Bronco Posted June 10, 2003 Share Posted June 10, 2003 I had a kind of interesting experience just this weekend on Mt. Rainier where one person in our party had been the point man on our rope team the entire ascent to Liberty Cap even though he was suffering from the altitude. Anyway, we come to the schrund at the top which some hot shot Canadian alpine dudes were struggleing to pull over the top and I offered to lead the 15' of verticle snow groveling if he wasn't feeling good enough to do it without falling as I was still feeling very good. I knew deep down he wasn't feeling strong enough to do it, but when he wouldn't relent, I put him on belay despite my doubts. The first moves were over a bulge at chest height. He steps across the schrund, moves up about 5', struggles, grabs the picket (his only pro) which pulls out. He falls and crash lands on the lower lip of the schrund and starts sliding down the forty five degree glacier towards Willis wall which was promptly arrested by the belay. Miraciously, he was totally uninjured despite the presence of no less than 3 pickets, 2 ice tools and 2 crampons flying through the air with him and landing on his side. When he came off the schrund, I thought we were screwed, he was gonna get hurt or fall into the schrund or chop the rope with a flailling piece of gear. I was pretty angry but didn't say much. I guess now I realize I was pretty angry with myself for not insisting he let the stronger climber take the lead, I'm sure he would have listened to reason, I just didn't want to offend him. As it was, it ended up just being an exciting moment on an awesome climb, but, it could have ended up much worse. I'll see if I can post a picture of the schrund when we climbed it, the one crackman posted it's in much better shape and about 5' shorter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sk Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 Bronco said: I had a kind of interesting experience just this weekend on Mt. Rainier where one person in our party had been the point man on our rope team the entire ascent to Liberty Cap even though he was suffering from the altitude. Anyway, we come to the schrund at the top which some hot shot Canadian alpine dudes were struggleing to pull over the top and I offered to lead the 15' of verticle snow groveling if he wasn't feeling good enough to do it without falling as I was still feeling very good. I knew deep down he wasn't feeling strong enough to do it, but when he wouldn't relent, I put him on belay despite my doubts. The first moves were over a bulge at chest height. He steps across the schrund, moves up about 5', struggles, grabs the picket (his only pro) which pulls out. He falls and crash lands on the lower lip of the schrund and starts sliding down the forty five degree glacier towards Willis wall which was promptly arrested by the belay. Miraciously, he was totally uninjured despite the presence of no less than 3 pickets, 2 ice tools and 2 crampons flying through the air with him and landing on his side. When he came off the schrund, I thought we were screwed, he was gonna get hurt or fall into the schrund or chop the rope with a flailling piece of gear. I was pretty angry but didn't say much. I guess now I realize I was pretty angry with myself for not insisting he let the stronger climber take the lead, I'm sure he would have listened to reason, I just didn't want to offend him. As it was, it ended up just being an exciting moment on an awesome climb, but, it could have ended up much worse. I'll see if I can post a picture of the schrund when we climbed it, the one crackman posted it's in much better shape and about 5' shorter. Good point Bronco. Nice reminder that we all should always listen to our gut instincts. My bigest dificulty is distinguishing instinct from my personal fear and worry. Fear I can move past. When my guts are screaming that something bad is about to happen, I try to listen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna Posted June 11, 2003 Share Posted June 11, 2003 I'll climb again....just need a mentor who will want to focus all there attention on my progress and be paid with PBRs....I want to do it right. Not sure how many willing climbing folks in the Eugene-Portland area would be up to climbing with me cuz I got tues-thurs off. I also live to fly so every spare moment I am soaring the skies. Would like to bag some peaks this summer as class IV scrambling and glacier travel is more appealing to me than technical rockclimbing. Peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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