|
I went over to Peak 9487 to help Jeff H., resplendent in electric green, scout out a route down to the Valley. We found a few, all of them steep as hell. (We eventually followed the rock moat down around the buttress and plunge-stepped and/or - in the case of my chicken ass - butt-slid down the 45-degree slope - about the most relaxed angle we had to choose from.)
Jeff K. and I were pretty concerned about the weather. There were clouds as far as we could see. Visibility on the upper mountain looked non-existent. It was never far from our minds why we were there, and what had happened just a month and a half prior. We had no desire to head up into a potential storm, even a small one. We just felt like we had to heed the signs we were getting. I had set up a Zippo Search Forum before we set off for the mountain and my girlfriend had offered to update it with information from our team while we were on the mountain, as long as we could get a signal to call (thanks very much Ruth, you really helped out in a big way). I called her and left the message that we would wait to see if we could hook up with Em and Bruce, otherwise we would forgo our summit attempt and stay at Hidden Valley another night to see if the weather cleared. If it did clear we would climb to the col or possibly higher and see what we could see. |
|
|
|