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Note 44.416 MOUNT-L 416 of 517 CUPIDO::STRITAR "Andrej Stritar,IJS,(61)-371-321" 91 lines 3-AUG-1994 07:51
CUPIDO::STRITAR "Andrej Stritar,IJS,(61)-371-321" 91 lines 3-AUG-1994 07:51
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Subj: Logan, Rainier, and Squamish

Date: 19-Jul-1994
Posted-date: 19-Jul-1994

Our Mt. Logan expedition was cut short to 18 days from the planned 44
days mainly because of personnel problems, but still it was an amazing
trip. I still don't understand how we wound up taking 3100 ls of
stuff to the glacier. Sure there was 900 lbs of food, 3.45 Km of
fixed line, 11 tents, etc., but 3100 lbs?

We had plently of fun with crevasses, avalanches and rock fall. Even
sleeping on a glacier that groans every once in a while was different
than my usual trip. It just reminded everyone what they were really
sleeping on. Alan got my award for the most excitement, as he got
caught in an avalanche while on the fixed line. Fortunately, he was
near a station where he could crouch down behind the station's rock
and avoid the full blunt of the avalanche, he only got pounded by snow
(no rocks), and the total force didn't rip out the fixed line or rip
him apart. My most exciting moments weren't quite as extreme but it
easily could have been me on that fixed line as I was rappeling down
just after him. I did get hit 5 times on the helmut from rock fall,
and punch through one crevasse's snow bridge. Even stuff like doing a
820 foot rappel on a single piece of 8mm while untangling the rope in
an avalanche chute and wondering about what would happen if an
avalanche came down the chute did keep me thinking. Even the grunt
work like the 50 miles of glacial hauling and over 2 miles of self
belay or rope ascending I did was fun too.

The weather was very mild as it didn't get much below 20 F and winds
wer never more than 10 MPH, but since we didn't get to the ridge top
we were spared high winds and colder temps. Most of the days were
prefectly clear and from advanced base camp at 7800 feet on a small
spur of the Seward glacier the central summit at 19500 feet was the
promient feature to the north some 5 miles from camp horizontally.
The huge hanging glaciers, such as the ones on Logan's south face,
with the bluish ice exposed added to the view in a way I can not
describe. St. Elias at 18000 feet was promient feature to the south
west across the 20 mile wide Seward glacier. What a view! The scale
of these mountain defies explanation. It even defies you own senses
being there. The magnificent beauty continued below ground too. I
rappeled into 2 crevasses, one over 100 feet whose formations of
peeled ice and ice cycles were truely amazing.

I don't want to get into the main reasons for our retreat as it would
involve character bashing (or at least it would be viewed that way)
and that's not why I went.

After returning to Seattle, I had extra time so I went to Mt. Rainier.
I couldn't get any of my Logan cohorts to go, so I went solo to camp
Muir to hook up with some others for the glacier travel. I hooked up
with 2 other climbers but they bailed at 13000 feet when one of them
was too exhausted to continue. I opted to continue solo since the
glacier snow bridge hazard was minimal and was certainly less of a
problem than being pulled over a cliff below a steep snow climb by
someone you might be roped to. I easily made the summit and for 45
minutes I had the whole crater to myself with perfectly clear skies
and a strong 30 MPH wind. Rainier truely is a beautiful mountain,
it's just too bad that the high traffic makes climbing it a zoo for
many. Since I went on a weekday, and I got ahead of all the other
groups that morning, the typical weekend frenzy was not my experience
at all. In fact, for almost 2 hours I saw no one at all, until the
guided group showed up (about 15 people). I was surprised though,
that there really was almost no visible signs of the high traffic
execpt for the very beaten down path, wands, and something else
unpleasant lurking frozen near a rock in the crater. Someone didn't
blue bag it! I was very glad I went to Rainier. Even though it was
only a 33 hour trip from car to car and wasn't technical in rock snow,
or ice (except for glacier travel), it was a very nice 9000 foot climb
to the summit at 14400. I still haven't figured out why I took 90 lbs
to camp Muir.

Since my brother and family had just gotten to Vancouver for a 5 week
working vacation, I visited with him as well. We went up to Squamish
and climbed on the Chief. It is a massive 2000 foot tall hunk of
granite that offers excellent multi-pitch (even big wall) trad and
sport rock climbing. We climbed a bunch of 5.8 5.9 pitches on the
Apron (a lower slab) which were really nice. If you are every in the
area, I highly recomend spending time climbing there. I wish I had
spent a week, or mabey a month, but, sigh, I needed a partner who
would last for more than a day, and I really should get back to work.

After being gone a month and doing nothing but climbing, I came back
to, you guessed it, more climbing. I went to our local wall on
Friday, and spent all weekend climbing in the Red River Gorge in KY.
Of course I will go today to our local wall again. It's going to be
hot (90 F), but what the hell I never seem to get enough climbing.
How about you? Mabey with luck I can work back up to the 5.12 yellow
point I almost had before I went off to Logan.

Willie Hunt

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