A long beautiful hike in.10 miles to be exact. probably the most scenic in the high sierra's. SJ, Skydiveken, and I covered 6000ft of elevation gain to set up camp at 12000ft at the base of Tyndall. Actually SJ and Skydive set up camp, a I was experiencing mild altitude sickness. Skydive recommended warm clothing, and i piled on every piece of clothing i owned. i downed a spoonful of chicken and noodles and headed for the tent. slept slash rested for the night. mostly tossed and turned, and breathed deep to take in the thin air.
The alarm went off. SJ and skydive ate, and I organized my pack, downed a shot of espresso and away we went, in a white out, or should i say a black out. either way visibility was lacking. we walked in circle for half hour, until we decided to just start over. finally we trampled over some boulders and glissaded into the infamous williamson bowl. we circumnavigated the lakes to the start of the route of the west face of the mighty williamson.
we debated the route, made the decision and went up a 400 ft snow chute (strip), which in the summer is scree next to the black bans. near the top of this me and SJ decided to traverse to our left to the bottom the west faces, main chute. A couple of hundred ft up the chute, I once again threw up. a minute later we took a break. Skydive ate a bagel and SJ ate something as well. My mind began to race with thoughts of : this is stupid, throw in the towel, i have a family i could die up here. in my mind i had given up. i am running on empty. then i heard sj mention to skydive that we are at 12200 ft and its only 8 am. my spirits perked up a bit. i thought that we are in such close proximity to the peak, and that i can't let this one go. our break was over. i mustered all my strength and dug in deep to follow the guys. i was now telling myself if i can make on step i will do that. and if i can make one step, i can make one more step. then i began to count steps 1,2 1,2,3. 1. 1,2,3. and sometimes five. i began to rely on a higher power praying for God to give me strength. 1,2,3 steps. groaning for air. We made it to the chimney and scrambled up it, and then another scramble to to the summit. we finally made it.
totally exhausted Big Will reduced me to tears. never before had a mountain tested me like this. Tougher than To-Man-Go-Yah.
we made our way back down the mountain, all of us self arresting at some point in the journey. me and sj on a steep icy slope near a rock, and skydive somewhere along the way went head first and flipped himself around to break himself with his ice ax.
we made it half way back through the bowl stopped for lunch and celebrated with a red bull, and celebratory cheers.
back at camp i was running on empty and the guys forced me to eat. which i gladly excepted. i wasn't hungry, but i was feeling slightly better, good enough to munch on some freaky looking lasagna and meat sauce. after that it was lights out and i was sleeping like a log this night.
the next morning we were at it again. we plowed our way up the north rib of tyndall. we exited to the right, made a class 4 move onto the ridge, and scrambled to the summit. what a beautiful day. we made our way back to base camp, packed up, and went down shepherds pass to the trail. on the way out me and sj talked about soda, ice cream and hamburger cravings. and later skydive and i confessed we were dying, figuratively of course as it was a tough journey. at one point we agreed that it was tougher than To-man-go-yah. (whitney). we made it back safe to the truck and home.
this my account of our journey this past, first weekend of june 2009.
thanks to skydive, and sj 's mountaineering savvy. thanks for putting up with me>
special shout out to wes g. for all the advice this past year.
thanks to paiute shoshone. this is their homeland.
