Our final adventure in the northwest was to go visit Leon at Mt. Rainier. Leon, a friend from Virginia Tech, has been working summers as a climbing guide (you can see his bio here). Ever since an unfortunate failed climb multiple years ago, Ryan has been itching to get back for another summit attempt. The first night we spent with Leon in Ashford involved some great Nepalize eats and our second growler. It also involved crazy screeching and "yipping" outside of our tent in the woods... thus leading to us moving inside and crashing on the couches. For the second night, we took Leon to Seattle and got another Priceline hotel, the Doubletree this time. We had an amazing dinner and carafe of house red at an open-air Italian restaurant in the city, followed by flamboyant drinks at the nearby gay bar (really, what more could you ask for?).
The next day, we packed up and headed back to Ashford so the guys could prepare for their Rainier adventure. The plan was to leave at six, start climbing at seven pm. As they were going up a particularly steep and difficult route that is proximal to ice falls and involves dangerous crevasse crossing, it was best to climb at night and summit at dawn. I hovered around the house as they prepared their gear and Leon refreshed Ryan on crevasse rescue. Finally, six-o-clock rolled around. Although this is nothing new, I still get nervous when I send him out on these adventures. I must add, I did feel better knowing he was with Leon as he is naturally very easy to trust. This is contagious, and for those of you who know Leon, you are already aware of this. I guess this is a really good thing when you guide complete strangers up mountains for a living.
I decided to hike the first few miles in with them, until they dropped down to start crossing the glaciers. As it was nearing sunset, everything was starting to turn rose and gold, and I now understand why Ryan swears Rainier is his favorite National Park. We have been on quite the tour, and from what I have seen, Rainier wins, hands down. The massive, glaciated mountains juxtaposed against the fragile, colorful meadows is absolutely stunning. The melting snow keeps everything bright green and the marmots and deer reap the benefits. From the trail we could see Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood while the low elevation clouds started to creep in.
(Mt. Adams from Rainier)
Once we came to the point where they had to leave the trail, we said our good-byes and they started off towards the Nisqually glacier. I stood there for quite awhile taking photos of their tiny silhouettes with the shadowed Rainier looming in the background. Eventually, it got dark enough that I knew I better start hiking out and start the hour-long drive back to the house.
(Snowboarder on the return)
Since I sent them with the SPOT, I had planned on getting dinner and beer and settling in for the show. With my properly prepared lox bagel and sixer of Black Butte Porter I watched Ryan and Leon slowly gain elevation. This continued for about two hours, an occasionally a house-mate would swing through and chat or explain a portion of the route. A little after midnight I was satisfied with their progress and ready to go to bed. All of a sudden, the SPOT page refreshed, placing them 500 meters left of their previous position. I knew they couldn't cover this much ground in 10 minutes so I figured it was glitch and decided I would wait until it refreshed and put them back on route. Twenty minutes passed and another update put them even further off route. Ah hell, now I had to wait even longer before sleep. Finally, after another 10 minutes, the SPOT put them back on route. Relieved, I attributed this to poor satellite reception and started getting ready for bed. Suddenly, the SPOT marker started to drop in elevation, and zig-zagging, and then traversing out across the icefall. These weren't random SPOT movements, but clearly someone trying to navigate a myriad of crevasses. This either meant that they couldn't continue on their route, or were coming down. At this point it was after 1 am, and if they started hiking out, I needed to drive up to Paradise to fetch them.
.png)
(Source: Wikimedia Commons)
(Source: University of Wyoming)
In the end, I ended up staying up until after 4 am to make sure they were indeed hiking back out. I drove up with my sleeping bag and snoozed for 20 or 30 minutes before a knock on the window brought me out of my exhaustion-coma. As the sun was rising, we made our way back to the house. Leon made a beeline for his room, but after the previous nights disturbances, Ryan and I decided we might as well just stay in the Buick and sleep. Around 10 am, I managed to use my shoe to prop the door open so we could get some airflow. By noon, it was just too hot, and we both peeled ourselves from the leather seats with hallucinatory smells of coffee and pancakes.
Although Ryan and Leon didn't make the summit, they both seemed to have learned a lot about that particular route, and crevasse navigation at night. I imagine that in glacier travel, ignorance really is bliss. When it is dark, you can only see the ice canyons at hand, not the the thousands of gashes that really surround you. This is also why navigation at night can be tricky. Its like the difference between doing a maze on paper and being in an actual maze, you lose foresight of seeing beyond immediate steps. However, Ryan does claim that the moonlight was quite bright, and they could see fairly well. I wasn't there, so I do not know. Nonetheless, I still have my suspicions.
(Source: wilsenack.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment