Alex_Mineev Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 Climb: Mt Rainier-Fuhrer Finger Date of Climb: 2/27/2005 Trip Report: Close call on Fuhrer Finger. Long story in brief: AaronG and I attempted Fuhrer Finger and got hit by an ice fall at 5.30am while climbing the finger at 10870ft. The plan was to summit thru the one of the simplest routes, Fuhrer Finger. I also wanted to recon upper Nisqually before attempting Nisqually Ice Fall later this month. We already had one try on FF at the end of December, but bailed because of bad weather from 9600 camp. The hike to high camp was fun: no wind, not that hot, sun, familiar settings of slopes around Nisqually glacier. On the way we met three teams, one aiming at Kautz Glacier, another also going for FF. At this point we started thinking about Fuhrer Thumb to avoid the other guys but decided to wait till morning. Pitched tent at 4pm and spent 2 hours leisurely soaking sun and views, melting water brewing soup and tea. Alarm went off at 2am, at 3.30 we were following tracks of the other team. In some places tracks were pretty deep in windblown pockets. So we decided to follow the other team on FF to save some time and energy reusing the tracks. When we got closer to the finger windblown snow changed to icy crust mixed with patches of styrofoam. Slope angle increased to 40-45 degrees. Moon was so bright we did not use headlamps. Snow crystals were sparkling in the bluish light like diamonds. Polar star was shining just above the finger exit. Aaron saw long-lasting falling star. Climbing was so joyful! To some reason snow on the left side of the finger was softer than on the right side. Guide book also recommended left side saying that it is safer. So we climbed traversing left and right, taking couple short rests on the left side. I do not remember why but the third rest we did on the right side at the point where finger widens, almost at its exit. A minute to drink water, time check, altitude check, conditions check and I started traversing to the left. Then few things happened very quickly. Aaron yelled “Ice!” I looked up and saw few big chunks flying towards us. I think we were right in their path, because later when we discussed this moment Aaron thought that a lot of ice flew on his right and I saw and heard chunks rumbling on my left. So it took a fraction of a second to understand that we could not run away. I fell down in self arrest position, but because slope surface was very hard it took couple bangs of ice on my head and back to securely drive pick into the slope. Aaron was standing in a rest position when it all started so his ax was in a cane position and he tried to push it as deep as he could while falling on the slope, but apparently did not because of very hard snow. That day I learned the reason of helmet. There were 4 or 5 major hits. Two of them took my helmet. One of them was so hard I was on the verge of loosing consciousness. One hit took my elbow which was barely outside of my helmet (forehead on forearm, facedown), I remember moving few inches up to protect the hand (or whatever left, I thought) after it. All other hits were shielded by backpack, which also had some consequences I’ll describe later. Aaron got a serious hit on his wrist holding the ace ax and his other wrist also got injured. He did not wear helmet and was very lucky to not take any hit in the head… He saw how two hits knocked me down the slope by foot each (those were the hits that drove the pick of my ice ax into the ice ). At this point he decided that I could get unconscious and would slide down, because we were roped it would yank him down the Finger as well. So he held his ax in cane position, hand above his head. The whole bombarding lasted for two minutes. When it eased a bit I quickly looked up and started moving back to Aaron. “Are you Ok?” “No” Oh shit! ‘Touching the void’ popped up in my head ‘What am I gonna do if he can’t move?’ Aaron did not feel his right wrist, could not hold ice ax in it and we both were very shocked. “Do you need emergency?” “No, we got to get out of here…” “Can you move, go?” “Yes, my right hand is bad” The slope below was very hard and icy, although not that steep. My hands were shaking. I looked at altimeter we had to downclimb about 900ft till the easy ground. We had less than an hour before sunrise and we clearly wanted to get out of the Finger by that time. We could not walk down, so we climbed face into slope, belaying each other. As soon as we got down and under protection of some rock outcrop near the Finger entrance Aaron asked for some painkillers. I tried to joke saying that I have two types of pills one is laxative another is a strong painkiller, but both are unmarked and forgot how to distinguish. Few nervous giggles. Then few more when I got the pillbox out of the top pouch of my backpack and it was shattered and all the pills were crumbled. “Just take a pinch of this stuff – at least half should be a painkiller”. In reality it was a mix of ibuprophen,and two types of painkillers I got from various dentist appointments. Sun was shining, we were safe and slowly moving towards 9200 camp. I was thinking about the accident. By that moment it seemed like nothing happened, or what happened did not happen with me, but with somebody else I know. It was a dull feeling of fading shock. By the time we arrived at camp the mountain was covered with lenticular cloud. _ I thought about the guys who were ahead of us. We almost caught up with them that night. Then I thought we would not summit anyway because of weather. I packed our stuff and we went down to Paradise. On the way back we agreed that official story for my wife would be a brutal fight for the last chocolate bar. I also thought that if Aaron did not notice the falling ice a second before it reached us we’d probably be dead. _ We met the other FF team on Paradise parking lot, they arrived few minutes after us - turned back in whiteout at 12000. One of the guys was also hit by the same ice fall. The falling ice was a serac that broke off the upper Nisqually glacier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriznitch Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 well written and burly. This brings back a little reality to the fantasy season the PNW is having. Glad everyone is ok--hopefully your buddy wears a head helmet to match his nose helmet from now on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted March 5, 2005 Share Posted March 5, 2005 the hand looks terrible, hope it gets better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted March 5, 2005 Author Share Posted March 5, 2005 We suspected broken bones, but when Aaron went to emergency here in Kirkland he was told everything was Ok. My GPS unit got trashed, it was in the top pouch. When I came home and turned it on - it worked! At least one square inch of its panel was showing something So, yes, we were very very lucky... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted March 6, 2005 Share Posted March 6, 2005 Wow, really glad to hear you guys are ok. That is some scary shit. It reminds me of last spring in the north face coulior on buckner when we got pounded by shit sliding. Thankfully for us it was almost all snow and very little ice, but I still remember taking some shots to the helmet that hurt and being scared I was going to get knocked off. Aaron, wear a helmet, bro!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billygoat Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Whew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Damn, that is scary. Glad you're ok! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubleski Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 I was on the team above you that got hit. Nick and I both got hit actually. We were left of center when the serac broke loose and it looked like everything was going to fall to the right. I remember looking at the blocks in the moon light and thinking... glad Im not over there. Then one refrigerator size block bounced left and was coming straight at us. It broke in to TV sized chunks and I took one on the helmet, pack, and arm. Knocked me out of arrest and down a few feet before I could stop again. We sprinted over to the rock further left and licked our wounds. I remember thinking "I hope those guys weren't down there." But we had been looking for headlamps and had come to the conslusion that you guys had either stayed in camp for some reason or were already ahead of us. We climbed for another hour or so, sticking to the far left. The left side was icy in places and we slowed a little bit. The good styrofoam was out to our right but we were too scared of more icefall to head out there. Stuck my leg in a hidden crevase.... etc. The clouds finally came in and we couldn't see where to go. Time to bail. Needless to say we didn't linger in the Gully. The first time we saw you guys were as you were crossing the Wilson on the way back. Glad you are ok. I didn't actually see your hand in the parking lot. That looks like it HURT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_Mineev Posted March 7, 2005 Author Share Posted March 7, 2005 We did not use headlamps, moon was amazingly strong!.. But we saw your headlamps. Frankly, we did not expect any shit falling down before sunrise. That's why no helmet and those three rests. A lesson to learn. When I checked my hand at parking lot it did not have any signs of hits. But in two days... I got two massive blue-greenish bruises. I guess lots of tissue protected bones. Lucky... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troubleski Posted March 7, 2005 Share Posted March 7, 2005 Yeah. the moon was great. Without it I don't think we would have seen the ice coming, and I probably wouldn't be writing this right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gomek Posted March 12, 2005 Share Posted March 12, 2005 I was on the team going up the Kautz that morning. We got a late start and were really surprised to see you guys coming down before dawn. We had no idea about the ice fall and just figured you guys were super fast. Glad to hear you guys are ok, that must have been a frightening two minutes. Our group turned around at the ice cliff due to the same white out conditions the other group ran into. -Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelawgoddess Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 ouch!!! thanks for the tr. glad you guys are okay! just curious, how did what any of you saw of the route look for a ski descent when you were there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couloir Posted April 8, 2005 Share Posted April 8, 2005 Probably better than then. I think they've had about 6 feet of fresh up there in the past several weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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