When: Sat/Sun May 30-31st 2009
With: BoeAlps BCC Team 7
Goal: Implement prior learnings and successfully summit!
Even though the alarm went off at 5:30am it felt much later. I was excited for our grad climb and fully awake (which I give most the credit to the fact that the sun was already up making me think it was later in the day). I made my usual oatmeal breakfast and was soon headed out the door to meet the team up north.
At 8:30am we gave our registration to the Sedro Woolley Ranger Station (and loaded up on free fancy blue bags!).
After dawning all the gear that the BCC requires to leave the trailhead (helmet, gaitors, etc) we took off on the Shannon Creek Trailhead at 9:30am. SpeedDeamon Ken has been practicing his backpacking stride for years and showed us no mercy. I prayed for snow to slow him down.
About the first 2 miles had little to no snow and much of it was exposed. It didn’t take long for the entire team to really start feeling the heat. Clothes began peeling off (I braved a tank top and turned my pants into shorts), all the brain buckets were removed and gaiters were lowered. I even whipped out my bandanna and soaked it in a stream to help cool down.
We took more breaks than usual for our elevation gain, but the sun was sure brutal. We made it to low camp (5570ft) around 2pm and decided it was far too early to stop. We also wanted to secure our summit bid, and wanted to sleep as much as possible so we opted for the high camp at 6500ft. By the time we got there, around 3:30pm a few members of the team passed out in comfortable looking positions.
After a bit of rest most of us started to set up camp. All the instructors had brought bivy’s and dug themselves holes to block the wind (though we thought the holes seemed more like graves).
Once the sleeping quarters were set up we went to man the stoves for their was a feast on the horizon. Since it was our graduation climb we went all out and brought TONS of food to make some incredible burritos (it’s ok, the next day we’d be roped up, spacing us out about 20 feet) so we didn’t have to worry about the bean factor).
We had flour and corn tortilla’s, rice, beans, pork, chicken, guacamole, mushrooms, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes, avocado’s (which nobody chopped up, so I don’t think we actually ate them), lettuce, and lots of cheese. It made for an epic meal.
Some of the team even went for the 3 burrito challenge and the next day were able to blast themselves to the summit.
We did have an excess of food that we brought over to another team camped nearby. The climbers were happy to take our delicious climbing food and claimed they had never had such a good meal.
After dinner I was presented with a large treat with a survival match-candle and the team attempted to sing happy birthday. I cut them off claiming that if we didn’t sing for Matt’s birthday, there would be no singing for mine. The team seemed fine with this decision, although they still really wanted me to blow the match-candle out. I’m glad they picked the one impervious to wind, rain, and hurricanes. Fortunately, the survival match didn’t last too long (not because of my 3 [failed] attempts to blow it out; it burned itself out).
When we first arrived at camp there were about 10 polish climbers that we watched come down the trail and start to break up camp. It took them far over 1.5 hours to break camp and during this time we wandered over to talk about their climb. They had left camp at 2:30am and somehow didn’t get back to basecamp until 5:30pm. We have no clue how they spent 15 hours getting to/back from the summit (for comparison: it took almost exactly 12 hours from the time we started walking from basecamp to the time we stepped foot in the parking lot).
The initial plan was to summit and get back to camp within 8 hours (2.5 hrs to get to the pyramid, 4 hours to climb, 1.5 back to camp). We had set up all of the ropes before going to bed at about 9pm, right after catching some marvelous views of the setting sun.
We woke up at 3am and the first team was off at 3:30am. This team was our fastest and strongest and consisted of Ryan, Bob, and Kyle (roped in that order). Following shortly after was rope 2, Matt, Team Lead Stefan, and me.
The first obstacle from camp was a very steep hill. That sure woke us up! I was surprised how slow we went up the hill, but I learned after that Matt thought there was a lot of tension on the rope so he assumed we couldn’t go as fast. Once Matt and Stefan summitted the hill, they were able to gain speed on the flats. This pulled my rope, and not wanting to hold the team back, I raced up the hill. There were definitely spots where I was jumping to the next footprint and leaping over some steps to keep up with the pace. In just a few minutes we had gained over 3 rope lengths from Rope 3 (Ken, Stephan, Ron).
We used our headlamps for about half an hour and then it was bright enough to see where you were going for the most part (I'm all about conserving batteries).
As a side note: I was secretly super stoked to be picked to be rope 2, the second “strongest” rope team.
It took the first two rope teams 2 hours to get to the bottom of the pyramid and immediately put on our crampons. Then rope 1 set up pickets in the gulley and summitted at 7:05. Rope 2 did not pass the horridly slow group on the pyramid (I was in the lead, and felt it was super sketchy to pass, and their pace had been improving once they started using our pickets), but were still up shortly after. This slow group had one experienced climber and 2 scardy-cats. When we left camp they were already more than halfway to the pyramid, and when we got to the pyramid they were about 1/3 the way up it.
It was actually quite helpful to stage the 4 BoeAlps rope teams because it meant there was minimal bottlenecks on the gulley. The other two rope teams made it up a little over an hour later. By the time our team went down (first in last out), we had been on the summit over 1.5 hours. Good thing we didn’t have the 35mph winds that the teams on Mount Baker were experiencing!).
The decent was fast—our first rope team made it down the pyramid at 9:30am and the last team at 10am (including cleaning up!).
In addition to the slow 3-person team, there was another 2-man team who came up right behind Rope 2. This was a guide and a client, but they were pretty efficient, they had skied up from basecamp. As we were leaving the summit, a 3rd other team, of 3 people were coming up. This was obviously a guide and 2 clients. The clients had NO clue what they were doing, and as the guide rappelled them down (because the clients were too inexperienced to walk down the very steep gulley I guess), and they stepped all over our ropes with their crampons on!!!! We couldn’t believe it. Not only did they get tangled in our ropes, but as they were rappelling they were kicking chunks of ice on us. Good thing we had our helmets on—not for the mountain, but for the other climbers!
We all got back to camp by 11:30am and were at the cars by 3:30pm. Half the team was extremely wiped out at this point. Nonetheless most of us made it to the Mt Vernon brewery for food and assorted beverages.
This graduation climb was a perfect ending to our BoeAlps experience (oh wait, we have trail maintenance duty next weekend… and an exam on Wednesday…dammit, so close!). Not only did we have amazing weather on this trip, but on every previous SUNday trip as well. I’m sure we now all have skewed perceptions on how fun mountaineering ALWAYS is! I can’t wait for that first pelting hail storm as I try for the summit!
This trip was also a perfect birthday present and a great way to the start of being 23! Not only did we have a perfect blue sky all the way up but I was able to camp surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountains knowing that I would wake up the next day to a great mountaineering adventure.
There are already some plans in the future for our team to continue climbing with eachother. I believe the rumors are currently the top two highest peaks in Washington, Rainier and Adams. Our team worked so well together that we’d all be happy to climb with eachother at any chance we get.
As a random aside, one of my birthday gifts from home were the Fred Becky guidebooks. I can’t wait until they are torn, tattered, and smeared with love. Look out mountains, here I come!
Finally, more Shuksan photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7372593@N02/sets/72157619128495086/
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