Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board INCIDENT ON WHITNEY

In response to:

"Surely you aren't suggesting that under those conditions it would have been easier to descend the Mountaineer's route than the traverse trail to the Crest?"

Yes, I am! But with the understanding that the person(s) are familiar with the route. If you can find the "outhouse" on the summit, you can find the route down.

I've been in "whiteout" conditions on Whitney, both on the Main Trail and the Mountaineer's Route. Neither time was solo. (I guess I'm lucky!) And, the descent from Trail Camp (that's right, we encountered the nasty conditions much lower than Ted) was much more difficult (again, this is my opinion) than the descent down the MR couloir. We ended up off-trail above Trailside Meadow and had to do some third class descending to get to the meadow (not fun when the rock is wet).

(And, yes, I carry a compass and GPS on most of my trips. I've got waypoints for most of the "critical" sections of both routes now. What I don't know is whether heavy cloud cover blocks GPS signals. Anyone?)

P.S. Ted, please don't take any of this as a personal attack. I'm just stimulating conversation.

I’m not such an extreme climber (like some other Board members sound to be) and my experience related to snow climbing is mostly limited to Washington, Oregon, and California. So the highest mountain I’ve ever been on is Mt. Whitney, which I climb every winter (for the past 4-5 years) to keep my snow experience current. I am afraid of winter climbing due to avalanches but found this area reasonable safe. This year I did two unsuccessful (did not summit) attempts. There were many discussions at this Board about difficulties this winter brought as well as successful and unsuccessful attempts through both the Main and MR routs. By reading the posts I had an impression that there was an ongoing competition among winter climbers, something that might suck someone in to the dangerous game.

I was among those Ted asked for a companion to climb Mt. Whitney. Unfortunately, I had another arrangement for climbing Casaval Ridge on Mt. Shasta, not to mention having a memory of the previous trips and, especially, driving 500 miles each way. So having no partners he decided to go solo. And there is nothing wrong, scary, or even risky of solo climbing. I’ve been doing this for years and years. Of course, no one is invincible, and, as it has been mention many times, one should be experienced and know his/her limits. Unfortunately, the only way to gain the experience and learn about the limits is by, in this case, climbing, and climbing solo. But even climbing is useless if conditions are perfect. Of course, you may polish your technical skill and/or practice navigation and reading the weather, but once again, what can you learn if everything goes right?

On my last winter trip I had an occurrence I ‘ve never had before through my whole climbing experience (you may read my previous posts). Does it mean I was inexperienced or should have not done the climb at all? I don’t think so. That’s the way we learn and progress, by trying unknowns. Sometimes the lessons may be too costly but even then beneficial to others. I do not believe that any of us going to mountains is sure he/she would have an accident. We should/must consider such a probability and therefore prepare accordingly, for example, by taking a First Aid, GPS or Cell.

Weather plays an important factor in climbing conditions. We often hear about bad weather, storms, and whiteouts. However, the meaning of bad weather is relative to a personal experience. “I survived a big storm… I was in whiteout…” We like to dramatize our experiences. We have tendency to be “better” than others. However, as it sounds “whiteout” is something that you may most closely compare to be a blind person with the only difference seeing white instead of black color. No gray, no footprints, no rocks, no ridges, no any indication of the terrain. Just white. Period. You may, sometimes, be still able to see your boots.

Snow level and consistency play additional critical climbing factor. It is easy to hike or climb on firmed snow with crampons or in relatively soft and deep snow with snowshoes. However, it is almost impossible to walk in deep fresh and dry snow. It takes forever to overcome every meter of distance. Raising one leg up and moving it a bit, making another step, or even trying to crawl over the surface burns out quickly all the energy you have. Add to it a wind and whiteout factors and you are in a senseless situation.

Current mental and physical conditions may influence you climbing significantly. Once you are tired and scared of the weather and snow conditions, not to mention dehydrated and lack of water, the likelihood of misjudging the terrain and making a wrong decision increases. Even if you are able to see some contours, it’s difficult to recognize them and even worse to be confident of the climbing direction, especially if you know there may be steep slopes or cliffs.

Is it possible to predict everything bad (including the weather) that may happen over the trip? From my experience, no. Even if you “expect the worse” you still may encounter something that you would have never imagine. Ted did not go there to have an accident, not even close to it. He wanted to do what many of us do, have a good workout, challenge, and adventure. Was he prepared? Sure he was; he set his camp so high; for the summit day he took more than he needed. Most people, you do not hear bad stories about, are real ignorants especially day hikers/climbers, counting on luck rather then skill and proper equipment. Of course, they were lucky and therefore able to summit and get down successfully; I don’t mean only Mt. Whitney but also glaciered peak such as Shasta or Rainier. Ted was unfortunate to encounter conditions he was not able to predict, something that stroke him without much worming and time. (Even the best world mountaineers die.) He was, however, able to manage saving his life in an extreme weather conditions. Of course, his wife Maria and Sgt. Randy Nixon, SAR coordinator for the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department, were the two main characters that lead the rescue to succeed. In spite of all bad weather obstacles as well as running out of strength, Ted, however, managed to stay and be rescued alive.

To learn something from this story is not to criticize Ted but to look the overall picture. First of all, see how the system works and fix it, regardless if Ted did or did not make any mistake(s) putting himself in that situation. Similar outcome may happen to anyone at any time and not just because of the weather. Someone, for instance, may get seriously sick and “the first helicopter to respond to [the] location could not complete the evacuation BECAUSE [IT] WAS ON THE SEQUOIA SIDE OF THE LINE!” Would you like to see a helicopter flying away while, for example, on the summit surrounded by hundreds of other helpless hikers watching you slowly dying? On the other hand, anyone attempting mountain climbing must be aware of its inherited risk. Accidents happen everywhere; no one intend them. Most people who die in mountains are not solo but group climbers. Check two fatal accident reports on Mt. Rainier and one on Mt. Shasta just in this year. Do not think that you are safe or safer while climbing with others. Never count on luck and “always expect the worse to be never disappointed.” Mountaineering is a challenging and rewording activity. Fortunately, just in case if something bad happens, some of us may be rescued by courageous SAR people, but never count on it.

We should be thankful Ted has shared his story we may conclude something from. It’s not easy to write unsuccessful stories about ourselves, so this board proves. After reading and analyzing this story you may stop hiking/climbing solo, you may stop hiking/climbing at all, you may never do summit day again (without full backpack), you may consider taking technological tools with you, you may think he made a mistake or several of them, you may stay indifferent, but don’t think it would never happen to you because you are too good, experienced and skilled, climber. Such an approach may lead to your disaster. And remember, he is still alive; that’s a success.

Well said, mrcs!

mrcs:

Thanks for perhaps the best post on this thread. You may not consider yourself an 'extreme' climber but you certainly come across as competent and self-reliant enough to undertake winter mountaineering. I especially like the fact that you had the good sense to back off on your two attempts this year instead of getting in 'over your head'.

A couple of the references in your post were interesting in light of recent events. The Casaval route fatality this year was due to a slip and subsequent failure to self belay and/or arrest. Also, the fatality count just for Liberty Ridge on Rainier is at least 3 and probably 4 (they found two packs with the first body). Two other climbers were pulled off the Ridge because they were in 'over their head'.

After reading Ted's responses to the posts here I think it would have been better if you had driven the 500 miles and went with him. It is pretty obvious that he wasn't ready to undertake this sort of trip on his own. Comparing a mountain SAR response to the CHP 'rescuing' someone who didn't monitor their gas guage is pretty telling. Perhaps if he did receive a bill for the actual costs generated by his 'hubris'...Helicopter flight hours are not cheap and this still wouldn't account for putting others lives at risk in the process.

For the life of me I can't understand getting separated from your stove and fuel in those conditions. If he had the ability to melt snow for water he could have waited the weather out in the hut. And while I'll admit to the same difficulties we all have at times with 'cross country route finding' I can't agree that the Main Trail on Whitney falls into this category.

How about the Needles and Mount Muir as 'waypoints'? And forget about North/South East/West trails...You are on a long traverse. Was uphill on your left or right as you proceeded to the summit? Use neighboring peaks as a reference point for elevation. This is all basic stuff when it comes to mountaineering, if not hiking and backpacking.

Bottom line though about winter trips: Snow covers trails and tracks and produces low to no visibility conditions at times. Winter conditions also make basic survival much more difficult. If you aren't fully prepared to deal with them, winter conditions are much more likely to get you injured, dead or in a position where other people's lives are put at risk to save your ass.