friday night bivouac

[supernaut]

going to bivouac on a peak in the alpine lakes friday night. nwac and noaa say weather is constant and avalanche danger low. sounds good to me. anyone know something I don't?

[DirtyHarry]

You will die. Stay home or death is imminent.

[catbirdseat]

I was going to post that, Harry, but decided not to. Have fun!

[knotzen]

It should be fun--clear and cold, a bright moon. With warm, warm clothes and a warm bag, it should be a good experience. Post pics when you return. (IF you return? )

[Weekend_Climberz]

Sounds like fun. Hmmmmm........ When you leaving?

[DirtyHarry]

Fun? Since when has bivying in winter been fun? And why the hell, by the way, are you going "bivoacing?" I didn't realize "bivoacing" was a sport unto itself. Usually bivying is the unfortunate side effect of climbing mountains.

That's like saying, "I'm not going to go play soccer, but perhaps you could just kick me in the shins and knee me about the balls a few times, you know, just for FUN."

[mattp]

Harry is perhaps referring to the fact that the term "bivouac" carries a connotation of a forced overnight in the middle of a climb somewhere rather than a planned outing to spend the night somewhere relatively comfortably. With a favorable forecast and a large moon, you might well have an enjoyable experience.

[Bug]

I may be up there too.

Please don't kick me in the balls.

[DirtyHarry]

a planned outing to spend the night somewhere relatively comfortably.

 

You mean camping??

Edited December 15, 2005 by DirtyHarry

[chucK]

Dirty Harry: the cc.com climbing-jargon Enforcer

[supernaut]

I would have called it camping but i'm taking my bivvy sack instead of my tent, with the intent of a spartan outing, so it's not camping in the traditional sense of the word.

 

In fact I relate camping to cars, hunters and cement slabs, what this is, I believe, is a form of backpacking.

 

bivouacing in the winter has been fun since i decided it was.

[AlpineK]

You may call it bivouacing but the majority of climbers refer to bivouacing as an unplanned night out without the necesities to keep yourself from shivering all night. A bivvy means you screwed up and or underestimated your objective. I've done a few bivis, and I don't really care to practice.

 

Have fun camping.

[Off_White]

Sorry AK, I beg to differ: a bivy is different from a forced bivy. One can plan to bivy, and it can be rather enjoyable. A forced bivy can be rather unpleasant, but not always. Of course, sometimes people plan a rather spartan bivy that more closely resembles the poorly accessorised forced variety, and some people take their Rasta bivy kit with them everywhere just in case.

[magellan]

some people take their Rasta bivy kit with them

What the hell is that? Some big dreadlocks to help stay warm? A huge spliff to reduce the care factor? Bob Marley on the Sony?

[Cobra_Commander]

I'd be interested to know why my post was deleted while all this other nonsense remains. not angry, just curious.

[mattp]

Actually, there were several more taunting and otherwise off-track posts that I removed. I don't recall if yours was particularly rude or not. Sorry if you got caught up in vacuum cleaner aimed at other posts.

 

I sought to limit the smart-ass replies to a few posts, leaving a couple of jabs but hoping that perhaps the guy could get some more helpful responses to his question and maybe even return to tell us how much fun he had on Friday night.

 

Silly me.

[Bug]

I have bivwacked in many modes.

It is a term used to cover anything from sleeping in the girl's dorm without a toothbrush to throwing out a sleeping bag in the ranger's yard near camp 4, to hanging in a hammock on the face of a cliff whether planned or not.

It seems to mean spending the night minimally prepared.

Many of us find it enjoyable even if it involves a little shivering. But to each his own.

[catbirdseat]

And so now the question is, "how did it go?"

[supernaut]

I hit the trailhead about 4:15, packed light and a full head of steam. I didn't put on my shiny new princeton tec apex headlamp at first, I like to hike in the early dusk and let my eyes adjust to the snowy trail. I passed an old timer wearing old school wooden snow shoes coming down the pratt trail. I ended up overshooting the granite turn off by well over a mile! I thought there was no way I could miss it, even without my headlamp on yet, but miss it I did. So a relatively quick jog back down the slight pratt trail grade, with my new 3 watt LED headlamp bursting with light this time, and I hit the granite turn off. Up the switchbacks I went, crossing the avalanche chutes with my ice axe out for security. soon the boot path petered out and left me to find my own way up the south eastern flank. I tried the freedom of the hills slow and steady makes the summit mantra by zig zagging up towards the ridgeline. I don't remember the trail going as far out towards the east as I had ended up by following tracks.

 

I blundered upon a blue and white tent set up nice and tight to shed the wind way out on that eastern flank in the moonlight. I passed on without a word, the wind was gusting and whistling pretty good by that point. I chuckled to myself at the thought of busting into the tent and giving the occupant a swift kick to the nads if it was "bug". I had a clear view of Rainier at this point as well as the alpine lakes peaks to the south.

 

At the dell where the eastern end of the ridgeline starts is where I decided that I would bivvy in one of the tree copses on the south face instead of on the actual summit. The wind was making it colder than I expected and I am relatively new to this kind of "extreme camping" in cold weather. I continued on for a ways, getting on the actual ridge and then stopped and dug a shallow snow grave for my bivvy, wind whipping the ultra dry snow all over the place as I freed the powder and tried to unsuccessfully pack it into walls. My stupid jetboil failed to work properly, it sputtered and shot out gouts of yellow flame like an overprimed whisperlite. No dehydrated pro-pak dinner for me. Another powerbar and some more water and I called it a night.

 

I was glad to experience hard crust snow travel in the blasting wind, I haven't had the chance to do that yet. My trips to camp muir have always had clement weather. I expect I won't be as mentally shocked when it inevitably happens on a future alpine ascent of real altitude.

 

I still wrestle with the sweat thing. Your first lay gets soaked with sweat, at least your back and butt do from your backpack. Are you supposed to shed that at your camp spot and have another dry first layer to replace it with? Or maye just put on merino wool or fleece mid layers on over it? I have learned to change out socks when you hit the sleeping bag, but i'm not sure about the other sweat soaked layers.

 

An interesting side note is that at the last minute a friend of mine was going to meet me on the summit that evening, with an earlier start and plans to go our usual summer route, straight up the second gully to the top. Although this time he planned on going up the chute and maybe heading over to the western ridge approach, depending on how things looked when he got up to the granite slab talus field. He ended up breaking a crampon partially up the chute and deciding to head back down at that point. The snow had a really hard crust in most areas towards the top. I would have definitely broken my crampons out if I was going for the chute approach. We happened to miss passing each other as he came down because I was happily stomping up the pratt trail thinking to myself "damn this seems a lot longer than a mile!" (it's about a mile from the trailhead to the granite turn off).

 

Sorry no pics, I couldn't find my digital camera when I was packing on thursday night. Although my fellow climber who turned back said he got a few nice shots of the terrain at night. I'll see if he will post them to this thread.

[Bug]

But was it fun?

And "No." You would have kicked a total stranger in the nads. At that point, it would have been appropriate to say "And welcome to CC.COM ya F'n wanker!"

I was invited to a differrent bivy experience.

No toothbush.

Currently it is about 0 here in Missoula.

Blodgett falls is in.

Stewart Peak is frosted like there is champagne powder up there. Must make a decision.

[DirtyHarry]

Go to Mission Falls. Werd. Bug. Have fun.

[Bug]

Yeah. All short day trips tho as I can't make my sick mother try to herd my kids into bed.

Got out on Blodgett. Brittle but fun.

Stewart will have to wait. It is raining here now.