Tripyramid Trip Report: Separated By Bears
Will post detailed drama shortly.... Has anyone heard from the Puppet Master???
[Update 9:30pm] - PM is safe and sound. Here's the story: uneventful hike until 1/3 the way up the north slide. PM and I got separated taking different routes up the ice. Crampons were the gear-du-jour. Encountered aggressive black bears (several). I headed left into drainage feature, lost track of PM. Last shouted instructions were: meet back at car. I left pack w/ bears, attracted to sardines. No food, no water. Going was slow. Picked up trail higher up, full belly crawl even w/ crampons (ice was about an inch thick. Used rope tied to axe to snag objects - caught axe like boomerang when it missed. One misjudged catch, axe bounced caused blade to cut back of thigh. Didn't lose much blood - not deep into artery. Thoroughly dramatic day. Got back to car, no PM. Waiting 2 hours, no PM. Drove back home. Checked v-hole: no sand. PM will tell his story when he regains consciousness. (Click Title of this post to go to photos of trip.)
Oh wait, that's not what happened at all. Apparently I fell asleep at the keyboard and telepathically channeled the dreams of GayNerd.
ReplyDeleteActually, the North Slide was terrific fun. The weather was excellent and in spite of what Mohamed might conservatively advise, the north slide is an excellent choice - even w/ thin ice and snow cover.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooks like healthy fun. From the pictures it looks like the conditions were solid and the advisements about avoiding the slide were much ado about nothing.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about you guys as we were running our errands and hanging out at the hospital. Being with you guys in the mountains or with Lisa and her dad at the hospital...my body was there but the spirit was with you guys.
I ended the evening hanging out with my cycling team at their Holiday Party. That wasn't all that gratifying because everyone was sharing highlights about their successful race season. Sadly I had nothing to highlight but a nice double digit weight gain.
Good thing I have the Bamforth to really kick my spirits in time for the Holidays!
I'll be in top Gaynerd Condition in no time.
g-$$$, so sorry to hear about lisa's having to deal w/ her dad. is he still alive?
ReplyDeletethe conditions weren't solid enough... yet. a few more weeks or a month or so and that slide will rock the casbah. and because of the thin snow-cover these days, Bamforth should be pretty tame. i'm anticipating a mild day out, good hike, not much drama, and ending the adventure feeling like (as with the over-cautiousness about the north slide) that bamforth really isn't that big of a deal.