On Long's Peak

This is the eve of our departure for Amsterdam, Uganda, and Rwanda.  I wanted to put up one more blog about the events on Long's Peak about which I wrote last time.  The rescue of the fallen climber was a herculean task and many of you have asked why? how? what does the area look like?

First of all I want to give a huge shout-out to Tommy Caldwell and his climbing partner Jonathan Siegrist who stopped a near historic climb they were working on (a never before done route on Long's) to rush to the aid of the fallen climber.  Down climbing to the injured man, Tommy quickly disapprised other climbers declaring "He's OK."  Tommy told them, "No, the guy is NOT OK.  He's in shock and he's badly hurt."  Tommy then rappelled lower, put in two more ropes so the climber could eventually be lowered, descended to Chasm Lake, and ran the mile back to Chasm meadow and the shelter cabin.  There he met a climbing ranger and helped him bring spine board, stabilizing bag, more rope and medical supplies back up to the injured climber.

Here is a description of the rescue written in a climbing blog:

8/19/13 - A climber was hit by rockfall while approaching the Diamond on Longs Peak in Colorado and suffered severe injuries in the resulting 50- to 60-foot fall. The 34-year-old man was working his way up the North Chimney approach...on a busy Friday morning, and the rockfall reportedly hit him while he was leading. Fortunately, he was roped up (simul-climbing [two climbers on the same rope]) and thus did not fall all the way to the base of the east face of Longs Peak.  (The climber) suffered a skull fracture, fractured spine, punctured lungs, and other injuries, but was evacuated with the help of Rocky Mountain National Park rangers and fellow climbers, and over the weekend he had successful surgery to treat his injuries.  (http://www.climbing.com/news/serious-accident-on-longs-peak/)

For those of you who wondered what all of this looked like, here are some pictures:

Far building is shelter cabin.  This is Chasm meadow where it is possible to land a helicopter.

 The red oblong shows the area where the climber was ascending when he fell.

 The star indicates a place called Chasm View.  It sits at about 13,000+ feet.  The descending arrow and the ascending arrow (from bottom) indicate how ranger rescuers came from various directions to get to the fallen climber.  The rangers coming from the star position had been working to retrieve the body of a hiker who fell and died on the west side of the mountain the previous day. 

The long red line indicates the terrain rescuers had to traverse to get the injured person off the wall, down near Chasm Lake, across boulders and scree, over more boulders and finally a tricky, steep descent into Chasm meadow below.  There were 20 climbing ranger/medics working on this rescue.

The following week, Tommy and another partner were back up on the diamond working on their project...a free climb of the Dunn-Westbay route.  They were climbing the route in a way it had never been done.  No mechanical aids were used. Only their own intellect and physical skill pushed them up the wall.  The route had to be done all in a piece.  If they made a mistake, they had to rappell back to their starting point and begin again.  On Wednesday, Tommy successfully completed his goal by doing a free climb of the Dunn-Westbay route.  Here is a brief account of the accomplishment:

8/22/13 - Tommy Caldwell and Joe Mills have redpointed the first 5.14* route up the Diamond on Longs Peak, the premier granite wall in Colorado's high mountains. The two free-climbed the full Dunn-Westbay aid line in four rope-stretching pitches, with the 80-meter second pitch checking in at 5.14a.  The dead-vertical Diamond wall begins at about 13,200 feet and tops out at over 14,000 feet.

In 2011, Josh Wharton free-climbed the Dunn-Westbay at 5.13b with substantial variations. But Caldwell and Mills both aimed to straighten out the line and free-climb the full, original Dunn-Westbay, a 5.10 A3+ route established in 1972 by Jimmy Dunn and Billy Westbay. Caldwell spent four days on the route last summer, but found it too wet to make much progress.  (On one of these days Lee, Pam, and I watched Tommy rappell down and start over and over.  We were watching through binoculars from Chasm Lake).

This year Caldwell returned to the route and spent several days working on it with Jonathan Siegrist. Last week, they halted their efforts to assist in the rescue of a severely injured climber below the face. After one more attempt, Siegrist had to give up on the route because of other commitments, and Caldwell teamed up with Joe Mills, who had also been working on the direct line.  On August 21, Caldwell led all four pitches successfully, and Mills followed all of the pitches free.  "I had the vision of trying to do it ledge to ledge [with no hanging belays], and that meant doing an 80-meter pitch, which made it fully 5.14," Caldwell said. "It was extraordinary. I never expected to find anything like that on the Diamond."

The four pitches went at 5.10+, 5.14a (80 meters), 5.13a (about 68 meters), and 5.12b.  The two climbed directly up the Green Pillar on the first pitch, where Wharton had traversed in from the Casual Route. And where Wharton headed left into another crack system on the second pitch, Caldwell and Mills climbed straight up. Caldwell said about half of the route differed from the free line that Wharton followed.  Caldwell said the route "protects perfectly—it's G-rated. So rad." The original aid crux was unprotected, but it was "5.8 free climbing and you just free solo it," he added.  Caldwell also pioneered the first 5.13 on the Diamond, The Honeymoon is Over, in 2001.

Date of ascent: August 21, 2013

*Class 5: Where rock climbing begins in earnest. Climbing involves the use of a rope, belaying, and protection (natural or artificial) to protect the leader from a long fall. Fifth class is further defined by a decimal and letter system – in increasing hardship and difficulty. The ratings from 5.10-5.15 are subdivided in a, b, c and d levels to more precisely define the difficulty (for example: 5.10a or 5.11d)

We don't pretend to know exactly what is being said here.  Suffice it to say it was a magnificent climb.  Tommy is definitely one of our heroes.

Today Friday, Pam, Lee, and I went to our usual work as volunteers at Bear Lake.  Sadly, while we were talking with our lead ranger, we learned that the climber Tommy helped to rescue two weeks ago, died of complications from the injuries he suffered in his fall.

And so it goes from the mountains.  If you would like to see more pictures from our recent hike up to Chasm Lake, check them out here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnpostpics/9629733353/

We wish you a happy labor day.  Tomorrow we are off to Amsterdam.  We'll be posting from wherever we have internet connections.  Kwaheri  (Good-bye in Swahili).

Catching Up (again)

Feeling every bit of my 68.5 years, I'm going to attempt to catch up since my last post. To say the past 3+ weeks have been jam-packed, mostly fun filled, and laced with all we love and honor about living in the mountains doesn't even begin to tell the story.

The week after our Mt. Audubon hike, Pam and I hiked on the west side of the Park. Our destination was a place called the Little Yellowstone. After a five mile walk and climb, we really found not much that looked anything like Yellowstone at all. Thinking that a previous hard rain and landslide had eroded whatever the view had been, we shrugged our shoulders and turned back. About .2 of a mile down the trail we came to a sign that said, "Lulu City .8." Knowing it wouldn't be much out of our way we took the detour. Lulu City was a mining town of about 200. Now it is only a washed out spot in the Colorado River. But in one of the marshes nearby, we spotted a moose. She was "grazing" her way across the bottom of the marsh. Slowly and carefully, we showed ourselves. When she didn't seem to mind, we walked toward the edge of the marsh and sat down. For 40 magical minutes we sat with "Lulu." She was beautiful. We had never seen a moose so up-close-and-personal. The only sound was the wind in the grasses and Lulu slurping, bubbling, and dripping as she came up with one mouthful after another of juicy marsh plants. She was so close that we could see the water course off her eyebrows and eyelashes. What a gift we were given this day.

We had two weeks of working on the Tundra where the weather and clouds closed in. Visibility by 3 in the afternoon was about 3 feet as we were no longer subject to the clouds, but in them...along with rain, sleet, lightning, hail, and a bit of snow. The next week however, we were treated to a spectacle that few ever get to see. As we drove the first round of our patrol, we came upon 13 Big Horn rams grazing by the side of the road. Although we were kept busy for the next 4.5 hours directing traffic by this "Sheep Jam," we were also able to observe and photograph these animals up-close-and-personal. Most visitors were happy just to slow down and take a picture. Others went to the nearest pullout and walked back to spend some time. We had a lot of grand conversations. The next day we discovered that Betty Brockelman's sister Joyce and her partner, Mark, were two of our sheep jammers. We had a great dinner with them and a laugh about our encounter. It is unusual to see one or two sheep on a trip through the Park, so this again was truly a gift day.

The highlight of our summer was the visit of the Liebings: Mark, Olivia, and Daric. They were here for 8 days. Here was our schedule: Day 1--arrive, water fights, drive in the Park. Day 2--Hike to the top of Kruger Rock overlooking Little Valley. Lucy got to go too, but BB and Lee had to work at Bear Lake. Day 3--a visit from the Gilchrist family. John is now chair of the Kinetic Wellness Department at NT. They came for an afternoon of play, Jeeping, dinner at Lee and Mare's, and a general great time. We loved catching up with John and Bridgette and meeting Johnny, Joey, Heather and Hannah. A big shout-out to y'all!! Olivia's comment as they drove off, "I can't wait to see all of them again." Day 4--a trip with Lee and Mare to the Animal Rescue Park near Denver. This is a huge park with large carnivores that have been rescued because of terrible or inappropriate treatment by humans. They can never be returned to the wild, but have a pretty good life here. There are lions, tigers, wolves, bears, foxes, mountain lions and more. Rescued from small cages in someone's basement, circuses, lives in a 4X4 section of a horse trailer, most come with injuries that have either been healed or treated at the park. We returned to Estes Park for a banana split making party at Kristi 'n Lyn's. Next was a hike to the top of Deer Mountain with Auntie Lee. The summit is a near 360 view of the Estes area, and once again Olivia and Daric proved to be superb hikers. Day 6 we packed into the car at 4:30 a.m. and drove to Buena Vista for rafting on the Colorado River. Neither Olivia nor Daric was sure that this was something they might like. Rafting sounded a bit scary, but we showed some pictures, Kristi told a story of rafting with her brother, and the lure of possible water fights with other boats convinced our kids. With our great teacher-guide Stan, Olivia and Daric soon learned to love rafting. They became great paddlers and by the end of the trip were shouting, "This has to be a tradition. Wait until next year!" In addition to getting thoroughly doused going through rapids, both Olivia and Daric jumped off a 20 foot cliff into the river. Way to go!! For our last full day of activity, we went on our traditional horseback ride. Olivia and Daric are really good horsepeople. Mark and Lee are good too. Unfortunately, Gma Pam and I ended up with blistered keesters. Oh my! Then it was time to go to the airport. Before leaving, Olivia asked for one last Jeep trip up the dirt road behind us. Both Daric and Olivia got to drive through a stream and we left for the airport full of the mountains.

During the recent Perseid meteor showers, I was trying to learn some night photography. Although I have only one meteor picture to show for my time spent under the stars three nights running, I did learn a lot. Maybe next year I will be better able to capture the meteors as they streak across our sky.

And yesterday...Pam and Lee and I worked our regular shift at Bear Lake. As we strapped on our radios, we began hearing immediately that there was a body recovery going on up on Long's Peak. The day before a 24 year old hiker/climber left his girlfriend at the keyhole and began the last two miles of the summit route on Long's. When he got to a part called the Narrows (maybe one foot wide trail) the route was icy. He slipped and fell 120 feet. Despite the efforts of a nearby Park volunteer who was also on the mountain, the young man died. The wind that evening was too great to allow rescuers and a helicopter to bring him down, so they began again in the morning. Before the recovery could be effected, word came down that a technical climber on the face of Long's had fallen 50 feet. The fall was severe enough to cause multiple injuries and to break the man's helmet. All resources were then directed to the other side of Long's to effect a rescue. Listening on the radio to the resources, personnel, and effort it takes to bring someone down alive from a bad fall is just amazing. Climbers, trail managers, climbing rangers who are also EMT's. By 11:30 a.m. the first climbing ranger had reached the accident victim and his two climbing partners. During the rescue we learned that Lee's great-nephew Tommy Caldwell was also climbing that day and he came over to the accident to give his assistance to a successful rescue. We assume that all arrived down off the wall and into a shelter about 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening. We have had no further news as of the writing of this blog.

Now our thoughts and efforts turn toward readying ourselves for our upcoming trip to Uganda and Rwanda with a short visit to Amsterdam on the way. We have wanted to see mountain gorillas for a long time, and on this trip we hope to do that, as well as seeing a part of Africa we haven't visited before. We hope that all of you are well and that you've had a good summer.
And so it goes in the mountains...You can see Catching Up pictures here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnpostpics/9531338029/in/photostream/

We love to hear from you...so keep those emails coming!

Location:Estes Park