Mark;
Our trip to the Wind River Range in 1969 was described by my friend as a
"self rescue" :) We went in from Elkheart Park through Island Lake and on to
Upper Titcomb Lake where we made our base camp for a climb up Mt. Woodrow
Wilson. The conditions were bad-- the ice-filled colouir was treacherous
with an ice crust over a layer of snow so ice screws & ice pitons would not
hold and the rock was not solid enough for a reliable piton belay. Half way
up the colouir, a blizzard struck and there was a thunderstorm with
lightning striking just over our heads. We were on the rock face by then so
a rapid retreat was out of the question; fortunately the shape of the
colouir made a Faraday Cage so we didn't get hit but that close you can hear
the "snap" that precedes the strike. We got down to the Sphinx Glacier after
dark and crossed by moonlight. After the moon set we stumbled down, around
the lake and back to camp around 1:00 AM.
I've seen recent pictures of that area and there is nowhere near the snow
that was there back in "the olden days." We climbed Gannett Peak the year
before by going in from the east side of the Continental Divide.
Hat's off to you for a mid- winter attempt-- the weather in this Range is
dangerous. Our expeditions were in late September- early October and that
was considered past the climbing season. Did you take any pictures?
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Mark J Bradakis" <mark@bradakis.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 4:20 PM
To: "LAND SPEED LIST" <land-speed@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] Soy based plastic?
> Neil Albaugh wrote:
>> Ever climbed in the Wind River Range, David?
>
> You folks are lucky. This would be a great opportunity for me to go
> on and on and on and on about the 1977 Weird Winter Wall trip. It was
> a multi-week attempt to do the 2,000 foot north face of Mt. Hooker in
> winter. Had it been successful, it would have been a significant event
> in North American mountaineering. As it turned out, no one actually died
> it just felt that way before we got back to the foothills north of Lander.
>
> Enough for now. I really do need to write up the tale of this epic before
> memory fails me altogether.
>
> mjb.
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