Part 1
This is certainly a pleasant way to spend time waiting for the hound; kayaking around False Creek and English Bay. I got to the downtown bus terminal in Vancouver around six pm. It being a Friday evening I didn’t hold out much hope that any of my friends would be at home, and my bus wasn’t scheduled to depart for another six hours or so. I phone Colin anyway, and he was home, and said he would be right over. So, when he shows up he has two kayaks on the car. We head down to the ocean and start paddling. It’s dark by now and we have to be on the lookout for powerboats that can’t see us, but this is so very cool. Eventually after a nice harbor tour we head back, load up the boats and head for a couple of beers. All too soon we have to say goodbye and I am trying to get comfortable in my bus seat. I am beginning to question not taking the train like Doug has done, but as the night progresses the ride is not so bad and I manage to get some shuteye after all.
It’s mid-morning by the time the bus finally rolls into Valemont at the gas station/bus stop where Scott and Doug are supposed to meet me. Scott drove from Calgary, where he had flown to from the Big Smoke, and borrowed one of his salesman’s cars. This poor guy’s car is really loaded down with us and all our gear.
Our only order of business now is to head on over to the helicopter company and see when we can fly out. The weather is mostly clear with some big puffy clouds, and the pilot informs us we can leave in one hour. We quickly sort and repack gear. The pilot gives us a safety briefing and explains how he wants to take us up. He doesn’t want to land at 3,000m on the dome fully loaded because he is unsure of the landing zone and will have no wind indicators. What he will do is drop two of us lower down with some of the gear, and take one guy and the remaining gear up to the dome. He will then come back and ferry us up. Sounds like a plan. We agree that Doug will be the solo guy on the dome, and then we pack up, jump in and take off.
The flight over to Robson is breathtaking. We are all wearing headphones so we can hear the pilot and talk to each other over the noise. This mountain is huge and we are getting really excited. We touch town on the lower glacier and out jump Scott and I with two of the packs. It’s a pretty strange feeling seeing that chopper taking off. Soon however he is back and taking us on up to reunite with Doug. He takes us very close to a cliff band to take advantage of any possible updrafts to conserve on precious fuel. Even though we are a strong team with lots of gear and food we all feel a bit sobered as we see the chopper take of leaving us alone at the base of the Kain face on the most majestic mountain in the Canadian Rockies. The weather is good and we waste no time in setting up our two tents. One three man tent for sleeping in and a small two man one for our gear and food.
Once we get settled in we then proceed to make one of the worst decisions of the trip. We had been planning this trip for a long time. We had carefully gone over our gear and food, we had an excellent first aid kit, and were all very fit. We had run through a dozen possible scenarios of weather problems, sickness, or injury. We had contingency plans, and contingency plans for the contingency plans. One concern I had especially and probably foisted it overly on to the others was proper acclimatization. I was certainly the most ardent supporter of taking a conservative approach to acclimatization. This is 1989 and that was conventional wisdom in those days, and still is in some circles. Even way back in our planning stages we agreed that we would take at least one day after reaching the dome to acclimatize. So we did exactly that. And that day was probably the single best day of weather the mountain saw all season. Bluebird. Not a cloud in the sky in all directions and dead calm. Neither Doug nor Scott openly pressed the issue, but I could sense they were both eager to go that day. In retrospect I probably should have been more open to that.
The following day of course, when we awoke for our pre-dawn start we find mostly cloudy skies and the summit socked in. Not a good sign, but also not one that kept us in our bags. We decided to go for it. We got moving much later than we should have, but at least we were moving. The bergschrund crossing was fairly quick, and much easier than anticipated. As we were now on the face proper and moving up, the weather started moving down, and began deteriorating rapidly. The face itself however was in good condition. It started as firm snow that you could just kick a boot into. As we got higher the angle steepened to about fifty degrees, and started to transition to more ice than snow. We were now climbing old school traditionally and I was in the lead placing the odd ice screw between belays. It was slow going with three of us. The face was covered with steep runnels that we tried to keep to the peaks of, as there was so much spindrift pouring down the troughs. The climbing was actually fun and the exposure was not noticeable as we were completely encased in cloud and falling snow. With the increasing rate that the snow was coming down, coupled with the thunder claps, it became abundantly clear that even though we were over two thirds up the face, that pressing on in these conditions was futile, foolhardy and dangerous. We begin the descent, trying to be both cautious and quick at the same time.
Once we are settled in back at the tent we analyse the situation. We are all disappointed that we let yesterday’s good weather pass by unused. We still have lots of time and food, so we sit and wait. Days pass. There is little change in the weather. It is not terribly cold but the wind is constant and stiff and it continues to snow on and off. We find that it becomes necessary to build a snow block wall in order to shelter the tent from the incessant winds. Mostly we only go outside to use the latrine or to knock snow off of the tent. Even though it is cramped in the tent we have gotten along very well. We had a lightweight and homemade version of the board game K2, which we played several times, to while away the hours plus we each had the luxury of a book to read. But nonetheless it was starting to get old. To be continued….