Team Mango

yet another foiled mango base camp attempt

in my continuing efforts to complete the requirements for the intermediate climbing class, i signed up to climb the west ridge of mt. thompson this past weekend. the trip was orginally schedule for saturday/sunday, but because the weather forecast called for rain on both of those days and clear skies on monday, we made a last minute decision to take advantage of the labor day holiday and the improving forecast for monday, and switched the climb to sunday/monday.

the plan was to hike 8 miles up the pacific crest trail (PCT) to ridge lake, then leave the trail and go up over bumblebee pass and down into the basin just south of mt. thompson to camp for the night. on monday, we would then climb up a gully to the west ridge of mt. thompson, begin the climb from there to the summit, and then rappel down the east ridge back to base camp and hike out that night.

sunday morning, i carpooled up to snoqualmie pass with stuart robertson (a bloak from scotland), and colt de wolf (from america) — both second year intermediate students. we pulled up to the trailhead at 10:30a and met up with the rest of our team — jordan and steve (last names unknown) and our leader, steve mckim. we were all rarin’ to go, so we hit the trail right away. the skies were cloudy with a few sucker-holes, but it didn’t look like it was going to burn off any time that day.

about 30 minutes into the approach, i got stung by a bee on the side of my left knee. perfect. i then had a shooting pain up the side of my left leg for the rest of the day. about 4 miles in, we stopped for a lunch break. while eating, a woman came back down the trail asking if any of us had a first aid kit. we asked what was wrong and she said her husband had a blister and needed some moleskin (the bottom part of the trial, by the way, was completely clogged with unequipped day-hikers).

moving on, we passed the infamous “kendall catwalk” — a section of trail that passes under kendall peak and has a precipitous drop to one side. we joked about its reputation for being scary since, although it does have a nasty drop to one side, the trail is about 10 feet wide and it completely flat. you could almost drive a car down the catwalk.

by 3:30p, we reached ridge lake. the clouds were looking heavier, so we made a group decision to camp here and see what the weather did during the night, then make a go/no go decision in the morning. we hiked around to the far side of the lake and found plentiful campsites. jordan and i set up our bivy sacks and the other guys had tents. it had started to sprinkle, so we found a group of trees under which to set up our kitchen and cooked our meals. by the end of dinner, it was raining pretty hard. i was a bit wiped out after the hike in, so i ran and jumped in my bivy sack at about 6:00p.

i woke up a few times throughout the evening to hear the rain pounding our campsite. i had my bivy sack completely closed up except for one tiny hole for air. at the corner of the velcro closure, though, the rain was leaking in and sending a trickle down the side of my bag. i fiddled with it for a while, but no luck. at midnight, the rain had let up a bit, but the winds started up. and at 2:00a, all was quiet and the stars were out.

steve m. woke us all up at 4:00a (when we had planned to start our climb) to tell us that we were going to call off the climb. there was just too much rain during the night, and since the climb was on the west ridge, it would see any sunlight until the afternoon and would be wet for most of the day. we all gladly went back to sleep.

we all roused around 8:00a and began talking about hot coffee (those guys did anyway) and pancakes. we packed up and headed back down the trail.

just beyond the kendall catwalk, a couple guys decided to look for a shortcut that went staight down an avalanche debris field and would cut a couple miles off the hike. my immediate reaction was “uh, do we have time for shortcuts?”. but of course, since we all had the time in the world, they decided to go for it (while i mildly protested). the first part went over a boulder field, but later we found ourselves in thick brush. the brush itself wouldn’t have been so bad had the plants not been loaded up with raindrops from the previous night. within about 10 minutes, we were all completely soaked. i was swimming in my boots. by the bottom of the debris field, the brush was so thick i couldn’t see anything i was stepping on and fell several times on slimy, wet branches of ferns and blueberry bushes. we found the trail in about 30 minutes (probably about the same amount of time it would have taken to walk the long way on the trail). i was thinking “that was the stupidest fucking idea!”, but i was too wet and too pissed to say anything and sloshed down the remainder of the trail.

we got back to the cars by 11:30a, then made a bee-line for the pancake house at snoqualmie pass. a giant plate of chorizo con huevos and a tall glass of OJ lifted my spirits and we spent the rest of the morning discussing our stupid president over breakfast.

i’m scheduled to do the same climb again this coming weekend as a day climb, but the weather is looking even worse right now…

Posted by jason at September 6, 2005 10:26 AM