Climbed Squaws peak to day with an old friend Jeff Griffiths. I was going to go out on my own today, but the wife protested heavily. So I gave my Ole buddy a text, and he was all in! It turned out to be a fantastic day for a climb. Not too hot or cold, just perfect. Most of the snow was off the route except for some lingering near the tit – summit block. This made it somewhat interesting, but I was able to kick in steps where needed. (Sucks doing with light hiking shoes on) the crux’s of the climb would be the traverse around the left side of the summit block, it is slabby and very slick specially if wet or iced. The other crux would be the summit block climb. Someone had placed pitons around these cruxes with rap rings. I however didn’t like the placement of these and would be leery using them.
We completed the round trip in 7 hours 45 Min’s. We were not in a rush, and took our time. I was also nursing my twisted ankle from several weeks ago as well. Total distance traveled 9.16km. 1560m elevation gain for a summit of 2520m
Well, we got her done! (Most of us anyways, more on that later..)
Day 1 – Getting to base camp
Sunday morning the team met up at Andrews place. Upon inspection his car had a flat tire, great way to start the day! Tossed all the gear in my truck and Andrews car and proceeded to meet up with our Guides for this trip in Lake Luise.
We met up right on time with Gery Unterasinger and Jen Olson at the bakery at Lake Luis. After signing the documentation required and discussing the game plan, we set off towards the ice fields. Once there the gate was lowered allowing only access to the lower parking lot. However there was just enough room to sneak by the gate so we did. We got to the top parking lot where the snow buses are parked and were greeted by a Brewsters employee whom told us that we were on a private road, and couldn’t park up top. He did however allow us to unload our gear at the top, which was nice.
Onto the Glacier! Up, Up, up and Up we go.. It never seemed to stop. The scenery was astounding, and we couldn’t have asked for a better day. On our way up the glacier a huge serac fell off from above on Snow Dome, crashing down and creating a large snow cloud. Makes you realize just how small you are.. The Relentless grind up the glacier with only a break every hour was tough! Man, I don’t know where the guides get their stamina from, but damn, would it hurt to pause for 5 seconds once an a while to catch your breath and look at something other then the rope tension in front of you? Lol, I know they were keeping pace, and that was their job.
3/4 of the way up the glacier my feet started to hurt. Having been susceptible to blisters in the past I thought I had taken precautions by pre-applying mole skin all around the backs of my heels. Well this didn’t do much, and probably made it worse. I was becoming quickly aware that my ski boots were too small, and cramming my feet to death. Not only where the blisters becoming painful, but it felt like i had the screaming barfies in my feet..
We made it! to base camp anyways. Upon arrival Andrew starting spewing his guts out, and Davo was cranked up on some of wife’s “good meds” he borrowed.. Made for interesting setup time. We dug the holes, setup the tents and started the water making process. We then had a quick meal, and hit the sack.
Day 2 – The climb to the summit
Woke up in the morning with a nice layer of frost over everything in the tent. Davo looked like he caught pneumonia.. Had a quick bite, made some more water and packed up for the summit attempt.
We skied down into the “ditch” (the col between Snow Dome and Columbia) and started the next upward grind. We got up onto the shoulder of Columbia, and were close to the summit block when I couldn’t bare to stand anymore. I felt as if I was about to tip over from the pain emitting from my feet. Between the blisters and the pressure on my feet, I felt that if I continued to the summit, I would have a very hard time getting back to base camp, let alone back to the parking lot after. Knowing this, and running out of time Gery very reluctantly agreed to allow me to stay put while he continued with the rest of his rope team to the summit. Armed with my shovel and my down jacket I bunker-ed into the snow pack 5 feet deep to get out of the wind. I knew they wouldn’t be back for several hours. From my fox hole I could watch all the progress on the face of the mountain. When Jen’s rope team came by me, Chris wasn’t feeling so well either. His face had puffed up huge and was looking like a real mess. I think he was happy to find my fox hole and asked to stick back with me. So we dug another seat in the snow, sat back, relaxed and I even was able to catch a nice nap in the sun.
It was 2:00 pm when Gery’s rope team made the summit (right on Gery’s turn around time). It didn’t seem like they stayed up top for more than a minute then started to descend again. Jen’s team continued to plow up and made summit by 2:45 pm. I was super happy to see that they made it!
Shortly after Gery’s team made it back to my fox hole. I collected my gear, packed up and started the ski back down to the “ditch”. At the ditch Chris and I started our way back to base camp, while Andrew and Kyle stayed back for a bit to gather strength and wait a bit for Jen.
Got back to camp, again started the water making process and got a bite to eat. A hour later everyone rolled back into camp. Later that night I had a good laugh at Davo, as he decided to pack his entire pantry to the top of the mountain! Haha I think he trucked 5 apples and a banana to the summit!
Day 3 – Get out, in one piece..
Another night in the glacier. I had to go out for a pee that night around 3:00am. There was no wind, the moon was nearly full and I could see for miles just as though it were day. It was really quite the sight. Got up in the morning, packed up to head on back. This is where the gong show began, for me anyways.. First I packed top heavy, second my sternum strap broke off my pack. Couple that with an injured ankle (from Grillmairs the week before) and silver dollar blisters all around my heals I was in excellent shape for the ski down! I’ve been skiing fairly steep blue runs this winter on my skis, but trust me, it is a whole new experience with 50 lbs above on your back and over powering you. The snow seemed to have a crust 2 inches down that I would constantly catch an edge and topple over. I was having a hard time coming down, no joke here. I think planted at least 12 times. I lost a ski twice, one time it was stopped by Jen farther down the hill, the second slipped away from Andrew and ended up at the bottom of the glacier. So yea, I had to walk down the latter part. -yay- .
All in, this was a demanding challenge, not only physical, but mental as well. Would I do it again. You Bet.
I would like to thank the guides for their persistence and patience with our group. I don’t think they were aware or our piss poor skiing abilities. I give them props for getting the group up and back down the mountain safely and without any incident. I highly recommend Gery and Jen to anyone looking for a guide. See links on the side.
Tips and Tricks for ski touring (some learned the hard way)
Pack all your heavy gear in the bottom of the pack!!! Keep your center of gravity low. Trust me, it’s not easy to ski downhill with a 50 lbs top heavy pack on!
Mole Skin is shit! The band-aid brand advanced healing patches and blister patches is what you want. Mole Skin creates more friction where you don’t want it.
Make sure your ski boots aren’t too tight! Get them with room to spare. You can always add more socks to fill up if needed.
Sun Screen, Sun Screen, Sun Screen! I can’t stress this enough! Get the highest SPF rating you can find, and make sure you have enough of it on! Apply to ALL visible skin. I was burned up inside my nostrils! The glare off the snow will cook you. My face was scrambled eggs after this tour!
Put a leash on your skis. loosing a ski to the bottom of a crevasse or the bottom of the glacier for that matter just plain SUCKS.
Climbed the Grillmair Chimneys trad route with Matt Roy today, what a blast! Matt said he was going to pop my trad cherry, and that he did. The climb is very enjoyable and not excessivly hard. There was one section … Continue reading →
After running the lift in my truck for over 3 months, I’ve now discovered the error made in the instruction manual that creates bump steer issues. The manual and online instructions tell you to align the vehicle to factory specifications. This is INCORRECT.
They have forgot one key item here! The front end of the truck is lifted 6″, while the rear 4″. This was done to remove the factory 2 degree rake in the truck, and improve the looks. By doing this, the frame angle and front end components have all tilted 2 degrees forward, thus automatically changing the built in factory caster angle by +2 degrees.
So when I had the shop dummies at Canadian Tire align the vehicle, they looked at the factory caster angle of ~4 degrees and tried to set that. By doing so the lower control arm was cranked to the max towards the rear. This totally misaligned the steering rack angles thus the big time bump steer issues.
In my garage armed with a digital angle finder and string lines I aligned my truck myself with perfect results! I actually cranked the lower control arm front bushings towards the inside to the max (pushing the wheels forward), and adjusted the rears to set camber to 0 degrees. The resulting caster angle is now around ~6 degrees I figure (didn’t actually check this, but didn’t care at this point), but the steering rack is angled back to where it should be. Going up and down with the jack my wheels do very little in-out movement as compared to before. I also set the toe in very slightly(.05 deg) to help counter act bump steer under a loaded condition.
Conclusion
The truck now steers with one finger again, and will maintain in a straight line over bumps and dips in the road without shooting off sideways! YAY. So I would say that the Pro-Comp engineers did the right job with the steering knuckles geometry, but the manual writer and tech support guys are DUMMIES. I’ve actually emailed the tech support guys tech@explorerprocomp.com explaining my problem and they couldn’t even be bothered to respond to me. Don’t expect any technical support from this manufacturer guys.
*While under my truck I’ve noticed that one of the new ES3000 rear shocks included in the kit is already leaking oil… -Sigh- Cheap quality shocks..
Hope this helps someone else solve bump steer issues.
Scott Stenz, Matt Roy, David Jurello and I went into the ghost on Saturday to find the route Beowulf and The Devils Punch Bowl. We ended up not finding much ice (because we didn’t really know where we were.. ) Looking … Continue reading →
Some good information on Dyneema and Nylon slings; Very good read if you use these.
DMM tested the effects of tying a knot into slings. An overhand knot in a dyneema sling can reduce the strength by about 50%, and only 25% in a nylon sling. See full details at the link below!
Feb 5, 2012 The Tokumm Pole – Marble Canyon Back to the tokumm pole today for another round at her. Andrew Jurello, David Jurello, Glen Turner, and Kyle Bergen piled in the truck an away we went. We got there by about day break, … Continue reading →
It has been just over a year since I was introduced to the outdoor \ ice climbing world. I still remember the day sitting in the lunch room at work, thinking about the words of my Doctor (“You need to loose weight, blah blah blah..”) and thinking about how I was now 30 years old and not getting younger. I thought about how I would be at age 40-60, what would my physical condition be? What would I do when I was 80? I wanted stories and memories to look back at, to tell my children. Heck, would I even make it that far in my current condition? Sitting across the table from Andrew Jurello at work, knowing that he was into mountain sports I said to him “I want to climb a mountain”. He kind of had a shocked look on his face like “where is this coming from?”. I think it was just a few weeks later in January of 2011 we went on my first Ice climb. Down into the Ghost we went to the “Good Bad and Ugly” ice falls. I didn’t do so good that day, but it was the drugs that I was looking for. The needle was set into my arm so to speak.
Andrew came across a contest that Mammut was putting on. (150 peaks). As motivation to carry on with this endevour I agreed that we should take this contest on. This would provide us with Mammut gear and a guided climb should we win, plus who would turn down free gear?
A few weeks later, back to the ghost, and climbed the route “French Technique”. Then a few weeks later Kemosabe. The snow was deep last year, and these routes were real post holing humpers. Every time out I was fully exerted, losing 6-7 lbs per outing. (Mostly water, but average 2 lbs stayed off). I really had to push hard at the beginning, my level of fitness was pretty much non-existent.
I committed myself to running on the tread mill at least 2 times a week for 40 Min’s at a time, and to eat better\smarter. Slowly I was able to increase the speed and incline, it became more easy as time went on.
Summer came, the ice was gone. Now what? I needed motivation to keep this going. So I started scrambling mountain peaks. Every couple weeks myself and a few friends would pound up a mountain peak. This provided not only good exercise, but the motivation to keep up the fitness for the next ice climbing season and our possible Mammut Climb.
So here I am, a little bit after a year later, and 45 Lbs lighter. Non of my old clothes fit me anymore, everything looks like a tent on me. But hey, I’m not complaining. I started at 221 Lbs Jan last year, now down to 176 Lbs. My next goals for the year are climbing Mt Columbia (We won our Mammut Climb) this May, and then Mt Assiniboine this July.
If I could offer advise to anyone, it would be that first you need to keep your motivation in mind. Without motivation you won’t keep it up. Second, is that diets etc won’t work for the long term. You need to make the lifestyle change.
After a horrible cold snap this past week, we finally got some nice weather. -Woot-, time to climb some ice! Fantastic day of climbing! A CBC reporter had come to meet us at the parking lot to take some shots … Continue reading →
Got up early this morning, blizzard like conditions and -17C, what the heck, no better time then to go ice climbing! Met up with Matt Roy at 6:00am, and headed out for Professor Falls. We parked at bow falls parking lot near the … Continue reading →
