pup_on_the_mountain

As far as cleaning the shitty rope goes, treating the poop as "dirt" will make it mentally amenable. Or, convince yourselves that it was your own poop (if it wasn't in the first place). Damn.. may be I should change my user name to poop_on_the_mountain after all!!

My buddies Marc and Willow were there at the scene. Here's what Willow had written about the slide. Back in India, we have a saying that a man is very lucky if he has a mole on his John Thomas. Looks like this dude had plenty. ====================================================== Marc is on his way back to Pullman now, but we had a couple of adventures in RMNP while he was here. The last being less our adventure as it was the poor guy who slid 800 feet down Lambs Slide on Longs Peak. Marc and I were going to do a route called Kor's Door (looks awesome) but the weather wasn't very good. We were just hanging out and exploring the area. We had met this party of 5 who said they were doing Keiners or something standard (Marc and fill you in on details). Anyway, we were on the opposide side of the cirque, walking up to the cables route to spy out our future descent, when we saw this huge rock fall down Lambs slide, then I realized it wasn't all rock, but mostly human. The guy slid down and then over a small cliff, ~10ft, and didn't move. Marc and I went as fast as we could to him, but it took us probably 20 minutes or more. He finally sat up after a few minutes and I stopped choking on my heart in my throat. His partners (they were all unroped), carried him out of the rock fall zone. He was in pretty good shape considering his fall. He probably had a mild concusion, lacerations to the face and a couple of bumps on the head (thank god he was wearing a helmet), a dislocated shoulder, a badly bruised hip (maybe more than just a bruise, but it didn't seem broken at least), and a broken ankle. He was in good spirits and told the best jokes and funniest stories while we waited for someone to go get a Park Ranger. There was another party that was doing the same as Marc and I - not wanting to commit to climbing with so much moisure and clouds around - and they were very competant about rescue. We got him in a sleeping bag and splinted his ankle. A park service EMT finally showed up at 1pm (the accident occured at 8:20am) and after getting him into a litter and carrying him maybe 500ft through a big boulder field we got him to a big flat rock that a helicopter could land on - a little helicopter mind you. The gods were with the fellow (his name was Ben), and the clouds parted (it had hailed and rained on us the previous hour) just long enough for a helicopter to come in. He was so lucky, I wouldn't not have put money on there being a good enough break in the weather for him to get flown out. He got flown out at 3:30pm. By 4pm it was lightening all around us! Also, not enough Mnt rescue personal had shown up by then, so if all of us good samaritans hadn't been there, there wouldn't have been enough people to carry him to the LZ in time. I guess he just lost his footing near the top of Lamb's Slide, but the conditions were terrible, really icy and LOTS of rock fall coming down there. He was really really really lucky - wonder if he'll make some a blurb in the magazines, it was an impressive fall. ======================================================

Partner found. Thanks!

Looking for partner(s) for an overnighter this weekend. I can go either Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday. Would like to try the Kautz or Emmons on Rainier, but am open to other ideas as well. Can drive the previous evening if needed. Coming from far (Pullman ). PM if interested.

Schweeet trip Chris!! I need to go there some time ..

Absolutely splendid pictures!! Hats off to you Gary.

Thanks for the info guys!

Here's a decent deal from Campmor.com. I bought my watch from there for $50, and it has been working quite good (its not the same watch though).

I'll be traveling to Rio de Janeiro this month end. I have about three days to roam around. Any recommendations on what I can do? Solo options (scrambles)? Anybody know someone down there whom I could hook up for some cragging? TIA.

Excellent read!! Thanks for the updates. Keep it coming! I'll go down there some day...

Awesome pictures!! You did get the lighting and angle correct on them . Thanks much for sharing .

Good work guys! Better luck next time!!

Congrats!!! That line looks awesome. Waiting for more details and pics.

Way to go!!!

Schweeet!!

Don't be such a cry-baby plark42!! I live in Pullman, and have to drive at least 4 hours to get to alpine objectives (L'worth is 4 hours, Rainier is 5 hrs, N Cascades are 6 hrs or more). Except when climbing with someone from over here (Kurt), I make the drive alone (girlfriend does not live around here, and is not into climbing). If I'm climbing with someone in/near Seattle area, I drive the previous night and crash at their place. I do make the drive back home after the climb though. I've done trips to Shuksan/Baker/Ruth etc. and have driven back the same night (to reach home early next day ). And the 135 odd miles on Hwy 26 is probably the most boring section of a highway in the whole state (and you can't speed due to cops). I usually get by listening to music, and NPR whenever near civilization. Coffee and a bag of Tim's Cascade chips will keep me up. If I'm really beat after the climb, I resort to Red Balls... The climbing makes it up for all the trouble easily .

Saw this thread just now.. thanks very much for posting it Gary!! I've been using gimp, but am not expert in using it as of now. I like it a lot though. Any more gimp-ers out there? I searched for the gamma utility in it, and couldn't find it. Is there some other utility in gimp which performs the same/equivalent modifications?

Nice pics!! Thanks for sharing.

I won't be able to join you, but I guess you mean July 24-27 ...

Okay.. so we had a decently long conversation with you . Glad you had a good time. There was another person going solo whom we met further down the trail (to whom I asked the altimeter reading).

Thanks for the trip and the TR Jamin! The exit we took on our way down (after losing the trail once we gained the col above the lakes) might actually be a good descent option. Except for one place where we lowered ourselves about 6' over an overhanging rock face on to a decently big ledge (by hanging on to tree branches), the gully was quite easy to go down (I did not have to use my hands too often). It helped us bypass the painful avy zone, and we lost more than 1000' of elevation in about 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure we could've avoided that 6' drop if we looked around a bit. It'll be a pain to go up this gully for sure though (especially with big packs).

Awesome pictures as usual!! I really like the alpenglow shot. Thanks for posting Gary. Reminds me of our trip during the same dates last year. Higher amounts of snow are visible in your pictures, but not a lot more I guess. A huge serac broke, setting off a thundering avy down the glacier. Looks like things were calm up there this time .

Good job letsroll!! I was the other crazy fool with Jamin . I think we met you on our way out (I asked for your altimeter reading).

Awesome pictures!! Thanks for sharing goatboy!

Amazed, I am . Balls of steel, you have .