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Song explanation at the end of the written report
El Diente to Mt Wilson traverse
2013 was to be the year that I would do El Diente and Mount Wilson.
"Was".
June 23rd was a turning point in my climbing "career". The week before I had just come off a successful climb of the West Ridge Direct on Little Bear and the summer season was shaping up nicely. Then Steve Gladbach passed away. He was supposed to carry the fried chicken on my finisher later that summer. In all seriousness, Steve was one of the first people I met on 14ers.com and was such a positive influence in helping me along on this quest. It seemed as though in every previous climbing death my brain would rationalize the "data" and believe I could just be careful enough and avoid calamity. Then, Superman died. How do I process that? Well, maybe not very well....maybe well enough. Not sure.
I had El Diente and Mount Wilson on the calendar 6 times with various partners between the middle of July to the middle of September. Between 1) being rattled by Steve's death and worry for leaving my family without a dad/husband 2) the reputation these peaks have for being particularly loose and dangerous 3) the 9 hour drive to the trailhead, I wanted ideal conditions for the climb. The weather pattern though was exactly opposite my climbing days. Maybe I should just forget this stupid thing altogether...
This year I was getting out with Alan somewhat regularly. He is training for his K2 climb and I joked that I was getting ready for my El D climb. Our schedules, as well as Garys, aligned to head south the first week of June but beta was scarce and from flying over and looking down it looked like full on winter. Again I found myself not wanting the drive that far to "take a look" and have questionable conditions. I pushed it back another 10 days or so for the 12th of June. Alan's schedule wouldn't allow it.
Fresh off her successful Denali climb, Sarah sent a note several days before on Facebook to me asking how my El D climb was. I said, "We're going Thursday. Wanna go? Happily she said yes. Our team was complete.
Arriving at the Kilpacker Trailhead at 8:00 pm Wednesday evening we quickly set up camp and hit the sack. The 3 a.m. wakeup wasn't much of a "wakeup" as I had barely slept. On the trail by 3:45 thinking "If we can knock this thing out we could drive back to Fort Collins this afternoon"! Our progress was slow. We made it to the summit of El Diente in 7 hours. I told Sarah as we approached the summit that I was calling off the traverse. I felt our speed was too slow so safely do the traverse. After a team meeting and a phone call to Britt and his encouraging words and prayer for our safety and success I was more optimistic. We decided that since Garys strength was scrambling and route finding we would make our final decision at the base of the Organ Pipes. Once there we decided to go for it. The weather looked perfect and the snow seemed ok. As it turned out, the sun beating on the south face deteriorated quickly. Between horrendous snow and the route not making sense from our route description photos we made painfully slow progress on the traverse. We thought that a worse case scenario would be 3.5 hours. At 4 hours and 45 min with snow falling from a grey cloud I looked down a snow gully and asked Sarah if we should consider throwing in the towel. We decided that the gully would be a good bail point but that we should try to get the dang mountain done! With that, we pooled what physical and mental reserves we had left and gained the ridge. From there it was several moves over exposed terrain to reach the summit. It took 12 hours. I gave a victory yell and someone broke down somewhat as I looked back on the previous year with all its pain and loss.
We descended one of the north gullies which intersected the very gully we were considering bailing on. 5 hours and one twisted knee on my part and we reached our camp. 17 hours in total. So much for driving home that night! I drank a G'Night, got the grill going, cooked chicken and salmon, built a fire and relished our 17 hours of Type II fun. I could not have done this without Gary and Sarah. Thanks for sharing this journey with me.
The song that I have placed with this video has special significance for me. I was thinking of "Time Stand Still" by RUSH but "Walk" came to the forefront at the time of Steve's death. On numerous occasions while working out or running this song would come on my mp3 player and I would break down as I thought of him. Like any song, the lyrics aren't perfect but this was the anthem for many of my workouts getting ready for this very climb. I hope you enjoy the video.
Thank you for finding the theme song for my recovery! I love the Foo Fighters, and their entire collection is already on my MP3 player. T- 3/4 weeks till weight bearing!
Maybe I'll let you know ”the secret”, if the song helps me get there in time
Glad you guys persevered through the tough snow conditions to complete the traverse, Steve would be proud. It really is a fun one, done it twice, once in snow.
I think any of us that have done this long enough have had a time like you did where you wonder if you can keep going or if it's too dangerous. It can be hard to work through those emotions and get back out there. I don't think there's a wrong decision either. I know some people that reached a point where they decided they'd taken enough risks and stopped.
Sounds like you made the decision that seems right for you and got the climb done safely with great partners. Glad you posted the TR!
and write-up. The song really goes well with the video too. It was a pleasure to join you and Gary on these peaks, especially with them meaning so much to you for all the reasons you mentioned above. Glad we all three got to hike again after North Maroon way back in the day. I can't wait to hear about your south Wilson (oops, I mean Humboldt) finisher! If that one also gets delayed let me know, I'll be back in CO possibly by late September/early October.
Thanks for putting this together. Would have been better with a Switchfoot song but this song was ...adequate. Just sayin'
Seriously, glad you finally got these done. It was one long hard day. The chicken hit the spot, too.
Saw this a few days ago, had to wait until I could get some uninterrupted time to throw my focus into it.
Totally great. Love the vid and song choice. Well done!
So sorry for your loss, Barry.
Glad you found your feet again - you know Steve would want you to!
Way to persevere, with great company, sure to be a memorable treasure for all 3 of you.
Strong work! Cheers!
p.s. that unclegar character is a hardcore scrambler.
I finished on Mt Wilson yesterday. The feelings you describe we're exactly what I was feeling. I was so close to bugging out even at that last pitch. I had doubts about the route, looking at that last ridge and just not sure about it. Didn't want to climb up into something that wasn't the summit, and something I could not get down from. Ultimately I decided to set my pack down for one last check. Skirted around the left side on solid holds and when I saw that register I let out the loudest ”whooppppp!” I know exactly how you were feeling at that finish.
I see now why getting that link to work was so important! Nicely done, once again! One more!!!11!!!1!
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