what to do when you catch inexperienced rop teams

[snowman]

I had two friends who had never been on a glacier climb,so I choose Mt baker coleman deming route for their first climb. we left our 6000' high camp at 4:30am, on route we passed 5 rope teams before reaching the saddle at 9000'. we took a 20 minute break to let 2 teams get up the deming glacier. When we started our break the 2 teams were at a large rock 5/8's the way up the final pitch. we took our break then headed up. At this point the two teams had progressed only 75 to 100 feet above the rock. We headed up and caught the teams only 50 feet higher then when we left the saddle.We were now on the face next to the roman wall.The two teams had 60 meter ropes and were tied into the very ends. this had them getting tons of slack between climbers, which in turn would snag on surface ice chuncks. They then would stop to pull on the rope until the ice chuncks would come loose. After one episode like this I made the desicion to traverse closer to the roman wall and up to the summit.The details were we climbed from 9000' to 10000' in the time they climbed from 9900' to 10000'.It seemed like we had left plenty of distance for them to get up to the easier grade, but I underestimated how slow they were moving.what do you do when you come on to teams that are a danger to your team? In traversing closer to the roman wall we were exposing ourselves to greater rock fall danger, which I felt was safer than the ice chunks these teams were sending down on use. I also worried that they would tumble down and take us with them. What is the best way to deal with inexperienced teams?

[Dru]

"let's get out of here before we have to rescue someone"

[Smoker]

quote:

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Originally posted by snowman:

What is the best way to deal with inexperienced teams?

[/b]

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1) stay off the standard lines

2) be the first on the route

3) Detour around (as you did) and pass quickly.

S

 

[DPS]

The Roman Wall is a very wide face. Plenty of room for people to pass. I don't understand what your problem was. What danger were you in exactly?

[Rodchester]

To a certain degree we all have to "deal" with these situations. This is especially true on the standard lines.

It can often be safer getting on a more slightly more difficult route with less crowds. Usually where there are crowds there are idiots.

Even taking the precaustions, a tactics that Smoker recommends isn't always going to gaurantee you won't run into unsafe and slow parties.

If a danger is truely being created....bail. If it is more of an pain in the ass, deal with it.

In this case you had the room and they were so slow you could easily negotiate around them. Likely a good call.

If you want to read a good thread, go to the one about Judd on Mt. Rainier. This guy sounds like he was WAY worse than the party you encountered.

[mattp]

I'm with Smoker and Rodchester. Whey you encouter other parties who you feel are inexperienced, just deal with it and continue on with your day. In some cases you may be able to suggest ways they might make their outing (and yours) a little safer but remember: those "other guys" have just as much a right to be there as you do. Even if they are complete losers and even if they are likely to get theirselves in trouble. We are just being arrogant and forgetting what it was like when we were the new climbers if we think that only parties who climb by "acceptable" methods or only those who are "competent" belong on the routes we want to climb. The suggestion to stay off popular climbs is a good one if you do not want to share the experience with other parties, whether they be more or less qualified than your own.

- Matt