This is a very important thing to discover if you are going to climb mountains.
I discovered this just trying to climb a 11,000 foot peak at age 17 with my father and a friend of his from church. We were sleeping at somewhere between 9000 feet and 10,000 feet when I woke up throwing up and I just kept throwing up which is a reaction to the altitude usually when this happens.
So, my father and his friend and I all packed up quickly because my father recognized the problem immediately and we all started hiking down in the middle of the night so I could breathe normally again and stop throwing up and being AIR sick. The only problem was I was too messed up to summit that weekend too so this was difficult for "An Immortal 17 year old" to cope with.
Later when I was 22 I was climbing Mt. Shasta and we stopped to sleep at around 8000 feet at tree line. Though I didn't sleep very well that night because I didn't bring a warm enough sleeping bag for this climb I finally got up at 2 am and told my climbing buddies that they could catch up to me as I would just climb as fast as I could keep warm and not set to grueling a pace for myself. They weren't happy I was going up alone but realized I was cold and had to keep moving to climb the mountain.
So, I set off alone and eventually they all caught up with me and actually I think I let all three other guys pass me then that day. At that point I wasn't sure I was going to summit or not but finally I was the last one to summit and also one of us got airsick at 11,000 feet which is pretty normal too unless you know how to breathe at altitude so you don't get sick. By 11,000 feet you need to be breathing about twice as fast as normal to not get airsick (this is true of most people by the way). So, you really have to pace yourself above 10,000 feet to not get airsick climbing almost anywhere. So, most people need some training to do this but this was 1970 so we were just young men and bold and just did it then because this was more normal then.
So, I summited then at around 4 pm but it was August so the sun wasn't going to set until around 8 or 9 pm that far north still. So, after summiting by myself at 4 pm I knew I was going to make a pretty fast trip down because I had brought plastic (greenhouse plastic) to slide down on once I got to around 10,000 feet going down. So, my trip to 8000 feet was extremely fast and at that time I used an ice axe as a brake so I didn't die.
Most people don't recommend doing it this way now because some people lose their ice axes and then they slide to their deaths and die because of the steepness of the slope between 11,000 feet and 8000 feet to Horse Camp. However, then people used a strap tied to the handle and so you were less likely to lose your ice axe when you used it as a brake.
However, if you got your ice axe ripped out of your hand by the force of the snow moving by that fast it could also kill you at 20 or 30 miles per hour going down the snowy slopes of Mt. Shasta that year in 1970 when I was 22.
However, I think boys and men my age then were used to taking more risks in general than most people today are so we thought nothing to doing this then and I survived summiting and the slide back on the snow to Horse Camp before Dark and then we went back into Mt. Shasta to a restaurant that made great Vegeburgers then called "Marilyn's" and had a great dinner but boy were we tired. But we were happy because three of the four of us had summited mt. Shasta.
Note: by the way this year there is still snow on Mt. Shasta so you could likely do this (at least now) in Early July but I have no idea at present whether there will be enough snow to slide down for example, in August or September because conditions keep changing all the time every year.
For example, they haven't opened the Gate to Panther Meadows and above from Bunny Flat yet either for whatever the reason. So, you cannot drive to Panther Meadows this year and I suppose it is possible that they might not open the road to Panther Meadows this year at all so you cannot get there by Car or Truck (at least for now) not sure later.
No comments:
Post a Comment