Journal
Another good ice climbing article here. It tells a more objective story about why people climb ice, at least why the more gonzo climbers do it.
The article mentions an RMR collegue of mine who describes losing a crampon while leading an ice formation in Cody, Wyoming. He finished the climb using only the leg with the securely attached crampon. Scary stuff. It happens more often than you think.
It happened to me in 1994 at 24,000 feet on Makalu when a crampon slipped off my overboots. I saw it just in time and was able to fix it, and several of us rescued a British mountaineer on Manaslu in 1996 who was dangling by a single ice tool holding him from dropping thousands of feet down an ice chute to certain death. Both of his crampons had come off his boots due to misfitting. We were able to tie him off and belay him to safety. I saw it happen again in 2005 on Pisco in Peru, this time due to a manufacturing defect in the crampon. We had to rig up a fix to complete the descent on an ice glacier and ended up overnighting high on the mountain due to the time it took to fix the crampon and descend slowly.
Bottom line: Make sure you use a proper boot/crampon combination (they don’t always fit together) and check the crampons occasionally during the climb to make sure they haven’t loosened.
Surprising news, the iconic Boulder mountaineering store Neptune Mountaineering has been sold to a Texas based outdoor chain. Well wishes to Gary and goodbye to a longtime Boulder landmark.
Coming soon, last weekend’s excursion to Eldora!
Posted in Journal by Mark with comments disabled.