
Subject:
[cohp] Digest Number 5078
From:
cohp@yahoogroups.com
Date:
6/17/2015 1:44 AM
To:
cohp@yahoogroups.com

County High Pointing in all 50 states
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County High Pointing in all 50 states Group
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Digest #5078
1a
Re: 40-year anniversary by "Bryan Kraai" bkraai2003

Message
1a
Re: 40-year anniversary
Tue Jun 16, 2015 11:18 am (PDT) . Posted by:
"Bryan Kraai" bkraai2003
Thanks for sharing this experience Bob!!!! I never got the chance to climb her pre-1980, then again I'm only 41 years old... :-)

Bryan

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 15, 2015, at 11:42 PM, 'Bob Bolton' rfbolton@gmail.com [cohp] <cohp@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
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> Those of you who would rather forget Skamania Mania and the list of 58 Ultras in the Lower 48, Im sorry to irritate you once again, but here goes. ;-)
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> It was 40 years ago today that I was fortunate enough to climb that beautiful pre-eruption cone of Mt. St. Helens. It was bitter cold for June (hugely unlike this year), with very high winds. Above around 9,000 feet the temp was below freezing, so the snow was crusted with ice that made our crampons indispensable. Our route was the largest glacier on the north side, the Forsythe. At the rim we had to turn west into the teeth of the wind. My 3-man rope team decided to walk side-by-side since there was no crevasse danger on the summit plateau. The gold line rope that was loosely trailing behind us became two virtual sails in the wind, making progress even on the slight incline quite difficult as we pulled those sails. We stayed on the summit for as short a time as reasonable due to the cold, and we wanted to find a place to eat our lunches somewhere out of the wind if at all possible. Heading toward the eastern edge of the plateau my crampon caught on a chunk of ice and the wind sent me sprawling. The rope sails pulled me along the ice, and when I couldnt stop sliding, I finally rolled over into self-arrest position and dug my axe and crampons into the ice, then struggled back to my feet. We found a large hump of icy snow behind which we huddled out of the wind to eat. I was shivering by the time we started moving again. Two of our party had carried skis and were preparing to ski from the summit. As they started down I observed that they were not skiing normally, but instead were side-slipping over the zillions of ice nubbins. We watched them as they crossed crevasses on snow bridges that we were very glad to be roped up for. My rope team was the first to get down to the old famous Dogs Head. Here one of the skiers, who was an extremely strong and competent alpinist, told me that his legs had never felt so trashed in his life after being trashed by all those jarring ice nubbins. One by one my comrades and I sat down in the fantastic glissade track that came off the top of the Dogs Head and down the steep snow below. I believe the glissade, which was considered one of the best in the PNW, descended over 2,000 vertical feet, but I cant say for sure. At one point I stopped to rest and take a look around. I looked back up slope and watched as my skiing friend and his future son-in-law skied figure-8s all the way from the Dogs Head to the bottom of the snow far below. I then finished my exhilarating glissade, and my memories of that fabulous mountain were fixed in memory for a lifetime.
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> Heres a link to my album containing photos of the mountain pre-eruption, three photos from the climb, and some pix from my 2006 climb:
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> https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1395146233326.54867.1072308630&type=1&l=0fa79c6c7d
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> Bob Bolton
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