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Thread: Formidable and Mix-Up July 24th-26th 2009

  1. #1
    Trail Master RAM's Avatar
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    Formidable and Mix-Up July 24th-26th 2009

    Last album. Hope you enjoyed. Aaron wrote a letter to a guide we keep meeting up there. It tells the story

    Alasdair,
    Hey It's Aaron Ramras. My dad Ram and I are the Colorado father son team who
    travel out every July and always seem to run into you (Baker and Boston Basin in
    08 and Boston Basin again this year). If you remember, you gave us your contact
    information this year in Boston Basin. Upon returning home a few days ago I
    stumbled upon your card while unpacking and took a look at your websight.
    Absolutely wonderful photography!!! Very cool stuff! And I was surprised to see
    that it seems we crossed paths again this year without even realizing it...

    While reading your story and looking at the pictures and dates from "Broken
    Bones and Thunderstorms" on your websight, I recognized your green tent as the
    one our group quietly passed on the mix up arm around 7 PM, on the 25th of July,
    with the storm fully on. Crazy stuff!

    So our story, days 20 through 22 of our trip, begins with a couple of friends
    from California joining Ram and I for a two night trip up to Cache Col starting
    on the late eve of the 25th. Our agenda was to climb the South Route on
    Formidable and then east face of Mix Up ( I believe you recommended the gully
    east of Gunsight to us. Ram climbed it via Gunsight in 1994 and 1995. Thanks!)
    It rained steadily as we packed in the parking lot but despite the ominous
    clouds and the rolling thunder, our motivated friends from Cali pushed us to
    start up the hill despite our instincts and experience with Cascade weather. As
    the four of us arrived at Cascade Pass, we encountered Lucy the ranger,
    accompanying an older man who seemed rather unsteady and pail and was carrying a
    heavy pack. He was clearly very badly shaken and seemed to be in shock, quite
    understandably. Lucy informed us that a fall had occured on the Mix-Up arm and a
    rescue effort was under way although the thunderstorms were prohibiting
    helocopters from approaching. We offered our assistance and shelter but were
    informed that somebody else had already provided the injured climber with
    shelter and was staying with them until the evacuation could be performed. What
    an act of kindness, I remember thinking! At this point the thunder was growing
    louder, yet our friends enthusiasm and drive overroad our skepticism and we
    pushed, perhaps foolishly, upward toward our destination at Cache Col.

    As we reached the first stream, the clouds flooded out of the valley over
    Cascade Pass and the steady rains began. Some of us counted 6 seconds between
    the thunder and lightning, while others counted just 3. Regardless it was quite
    disconcerting either way, as I'm sure you noticed. On the way up we passed a
    ranger who was headed down. I did not recognize her but I'm sure you know who
    she is?? I inquired as to the progress of the rescue and offered what little
    assistance we could provide, yet she told us that the airlift would have to take
    place the next day but that a pair of climbers was accompanying the injured
    climber for the night. She expressed very obvious appreciation that somebody had
    been able to provide shelter for the injured climber. The rain lightened when we
    reached the mix up arm and saw a green tent which we assumed was the tent the
    injured climber was staying in. We quietly passed the tent as not to create any
    disturbance, as we heard voices. I confirmed with Ram that this tent was in fact
    the same one as in your picture on your websight. So it seems we just missed
    meeting each other once again. Both of us would be very interested to hear
    details as to the climber and if everything went smoothly throughout the night
    and with he evacuation??? And a flooded tent?! YIKES! And Craig only had a Bivy
    with him? Double YIKES! How long did you find him before the storms? How long
    had it been since his fall?

    Once over the Mix up arm, the rains lightened and the thunderheads passed. We
    arrived at Cache Col to find the good campsight up and left of the glacier
    occupied. We instead wandered up right from the col to the top of the ridge and
    found a reasonable sight for two shelters. The next day we were up and hiking by
    5 AM for Formidable. We passed upwards of 5 tents at Kool-aid Lake, and Ram
    commented on it being perhaps the most crowded weekend he had ever seen in the
    Cascades in his travels since 1992! Red ledge was still in fairly good
    condition, and offered easy passage with crampons early in the morning. We were
    blessed with excpetional weather on the trip up the Middle Cascade Glacier and
    around the back side of Formidable. After ascending heather ledges we began to
    ascend the steep snowfield, and with uncertainties as to where the route went,
    we guessed on the most prominantly looking gully. We encountered a moderately
    challenging moat that required 15 feet of low 5th class climbing to gain access
    to the upper gullies.After negociating the moat we wandered around searching for
    the obvious line and found nothing that struck us as well traveled. Eventually
    we decided to remain in our gully and ascended third and fourth class heather
    ledges up and rightward to as far as we could see. The ledges lead us to the
    crest of the East Ridge, which offered very exciting and exposed class 3
    scrambling toward the summit! We encountered one rappel into the prominant notch
    seperating the east ridge from the final summit pyramid. Uncomfortable with
    rapping on the two pieces of webbing we found, I managed to weave down a complex
    yet fairly moderate downclimb into the notch and we proceeded on steep fourth
    class up to the summit. Absolutely wonderful variation to the South Route! On
    decent we discovered the actual route which was far more direct than we
    anticipated. Have you climbed Formidable? If so what was your experience? It
    took us 9 hours to reach the summit from Cache Col yet only 3 hours to descend
    to the bottom of the Middle Cascade Glacier from the summit.

    Once off of the Middle Cascade Glacier, early on the traverse back to red ledge,
    the thunderheads once again rolled over the hills above, this time coming from
    the east. As I'm sure you are aware, the beginning of this traverse is a trail
    carved into steep dirt on the side of the hill with lots of boulders and rocks
    scattered along the hillside. Ram had proceeded ahead of the three of us since
    he was moving slowly on his old knees. While the other two and I rested and ate,
    we saw the skies open far above, and we watched in awe as the hail storm quickly
    approached. When it reached us, we crouched on the hillside as the hail came
    down as violently as I've ever seen it in the Cascades. I remember feeling quite
    fortunate to have a helmet on! I covered my ears with my hands as each stone
    that hit a spot of bare skin stung painfully for several seconds. As we crouched
    together, we watched as the surrounding hillsides seemed to melt away. Several
    dozen little mudslides came rushing down above and all around us, accompanied by
    rocks the size of basketballs tumbling down the hillside with stunning speed and
    force. The thunder was some of the loudest and most intimidating I've ever
    heard, or at least it seemed so at the time! Quickly recognizing that the trail
    was an unsafe place to be, we scrambled down underneath a huge, conveniently
    placed boulder and huddled together for warmth as the hillsides around us flash
    flooded. As we sat in the safety of our rock blockade, we wondered helplessly if
    Ram was ok? We could see him still moving accross the hillside in the distance.
    It was incredible to watch, as the storm progressed and as the trail was wiped
    out before our eyes. Boulders the size of lawn chairs began to tumble down the
    hillside as the hail turned to a steady rain. Although only lasting about 10
    minutes in length, the storm was stunningly impressive and powerful. The Middle
    Cascade Glacier below had huge rivers of mud streaming onto it. Once the storm
    cleared, we proceeded on the muddy remains of the trail and found Ram, who
    described flash flooding even more impressive than that which we had seen! The
    Cascades rushing down the heather slopes under the snowfields were absolutely
    breathtaking, and a brilliant reminder of why we come back to these dangerous
    places that hacks like us have no business being in! We met the group of folks
    who were the partners of Craig. They claimed to not really know him well and
    that Craig was supposed to catch them the night before. Their camp had been
    flooded badly in the hail storm. We found that the snow bridge at Red Ledge had
    been nearly destroyed by the storm, yet we found an alternative decent via a
    mote dive and a dynamic move over a large moat onto the snow below. The snow
    bridge we had crossed just ten hours early had melted from a couple of feet
    thick to around 8 inches!!! Unreal.

    The climb up from Kool Aid Lake to Chache Col offered perhaps the most beautiful
    moments of the entire three week trip! The skies swirled with clouds as a
    rainbow spanned the entire landscape above Magic and Hurry Up. The sunset over
    Johannesburg was nothing short of spectacular. We stumbled into camp 15 and a
    half hours after departing that morning, everybody tired and soaked. Yet we
    could not go right to sleep, for it would have been unacceptable to miss the
    incredible light show that was happening all around us. Truly a magical evening!

    The next morning we taped our blisters and forced our battered bodies out of our
    sleeping bags for one last day before flying back to Colorado. We broke camp and
    proceeded down the Cache Col glacier to the notch to the left of Gunsight where
    we found an easy moat crossing. We found the backside traverse into Gunsight to
    be quite manageble. Is that how you approach the east face now? We left our full
    packs in the notch and proceeded up Mix-Up's east face, roping up for the first
    and final pitches. Absolutely Spectacular! One of the highest quality moderate
    scrambles I've ever done! I see why you recommended it. A wonderful finale to
    another wonderful three weeks in the North Cascades. While descending the
    Cascade Pass trail we were baffled as we encountered not a soul. When we arrived
    at the car we were one of five cars left in the parking lot. Our questions were
    answered when we found on our windshield the notice that the Cascade River Road
    had been washed out and was closed to upward traffic. WOW! Must have been one
    hell of a storm down low on the 25th. We drove down the mostly repaired road,
    and camped along a river before flying home to Colorado early the next moring.
    Overall a wonderful two night trip! Not surprising to find out we almost ran
    into each other again! Would love to hear any interesting details you have from
    the experience. It was great seeing you again this year. Hope to run into you
    again in the future!

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

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  3. #2
    I finally got my new monitor and was able to actually read your posts. Amazing pictures as usual! I love the full screen option on picasa. It's almost canyon season again now :)

  4. #3
    Nice TR and AWESOME pics.

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