on these outings!
Friday March 1st. (weather archive 3/1)
The alarm rang around 5:30 - 6:00. It was time to do it. All the planning, packing and waiting was over. We finalized some things and went over to breakfast. I am not much of a fried greasy foods eater and that is what was at the breakfast buffet. They did have pancakes but I didn't need those bricks in my stomach trying to climb this mountain. I settled for grapefruit, oatmeal and coffee.
We went back and grabbed our packs and checked out. One of the nice things about the Joe Dodge Lodge is that it is right next to the trail. I was my usual slow self in the morning and David was ready and giving me notice to start. At the trail head there is a scale. I weighed my pack in at 60lbs. I knew this climb was going to be a workout.
We started up and soon I had to remove some layers. I was wearing a mid-weight capilene® with a wool/polypro thermal undershirt. On top of that was my Patagonia Super Pluma® jacket. On the bottom I had on my EMS 300 weight fleece pants with the matching Pluma pants. That was way too much. I think I ended up with just my wool/polypro thermal undershirt on and my side zips undone on my pants. It's amazing how much heat is generated on a climb like that. We gained 1800+ feet over 2 miles I think (see map 885K ). I recalled from a book I read that Eastern hikers are often amazed at how much easier Western trails are when they go out there. That was how I felt at Whitney. It's because the Western trails are cut switch back. Most Eastern trails are older and just plow straight up the mountain. Well this fit that profile. We did turn here and there but mostly it was up, up, up. I soon was getting passed by as I always do. I'm just not that fast on the hills. The Koflach Degre's I rented had a problem with the right heal and that was bothering me. As I would find out that would become a nagging problem.
We passed the Huntington Ravine trail and saw the spur to the Hermit Lake shelters where the club has stayed in the past. I was getting tired. I kept thinking: and I'm going to climb today too? The weather was good and the sun was shining which helped. Sooner than I would have thought we came upon Harvard Cabin. The first thing that greets one there is the avalanche bulletin board.
We set up the tent and unpacked a bit.
As it was David and I were going to do Yale. The avalanche danger was low on that one. Now however, the problem was that everyone wanted to do it (and this turned out to be a big problem later). Since we generally agreed that "speed was safety", even though it was moderate avalanche danger, we decided to do Odell's. The theory being we would not be held up by anyone. We got out our glacier axes and started up the snow slope . I borrowed Aaron's Black Diamond Arc light® for this occasion (thanks a lot Aaron) . Immediately the crusty top layer broke and the ice axe went through some soft snow about a foot to a harder layer. Can you say slab avalanche? I was then reminded to stay a safe distance apart so we could minimize our chances of starting one.
When we got to the base of the climb we had a team off to our left. They weren't with the ECP. We decided to go right. We set up an anchor with two screws and a spectra runner I carry. I put David on belay and he climbed over the first bulge of ice and through some snow to the next ice. He told me to shout out the length of rope. That was one thing that I had to get used to. I'm terrible at estimating length. I hadn't done that before because at Seneca everyone knows where the pitch ends. Anyway I did my best to estimate and shouted out "half rope", "50 feet" down by 10 until "end of rope". Soon I heard "off belay" and then "on belay".
When the danger is moderate it's not the kind of place you want to stand around and admire the view. :-) I quickly broke down the anchor and shouted "climbing". I took a healthy swing with the club's Black Diamond Shrikes® and planted the tools. My rental crampons had dual front points and I liked that. They provided for a sturdy platform. I slammed them in. I got past the bulge and to the first piece of pro. Cleaning that I continued up. There was another bulge of ice then the belay came into view and I was near the end of the rope. We still had the other team off to our left. Which is where we wanted them.
The belay area had been dug out and I enlarged it to fit myself as would be the case throughout our climbs. We made another pitch and began to notice that the people on our left were crossing over us. This was just what we didn't want. We didn't want them kicking off an avalanche on top of us. As our paths crossed we had a bit of an issue making sure the ropes weren't tangling up but it wasn't too bad.
After the next belay David decided it was time to simal-climb. Well, I have to admit I didn't read a lot about this in the book. I assumed I would always be on belay. I really wasn't sure of the technique. So I was playing out the rope and at the end I heard him yell. I was having trouble hearing. The guy from the other team was trying to relay the message since he was above me. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to go or not. He explained before he left what he wanted to do. I even repeated it back to him so I would remember. I still forgot. So much on my mind!
Eventually I realized I should be walking. I didn't quite have this concept down however. It just didn't seem right that I should have about 6 feet of slack behind me. Hmmmm. As I passed these other guys they looked at me. Then I heard one of them say: "why don't we do that". Eventually David came to some rocks near the crest and belayed me off one, so we didn't simal-climb the whole way. I caught up, stopping we sat amongst them. The wind was intense. This was not a place to stay too long. As we were getting things in order the other team came simal-climbing by. David looked at them and said to me "they shouldn't have that slack in the rope".
Oooops! :-( I replied, ah well, ummmm they went to school on me! I won't forget how to do that anytime soon.We continued to pack and organize gear so we could continue on up into the Alpine Garden. Sitting on rocks the ropes were tossed about. David was having a tough time with one of them. It had a knot in it. As I was going about my business he shouted: "Tom! take care of this rope!" I nearly jumped out of my boots. I guess he was a little frustrated with the tangled mess. :-) We eventually straightened it out and I packed it. I took the opportunity to eat a Power Bar and drink some water then it was time to crest. We got up and started towards the top of the gully.
Having walked enough we decided to glissade down. This was my first try since Willey's and I was a little apprehensive at first. The Lions Head trail winds through the woods. It's kind of narrow among all the trees and in a couple parts it just plain drops off. You have to down climb those. I remembered my last attempt so my crampons came off. We both made sure we had everything strapped to our packs securely before we started. So I was fairly sure I wasn't going to loose anything. At a few points we did checks on each other to make sure nothing fell off. Anyway, we wound our way down. I regulated my speed with my heals and ice axe. After I started to get the hang of it, it became a lot of fun. The key was building up snow between my legs and plowing down. This helped regulate speed. Also, I was riding easily on my shell pants which I had washed in Nikwax® before the trip.
We soon came upon a drop which required a down climb. Jen and Tom were in the process of doing that.
It had been a full day and I was tired and hungry. Craig was on my cook team and he brought the stove. I let him set it up. One of the things on my to do list, before the trip, was to remind him to bring a base. Well, I forgot that e-mail and he forgot the base! :-( To make matters worse he said to me "you're not going to want to hear this but the stove just broke". Pumping the fuel bottle, the pump handle seal broke. The plunger came right out! Hmmm, not good.
I left him to come up with some ingenious way to fix it and went looking for sticks to make a "raft like" base. When I got back he figured out that the bottle was still usable. The trick was not to pull the plunger all the way out. In addition to my pot he also had one. We used the sticks and that to come up with a base solution. Turning his pot upside down and level with the sticks did the trick. Finally, it was time to start cooking. Boiling water actually, since we had the proverbial Mountain House freeze dried packets.
Afterwards it was about 7:00 and we were already thinking of sleep. With a full stomach and the wind kicking up with temps in the single digits, my Marmot Couloir® bag was calling my name. We decided to boil more water and put hot water bottles in our bags. As I was pouring mine, with my liner gloves on, I missed the Nalgene bottle and boiling water went right on my index finger. Aaaagh! :-( I instantly shoved my entire hand in the snow to stop the pain. That dulled it but my problem now was that my glove was all wet. Bummer! Later I ran into Suzanne who is soon to be a Resident Doctor. I mentioned this to her and she examined it. She told me to check for blistering in the morning and gave me some advice on what to do. As it turned out it didn't bother me. Must have been the quick snow action. :-)
As it got later we noticed that we were missing a few people. Where were Aaron, James, Mike (Paul and Nate too? I'm not sure) Well, we didn't know at the time but they were stuck on Yale and were rapping down in the dark! Leaving a trail of pro. Three pitches of ice and one of snow. I'm not sure of the specifics of this adventure but I do know it was late before I heard Aaron's voice in camp (11:00pm?). Well we had our first story I guess. At least everyone was safe. Our call earlier to do Odell's turned out to be the right one. Yale was just too jammed up with people for all to get through it by dark.
With a sleepless night before and a full day I soon drifted off to sleep. My last thoughts were of getting up at 5:30 and launching at 7:00! :-(
Saturday March 2nd. (weather archive 3/2)
Got up early as planned. It took way more time than I thought to get moving. Plastic boots, gaiters, layers etc... are a pain. Try tying frozen laces with glove liners on some time. We really had "nice" non-mountaineering weather for this class. Well we were paying for that now. This trip was my first cold weather camping in snow, my first ice climbing, my first use of crampons. You name it, I had rookie tattooed on my forehead!
I was really scrambling to try and be ready by 7:00. I didn't want to see David coming down the trail saying "where's Tom George!". Inhaling my breakfast, I ran over to the outhouse. Damn there was a line. It seemed to take 15 minutes before I got in. I was going to be late for sure. It was nice to have an outhouse but don't have great expectations if you go there. It was nasty, although the Thermarest toilet seat was a nice amenity. :-)
I ran back to the tent and put on my harness. Walking up to the snow cave I saw Jason standing outside it. I said where's David? Fully expecting to hear that he was looking for me. Jason said "he's still sleeping". What! Unknown to me was that he had gone out to help the guys on Yale the night before. Being up so late he was trying to catch up on sleep. I told them to tell him to come get me when he was ready. I returned to my tent area somewhat relieved to have the extra time.
By now most of the camp was up and moving around. Others were having breakfast. I used the extra time to rearrange my pack. He awoke shortly thereafter and it wasn't long before we were headed off to Huntington Ravine. The avalanche danger was posted at low and it being the weekend a lot of people were climbing this day. We wanted to do Diagonal gully. The hike up was tougher than the day before I thought as I trudged along. I was tired from yesterday and was thinking to myself: man am I going to be able to do this? I felt spent already. My body was slow to wake up. I was committed though and I was going to find a way. I just had to dig down deep (with the help of Power Bars and determination) I guess.
When we arrived I took in the full view of the ravine. Yes, it's impressive. I was overheated with too many layers again. We changed and started the snow climb. As it was getting steeper I shouted "Hey David I think I need an ice axe out". He turned around and looked at me like: you've been climbing without one? I proceeded to drop my pack and get it out. Funny when you're being lead as a student. You know you should be doing certain things sometimes but you wait for the instructor to tell you. Dumb.
We started to get closer to the climb. I noticed 80 - 90 degree ice up ahead. We weren't going there I was sure. Wrong! We were doing a b-line for it. So what if the first time I climbed ice was two days ago, right?
We stopped and started to set up. There was a team ready to go up Yale next to us. We talked to them a bit. We told them to leave the pro since it was Aaron's (and Paul's?) from the night before. Twice going up I heard people say "why is there a belay station set up here?" I had to tell them to leave it. I got the rope out of my pack and started to play it out. I asked David to hand me the other rope. Looking at me he said "I'm tired, only one rope today, don't cut it". Hmmmm, Three screws, one picket and one rope. Ok with me I guess. I wasn't worried. Although I'm not sure if I can attribute that to bravado or ignorance (bliss?) :-)
Anyway we set up an anchor and putting him on belay off he went. Slamming the Charlet Moser Quarks® into the bulge he was soon over it and out of view. I played out the rope until it stopped. I knew he was placing some pro. As he continued on, I stood feeding the rope watching the sunshine reflect off the ice. It was quiet and I could hear water dripping. Beads were running off the tips of the bulge. Yes serene thoughts of a clear mountain stream during the spring snow melt flowed through my mind. These were followed by thoughts of ..... an ice tool plant releasing a mass of hydraulic pressure causing an explosion of ice. Sending chunks of ice shrapnel tearing through clothing and blowing me off the face..... Aaaaagh! :-( Go away sun!
I soon heard the call off/on belay. I started to break down the anchor. After a brief conversation between my sane and insane halves about what I thought about putting myself in this situation I shouted "climbing"! Looking up I swung my axe into the mass of glistening ice. This stuff was noticeably different then that of the day before. It was a bit like crushed ice underneath. I planted my next axe and slammed my front points into the wall. The adrenaline at this point was taking over. I could feel my heart rate going up as I clawed and kicked to the top of this thing. Then, before I knew it, I hit snow. Taking a moment, I caught my breath and slowed my heart rate. I then observed the terrain up to my right. I could see the piece of pro that was placed. Damn, it was another wall of ice! The guy we were talking to earlier was off to my far right belaying his partner up. At this point David was up and around out of view. Having rested I started towards the next wall. The amount of snow was short and soon I placed my axes and kicked into the ice to reach the screw. I removed the screamer and started to take the screw out. After the last thread released I pulled it out and tapped it on my axe to remove the ice in the tube. Nothing! What was going on? I had no trouble up to this point. Then again I was never before planted on near vertical ice trying to take one out. Murphy's law I guess. I looked inside to find no light at the end of the tunnel. I banged it again. No Luck. I got a carabiner and rapped on it. No good. I was starting to tire and getting upset. Taking my left foot out of the front point, I sort of sideways planted it to rest my calf muscle. I was mad at this pro now. Frustrated, I reached over to tap it on my axe one more time and .... I felt it slip ever so slowly out of my fingers. Since my other hand was in the leash holding me it was no help. The screw fell down the straight face of ice and .... it came to rest on on my sideways boot. Amazing! That wouldn't happen again in 100 tries! Ok, so I figured I was going to have one shot at getting this screw. I had to keep my boot still and bend down hanging on my leashed hand. Ever so slowly reaching down, holding on with my left hand, I retrieved it. Disaster averted. :-) Problem not solved, however. :-( I still had a screw with a tube full of ice. I didn't know what else to try at this point. In desperation I shouted over to the guy, from the other team, to see if he had any suggestions. He replied: "put it in your armpit". Hmmmm, ok. So I shoved it in for 30 seconds or so, pulled it out and blew in the tube. Out shot a stream of ice. Cool! That little trick had melted it just enough. Having cleared that, it was time to get off the wall. Clipping the screw on the biner, I grabbed my tools and started up. On my next plant I noticed water running out of a placement. I knew what that meant. Where there's running water there's hydraulic pressure. Time to get off this now. I think I flew up the last few feet. When I felt the axe bury itself in snow, I knew I made it. It would be snow climbing from there on out. Fine by me!
Continuing on up to the belay point I saw we had an anchor with a small tree to back it up. I planted my tools and tied in. I backed those up with a "bomber" placement around the 2 inch pine tree. I thought of Hugh Shinn in rock school saying "rhododendrons do not make good anchors" or Aaron laughing at me at Seneca for doing the same around a small Cherry Tree. Oh well, life on the edge! :-)
Putting David on belay, he took off up the hill. I guess this really amounted to free climbing since all he was doing was dragging a rope up. There was no pro to place, in the snow, since the picket he had was to be used for the next belay station. I watched and called out the length after "half rope" as usual. Nearing the 200ft mark I recalled my high school physics. If he fell into an uncontrolled slide he would have to come 200ft to me and then 200ft past me. If that happened, him, me and this pine seedling were most likely flying off the mountain! Calculating acceleration and the period before I felt a yank, I figured I'd have enough time to:
A.) Brace myself
B.) Plant my glacier axe
C.) Cut the damn rope! :-)When he got to the next belay he proceeded to dig out a ledge. These were nice when I would get there. However, standing below him, the penalty for these was being barraged with snow and ice chunks. One had hit me on the side of the helmet, ringing my bell and another hit my upper thigh way too close for comfort. I was thinking there were a lot of pieces of gear on the list for mountaineering but a cup wasn't one of them. :-) I ended up with a contusion about 3 inches in diameter. Ouch, the stuff gains speed coming down that gully!
Soon I was on belay and proceeded up the pitch.
Proceeding up the next pitch took us near the top.
Continuing along the trail, I soon saw the road to the summit in front of me. The observatory was off to my left. David was flanking me on the left and we both turned and came together on the road. My leg was feeling better now. In hindsight I think I had some sort of cramping or mineral deficiency that possibly the Cliff Bar helped? Anyway I have to admit I was starting to get a feeling of accomplishment now. Chills and it wasn't from the cold. This was unexpected since I really didn't have an overwhelming desire to summit Mt. Washington and wondered why I should feel this way. I walked along thinking about Bob telling us that he believed going to the mountains was a changing experience. I realized that this was not Denali or Rainier but it was still a mountain. A place where people usually don't tread. Where our survival instincts say "take the valleys". To climb to the top just gave me a different perspective for a moment. I felt it in the Grand Canyon, at Mt. Whitney and now here. I guess that's why I do this stuff.
Ok, ok, enough of the deep thoughts. I knew there was one thing I certainly didn't go there for and that was the weather. :-) The wind was now gusting between 60 and 81mph. My glacier axe was swinging when I let go of it. It was one of the most intense sustained winds I had ever been in. As we approached the true summit, I saw the sign and was really happy. It took a lot to get there. I had pushed myself beyond what my body was telling me it wanted to do. I refused to quit and I can partly thank David for that. He never even considered not summiting. The man has energy. Give him some carbo GU and he's set. :-)
We stopped at the summit sign and took some pictures.
Well the summit is not the place to stand around and BS. We decided to go down Lions Head and get out of the wind. Along the way, on the Alpine Garden near Tuckerman Ravine, we stopped to take off our crampons for glissading. While we were there we ran into James and Aaron coming from the direction of the Garden. I stood up and James tackled me in the snow. David tackled him back.
It was a busy day on the trail when we started down. David was in the lead followed by me then Aaron. Hikers stepped aside as we slid up to them. Weaving through the trees we had to be careful. There were places were small stumps stuck out of the snow. These would cause a nasty injury if you ran over them, especially if it was between the legs. :-) Eventually we came to a drop off again. It was like the movie Groundhog Day. Tom and Jen were in the exact same place on the trail as yesterday. We waited until they got down then I made my not so graceful descent past this obstacle. Tom was laughing at me. Hey I got down all right? It didn't take long before we were back to the main trail and on our way to the Cabin. We arrived around 4:30.
The day was late and I was hungry but Craig wasn't there. He and Brian arrived about an hour later. There was a stream ,which was dug out, behind the cabin for water. Lifting a platform, it could be reached underneath. During the wait I had went and retrieved some water and set it on the stove. Anyway, this water on the unlit stove was already starting to freeze! It was getting dark when we fired it up. I made my Mountain House Hearty Beef Stew and the packet was leaking. Looking in the pouch I realized I had left that moisture packet in the foil. The one that is "not for consumption". There was no way I was not eating that meal! Bill said it wasn't poisonous anyway and I don't think it got in my dinner. I chowed down.
We decided to boil water again for the Nalgene bottles. Craig was having trouble with the stove and finally got it re-lit. He must have had too much fuel on the primer or something because a huge flame lit up the area. People were yelling "who's starting a bonfire"! Bill said to turn the valve off and that's what we did which got it under control.
(the following is my best recollection of the events that occured)
Shortly after dinner we started to wonder where some people were. Dan, John, Nate and Paul had not returned. The radio's came out and someone got a transmission from Dan and John. They were having problems up on the Alpine Garden. The weather had moved in and it was a white out up there. Dan sounded a bit tense and he said John was feeling ill. David and Brian decided to go up and bring them down. They packed up and took off. So we had a problem but at least we were in contact with those guys. But what about Nate and Paul? No radio contact. Did they even have one? Since we knew they had done Yale, Aaron and Mike (and Andrew, Brad, Tom and Jen possibly) went up to the base of Huntington Ravine to search for Nate and Paul's headlamps. I can't recall the exact order of events but I think Aaron and Mike came back having had no luck. About that time Ross decided to head up the trail towards the ravine in hopes of possibly receiving a transmission from Nate and Paul if they had a radio. Remembering the type of radio they may have had Ross realized they wouldn't have subchannels (i.e. 5.8). So he switched to 5.0. What he found was Nate trying to contact anyone from the ECP! He came back to basecamp with the news. Needing more radios, Bill Baxter went to get his out. He didn't have enough batteries so I gave him my spare headlamp ones to fire it up. Now we were standing around with multiple situations occurring. We contacted Brian, David and Dan to get everyone on the same channel.
The situation was that Nate and Paul were behind a rock trying to shield themselves from the wind. Their transmission was sporadic and garbled due to the bad weather. What we pieced together was that they weren't sure where they were after coming out of Yale gully. This caused some debate to occur amongst everyone. They did have a compass. Some people felt we should tell them to head one direction and others disagreed. The maps came out and we were all huddled around them in what we now referred to as "base camp". It was like something out of Rescue 911. A bit of a drama. Did I hear William Shatners voice? Anyway Brian and David came upon Dan and John while this was happening. Brian started to bring them down while David continued on to try and make contact with Nate and Paul. As the radio conversations went on Nate and Paul started to walk. Soon we heard them call that they had found a road. Good news! That is the road to the summit we radioed back. I think David told them to continue up the road to the summit. Even though the weather was bad the alternative was to walk down coming out on the other side of the mountain. Not good. He then told them he would meet them at the summit. When we heard that, we all looked at each other. Brad said "does anyone think that is a good idea?" We responded "no" and then questioned David. He replied that he knew Lions head well and that he was closer to the summit than base camp.
Some time passed before we received a transmission from Nate and Paul. Because of the clarity we knew they weren't outside. But where would they be? They were in the Observatory! It's important to note here that the Park Service states that the top of the mountain is NOT a rescue point. They want to dissuade people from being unprepared and using them for rescue. We were quite surprised to hear that the caretaker had let them in. This was good news. Now, however, we still had David out in the storm. We listened as Nate gave him three options. One was to meet them at the summit, then they could all head down. The second was he could meet them at the summit, then they could all stay there. The third was that he could turn back to base camp without them and they would stay at the observatory. Since he was so close to the summit he decided on option two. Once they were inside we all breathed a sigh of relief. Although I have since found out this came at a cost of over $100.00 a piece. Quite the expensive hotel!
Knowing this our attention switched to preparing for Dan and John's arrival. Aaron and Mike fired up the stove and made some pasta mix. There was a lot so they tested it out rather hungrily. Was there anything left for John? :-) Dan arrived ahead of the others and packed up and hiked down to the lodge. Brian was belaying John down the trail, so they took awhile to get into camp. I was getting tired so I went to the tent. When they came into camp Bill informed us and asked us to ready a spot for Brian as John was going to Barry's tent. However, since Nate and Paul weren't coming into camp now I suggested they both use their tent which they did.
It was starting to lightly snow. I was so tired it didn't take long to fall off to sleep.
Sunday March 3rd. (weather archive 3/3)
I awoke to the sound all backpackers hate to hear. Drops on the tent. It seemed so dark I didn't think it was very late in the morning. But wait, there was sludge on the tent because it was sagging! Hitting the side I watched as a sheet of snow slid off. Oh man, it snowed about 4 inches and then it started raining steady. No way to sugar coat it. It was going to be miserable day to pack up and hike down.
As I got out of the bag I examined my right foot before putting on my cold wet socks. Yep, a nice blister on the right heal just below the Achilles. Craig had a blister also, and was tapping it, so I used his roll to tape mine up.
The tent was sloping downhill and that made it interesting trying to get out of the entrance that was facing up. To pack all our stuff there really was only room for one person at a time. So I went first, getting dressed, and packing my pack. Finally, ready to go it was time to venture into the elements. I unzipped the rain fly and heavy wet snow fell into the vestibule area. Rain started coming in also so I quickly got up, grabbed my pack and pulled it out of the entrance. Barry, Bill and Ross were off to my left. They were packing up and were almost ready to leave.
Craig emerged into the elements and it was time to take down the tent. Of course if the worst conditions are present then the stakes and fly clips don't want to come out. Digging through the snow to find the stakes had my fingers soaked and a few degrees above freezing. I had to keep telling myself I was doing this for fun. Every so often I would consider where I'd normally be right then on a Sunday morning. Home drinking warm coffee reading the paper. Then that thought would be rudely interrupted by reality. Yes, it was time to put on my ridiculously heavy pack, gaining water weight by the minute, and start slogging down the mountain. :-(
Craig and I eventually got on the trail and started down. Soon we came upon John. He was still feeling a bit ill. I gave him one of my ski poles and water. I thought it was best that we stay together as a group. He was walking in small steps so it took awhile to get to the bottom. We stopped often to rest.
I was worried about luggage weight on the flight back so I gave Craig my ice tools to take back to Pittsburgh in Paul's van. As I was doing that I saw Bill Baxter putting his stuff in Barry's van. They were in a hurry and practically pulling out when I stopped over and gave him his climbing pack back.
There is an area at the Pickham Notch Visitors Center to shower and pack. That was my next stop. I started to break down my gear and noticed that my foam pad with my new down booties inside was missing. I assumed that I lost it in either Paul's or Barry's vans. As it turned out, when I got back to Pittsburgh, I e-mailed Craig and he told me he had them. I was glad to hear that since the Visa bill on that stuff wasn't even paid for yet!
The showers were coin operated and luckily Bill had clued me in on that before the trip. I was ready with my roll of quarters. Once I got cleaned up and packed I met up with Brian and Aaron. We started our return trip. Driving into North Conway the traffic was a mess. We were stopped, backed up for what seemed like a mile. The weekend crowd heading back home I guess. Eventually we arrived at EMS and parked. I walked across the street to IME and returned my boots and crampons. There I ran into James, David B., Dan and Suzanne. They were getting ready for the long drive back. I went over to EMS and returned with Aaron and Brian back to IME. After shopping awhile it was time to move on. First, however, we had to make one last stop. Brian had to find the "Moose Store" to buy a gift for his wife. Aaron wasn't too thrilled with that store so he ended up hanging out on the street. I joined him. While we were waiting we examined his new toy, a Black Diamond Gemini® headlamp.
Eventually we were on our way. What had started out as a lot of free time between North Conway and our flight was turning into a close call. We still had to stop for lunch. As we were speeding along Rt.93 a cop passed us by. Brian looked in his rear view mirror and said "He's turning around". Oh man! The car in front of us pulled over and we almost hit them pulling in behind. The cop came to the window and asked for the usual stuff. Then he walked to the car in front of us. I couldn't help but laugh at their uniforms. This guy had a green shirt and he looked like Ranger Rick from Yogi Bear. Anyway we were lucky. He just wrote up a warning and we were on our way.
Stopping for lunch at a Mexican place we inhaled taco's and got on the Interstate arriving in Manchester just in time. Stopping only for gas we then dropped the car off at the rental agency. Walking to the gate it didn't look good for Brian. His duffle was like an oversize footlocker on wheels! He was flying first class so we were able to get in the express line with him. Greeted by a rather thin reservation sales agent, he put his bag in the slot. She proceesed his ticket and tagged the bag reaching to pick it up. You had to see the expression on her face as it didn't budge. :-) She couldn't have weighed much more than it. She looked up and directed him to take it over to the scale. Sure enough... 90Lbs! That's 20 Lbs. over. We started scrambling to take things out and rearrange (to the amusement of the passengers in the regular coach ticket line). He had to stuff his soaking wet summit pack with heavy wet items and carry that on. After that I think it then came in at 68Lbs or something close to that. When your flying you have to remember the weight.
After checking in we hung out in a restaurant then headed through the security maze. And I mean maze. There was no line but we had to walk through it making at least 10 turns. Enough to make you dizzy. As I went through the detector I set it off. They took me over to the side in front of big glass wall. There were people standing on the other side. The security guard made me take off my boots, they patted me down, I had to turn my belt buckle inside out. All while in this "fish bowl" being observed by a bunch of people. Eventually I passed and was allowed to proceed.
We boarded the full flight and were soon in the air. One of the reasons I flew is that I didn't want to be exhausted the next day from a long drive. Well when we landed in Pittsburgh the weather was bad. I collected my stuff and took the shuttle to the car. Getting on Rt. 60 traffic stopped dead after the airport. There was ice all over the road and people were sliding off. Traffic was bumper to bumper all the way to I-79. What normally would take me 35 minutes took at least an hour and a half if not more. Arriving home my stuff was wet. I had to unpack at least some of it. By the time I hit the sack it was almost 1am. Needless to say I was worthless at work Monday. So much for the flying theory!
Thanks to everyone who helped out with the class and made this possible. Thanks to David for the lead up the mountain and both him and Aaron for running the school. Before I left I talked to several people about how apprehensive I was about doing this mountain, now I can't imagine having not done it. After all the time and work it was nice to see it really pay off. I had a great time.
Tom
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