Well, this is boring

My foot keeps getting bigger, now resembling a watermelon with small piggy toes.  I'm on crutches, hobbling around the house and sitting for way too long with my foot up in the air on ice.  Outside, it is delightfully - and finally - sunny and the forecast is good way into the future. 

Everyone is either out climbing or making climbing plans.  What they say about misery is not true.  Misery doesn't love company.  I would rather people got out and got at it.  

Happy climbing everyone.

Two ugly feet, one much bigger than the other

Don't Let Your Guard Down

Today I climbed Megawatts, an 8 pitch 5.8 sport route up Brilliant Bluffs overlooking Castlegar. Eva and I swung leads which was super efficient and the climb was a lot of fun. It's not often I get to climb with other competent female climbers and I enjoyed the climb a lot.

Eva on the final pitch

We sat for a15 minutes on the overlook and had some lunch before descending. Walking on the virtually flat ground, I twisted my ankle and proceeded to limp the through the three kilometre descent. When I got back to the truck and took my shoe off, my foot was swollen like a grapefruit.

I surely hope this doesn't ruin my climbing season now that it has finally stopped raining. 

 My left foot looking much larger than my right, both are equally ugly

Early Starts Rock

Today I climbed Mount Holmes at the north end of the Kokanee Range with a friend of mine. We left Nelson at 5 am, started bushwacking at about 7 am and were on the summit at 8,100 feet at 10.40 am. Even that early, however, there was a lot of convective build-up, although thunderstorms did not seem imminent. We had a quick two hour descent on good snow and were back at the truck just after 1.00 pm and home in Nelson at 3.00 pm.

Early starts rock - avoid thunderstorms, avoid epics, get up and down while the snow is still firm, and be back at home in time to do something else with the day. 

 The last 500 feet to the top of Mount Holmes, convective activity already building

Stupid is as stupid does

I am in the midst of trying to organize a Summer Mountain Leadership course for my local "mountaineering" (using the term loosely) club. This club has almost 300 members. I need a minimum of three to run this course. Astute readers will have quickly worked out that this equates to 1% of the membership. The course, which will be taught by a full ACMG guide, has an excellent curriculum and is sponsored by our club (i.e. we will actually pay a portion of participants fees). Now you would think that a measly 1% of the membership might take advantage of this opportunity. But, you'd be wrong. To date, I have two people interested, that's right two (and without money in the bank, interest is only interest).

No doubt there could be, and probably are, many reasons why this course is not drawing great attention, but I have to suspect that one of the reasons is that people think they know everything there is to know about running a club (or private) trip. News flash, if you've ever done any of the things listed below (all of which I've seen happen), you are much more incompetent than you think and should sign up.

• Organized a trip to a summit and not actually known where the summit is (because you are too stupid to look at a map).
• Ran a trip without looking at a map.
• Ran a trip without taking a map.
• Ran a trip from the wrong start location when more than one person has told you exactly where to start and how to get to the top of the mountain.
• Ran a trip to any mountain on which you took only a section of the 1:250,000 map (could be used as fire starter or, at a pinch toilet paper, but serves no other purpose).
• Been the trip leader and had no map, compass or GPS.
• Been the trip leader where the only navigational device in the party was a GPS.
• Left too late in the day.
• Ran a trip with too large a party.
• Taken people on your trip that had no hope in hell of actually completing the trip.
• Used inept, inadequate and just plain stupid group management techniques that resulted in falls on rock, slips on snow, or people being lost, and parties separated. And, yes, it is your fault.
• Used no group management techniques whatsoever with resultant falls on rock, slips on snow, people getting lost, and etc.
• Failed to notice that participants on your trip could not manage the terrain resulting in a whole other series of falls on rock and slips on snow.
• Put trips on the schedule that you don't have the ability to do. If you can't lead 5.5 in the mountains, don't put a 5.5 route on the schedule.
• Thought an early start meant meeting at 7 am and starting to climb or ski at 10.30 am or later!
• Watched anyone slide 200 metres down a 40 degree snow slope and not gone down to help them.

Recognize yourself?  Stupid is as stupid does.

This party is too large

On Early Starts

Inexplicable as it seems to me, some people think an early start means meeting at 7 or 8 am and then driving a few hours to the trailhead. An early start means being on foot or ski some time between 4 and 5 am, depending on your trip objective. If you are really slow, you may have to start even earlier.

Working out what time to start is simple. Decide what time you want to be off the mountain and work backwards. Factors to consider when deciding what time you want to be off the mountain include, but are not limited to, afternoon thunderstorms, short daylight hours, slow parties, snow conditions, aspect, and rock fall hazard.

Today, Doug and I skied up Mount Brennan. We wanted to be off the summit no later than 10 am - both to avoid afternoon thunderstorms and to descend before the snow became dangerously soft. Allowing 5 hours to reach the top, we needed to start skiing at 5 am. In order to achieve this early start, we camped at the trailhead, were completely organized the night before, got up at 4.30 am, left by 5 am, and traveled at a steady and consistent pace. Our time estimate had been conservative - always a good idea - and we reached the summit in just over 4 hours. We were back at the truck just after 10.30 am, before the snow became not only dangerously soft, but poor quality for skiing, and well ahead of any daytime thunderstorm build-up.

Being able to plan a trip in this way is a very basic mountain skill that surprisingly few people possess. But, it ain't rocket science. Work out what hazards you'll be exposed to, figure out how to minimize them and take appropriate action. Simple really. 

It's 9 am and Doug is perhaps 2 seconds from the summit

Partners Anyone?

My regular climbing partner has been down for two weeks with a wrist injury (from climbing) so I've been climbing with all sorts of different partners - basically anyone I can find who has a pulse and can hold the belay rope. This got me to thinking that you learn the most when you are out with people who are either better than you or worse than you.

If you climb/ski/mountaineer with better climbers/skiers/mountaineers than yourself you can learn an enormous amount from these people. Similarly, if you climb/ski/mountaineer with people who are less skilled than yourself, you get pushed beyond your comfort zone and have the opportunity to learn a lot too. Simply being fully responsible for leading every pitch, doing all the navigation and route finding, assessing stability, and making every single decision that has to be made in the course of the trip can be a huge learning experience.

Conversely, we learn the least when we recreate with people at about our own level of ability. In these situations bad habits, poor decisions, and sloppy skills often get reinforced as neither person has the expertise to correct the other.

The caveat to all this, of course, is that you are actually open and willing to learn, and, that, of course, is the hardest part. Most of us prefer to think we know everything. But be careful, you could be suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect. 

Route-finding on a KMC trip up the west ridge of Mount Kitchener

Could it be...

The end of the interminable rains that have plagued this spring?  

Today, although the routes were a bit wet  in spots, we managed to climb almost an entire day before the rains came.  And, even then, they were light and not nearly as widespread as they have been for the past few weeks.  Could the monsoon finally be over?