After my fill of Utah, I drove north to an eclectic town called Livingston, MT about 30 minutes east of Bozeman. Livingston is a great place to be if you love the burly Montanan wilderness, don't crave food post 10pm on a weekend night, and if you know a man name Ryan Von Luit. Ryan is the ultimate mountaineer Yoda. He radiates with knowledge, which is why I'm so pleased to see it shared through his company, Outdoor Safety Institute (http://www.outdoorsafetyinstitute.com/).
Ryan took Cody and I on an epic back-country ski adventure up Emigrant peak (10,921ft). After a solid 4,000ft ascent, we found a lovely stash of snow to ski down. Once we reached the car, we made our way to Chico Hot Springs Resort and Spa. For an entry fee of $5, I melted away quad pain as I submerged into the comfort of 120 degree water.
The following day,
we made a significantly shorter ascent (approximately 2,000ft) to an unknown peak about 45 minutes outside of Livingston. The ice luge section of our descent was certainly entertaining to ski down, but quite challenging at the same time. Split boarders beware!After a few days of relaxing touristy fun, we attacked Bridgier Bowls' side-country terrain. It was a freezing, icy day, which inspired us to go find more back-country stashes and pure Montanan solitude. We decided to hit up Emigrant peak again. This time, the mountains granted us an abundance of powder, which encouraged us to climb a bit higher and hit a few more turns on the way down. The only drawback were my goggles, which had frozen during the ascent and were thus of no visual use on the descent. I made the 4,000ft plus descent with my eyes closed. It was not an ideal situation.
It was hard to leave Montana, but my climbing partner and I eventually made our way to Mt Shasta where we imprudently decided to conquer the 14,162 ft beast the next day. Outfitted in a black diamond ice axe, black diamond crampons and brand new Kayland mountaineering boots, I thought I was adequately prepared for our one day, 7,000ft ascent.
We left at 3am, seemingly impervious to the strong head winds that were blowing ice chunks at us. Our crampons screeched in the ice as no snow had graced the mountain since December. Needless to say, my climbing partner and I did not listen to the mountain. We kept going, eager to slay the summit.
As noon approached, we were in between the top of Red Banks and the base of Misery Hill at approximately 13,000ft. We could not keep pace due to the icy conditions and headwinds and thus decided to turn around
as we would not be able to summit and make it back before nightfall.The down climb was uncomfortably treacherous. The sun did very little to ease the slippery daggers of ice that covered the mountain (see picture to the right of this paragraph). Just below the top of Red Banks, my left crampon slipped, my self-arrest didn't hold and I slid down the steep grated face of Mt.Shasta for about a 1,000ft until I reached the bottom of the Heart.
According to my partner, I slid down about 200ft directly into a boulder, went limp, then proceeded to somersault my way down until I was out of sight 400ft from the start of the fall. My partner assumed I was either unconscious or dead as he followed a trail of gear and blood before reaching my mangled body about 45 minutes later.
To his surprise as well as mine, I was hurt, in shock, yet conscious. After being able to wiggle my fingers and toes, a small painful sigh of relief escaped my lips. 9 horrifyingly long hours later, we reached our car and anxiously made our way to the emergency room.
1 comment:
Ouch. For all our benefit, what were the nature of your injuries?
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