Dangerous days

"I've done... Questionable things."

"Also extraordinary thing; revel in your time."

-Blade Runner-

An e-mail from the blue got me started on all this, I was being asked for a route description for a line I had climbed solo on the North Face of Mount Edith Cavell in the Canadian Rockies back in1991. 21 years is a while ago but I had written the route up for the 1992 edition of the Canadian Alpine Journal so my written description in all its harrowing detail was there for me to consult.

That got me thinking about all the loony outings I've had many of them solo adventures from which I am quite pleased to have come back. I have decided to detail a Top 10 in two parts, here are my first 5...

Dangerous Days Part 1:

I. Edith Cavell North Face, solo: This route had been inspired by the antics of Slovenian alpinist Tomo Cesen who had purportedly done among other things the North Face of Jannu in the Himalaya, solo in an unbelievable time. In retrospect a bunch of Russians climbed the face in 2004 using siege tactics the route being both unbelievably difficult if not thoroughly hostile. Still, at the time an article I had written for Mountain Magazine on climbs I had done on the Grandes Jorasses North Face appeared in the same issue as Cesen's recounting of his Jannu and Lhotse climbs, I was certainly stoked on several levels. In September 1991 I packed my malamute dog Chamonix my wife Susanne and 5 month old daughter Simone into our Vanagon camper and set sail for Jasper, Alberta from Colfax, Washington where I was living while I attended veterinary College at Washington State University, we got there late in the afternoon and spent some time glassing the face. Early the next morning I went up after it and climbed the upper face in about 8 1/2 hours solo, it was quite an adventure probably more so for my wife who watched the whole thing through a 600mm telephoto lens. I called the route Tomoesque to reflect the source of my inspiration, this met with derision from the likes of Mark Twight and Joe Josephson among others. 21 years later I understand from the New York Times that Mark runs a health club that specializes in making its wealthy clientele puke during workouts, Joe has gotten bald and fat and the discredited Tomo Cesen's sons are now crushing it in the Himalaya.

II. Slipstream, solo: Another Canadian Rockies Epic (while on the topic), this one had killed several would be soloists one of which passed a party en-route then came back down sailing right over their heads. I did this one after several aborted attempts in early March 1992 in a little under four hours, it truly is one of the world's great ice routes. Although belittled at times in the climbing press it is very serious, the serac line at the back of the Dome Galcier cirque calved while I was climbing the route enveloping me in ice dust, I truly felt the breath of God upon me that day. A year later almost to the day three guys from the Seattle area were killed on this line including Mark Bebie who I had climbed in the Alps with in 1988...

Purportedly the route was only first guided in 2010 by Eric Dumerac who chose to rappel the route with his client!

You can read my report on this route in the 1993 edition of the Canadian Alpine Journal.

III. Les Droites North Face Voie Ginat: Mark Bebie and I did this route in 1988 on our first visit to the Alps, we went up after the first storm of autumn about the 31st of August, the first was thinly iced, only just in condition but we went up after it anyway. We had already done the Croz Spur so were used to the size of the faces in the Alps what caught by surprise was the weather. Throughout the second half of the ascent it stormed, on and off at first but then settled in with intent. Despite the deteriorating weather we kept at it and in the early evening I led the last three pitches up the crux waterfall and Scottish V section into the Breche where I subsequently collapsed utterly spent. Mark and I prepared a bivouac just below the Breche where in my wisom I had brought a half-bag (pied de elephant), I proceeded to pass out nearly freezing to death huddled in my snow hole, when dawn came I was genuinely amazed I had survived the night...

We rappelled down the chossy descent couloir on all manner of tat but what I remember most was an unidentified wall off to the north that sported a most attractive ice couloir that ran true to the summit, I resolved to learn the face's identity when I returned to Chamonix.

When we arrived at le Montenvers Mark who had decreed he would walk down to Chamonix thought better of it and borrowed 35 Francs from me for the train. We fell out over this as Mark wouldn't repay the sum, I eventually collected weeks later but hard feelings lingered, we did no more big routes together.

IV. Big Four North Face, Solo: After I got back from the Alps in 1988 I looked about for a project in the Washington Cascades. I new there was one road-side attraction the North Face of Big Four Mountain which I went to climb 10 December 1988 an early-winter outing with friend Alasdair Street and his chum. The face was icy with minimal snow complex but seemingly moderate the plan being to solo while they climbed roped. Said plan quickly tanked I was an aerobic monster after seven weeks in the Alps and quickly outdistanced them by mid-mroning they were far away off to my right and well below me, after solo-climbing a line probably now identified as the Spindrift route purportedly done in 1996 the weather tanked. No sooner did I summit then I was forced to retreat back down the face down-climbing and rappelling amid howling winds white-out conditions and roaring avalanches as the massive 4000 foot face funneled all manner of fury down upon me. I managed to get down alive bivouacked in the car but the lads didn't make it out until the next morning having retreated and bivouacked somewhere low on the face. That February I met my wife Susanne at the Vertical Club in Seattle wooing her with this pyrrhic tale, my last and only major solo effort in the Cascades.

V. The Drool: I had taken my son Cormac then 13 on an outing to the Redstone Ice-Fest in Colorado, billed as a winter extravaganza I envisioned a sporting time with the other climbers something along the lines of Festiglace takes Colorado. Conditions sucked though, it was too warm and when I finally located the event organizers it occupied at least three of them to belay Will Gadd. No matter. We eventually located the Drool and waited several hours for the ensuingVogue photo shoot to wrap up before I set off to free solo the thing. While my son watched and took some very nice pictures I cruised this 5+ wonder one of the best free-standing cascades ever. I climbed leash-less in fruit-boots driving my then new Fusion 2 ice tools even dropping a Shaka. I think my son learned something about his dad about focus and self-control as he grows into a man now it is a memory he and I will always share and call upon.

The climb itself was very steep snow fell throughout the ascent I made a point of doing all three pitches though the first pillar pitch is the gem. It takes one route to make a season this route plus a dry-tooling line I did at Hidden Falls End of Days really filled in the winter nicely.