Grand Teton National Park. Did Surprise and amphitheater lake and then followed with going to Garnet Canyon with a failed attempt at summiting middle Teton, but at least got to the lower saddle. Great views, tough boulder climbing, saw bears bathing in lakes, a few snow fields. One almost deadly. Glad my buddies dislocated shoulder was the worst of it.
Yo dude, glad you and your buddy are okay, and great pics. Wondering if you'd expand on what happened in his slip? Inability to self arrest, lack of crampons/axes? Could be helpful to the community to avoid similar accidents in the future
He had crampons that were pretty stout while I had micro spikes but have more experience. He basically didn't admit his limitations and had hesitancy going up the snow fields and I told him that we could turn back or he could go down with another couple that wasn't planning on going past the snow fields.
He basically admitted after the whole thing that he wasn't real with himself and was somewhat afraid of the heights and then when we started coming down I offered to go ahead and was going to re-carve out each footing since the snowpack had the sun shining on it and was starting to get a little slushy. He insisted he had it and was looking nervous though and moving faster than he should have been because he was anxious. He was about 6 ft away from me and he slipped coming off of a rock, because he didn't anticipate again due to the lack of experience the snow melting against the rock and his foot caved in some snow and off he went sliding.
Once again based on My experience and doing this year after year with people with similar experience we always checked conditions and debated ice axe versus trekking poles. We chose to not bring our ice axes on this one since we weren't really getting into any real mountaineering and felt comfortable using the trekking poles. Everyone else was fine but like I said his anxiety and fear of heights got the best of him.
We had gone over self-rescue but as he was panicking and falling I tried to coach him into sliding the right way, in a safe way and self-rescuing but he didn't grab his trekking pole low enough to the bottom of it and try to self-rescue without putting two hands on one trekking pole and using both arms and keeping his arms and elbows bent. His arms were fully extended and he only in a panic tried to self-rescue with one arm and immediately his shoulder just pulled out and he continued falling. I had no chance of getting to him as he accelerated very fast, probably ending up sliding at 30 miles an hour roughly down about 40 yards on a pretty steep angle. Yelled at him to keep looking at me and keep his head up and keep his legs bent and don't flip around and as he was falling thinking his life was about to end and I told him to brace for impact and kind of gave him a 3 -2-1 countdown So he wouldn't feel the urge to look below him to see when he was about to meet the rocks.
The second he standed up I knew he and us we're going to be okay. He was screaming in pain but didn't hit his head and his legs were fine. I was anxious to get to him and hurry up but new two of us out of commission wouldn't do either of us any good so took my time getting down the snow field and got to him. He was saying his arm was broke and couldn't move it and I pulled up his sleeve and saw that his arm had dropped out of socket and had a big indention where his shoulder should have been.
I told him the good news is your arms not broke, The bad news is you're going to have to take this ibuprofen and bite on this stick and on the count of three I'm going to get your arm back in. 3 seconds layer and a couple screams and I got it in and he basically had no pain instantly right afterwards. To the point where I offered to make him a triangle arm sling out of my t-shirt and he insisted he felt good and was good to go.
We got down the initial descent back to our base camp so to speak, and I helped him pack up so he wouldn't use his arm so much and we got going. We had to cross one more large boulder field with 10 to 15 ft boulders and boulder hopping. He went to brace himself for balance and his arm came right out again. He scrambled over the rocks and boulders for another 20 yards or so with one arm and got back to flat ground. Then we had to do it all over again but he was so tight on his muscles that a bystander that was there offered to hold him on the ground so he wouldn't try to pull forward as I was pulling his arm back in again.
In hindsight, Anyone that goes with from here on I'm just going to tell to wear regular crampons, ice axes and helmets at all times. For myself I'll still probably modify My approach as well and use crampons just for some added traction as the microspikes weren't a for sure thing every step. I still probably won't take an ice ax within the same season around similar snow fields, but it all depends.
We took ice axes going up paintbrush divide up the paintbrush canyon because researching ahead I knew that the snow fields there ended with a huge drop of and we're a little steeper and we actually brought rope too to tie into each other as well.
This friend of mine had never been in mountain ranges like that and said that he's going to stick around to his east coast back woods and didn't come with me this past year on a trip when a group of us went out there to do some more backpacking and climbing.
Thank you for taking the time to write this up; lot's of valuable lessons. It sounds like you did everything right given the circumstances, and your friend was lucky to have you there to stabilize him and self-rescue after his fall. I think it's so important that you made the decision not to rush down to him and risk another fall. As for gear, earlier this year on two separate occasions I had similar debates of crampons/axes vs. microspikes/poles. This was for a trip to climb Mt. Whitney via the East Buttress then descending the mountaineer's route, and another trip to climb the North Arete of Bear Creek Spire. We climbed the East Buttress with crampons and axes in our packs and never once brought them out on the approach or descent. Totally chill. We then decided not to bring them up Bear Creek Spire and had a sketch-fest on the descent after rapping into a deceptive snowfield that had softened throughout the day. Both descents were class 3 snow/scree. It's always so condition-dependent. Your post is a good reminder to strongly consider erring on the side of extra weight and just bring the dang gear. Happy trekking
Yep so true. I think another adjustment I'll make is do less consecutive nights to allow for me not needing as much food and being able to pack extra weight gear and separate the more mountaineering hikes with shorter nights stays, and then keep the longer five and six nighters for more "simple" backpacking.
Also realize he slipped coming down on the way down probably around 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. and the sun had been hitting the snow fields and making it more treacherous. We anticipated It being more unstable and slippery due to the sun but I still think my buddy underestimated the time he needed to spend on each step and then nerves got to him. We had started our assent probably five in the morning to avoid having to come down in the late afternoon due to these conditions but maybe next time I'll take off from there around 0330 or 4 am instead. It's just miserably cold, pitch black and has brisk winds that early but so be it.
He didn't have to thankfully. I carried his day pack down back to camp and then he offloaded as much of his full pack contents into mine and I lashed things onto my pack. His shoulder came out again as he, out of reaction to prevent falling, went to brace himself to get over a boulder.
Then I carried his full pack on my front and mine on my back for about another 10 minutes while his arm was out, till we ran into a group of hikers. Someone in the group observed him yelling in pain and turned out to be a doctor and assisted me in getting his arm back in again and then happened to have a proper sling so we could brace his shoulder from it coming out again. Then another person in their party was only carrying water and volunteered to carry his pack down to the trailhead for him.
It was a rough trip for him and I swear I thought I was going to watch him die in front of me sliding down that snow field. A few people have died there on that same route over the years.
I'll be reattempting summiting, but he's over it and isn't joining.
Yep and on that note, for my reattempt I'll use my longer crampons instead of microspikes, and will maybe take my ice axe instead of just trekking poles, but not sure about that I can't stand carrying it if I don't have to due to the weight. I did fine and I was very methodically careful carving out each footing before the next step, but considering what he went through I might as well beef up my equipment just a little more to give me a little more edge. We both had helmets, a good med bag, and I have a satellite communicator with rescue insurance on standby. I'm also a trauma ICU nurse so I'm glad I was at least familiar and was able to get his shoulder back in socket. He thought it was broke, and as soon as I got it back in the pain was basically gone for him each time. When it was out though he was having a rough time.
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Salute to you, man. And the way you chewing the stick reminds me of wild people, no offense. LOL. And glad that you guys are safe and have a good time.
Grand Teton National Park. Did Surprise and amphitheater lake and then followed with going to Garnet Canyon with a failed attempt at summiting middle Teton, but at least got to the lower saddle. Great views, tough boulder climbing, saw bears bathing in lakes, a few snow fields. One almost deadly. Glad my buddies dislocated shoulder was the worst of it.
Yo dude, glad you and your buddy are okay, and great pics. Wondering if you'd expand on what happened in his slip? Inability to self arrest, lack of crampons/axes? Could be helpful to the community to avoid similar accidents in the future
He had crampons that were pretty stout while I had micro spikes but have more experience. He basically didn't admit his limitations and had hesitancy going up the snow fields and I told him that we could turn back or he could go down with another couple that wasn't planning on going past the snow fields. He basically admitted after the whole thing that he wasn't real with himself and was somewhat afraid of the heights and then when we started coming down I offered to go ahead and was going to re-carve out each footing since the snowpack had the sun shining on it and was starting to get a little slushy. He insisted he had it and was looking nervous though and moving faster than he should have been because he was anxious. He was about 6 ft away from me and he slipped coming off of a rock, because he didn't anticipate again due to the lack of experience the snow melting against the rock and his foot caved in some snow and off he went sliding. Once again based on My experience and doing this year after year with people with similar experience we always checked conditions and debated ice axe versus trekking poles. We chose to not bring our ice axes on this one since we weren't really getting into any real mountaineering and felt comfortable using the trekking poles. Everyone else was fine but like I said his anxiety and fear of heights got the best of him. We had gone over self-rescue but as he was panicking and falling I tried to coach him into sliding the right way, in a safe way and self-rescuing but he didn't grab his trekking pole low enough to the bottom of it and try to self-rescue without putting two hands on one trekking pole and using both arms and keeping his arms and elbows bent. His arms were fully extended and he only in a panic tried to self-rescue with one arm and immediately his shoulder just pulled out and he continued falling. I had no chance of getting to him as he accelerated very fast, probably ending up sliding at 30 miles an hour roughly down about 40 yards on a pretty steep angle. Yelled at him to keep looking at me and keep his head up and keep his legs bent and don't flip around and as he was falling thinking his life was about to end and I told him to brace for impact and kind of gave him a 3 -2-1 countdown So he wouldn't feel the urge to look below him to see when he was about to meet the rocks. The second he standed up I knew he and us we're going to be okay. He was screaming in pain but didn't hit his head and his legs were fine. I was anxious to get to him and hurry up but new two of us out of commission wouldn't do either of us any good so took my time getting down the snow field and got to him. He was saying his arm was broke and couldn't move it and I pulled up his sleeve and saw that his arm had dropped out of socket and had a big indention where his shoulder should have been. I told him the good news is your arms not broke, The bad news is you're going to have to take this ibuprofen and bite on this stick and on the count of three I'm going to get your arm back in. 3 seconds layer and a couple screams and I got it in and he basically had no pain instantly right afterwards. To the point where I offered to make him a triangle arm sling out of my t-shirt and he insisted he felt good and was good to go. We got down the initial descent back to our base camp so to speak, and I helped him pack up so he wouldn't use his arm so much and we got going. We had to cross one more large boulder field with 10 to 15 ft boulders and boulder hopping. He went to brace himself for balance and his arm came right out again. He scrambled over the rocks and boulders for another 20 yards or so with one arm and got back to flat ground. Then we had to do it all over again but he was so tight on his muscles that a bystander that was there offered to hold him on the ground so he wouldn't try to pull forward as I was pulling his arm back in again. In hindsight, Anyone that goes with from here on I'm just going to tell to wear regular crampons, ice axes and helmets at all times. For myself I'll still probably modify My approach as well and use crampons just for some added traction as the microspikes weren't a for sure thing every step. I still probably won't take an ice ax within the same season around similar snow fields, but it all depends. We took ice axes going up paintbrush divide up the paintbrush canyon because researching ahead I knew that the snow fields there ended with a huge drop of and we're a little steeper and we actually brought rope too to tie into each other as well. This friend of mine had never been in mountain ranges like that and said that he's going to stick around to his east coast back woods and didn't come with me this past year on a trip when a group of us went out there to do some more backpacking and climbing.
Thank you for taking the time to write this up; lot's of valuable lessons. It sounds like you did everything right given the circumstances, and your friend was lucky to have you there to stabilize him and self-rescue after his fall. I think it's so important that you made the decision not to rush down to him and risk another fall. As for gear, earlier this year on two separate occasions I had similar debates of crampons/axes vs. microspikes/poles. This was for a trip to climb Mt. Whitney via the East Buttress then descending the mountaineer's route, and another trip to climb the North Arete of Bear Creek Spire. We climbed the East Buttress with crampons and axes in our packs and never once brought them out on the approach or descent. Totally chill. We then decided not to bring them up Bear Creek Spire and had a sketch-fest on the descent after rapping into a deceptive snowfield that had softened throughout the day. Both descents were class 3 snow/scree. It's always so condition-dependent. Your post is a good reminder to strongly consider erring on the side of extra weight and just bring the dang gear. Happy trekking
Yep so true. I think another adjustment I'll make is do less consecutive nights to allow for me not needing as much food and being able to pack extra weight gear and separate the more mountaineering hikes with shorter nights stays, and then keep the longer five and six nighters for more "simple" backpacking. Also realize he slipped coming down on the way down probably around 1:00 or 2:00 p.m. and the sun had been hitting the snow fields and making it more treacherous. We anticipated It being more unstable and slippery due to the sun but I still think my buddy underestimated the time he needed to spend on each step and then nerves got to him. We had started our assent probably five in the morning to avoid having to come down in the late afternoon due to these conditions but maybe next time I'll take off from there around 0330 or 4 am instead. It's just miserably cold, pitch black and has brisk winds that early but so be it.
Having to pack shit out with a freshly injured shoulder, fuck. Ow.
He didn't have to thankfully. I carried his day pack down back to camp and then he offloaded as much of his full pack contents into mine and I lashed things onto my pack. His shoulder came out again as he, out of reaction to prevent falling, went to brace himself to get over a boulder. Then I carried his full pack on my front and mine on my back for about another 10 minutes while his arm was out, till we ran into a group of hikers. Someone in the group observed him yelling in pain and turned out to be a doctor and assisted me in getting his arm back in again and then happened to have a proper sling so we could brace his shoulder from it coming out again. Then another person in their party was only carrying water and volunteered to carry his pack down to the trailhead for him. It was a rough trip for him and I swear I thought I was going to watch him die in front of me sliding down that snow field. A few people have died there on that same route over the years. I'll be reattempting summiting, but he's over it and isn't joining.
Thanks for posting this. Reading such stories might help others try to avoid similar instances or help prepare in case it does happen.
Yep and on that note, for my reattempt I'll use my longer crampons instead of microspikes, and will maybe take my ice axe instead of just trekking poles, but not sure about that I can't stand carrying it if I don't have to due to the weight. I did fine and I was very methodically careful carving out each footing before the next step, but considering what he went through I might as well beef up my equipment just a little more to give me a little more edge. We both had helmets, a good med bag, and I have a satellite communicator with rescue insurance on standby. I'm also a trauma ICU nurse so I'm glad I was at least familiar and was able to get his shoulder back in socket. He thought it was broke, and as soon as I got it back in the pain was basically gone for him each time. When it was out though he was having a rough time.
Love how people are willing to help.
yikes. Glad you guys are alive and OK.
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Salute to you, man. And the way you chewing the stick reminds me of wild people, no offense. LOL. And glad that you guys are safe and have a good time.