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Thread: Austera Peak 7-13-09

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    Trail Master RAM's Avatar
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    Austera Peak 7-13-09

    -We awoke in a cloud. It was mostly calm. Then a drizzle. Then a sleet. Then a
    rain. Then it would blow. Then calm. Sometimes it would brighten, the sun trying
    to come in over the top. Then it would darken. By noon we were stiff and
    restless. A party had headed the way we needed to go, the day before. They had
    turned back. But if we could follow their prints, it would point us in the right
    direction. So in a lull, we packed. Ziff found a great route over a pass, saving
    us a rappel and in our own personal " box of cloud," we headed upward. After a
    turn left and and turn right, we found the apex of the glacier and headed up
    Austera Peak.

    An exposed ledge would take us past most of the difficulties. The rock was
    loose. The rock was lichen covered. The rock was wet. When we fall, we fall
    fast. And so it was with Aaron. Half the tumble was over before he would
    remember any of it. It was a class 3 spot. Did the foot shoot out? He doesn't
    know. We do know that the angle was low.....but still he went over backwards and
    rolled. He came to a stop. Ziff called urgently for me. I was up ahead with
    Sonny. I let Sonny hustle back to my fallen son. The people there were SAR
    people. The people there were medical people. The people there were not related
    to him. They did not need a panicked parent. I let my mind wander off to my
    first romance. Still the conversation below filtered in. Wave of parental panic.
    Moment of calm removal. Wave of.....

    Inventory was taken (4th picture) and the damage was minimal. A chewed up butt.
    An scraped up lower back. Test that sore elbow. Note the dink on the helmet.
    Ahhh, to be young, fluid and flexible!! And helmeted! I strolled down as the
    evaluation continued. We were remote. We were in a cloud. We were lucky! What to
    do? We summitted and continued on.

    Down, down, down and around the corner. Then that best of Cascade magic starts.
    The clouds start to part. A show with 100's of acts. A peek here. A window
    there. A parting. A closing. A sunbeam. Then patches of blue. It mesmerizes. It
    is constant change. It is timely, for we can now see where we might go

    But where to go? It seems cliffed out in all directions. We discuss. We
    disagree. We probe. It is hard to see a way, in and out of cloud, going
    downhill. And the thought of climbing back up is daunting with loads on the
    back. A hateful thought. We probe and probe and finally a loose gully offers
    hope. A full double rope rap and watch out for those loose boulders. We land on
    a glacier. Sonny's pack tumbles and lands 150 vertical feet lower or so his
    altimeter says. It was right on the edge of a much further fall.

    Our reward for getting here? Over 1,500 vertical feet of climbing up to a pass.
    It is 8 PM. I am feeling the tension of the day and I snap at folks who don't
    deserve it. Then these people blitz hard up the hill. Camp is made before dark
    in a place called Lucky Pass. Lucky we are to be all in one piece and the luck
    would hold. The next day would be among the most extraordinary of our lives.

    http://picasaweb.google.com/aramv14/AusteraPeak71309#

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