After an extended absence, I am settled (sort of) back in the Bay. Got bit carried away with an adventure I had back in October. Good to get back on the site again, although been kind of quiet recently.

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I finally made the move from Alaska back to the San Francisco Bay Area. It took five days of hard driving, twelve hours a day until I collapsed in the back of the car, slept, and started up again the following morning. And, despite my big ambitions to climb Rainier or Hood (or, gasp, both) on the way down, my exhaustion combined will horrible road-trip eating habits conspired against me. So when Nate cornered some time to head out the week before I started my new job in San Francisco, it didn?t take much to convince me.

A little background. Nate is newer to this sick obsession of climbing. A few years back I had taken him fly fishing out near Mammoth but that didn?t seem to take. But when I hiked him three miles up a frozen river in Alaska and let him tool around on a frozen waterfall almost three years ago, well, he signed up for the program. Two summers ago, we did Shasta together, which just reinforced his intention to do more. Last year, I took him up to the Dana Glacier in Yosemite to let him tool around on the ice and practice various skills.

We didn?t get up the Dana Couloir that trip, inspiring our latest plans. I have been up to the Dana Glacier a number of times, but usually it was only to practice and hone techniques. The one time I have topped out on the Couloir, we did so at 2:30 in the morning, and my two partners and I ended up in an open bivy under a rock---the usual story ensued, no food, no bag, no water, no fun. But time heals all memories . . .

We woke up in the parking lot at 4:00 a.m. with the intentions of hiking up to the Dana and climbing it that day. We had driven all night, however, making our plans change quickly. Instead, we got up at about nine or so and leisurely packed. The new plans included going up to Solstice Couloir and trying it during the afternoon, putting off the Dana until Sunday. The best plans are made in the parking lot.

Unfortunately, when we got to camp clouds were closing in, and the weather had started with rain/snow. Things looked grim for the weekend.



We set up the tent and hunkered down, hoping that Black Diamond?s Mega-Lite held up better than its flimsy construction looked. But after two hours of exhausting boredom, sunshine started to shine through the tent. When I looked outside, voila, sun, blue skies, and better for our purposes, a thin ribbon of alpine ice about fifteen hundred feet above our camp:



I had never seen ice on that wall before. So, combining hubris, boredom, and too many Mark Twight books, I unilaterally decided our plans had changed again. We were going up.

?Hurry up, Nate, we got to get up and down that thing quick,? I barked at 1:30 in the afternoon. Nate was used to irrationality, so he got stuff together with me, and off we went. I?d like to think that he thought it was a good idea too, but as I would learn later, he deferred to my bad judgment.

Nate asking "huh?":



We made a rapid ascent to the base of what looked to be a pretty large snow/ice field. Thankfully, when we got there, it was consolidated and solid enough ice to take screws. Fortunately, we never tested their strength with a fall. Unfortunately, the sun was moving quicker than I wanted it to and Nate, who has a fondness for a large cushy chair in his office, was lagging behind. Oh well, ?p. XX of Twight?s book said two packs of Gu would take care of that,? I thought.

We roped up and started simul-climbing up the ice field at about 4?ish. I had two tools, while Nate followed with one ax. I kept two screws between us at all times, and we were making pretty good time.

Me frontpointing up the first pitch:


Nate following on the snow/ice field:



But after about 40 minutes of this, I looked down and saw Nate hunched over his ice ax.

?What?s wrong? Are you okay??

Slowly looking up, out came the phrase of the trip:

?Dave, I just bonked.?

I thought that wasn?t the best way to start a climb, since we were only just into the second pitch. But I thought back to how Joe Simpson would handle things, and told Nate we wouldn?t have to simul-climb anymore; I would just lead everything and let him rest. I slammed three screws in, built a belay, and brought Nate up.

As soon as he was up, I set off for the ice, which was at the end of this pitch. The beginning of the pitch was consolidated snow, not quite hard enough to hold a screw, but perfect for tool sticks. Nice climbing if you didn?t look down and think about how far it was to your last piece.



Continued at:

http://www.mtncommunity.org/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=101&topic_id=13778&mode=full&page=

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Paging Dr. Lucia Maria Teressa Mariana Rosario Douchbago . . .
Viva el Caballo.

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