Norman_Clyde
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Posts posted by Norman_Clyde
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Norman_Clyde said:
I myself will bring home-made garden burgers, a delightful medley of my own creation made from clippings from my own yard (no animals were harmed in the making of these burgers-- well,
maybe a few insects, but I'm working on that), garnished with wild blackberries picked from the park's own vines. I know it's April, but there should be a few green berries just coming out. Yum Yum! I didn't manage to mow my lawn this weekend, so the home made veggie burgers are out.
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The gully is south facing, less than 45 degrees, not very high altitude. It should have crusted over several times in recent days, and is unlikely to have significant new snow on the crust, so it should be low risk. But that's just a guess.
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I'm in, probably not until 8 pm. And I won't be consuming any cow flesh. Veggie burgers for me. I volunteer to bring a few if anyone else will be interested at that hour. These will be store bought veggie burgers, in deference to the right wingers among you.
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Nothing like a first hand account!
I figured that when I mentioned my handy spinal needle trick, that others on this board, especially doctors like mneagle, would take me for a nut case: you know, axe in one hand, needle in the other, scanning the Muir snowfield for out-of-breath newbies to practice on. I'm not as altruistic as the doctor on a plane flight a few years back, who generously opened the chest of a fellow passenger with a DINNER FORK, no anesthesia thank you, to decompress a tension pneumothorax that had expanded at altitude. (The correct action would have been to have the pilot land the plane, which would have re-compressed the air in the chest.) I realize that I am unlikely to come across someone with a tension pneumothorax in the field. But I have a friend whose life was saved by a paramedic doing this very maneuver in the field (this guy had been in a helicopter crash in Alaska), so the premise is not entirely farfetched. The needle doesn't even weigh an ounce.
I don't carry much of an emergency kit otherwise. I put together a pretty complete one for Rainier a few years ago, but the drugs expire within a few months and it's kind of tricky to replace some of them. ("Yes, I know you prescribed IV morphine for my emergency kit a few months ago, but, uh, it's expired so I need some more.") I always carry a SAM splint (padded pliable aluminum) and a bandanna or two, plus gauze, band aids, etc. Ibuprofen is always handy. For most Washington climbs, it doesn't make sense to carry much more, in my opinion. I would be interested to hear from other medical types on this issue. Any takers?
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Based on how rarely they are discussed in forums like this one, I'd say hardly ever. Also because of the chossy rock and long hikes in. But these same qualities that make the range less attractive to most mountaineers serve to keep it more pristine.
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Both times I went to Deception I was the only climber to be seen, though in Royal Basin there were plenty of campers. The only time I went to Mystery, I not only saw no one, but I saw no evidence that anyone had taken that same route all season. Mystery is just a little harder to get to, therefore much more of a wilderness alpine experience than Deception. But if you climb Deception from the west, the experience will probably be similar.
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The medical term for this is spontaneous pneumothorax. It tends to happen to two specific types of individuals. The first is people with a very tall, skinny build. Usually they say that their symptoms began after they performed some maneuver involving leaping upward, or reaching for something: basically a sudden lunging with arms over the head. Something about this maneuver in these folks will cause one of the lungs to spring a small leak. Then as they continue to breathe, the air leak causes a buildup of air inside the chest cavity, but outside the lung. This is very painful and causes shortness of breath. If the leak is big enough and only operates one way, air escaping out of the lung but unable to go back into it, then a person can develop a "tension pneumothorax" where the escaped air pushes the lungs and heart to the other side of the chest. This is lethal because it kinks the large blood vessels like garden hoses. This condition is treated by making an incision in the chest wall and passing a tube into the chest cavity to drain the air. The person has to be in the hospital for a few days until the leak seals up.
Fortunately, a spontaneous pneumothorax is usually very small, and a chest tube may not be required. I saw a guy with one of these a few weeks ago, and his went away on its own.
The second group of people at risk for these are people with emphysema, because they develop big blisters on their lungs that can pop with the above described physical maneuver, or even with very hard coughing. If your friend is out of shape and stressed himself maximally going to Muir, especially if he was coughing really hard, this could have been the cause-- but this sort of thing is impossible to anticipate, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it. Unless he had a previous history of the same thing, in which case he should be careful not to work himself too hard.
Most cases of pneumothorax, however, are trauma related. A big fall in the mountains can certainly produce one. If a person knows how to diagnose this condition in the field, they can save a life by passing a big needle into the pneumothorax to relieve the pressure. Besides basic airway protective maneuvers, this is one of the only interventions in the field that can be lifesaving. I carry a big spinal needle on climbing trips just in case I ever encounter this situation, though I hope not to come across it.
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Oh my God... you cc.comers aren't thinking of eating MEAT at this barbecue, are you? Please don't tell me any of you will be wearing LEATHER shoes!! I myself will bring home-made garden burgers, a delightful medley of my own creation made from clippings from my own yard (no animals were harmed in the making of these burgers-- well, maybe a few insects, but I'm working on that), garnished with wild blackberries picked from the park's own vines. I know it's April, but there should be a few green berries just coming out. Yum Yum!
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Off Route, NolanR, very cool to hear these descriptions of Deception Basin. Having only looked down into it from either side, I now feel compelled to actually go there, this time in early season when the rock is mostly covered.
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My trail guide, vintage 1984, says 7 miles total to Royal Lake. I remembered the 6 mile figure, but this is the length of the Royal Basin trail, which starts 1 mile from the Dungeness trailhead. From Royal Lake it's another mile or two to Surprise Basin at the base of Deception. In July Royal Lake was swarming with mosquitoes, the worst I have encountered in the mountains of this state (though not as bad as one hellish coastal marsh).
Heather Creek does not have a trail marked on Topo, but my trail guide says one exists. According to this book it's about 7.5 miles to trail end in the upper Heather Creek basin. If this is true, then it's the shortest approach to Mystery.
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There were 2 other people at Sunnybrook when I was there, plus one other party that went up toward Constance Pass, but no one at all on Del Monte Ridge or Mystery. Judging from all the rock debris on the East ridge approach, it doesn't get climbed very often. There is supposed to be a route directly up from Gunsight Pass, if you choose not to take Del Monte Ridge and instead contour NW and N. from Sunnybrook. I tried to descend the S. ridge from the summit and got cliffed out a couple of times, so I went back the way I had come. The N. summit of Mystery is a block of basalt columns tilted so they lay horizontally. It's very exposed looking, probably 5th class, though the traverse over to it wasn't all bad looking.
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Via Royal Basin it's 6 miles from trailhead to Royal Lake. Via Dosewallips it's 8 miles to just past Bear Creek where one takes a right turn and begins bushwacking for a western approach to Deception. But now that the Dose road is washed out, it would be extra miles (I thought it was only 3 but I am not sure how many) to there. So, it's fewer trail miles to Deception via Royal Basin. HOWEVER, if you hike the Dose to the Constance Pass trail, then head toward Mystery via Del Monte Ridge, it's only 5.5 miles (i.e. approx. 8.5 miles now) to Sunnybrook Meadows, which is an excellent camp spot with water and sweeping views. From there you can access Del Monte Ridge and proceed that way to Mt. Mystery. Del Monte Ridge is fun alpine terrain, intermittently class 3, with fine views in all directions. I believe it gets very little travel. In July 2000 I took Del Monte Ridge to Mystery, and didn't see another soul all day. I had hoped to go straight up the S. ridge of Mystery to the summit, but could not see a route, so I dropped about 2000 feet into the Dungeness drainage and climbed laboriously up to the E. ridge, which was made up of interesting untraveled (LOTS of loose rock) class 3 rock and snow.
If you then climb Deception from Mystery, you will also have to drop down about 2000 feet to Deception creek, then cross it, which may be a task if you're far enough downstream. Deception is pretty non-technical if there is any snow. Rock is unimaginably loose, more like mud in some places: heaps of shale that shatter with a kick.
To sum it up, Royal Basin is definitely shorter, but more crowded. Del Monte Ridge is longer, more work, but less traveled and more interesting. You could camp the first night at Sunnybrook Meadows, then a second night in Deception Basin. Or you might want to camp in the valley below Gunsight Pass, because although unglaciated, it's very dramatic and more scenic. You could then climb Deception from the West, and hike out the Dosewallips trail. That would get my vote over Royal Basin. Good luck!
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Magnuson sounds great. Thursday is better than Wednesday but either one will do fine.
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Check your PM's.
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Last year I tried tromping right over from the White Salmon lodge, and still got stuck. As long as you don't drop down early, it's probably no big deal, but we got cliffed out and had to rappel to the valley floor. Further up the valley it's less steep. If you drop down then, the only price you pay is a little more elevation loss. The upper valley is a spectacular alpine environment, with great views of the Hanging Glacier and huge glacial ice blocks and avalanche debris (but don't stop in the exposed places for long). I'm fired up to go for it again this year, as a one day climb. Once avy danger is over with, for this route it seems like the sooner the better.
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Stay HIGH on the bushwack approach, just like everyone says. Too low and you're screwed. Oh yeah, and do it in one day!
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Sounds good to me. I'm not free as often as the other guys, but give me a call anytime you're short a partner.
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You have to apply for a solo permit in writing, but once you've got it I don't think you are committed to using it on a certain date. Maybe MattP can tell us for sure.
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Went to Muir yesterday with Terry McClain. We had made a plan weeks ago for a summit attempt this weekend, my schedule unfortunately not allowing me to take days off on short notice. For weeks the prospects even for Muir have mostly not been good. We ruled out a Saturday departure based on the forecast, but decided we might have good enough weather on Sunday to get to Muir at least. I awoke Sunday AM in Seattle to the heaviest rain I have seen in more than a month. I almost bagged it, but drove on to Terry's place in Puyallup anyway. We got to the park at 8:30, and were told the gate wouldn't open till 10. It opened at 9:30 and we were heading up by 10:20. It was raining at Longmire, but at Paradise there was only a fairly thin looking cloud layer.
There was 4 to 6 inches of new snow at Paradise, which increased on the way up. We went up the ridge crest at Pan Point, dug a pit which showed decent cohesion to the crust layer a foot down. Snow was wet. The clouds parted along the way and we started to get fantastic views. Winds were light, 10 to 20 mph maybe. Walls of cloud would blow through now and then, but it stayed clear until about 8000 feet, at which time a white out descended; not too dense, I could still barely see Terry a hundred yards ahead, but no landmarks or horizon. I was rather horrified at this point to discover I was not wearing my compass after all. Terry kept going, presumably following his GPS, and I was relieved to keep him in sight, to say the least. Snow got deep enough that we were sometimes sinking in a foot, even in snowshoes. Got to the hut at about 2:20.
We hung out for about 45 minutes, during which it cleared up again and got a little warmer. The views only improved. There was lots of snow on all the visible routes. We didn't see any slides cut loose, and Gib Chute did not appear to have released recently. On the descent, Pan Point had lots of small wet snowball releases, but nothing bigger. All other parties had gone up the bowl, some zigzagging, so the slope was well tested and didn't release. I'm sure it crusted over last night, so it should stay solid unless there's significant new snow.
I have only one gripe about the day: I let my competitive urge get in the way of a good time. I didn't want to admit that Terry was leaving me behind, so I pressed on at maximum output, not stopping to eat. At the hut I was completely wasted, shivering, my furnace needed stoking in a big way, but I had no appetite and could hardly stomach a few fig newtons. I didn't feel normal again until all the way back down to Pan Point. I will hope that I can swallow my pride next time and ask my partner to wait up. Or I could take a few more Muir trips until I'm faster. Or I could go with someone not quite the aerobic monster that Terry is.
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Do a search on this board, because I can remember reading someone's post that Success Cleaver was his favorite Rainier experience, mainly for its remoteness. He was alone on the route, and had a very different experience than the usual DC/Emmons cattle call.
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I remember reading an account of a Swiss alpinist who disappeared high in the mountains in the 19th century, only to be delivered to the terminal moraine a hundred years later. Jim Whitaker's Everest partner, who perished in a Khumbu Icefall serac avalanche in 1963, was delivered up only about 20 years later. This was in time for his family members to reclaim and re-inter his body, as I recall.
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At Gauthier's lecture at TNF in SEattle last year, he had some killer photos of the crashed copter. It stopped about a hundred yards short of a massive bottomless crevasse-- a stroke of good fortune for those inside, to say the least. Mike seemed to think that winter avalanches would probably push the copter into the crevasse, and that this year it will be nowhere to be found.
I think there are two other planes on the mountain. I recall that a small plane crash landed near the summit, the pilot was rescued but the plane couldn't be salvaged. The other was an army transport during WWII that hit the South Tahoma Headwall. The South Tahoma Glacier was closed for a number of years afterward, but it's all open now. Presumably the debris are embedded quite deeply in the glacier after 59 or so years. There is a memorial to the crash victims at a viewpoint on the West Side Road, not too many miles from the washout, that has an amazing view of the whole west side of the mountain. It's definitely worth a visit, especially near sunset on a sunny day.
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I called, and the road is gated about 20 miles short of Phelps Creek. No problem if you own one of those infernal snow machines. The ranger said it usually doesn't open until June. "But it's low elevation," I responded. "2800 feet," she said, and I could almost hear her rolling her eyes at me. Hard to believe that snow lasts that long at that elevation. I suspect that clearing this road is pretty low priority. Too bad.
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Does anyone know if the Chiwawa River Road is open this time of year? I'm looking at the Entiat Range as an alternative destination this weekend if it's too snowy on the crest or the West slope.
Punctured Lung Question
in Fitness and Nutrition Forum
Posted
I forgot to mention safety pins. 1001 uses. Keep them pinned inside the first aid bag.