sverdina Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 So, was up on Baker NR on Monday. Got visited by the red/white rescue chopper while we were halfway up the ice cliff ~ 10am?. The chopper circled the mountain twice and stopped over the Coleman, apparently to see how we were doing. Looks like they were specifically looking for us, though I know of nobody that would have called in a "rescue". Is this a common occurrence? Kinda spooked me... Quote
JoshK Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 Bizzare...even more odd is that they could just as likely cause a rescue situation by hovering over people for no reason. Quote
whiplash Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 The same thing happened to us on Mt.Challenger a couple of years ago. While we were sitting on the summit, a chopper circled our tent on perfect pass a few times, getting close enough that we were worried about it getting blown away. They then flew around the glacier and took off down the valley. Then on our way back down the glacier they flew back and did the same thing a second time. We thought maybe it was some kind of practice search or something. Quote
sverdina Posted June 18, 2003 Author Posted June 18, 2003 Exactly! Had this ominous feeling that something bad was about to happen. Was on edge for the rest of the climb. Definitely put a damper on my enjoyment of the route. Quote
Stefan Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 Was it those LifeLink helicopters? Or was it a tourist helicopter? It is the tourist season......and those Japanese sure like taking pictures of climbers. I tried out for RMI one time. We were doing our explanation of techniques and this large group of Japanese comes to watch us. We were about 50 meters away from the parking lot on snow doing our own private thing. Well, they didn't really want to watch us. Some people got within 2 feet of us while we were talking, so their buddy could capture a photograph of them with a mountain climber in polypropelene and goretex with an ice axe. Quote
Bronco Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 I've had the same experience hiking on Mt. Persis. We learned later that they were looking for some lost hiker. Well other than that, how was your climb? Quote
sverdina Posted June 18, 2003 Author Posted June 18, 2003 Since you asked... Baker NR was serious work. Left car around 12:30am and made it to the summit at around 5:30pm. We were impossibly sloooooow! Some solid 60 - 70 ice getting up to the ridge. Chopper would visit us shortly thereafter. Then, took a wrong turn up there among the dripping seracs (same mistake Stanton made...go straight up! Duh!) and ended up climbing near vertical serac ice with horrifying exposure below. A fall on those screws...hmm...I'd rather not think about that. Beyond that, it was pretty much straight sailing on the easier but still steep and very exposed crest of the ridge...in soft (fresh?) snow. We were extremely exhausted by this point and in the interest of safety belayed/running belayed the entire route to the summit. My crampons were balling up big time, so that further added to the stress factor. It simply took us FOREVER to reach the summit. I thought it was never going to end. Kudos to Dan (Mystic Nacho) and Corey (Squid) for this was their "first alpine ice climb". I was blown away by the shit they were able to pull off with relatively minimal experience. I sucked my my 70oz water bladder dry shortly before reaching the summit, and I had a whopping two cereal bars before leaving the car, one snickers bar, and two gu's for the duration of that entire 20+ hour day, car-to-car. Oddly enough, I had enough energy to snowboard down from the summit at speeds bordering on reckless. Yeh, carrying that splitboard underneath that overhanging dripping serac was really fun! Scott and I skied down to where the trail enters the trees in like 30 - 40 minutes (~6000ft descent). At last glance, Dan and Corey were still working their way down the Roman Wall. Thoroughly crushed by the time we reached the car. Call in sick to work the next day. Quote
mtnnut Posted June 18, 2003 Posted June 18, 2003 I've had choppers fly by while up on Baker before. I think sometimes they get a report of someone needing a rescue, and either get incomplete information, or just want to make sure they've covered all their bases and check out the other parties to make sure they aren't the ones in trouble. Baker does seem to get a lot of rescues. Once they dang near landed on our tents on the top of the Railroad Grade on the Easton just to ensure our group wasn't the one they were looking for. Turned out that time, the victims had fallen in a crevasse on the lower reaches of Roman Wall. Perhaps they didn't spot the site on the first pass and wanted to see if some sort of self-extrication was accomplished. Then, even if they know where they are going, they might circle around to check out wind or perhaps dump fuel before they get down to business. That is an interesting question: I wonder how familiar the heli crews are with where the climbing routes go? Do they rely on the SAR folks for this? Quote
Squid Posted June 19, 2003 Posted June 19, 2003 sverdina said: Kudos to Dan Mystic Nacho and Squid for this was their "first alpine ice climb". I was blown away by the shit they were able to pull off with relatively minimal experience Ahh, you make me blush. It was a riot climbing with you and Scott- thanks for a great outing! We wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell if we didn't have the two of you showing us the way. By the way, nothing has broken my heart quite so much as watching the two of you sailing away into the sunset while Nacho and I post-holed the long miles back to the car. I'm gonna have to teach Nacho how to ski. Quote
MysticNacho Posted June 19, 2003 Posted June 19, 2003 That climb freakin' rocked. Kudos to you guys on the ski's and snowboards.... whoa! Quote
layton Posted June 19, 2003 Posted June 19, 2003 vegetablebelay said: Maybe Necro was worried about you. Quote
scot'teryx Posted June 19, 2003 Posted June 19, 2003 By the way, nothing has broken my heart quite so much as watching the two of you sailing away into the sunset while Nacho and I post-holed the long miles back to the car. I'm gonna have to teach Nacho how to ski. The ski wasn't that great (i'm lying) but after all, we did have to carry them up and wear our rando boots, wasn't that punishment enough? Oh What Sweet Corn it was!!!! Quote
Ned_Flanders Posted June 23, 2003 Posted June 23, 2003 sverdina said: So, was up on Baker NR on Monday. Got visited by the red/white rescue chopper while we were halfway up the ice cliff ~ 10am?. The chopper circled the mountain twice and stopped over the Coleman, apparently to see how we were doing. Looks like they were specifically looking for us, though I know of nobody that would have called in a "rescue". Is this a common occurrence? Kinda spooked me... My party was out crossing the talum/squak/boulder/park glaciers monday afternoon and the choppers did spook me a little as well. Quote
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