pup_on_the_mountain

Totally awesome!!! :tup:

Fantastic pictures, and excellent writing, as always!!! :tup: Thanks for posting the link here.

Got to the Hogsback before 4 AM this morning, but shit had already started raining on the WCR traverse. Turned back from there. Looked like a party of 10-odd people was taking an uncharacteristically long time at the middle of WCR traverse. We were guessing that may be someone got hit, and the others were tending to the injured, but didn't wait to find out. Another team looked lost trying to get on to the correct Pearly Gates gully, and were stuck for a long time there as well. Hoping for a good outcome ...

Thanks a bunch for sharing your experience Jared. Very glad to know that it was not worse. I also had a recent ground fall (just in a crag though), and very much appreciate reading your TR. I'm sure you'll bounce back. Best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

+1. Ex-Tarheel here, who moved to WA with just a 70 cm axe. After one season in the Cascades, in which I borrowed or rented ice tools, I bought a pair of quarks. On routes where I need more than one axe, I just go with the pair of quarks. I must admit, though, that I've never used the axe+tool combo, and hence do not have an opinion on that option. The quarks have seen lot more use than my axe though (when you add ice climbing to the mix).

I've been following your trips through the TRs since you got back to the game Dane. You've been a BIG inspiration for me for sure. Keep them TRs coming :tup: . I've been trying to get back after my fall last October as well, but work (and life) has not given me as much time as I want. I'm hoping to get out more this Spring and summer. What you say about CC being inspirational is so true.

You may already have most of the info, but just in case you've not done it already, check out Amar's ski mountaineering equipment page.

Nice article and video. Thanks for sharing. I thought AlpineDave was just a CC.com username ...

Awesome John!!! You got yourselves the best present for growing Thirty years YOUNG! Thanks for sharing the stoke. :tup:

Thanks for the posts everyone. Thats what I should've done. Will remember next time. Having done enough routes at this level, and this particular route itself, gave me false confidence -- not good. I hope to.

[pun] This is a post about outlook towards climbing post a fall that occurred in Post Falls. So, post up. [/pun] Last month (Oct 19) I took a nasty lead fall while climbing in Q'emlin Park in Post Falls, ID. In a nutshell, I had too much slack and not enough pro in, hitting the ground from about 24 ft. Surprisingly, I did not break or even tear anything. Having a helmet meant I escaped with a concussion, and sustained no serious injury to the noggin (I was knocked unconscious for a few (less than 5) minutes). I landed on my side, with my shoulder taking most of the impact. I sustained a grade II (mild) separation between my right collar-bone and the rotator cuff, and some bruises. Now I'm doing PT for the shoulder, and have some weird sleep patterns thanks to the head concussion, but am otherwise on the mend. I don't clearly recall the events of the day (and a few days afterward), and probably will never get back all the details to memory. The picture I have is the one narrated by my climbing partners. To start with, I had not been climbing much the past few months. One alpine trip in August (Forbidden NR), and may be two or three days of cragging is all I managed to do since early May. So, I was rusty. The climb I fell on is called Open Book, and is rated 5.7 (trad). I had TR-ed it three times before, and in fact had also led it (without much trouble) once in the past. At the same time, it could be a much harder climb if one misses a few key holds/moves. This was the first climb of that day, but I somehow felt confident of leading it, and went for it. I put in one piece of pro ~11 ft up. Since I had to move right and climb up an overhang, I had a long runner for this piece. I struggled for a while to find another piece below the overhang, but was not successful. I was getting tired hanging on. I'm guessing about my thought process at that moment, but am pretty sure this is how things went. I remembered that there are places to get some big pieces (#2 camalot) above the overhang. If I somehow made the overhang, I'll be safe. So I gathered my juices (or whatever was left of it) and went for it, but did not make it. I had may be 8-9 ft of rope above the last (and only) piece, which had a 2 ft runner. My friend tried to take in as much rope as he could and locked up the belay, but given the long runner and the rope stretch, I hit the ground. This is the picture looking up the route, showing my wife TR-ing it (in June). Blue x is where the piece was (roughly), and red x is about where I peeled from. In this picture, her feet are about 6-7 ft above the ground. The partner who was belaying me feared a broken back and/or spinal cord injuries, and hence was trying the best to keep me still, while the other went for help (and eventually called 911). I regained consciousness within a few minutes, and even sat up on my own. Luckily, there was a fire station within a mile from the location, and the fire and rescue team was at the location within 15, at the most 20, minutes after I fell (which was around noon time). They did some preliminary tests to see if I had sustained any spinal cord injuries (or nervous damages/paralysis), which all turned out negative. Overall, they did a super-awesome job of immobilizing me on a stretcher, and keeping it flat while carrying me out on the rocky and steep trail, all real quickly and cleanly :tup: . All said and done, I was in the ER room of a Couer D'Alene hospital within several minutes after my fall. I was released from the hospital later that afternoon, under a heavy dose of hydrocodone. Ever since I regained consciousness after the fall, I was having short-term memory issues thanks to the head concussion. The narcotic painkiller did not help much either. I asked repeated, silly, questions such as "Where am I?", "Did I fall?!", and even announced that "I broke a bunch of bones!". These questions are quite unnerving to those attending to me, especially if they have not seen anything like that before. It took 2-3 days before I settled down a bit. I recovered well, though, and was back to work in three weeks. This is the first fall I have taken on lead. I must mention that I have not tried to push my grades much at all over the few years I have been climbing (never led anything harder than 5.8 or WI4). Having had done this route earlier probably affected my decision-making on this day, in a negative way as it eventually turned out. I think I've learned a few tough lessons, and will be out of the game for a few months (at least), but I hope to get back to it. At the same time, I've never had the opportunity in past to reflect on the implications of such a fall, as I never had one myself. Further, ever since the fall, I've been getting non-stop advice from most of my near-and-dear ones and friends asking me to quit it all immediately. One good outcome of the fall was that I made the press the week after! This is about the first time my name has appeared in a newspaper... hopefully the news will be better the next time. I'm curious to know your experiences with such falls or other accidents while climbing, if you had any. Specifically, did it change your outlook or attitude towards climbing? Did it affect your climbing mentally at all? Did you tone down the grades of climbs you led/attempted? Or did you just dust your bum and move on? Did you train and climb harder after the accident instead?

Where in NC will you be living? FWIW, there is a yahoo group for folks interested in climbing, mainly centered around the Triangle area: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nc-rock/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=1 I met a few cool folks in that group back in 2003-04. The core group had around 15-20 folks. Naturally, the experience levels of the folks were varied, but I remember there were a few people who had been in the game for years (like you, they had relocated from other places, mostly from out West). I remember going to a slide show where someone was showing pictures from his climb of Eiger NF. Apart from roadtrips to nearby places (in NC, and also to Seneca Rocks WV), once in a while they planned longer trips out West as well. If you'll be moving to/near the triangle area, I could contact a couple of guys whom I knew during my years at UNC. PM me if you'll be interested.

Hi Chris, Sorry I missed you guys... I happened to be in town as well, but for the wrong reasons. I'm recovering from a fall (at Post Falls, 8-9 days back). I'm off work, and am running from doctor to doctor here in the PDX area (thank god for insurance coverage!). Getting the MRI done was dronefully painful.., and today it was physical therapy. I'll be in and out of here (PDX) for a few weeks now (trying to get most of my appointments on Mondays or Fridays). I don't remember the details, but apparently it was a trad leader fall, and I have some concussions to boot, with initial memory losses to adorn . Any ways, I'm recovering well now, and hope to return to normal ways early next week. I was off teaching duties for health reasons for the first time in my life; but have been spending most of the time doused in painkillers, and hence dozing on and off. I had read your TR from Wadd.. sounded like a swell time! May be I'll catch you the next time you're in/around PDX... as much as I'd like to say "see you on the ice this season", I'd rather not jinx it by saying that right now .

Sounds like a really fun trip. Good read and pics as well. Thanks for sharing!

Just in: Alan Kearney on E McMillan Spire.

So, what new set of tools are you getting Kevin? PS: And you can thank me with another "bump"

Hmmm.. after I posted, I was starting to guess something along the lines of what you said (change in the way the URLs are listed). Thanks Porter, but now the plot thickens though! First of all, BOTH the links you have put above work now. Do you think links in the first format will cease to work in the future or something? Secondly, all my old links have started working again, but with a glitch. They now take me to the *last* post in the page (or, pretty much all the way to the bottom of the page) to which I've linked. For example, I had the following link put up somewhere: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/546090/ If I click on the above link, it does not take me to the TOP of the page I want to link to. I (re-)found the post now (by searching through all of ryanl's posts - he only has 68 posts as opposed to my 380+ ), and the URL now looks different: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/543419/Argonaut_Peak_NE_Couloir_ski_d I notice that the working URL actually has the form that you mention will *not* work . It'll be really nice if you could fix the configuration such that my retro links work. In fact, I'm guessing that many other older posts with links to other posts will have similar/same issues as well.

After the upgrade, links to CC TRs (which I had on my web page) are not working. Clicking on them just takes you to the forum home page. To see an example, go to the post by Dru titled "Alpine Beta: Too Much and Not Enough" in the Climbers' Board, and click on the link given by Ponzini to the post on Crossover descent on Slesse. Is it just my browser (firefox, seamonkey)? Any one else have the same problem??

Playing husband in PDX... Last time I checked the weather for LD, it was okay. But that was before Wednesday. Have fun in L'worth.

I thought you were heading to LD... So, did the bailer bail on you again?

I didn't know Ryan, but it sounds like he was a swell guy. So sorry to hear about his loss. My condolences to Jen and friends/family.

Devastating loss to the math/theory community... RIP.

Happy B'day Dan! 40?? You make my 30-year-old fat ass look old!! Hope you get to go.

Dang it Kevin! I was going to say the same thing!! I'll be up for it next weekend as well...

Sounds like a fun trip David and Kevin! May be a little on the character-building side , but at least there were no unplanned bivies... I was wondering why the "Kevin" in Tvash's snafflehound TR looked different . Thanks for the TR and pics David. Brings back good memories from a trip three years back (we had a perfect weather day though).