hikingfish
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- Feb 28, 2005
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(Pictures to be posted later, once I get around to scanning them)
Hi all,
I just thought I'd post a little something on the mountaineering class I attended during the weekend on Mt Washington. This was my first time in the whites and I was pretty impressed. The mountains look much more rugged than the Adirondacks!
It was a long drive through from Montreal, but I got there around 10:30pm on Friday to meet with those that decided to get there on Friday and sleep in a motel. Apparently the original plan was to head for Tuckerman's ravine, but as people in this thread pointed out, it was decided we should head out to Huntington instead.
Parking lot was full on Sat morning: I parked 0.8km away from Pinkham notch. The hike up Tuckerman's trail went well, although it was very crowded. At this point, I noticed that a person that was in our group went to my old high school (such a small world!). We talked a lot while going up to Huntington. Tuckerman's trail got really beaten throughout the weekend and is now very muddy.
Once at Huntington, we sat on the big boulder and ate lunch, sitting in awe at the bowl in front of us. We practiced self-arest on what we then thought were steep slopes and practiced roped travel. It was quite the surprise when all 3 of my ropemates decided to run and dive into the slope...I think it was a conspiracy against their rope leader hehehe. Throughout the day, we saw some ice fall and we yelled "Glace!" (french equivalent of "Ice!") so people would be aware. But the falls were all super far away and didn't affect us. As the sun was coming down, we started talking about anchors. A couple of people were soaked wet at this point though and since we didn't have any direct sunlight, they were starting to get fairly cold, so we headed out.
On Sunday, we got to Pinkham earlier to get a better parking spot and we ended up leaving at around 9:30 I think. There were talks that we might try to go the summit, but it was agreed between the guides (and I think it was a good decision) that it was better we practice more than to simply go for the summit. We practiced more roped travel (it takes some getting used to!) and we started going up in Central Gully (wow, that was *steep*). We went next to the big chunk of ice (is that what they call the buldge?) to practice crampon technique. The guide went to make an anchor higher up and we were belayed in case we slipped or something happened (which ended up being A Very Good Thing TM). We had two ropes side by side and a nice little belay trench for the two belayers. I went up on the left rope (closer to the ice wall) and went up. I have to admit I was pretty scared, but it made me gain confidence in myself. I didn't slip or something. I went up and then back down without problems. I un-roped and let someone else try it and I moved to the side (closer to the rocks). At this point, 2 people were on the ropes going up (guy on left rope, girl on right rope with a guide right next to her...since it was the first time she tried crampons or climbing), when we heard a loud CRACK coming from above and heard a rumble kinda noise (best way I can describe it) and 1 or 2 people in our group yelled "GLACE!!" several times. The guy that went up my rope dived on the left (closer to the ice wall in Central), to get out of the ice's path (and his belayer ducked in the trench). A big chunk of ice (approx. size of a football or so? Honestly, I don't clearly remember, but it seems about right) bounced off the ground and deflected off the top of the girl's helmet with a loud noise (thank god she didn't look up when people yelled "Glace!", otherwise she would of received it straight in the face). She immediatly fell to the ground motionless (but was still on belay). The guide jumped to grab her and brought her in the trench so she wouldn't get hit by other sharpnel of ice. She lost consciousness for about 1 minute and then slowly started to come to, she started talking (asked the same questions a couple of times as she never saw the ice hit her) and then slowly started moving, she even made jokes, etc. The second group that was with us, a group that was doing their advanced class, was eating lunch below. The guide came up to help while 2 guys went to get the stretcher from the aid cache. After the guide checked her up, we started going down. 2 people stayed close to the girl while we walked down (she was roped to the guide, with perhaps 1-2m of rope).
Once we got out of harm's way, we got her on the stretcher and brought her down to Pinkham. 2 other girls left to go warn the rangers of what had happened. Once we got close to pinkham, the rangers came to check up on her and then radio'ed to have an ambulance called so it would be there in time for when we reached the ranger cabin.
She had scans done and was kept under observation for 12 hrs and she is fine now. If she wouldn't of had her helmet, I doubt she would of made it.
God bless helmets.
Fish
Hi all,
I just thought I'd post a little something on the mountaineering class I attended during the weekend on Mt Washington. This was my first time in the whites and I was pretty impressed. The mountains look much more rugged than the Adirondacks!
It was a long drive through from Montreal, but I got there around 10:30pm on Friday to meet with those that decided to get there on Friday and sleep in a motel. Apparently the original plan was to head for Tuckerman's ravine, but as people in this thread pointed out, it was decided we should head out to Huntington instead.
Parking lot was full on Sat morning: I parked 0.8km away from Pinkham notch. The hike up Tuckerman's trail went well, although it was very crowded. At this point, I noticed that a person that was in our group went to my old high school (such a small world!). We talked a lot while going up to Huntington. Tuckerman's trail got really beaten throughout the weekend and is now very muddy.
Once at Huntington, we sat on the big boulder and ate lunch, sitting in awe at the bowl in front of us. We practiced self-arest on what we then thought were steep slopes and practiced roped travel. It was quite the surprise when all 3 of my ropemates decided to run and dive into the slope...I think it was a conspiracy against their rope leader hehehe. Throughout the day, we saw some ice fall and we yelled "Glace!" (french equivalent of "Ice!") so people would be aware. But the falls were all super far away and didn't affect us. As the sun was coming down, we started talking about anchors. A couple of people were soaked wet at this point though and since we didn't have any direct sunlight, they were starting to get fairly cold, so we headed out.
On Sunday, we got to Pinkham earlier to get a better parking spot and we ended up leaving at around 9:30 I think. There were talks that we might try to go the summit, but it was agreed between the guides (and I think it was a good decision) that it was better we practice more than to simply go for the summit. We practiced more roped travel (it takes some getting used to!) and we started going up in Central Gully (wow, that was *steep*). We went next to the big chunk of ice (is that what they call the buldge?) to practice crampon technique. The guide went to make an anchor higher up and we were belayed in case we slipped or something happened (which ended up being A Very Good Thing TM). We had two ropes side by side and a nice little belay trench for the two belayers. I went up on the left rope (closer to the ice wall) and went up. I have to admit I was pretty scared, but it made me gain confidence in myself. I didn't slip or something. I went up and then back down without problems. I un-roped and let someone else try it and I moved to the side (closer to the rocks). At this point, 2 people were on the ropes going up (guy on left rope, girl on right rope with a guide right next to her...since it was the first time she tried crampons or climbing), when we heard a loud CRACK coming from above and heard a rumble kinda noise (best way I can describe it) and 1 or 2 people in our group yelled "GLACE!!" several times. The guy that went up my rope dived on the left (closer to the ice wall in Central), to get out of the ice's path (and his belayer ducked in the trench). A big chunk of ice (approx. size of a football or so? Honestly, I don't clearly remember, but it seems about right) bounced off the ground and deflected off the top of the girl's helmet with a loud noise (thank god she didn't look up when people yelled "Glace!", otherwise she would of received it straight in the face). She immediatly fell to the ground motionless (but was still on belay). The guide jumped to grab her and brought her in the trench so she wouldn't get hit by other sharpnel of ice. She lost consciousness for about 1 minute and then slowly started to come to, she started talking (asked the same questions a couple of times as she never saw the ice hit her) and then slowly started moving, she even made jokes, etc. The second group that was with us, a group that was doing their advanced class, was eating lunch below. The guide came up to help while 2 guys went to get the stretcher from the aid cache. After the guide checked her up, we started going down. 2 people stayed close to the girl while we walked down (she was roped to the guide, with perhaps 1-2m of rope).
Once we got out of harm's way, we got her on the stretcher and brought her down to Pinkham. 2 other girls left to go warn the rangers of what had happened. Once we got close to pinkham, the rangers came to check up on her and then radio'ed to have an ambulance called so it would be there in time for when we reached the ranger cabin.
She had scans done and was kept under observation for 12 hrs and she is fine now. If she wouldn't of had her helmet, I doubt she would of made it.
God bless helmets.
Fish
