Rod

The Spire is great, generally. I don't know which route we climbed a couple years ago, but the one with the gully can be dicy. It's best to climb with snow in the gully b/c it's one of those dirty, loose cascade gullies. Some loose rocks came down on us as we were decending and they broke my leg. Pretty lucky accident, actually, if one considers what might have happened had the rock that took out my leg hit elsewhere on my body! The rock climb at the top was fun. Great, airy summit. Nice area to be in the mountains. Have fun and be safe!

About 30 years ago, someone in a party my Dad was with had an almost identical crevasse fall/rescue on the interglacier. About the same depth, same struggle to get a rope to victim and time to extract them, same cold/wet hypothermic results. Not the smartest place to be unroped, if you can help it. When I go up there by myself, I stay off the glacier and on the route to the climber's left - it's pretty good and a nice change from the glacier slog. Glad to read Aukushner is not hurt too bad. Accidents in the mountains do make you think about how to climb more safely! (And reading about them can/should have the same effect.) Thanks for sharing!

Hey Jay, The leg is doing pretty good, thanks. I'm seeing the doc on the 17th. Hopefully he'll let me start walking on it! The novalty of hopping around or using 2 crutches is getting old. How's the kayak?

Pair of FOX mountain bike gloves in mid september, 03. Found them? Please let me know! They're definilty worth some brew! Thanks

Patagonia Stretch Element Jacket Men’s size Medium Patagonia’s most expensive outdoor jacket for climbing, etc… This blue jacket is still has its tags on … never used! Going to go fast!!! (I hope!) Visit www.patagonia.com and look under men’s outer-ware, jackets for more info and photos. Retail is $360 plus tax. Selling for $230 (firm)

Thanks JayB. No doubt a snow filled gully would be safer! Also, had my party used our 2 60m 1/2 ropes to rap from the anchor at the top of the gully like another group did it would have been safer! (My older 50 m rope was more "gully ready" and close to "retire ready." I had to replace one of my 1/2 ropes last Septemer because a rock fell on it during a rappel in Wyoming and I didn't want to risk damaging a good rope and having to spend money getting a new one ... cost of new rope vs. surgery and out for many months... huum, tough call!!! I feel like an idiot when I think about it that way!!! Hind-sight's a dog sometimes!) Cheers. (P.S. - I hope your new/used kayak gear is treatin' well!)

Hello folks, I'm the man that was injured Saturday evening and rescued on Sunday. I just saw this "thread" (I'm not sure that is the right term, I'm less tech savy than I'd like to be) last night as I was surfing the net from my hospital bed! I began signing up to use this forum last night and was OK'd today from the administrator. I chose "Rod" because one of the friends with me thought I ought to have a nickname, and now that I've got a 30+ cm stainless "rod" in my leg, this is for him! Cheers mate! About the accident: The article mentioned above in, I believe, the Herald, is fairly accurate. The story about our little adventurous character building experience my friends and I had has a few notes I'd like to clarify: (1) no motorcycles were involved; (2) the ages of our party were 28, 29 and 34; and (3) we descended into the regular decent (and accent) route - there was no "other gully" that we mistakenly got mixed up in. The three of us all agree the article was mosty correct, and that it sucks reading about an accident one is involved in! In regards to some of the previous posts: I, the one who did have a good size stone break both my tib and fib (thankfully not a compound break), am the most expereinced one from our group. The break happened, for those of you who have been there recently, about 10 meters up from the top of the main snow/ice plug and on the climbers left of that centeral rib (which I attempted to get up on. or over, once I had seen the rockfall. My two partners were being protected behind the top of the main snow/ice plug when I sent the rocks down. I lowered one of my friends (the one who did not climb the spire) with a 50 meter rope to that point - from a point the 3 of us had rapped to (with the single 50 m rope). After lowering him (off 2 med/large SLCD) the 3rd fellow rapped off that point (itwas about 40 degrees I believe, although that changed some times). Once the two were down and behind the above mentioned snow, I began to downclimb with the rope. Thinking I could be a bit safer if I semi-rapped/used the rope as a "railing", I found a small horn to use. About 20 meters below that I found another that I looped...bad idea! As I mentioned, about 10 meters from a good stoping spot (and the area at least one other groups rapped off a solid ice bollard) the rope came loose and brought down about 3 decent sized rocks and some smaller scree. Whether the rope came off the small horn or pulled out the horn (which is what I think happened) I'll probably never know. After regaining balance, seeing the rock fall and yelling rock (and some things in French) I tried to scurry over the rib in the middle of the gully. No luck! Then my leg broke. I'll tell more about what happened after that if anyone's interested -- I've got to relieve myself now (think Gatoraide bottle in a storm). Also, if "catbirdseat" wants his red tricam, please let me know as I brought it down (from our great climb on the sprire!!!). Cheers all, and thanks for wishes that I'll eventually heal fine!