who took my beer?

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October 22, 2016

 [Bowman] Want a beer?

 [Hemlock] You gonna call room service?

 [Bowman]  We got beer.

 [Hemlock] If you hauled beer up this rock, you’re insane.

 [Bowman]  I may be insane, but I’m not stupid.

 [Bowman]  I didn’t carry it, you did it. It’s in your pack.

 [Hemlock] Jesus Christ! I ought to throw you off this pillar.

 [Hemlock] Besides, it’s warm.

 [Bowman] I’m sorry.

[Bowman] I’d thought you’d draw the line at hauling ice.

– Eiger Sanction Quote

East meets West

At least there was going to be some ice! This was going to be my first alpine trip back in British Columbia since we had moved away. It was also going to be a bit of a reunion and there were going to be some new faces added to the mix. One thing we were gonna climb was Mt Baker. I have written a piece about Baker before, but this one is different. Baker is a great climb and there is a saying that goes something like; ‘if you do Mt. Baker as your first alpine climb you will be hooked for life’. This certainly wasn’t going to be my first alpine climb, not by a long shot, nor was it my first climb of Baker. This was actually my 6^th trip up Baker. All but one time had been from this route.

But it was going to be the first alpine route for 3 of our group.

There were 7 of us all together and we had a blast. Mt Baker really is a great introduction to mountaineering. It has a conservative approach and the climbing is mostly mellow and non-threatening, but with enough spicy sections thrown in to make it feel like you are actually doing some ‘climbing’. And of course if the weather happens to go south on you, all bets are off as to how easy it’s going to be.

We got a leisurely start to the day and enjoyed the friendly hike in. We camped at the traditional climber’s camp at the top of Heliotrope Ridge. This spot can get crowded but fortunately we had our pick of the place. Only later did we need to share the area and that was with a small group of US Army Rangers. Hooah!

As we were unpacking and making camp I discovered that I had been unknowingly carrying a six-pack of beer that someone had surreptitiously stashed in my pack when I wasn’t looking. KK…! Well at least he had carried in the same amount himself.

We did the whole crack of dark start thing the next morning. I can’t recall exactly how we arranged ourselves in roped teams, but I think one guy turned back relatively early. I can’t imagine letting him go back alone un-roped but hey… maybe that happened. I do recall feeling pretty sick at the base of the Roman Wall and I called it a day at that point. I did descend un-roped however. Probably justifying it to myself because of my experience, blah, blah, blah. Well, fortunately nothing untoward happened on the descent, but it quite well could have and it was a dumb move. Being un-roped on a glacier is just plain stupid. Even more so if it has a lot of snow on it like this one had at the time.

Eventually the other lads made it back to camp having had a great and successful summit bid. It was now time to tuck into some of those celebratory brews.  Wait a minute! What the $#ck? They were gone! There were only two prime choices for suspects. Marmots or US Army Rangers. Hooah!