dshigeno

The following link leads to a blog post by Rod Mar, a local photojournalist who took the photos for article. There are some additional photos there that didn't make it into the published story. Rod Mar's blog post on photographing Fred Beckey -DTS

Yesterday (Thursday August 8th, 2008) morning we found a climbing rope on the summit of The Tooth. If you think it might be yours send me a Personal Message describing it. Click on the link below to PM me: Send a personal message to dshigeno -DTS

Some images from that day: My climbing partner and I had topped out on R&D in a light sprinkle, which shortly thereafter turned to a steady rain. We were standing on top of Icicle Buttress in the rainwhen we heard the distant sound of a helicopter. The other times I've seen helicopters in the Icicle Valley they were dropping water on nearby a forest fire...not so on this rainy afternoon. It was obvious from the very low altitude flight-path that the chopper was up to some serious business: (note how far below me the helicopter) It seemed like they were looking for something or someone - never a good sign. Of course, we thought, "uh...oh...somebody's hurt around here. Where? Are the injured folks below us?" Several teams of climbers below us were still working up the route in the rain and the chopper soon spotted them or us, did several fly-bys and buzzed us: The pilot and crew gave us a once over and, satisfied that we were ok (none of us were waving frantically or trying to signal the chopper), descended towards the base of Icicle Buttress, presumably to get a better look at the climbers below: Scanning everything we could see in the rain and mist filled valley, we shortly thereafter noticed some movement on YellowJacket Tower: Once we focused in on YJT we could make out some people waving some red-tarps up and down at the base of the YellowJacket's left buttress, almost directly across the valley from us: Around the same time, the helicopter spotted the red tarps as well and flew over to YJT. They did a bunch of fly-by's before settling in for a sustained hover...and we started our walk-off and down the left side of Icicle Buttress. As we eventually drove out of the valley we saw a very large number of marked and unmarked Search and Rescue vehicles parked on the side of road along with a ambulance. Best to the injured climber and those involved in the rescue. Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery. My full frame images are available at: http://shigeno.serveftp.net/files/yellowjacket/P5210025.JPG http://shigeno.serveftp.net/files/yellowjacket/P5210026.JPG http://shigeno.serveftp.net/files/yellowjacket/P5210027.JPG http://shigeno.serveftp.net/files/yellowjacket/P5210028.JPG

That's mostly true. Plark42, with your glacier skills and experience, you might consider looking into the Mountaineers' Crag Climbing course. Considerable emphasis is placed on understanding and building rock anchors, as well as dealing with sport/top-rope anchors as well. Basic course graduation is not a pre-requisite for the Crag Course. More info at: Seattle Mountaineers Crag Climbing Course Yes. The Basic, Intermediate, and Crag courses all allow a holder of WFR certification to pass out of the MOFA requirement. Other Mountaineers courses probably allow this as well, I think. Good luck and have fun out there...

Hmm... this is interesting. On June 18th, 2004 we found some broken-up, riveted aluminum pieces along with plexiglass near our camp. We were climbing the Kautz the following day and our camp was located at about 10,500 - just off the Turtle snowfield and below camp Hazard. So I guess we were right above the Van Trump glaciers and right between the Kautz and Wilson glaciers on the Wapowety Cleaver. Anyway, if I recall correctly, the aluminum pieces were painted dark green on one side. The machining of the aluminum definitely had me thinking, "aircraft" though I'm not 100% sure. Hmmmm...that Mountain sure holds its mysteries. -DTS Our camp: Wapowety Cleaver camp