Darren Steffler, Haldan Borglum, and Doug Lutz
Mount Forbes is the 8th highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies, and the tallest "within the confines of Banff National Park".
This is a mountain that was not even close to my radar for ascending until Haldan Borglum reached out to me with an invite to ascend earlier in the week.
I'm primarily a scrambler (Class 4 terrain and less). I do solo short sections of Class 5+ terrain (climbing), but when it comes to rope and gear placement and protection, I have pretty much zero skill and training.
I firstly want to ensure my safety on a trip, and secondly, I want to ensure any partner(s) safety. This means that I must have at least enough skill to think that I'll be safe on a route, and enough knowledge and skill to assist others while on a route in case they need a rescue, or we run into complications.
A frank discussion was had about my skill level with Darren and Haldan. Darren basically has guiding skills (many guiding courses taken), and Haldan just had completed a glacier travel / rescue course, and they both said that they were fine with the skill mix of the 3 of us. I really had very little reason to say "nope, not for me"... so, I madly set about researching (yeah, I had very little knowledge of the route or challenges. I did have some very good resources to pull from though.
In retrospect, the thing that I did not have was the mental time to prepare, and time to practice rope skills, and review all the stuff regarding crevasse rescue systems and the execution process for effecting a rescue. So, while I went through all the motions to madly check off my list of logistics, gear packing, leaving a detailed trip itinerary with my 2 emergency contacts, and getting my meals prepared, I was getting increasingly anxious about my rope skills (lack of), and time crunch to pack. It's just been several years since the last time that I was on a rope attached to a team of climbers.
My stuff was still sitting on my garage floor, with me trying to stuff it all in (or attach it to) my 55L backpack... nope, wasn't going to fit!...more anxiety... so, I had to bring my 65L pack out of retirement! It mostly fit (except my food), but I knew that I could transfer that from my cooler to the pack and cram that in at the trailhead.
All team members were at the Glacier Lake Trailhead parking with boots on at 5 AM, on the meet day, ready to set off down the trail - off we go! I think that when we stopped at Glacier Lake, I realized that I had not transferred my bunwiches to my backpack! I did have a bunch of gummies and electrolyte tablets... Over the 3 days, I did accept a pepperoni stick from each of them and a wrap from Haldan. Maybe surprisingly, I also had half a bag of gummies remaining when I returned to my vehicle (which I shared of course)!
If the first "lemon" of the trip was me forgetting my food at the car, the second "lemon" was that Darren had a water pouch that sprung a leak when we got to the bivy site. Neither would prevent the trip from proceeding, but if enough "lemons" show up, experienced teams would decide to call the trip and return another time.
"Lemon" number 3: 2:00 AM, we set out for the ascent route, somehow I convinced myself that a 2 foot wide shallow open water crossing would be ok to hop across from the ice... Yup, the ice broke underneath me, and I ended up in the water up to my crotch. Big fail.. and big "lemon".
Well now, while the guys did the proper thing and removed footwear and crossed at a different location, the fact was that one of us had soaked pants, socks, and boots, and we were relying on a team of 3 for roped glacier travel. We already had a long rope for 3 people due to the late cancellation of a 4th member. I could decide to turn back to the camp and wait for the guys to summit and return, or I could "suck it up", and wring out my socks and boots as best that I could and monitor my feet as we ascended. I chose to do the latter. Be it the right or wrong decision, it was a decision. I can't even say it was a wrong decision as I sit here and write this up with antibiotics as a precaution, and my big toe on my left foot bandaged due to the tip being frostbitten... My underlying thought process in this is whether I could mentally accept an outcome if they decided to continue the ascent without me and one (or both) succumbed to injuries due to something that I could have prevented or assisted in providing rescue?
What I do know, is that A) Food may have factored into my state of mind in deciding to attempt to jump across the open water... therefore, I will make an imperative mental note to check for food on big trips! B) Leaving the guys with no choice but to haul additional rope weight on a glacier that is known for big glaciers would not have been fair. C) Every adventure has some sort of learning and "self-discovery" hidden in the journey.
26 сен 2024
