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[TR] Spider - Arachnophobia 12/3/2011


danhelmstadter

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Trip: Spider - Arachnophobia

 

Date: 12/3/2011

 

Trip Report:

It started with talk of skiing powder, emails were sent, somehow plans were made to stage a mass assault on the North Face of Spider Mountain.

When the dust had settled six skiers stood proud.

 

The snow was overall variable, especially on the Face (we skied Arachnophobia, a line on the north face pioneered by Martin Volken and Peter Avolio), a fear inspiring ice crust lay buried at a variable depth under a blanket of powder. The upper bit of the face held much less powder and much more ice, we sidestepped this section with axe clutched firmly in hand. Speaking for myself I can say that I wiped sweat from my brow more than once during that section.

 

Much ground and el. had to be covered in return to camp - then car later in the evening. Sunsets and moonlit vistas were seen, fun headlamp lit turns were had, and a bit of whiskey was drunk.

 

This trip was special to me not only because of time spent with awesome friends, but also cause I had injured my knee climbing back in September, and haven't been out in the mountains since, till this trip. I am very happy that my knee is now pain/swoll free, I was worrying that going under the knife was going to be the only road to a healthy knee.

 

The object of fear and desire

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The courageous Dr. Wehrly, AKA E$, Ryan and Pete behind.

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DT nears the top of the line

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Eric skiing, photo courtesy of Drew

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Back at camp, photo courtesy of Eric. Left to right Ryan, Pete, me, Drew. Antonio must be melting water.

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Speaking for myself I can say that I wiped sweat from my brow more than once during that section.

That was serious stress. So tedious.

I am very happy that my knee is now pain/swoll free, I was worrying that going under the knife was going to be the only road to a healthy knee.

You blow my mind Dan. You were crushing it out there. Hell of a first trip to test things out, eh?

 

 

Have to share a few more of Drew's great pics...what an amazing trip!

 

Dan below Arachnophobia. The upper part of the line is in the upper-center of photo.

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Climbing the steep upper part of Arachnophobia.

climbitfirst.jpg

 

E$ doing the scary side-stepping.

IMG_2804.jpg

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So good to get out with you Dan! And so glad to hear that your knee felt fine. Nice write up too.

 

Yes Matt, this was a one night deal. We left the car around milepost 17 I think, a little after 11 am on saturday. Made it back to the car some time around 8 pm on sunday I think. This was an incredibly strong group, including Dan and his untested knee. Dan didn't mention that as we set out from our car he realized that he'd forgotten his inhaler for his asthma. So he jogged the 6 or so mikes back to his car to retrieve it, then hitched to within a mile of our parked car, and managed to join up with us just as we sat down to melt snow at our bivy just below the north side of Cache Col.

Edited by ryanl
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Great job guys! I'm beyond jealous. And Dan, an apparent fine job of rehab.

 

This overly high pressure that's been parked over us for nearly two weeks now provided those available to get out, quite an opportunity to get some climbs/skis accomplished. In normal late Nov/early Dec. this kind of long settled period doesn't often present itself. It's just about to change. Congrats to those that got out and got up stuff!

 

Sshhh.., Cache Col doesn't exist.

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