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uasunflower
Oct 18, 2006, 8:03 AM
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Suddenly, from my dark black hole I saw lights. Helicopter overhead, do we need rescue? was yelling Renaud. A half-second afterwards I was yelling yes and watching the helicopter fly off, reminding me of some solo ascent stories I was reading just a day before from John Long’s collection.
*****
The approach was rather painless. I ate too much in the train trying to compensate the reduced food ratio we adapted for the climb, but still managed to walk the more or less horizontal trail leading to the base. It was very much similar to Cima Grande’s North face approach, as casually touristy with gaping mouths and rolling stones all over. However my heart was beating a higher drum than usual, my face kept to burning red, and I continued my mental game of ‘everything is ok, look, it’s just a pillar, like any other pillar you’ve seen or climbed this summer – Pic de Bure, Tête d’Aval, Grand Cap, they all were there in my memory to reassure and feed with confidence. But it didn’t work. My partner, Renaud, probably still thought the wall was not as impressive as it should be – and yes, it is the usual reaction one gets while being confronted with some mythic reality – meanwhile I was shaky. Eiger Nordwand – how did I ever dare come out here, with my meager means and fat ambitions ? I’m human, I did.
http://uasunflower.blogs.friendster.com/...inter/wetterhorn.JPG
We started up after usual preparations, with Renaud ticking off the first pitch. Getting up the 6a+ with my backpack helped me concentrate on the task at hand and forget my metaphysical worries. However it proved very tiresome – carrying a sleeping bag, pad, down jacket and food is not that much for real alpinists like Mike Twight or Reinhold – but for me it was already probably over 10% of my weight, and i darkly thought about the 21 pitches to follow.
Thanks god for this reversing leads idea! I hopped on the sharp end abandoning the pack and enjoying the quality limestone and technical climbing. No give-always, the pitches followed in good Piola style, with a couple of bolts per 40 to 50 meter, sustained slab climbing. Our extra friends and nuts didn’t help that much as the rock kept compact and polished – even worse than the dolomite that we have experienced some this summer.
October sun was getting up the valley – but our surroundings didn’t change any from that gloomy grey with streaks of white around. Calm and lonely, soulless and remote.
http://uasunflower.blogs.friendster.com/.../winter/climbing.JPG
Oh my, this is only the 4th pitch and it’s already 11 39?! OK, switch the mind off, and go run up that 5c! Somehow things felt easy – but after the full rope and some simulclimbing I still couldn’t see a belay anchor anywhere near. A crack was there though, there I went with my friends happily in action. Renaud was less happy and tried different ways, 20m up, then right, then down. Sure I did it all wrong – despite the topo showing a straight vertical pitch, the anchor is 50m to our right…Too bad, another hour lost, we moved through the relatively easy terrain to our next departure point. Renaud takes up the bag and leads up. He’s certainly the man as I find again the lost pleasure of going over rock without kilos of overweight hanging off my shoulders and dragging me into the abyss below.
So things go, another 5c that feels much harder this time – at least I know I’m on route – than another scary pitch that I hardly manage to follow, a supposedly 6a+ traverse with 3 bolts and lots of air. Piola sure didn’t waist any of his precious little rings on this lower part of the climb. The pillar above us is still as close and as inviting, yellow overhangs with some icicles hanging off the wall. Getting to the top becomes less and less of a possibility for my over-concentrated brain.
That’s about where first snowflakes start to appear. My brain immediately reacts with the image burnt into my nerves – smiling sun for the next three days. Sure, but we’re on Eiger…The cloud is on us and neighboring Jungfrau, the couple proudly shrouded in the white veil. Sun is there too, happy and joyful over Kleine Sheidegg and Shlithorn. Grindelwald looks like a fairy-tale village from some picturesque postcard – and we are 10 pitches up.
http://uasunflower.blogs.friendster.com/photos/winter/grind.JPG
After a 6b that doesn’t feel that hard despite the snow, I gear up for an apparently easier 6a. Snow falls and melts over the inviting slabs. I can see the bolts, and go up mumbling the usual song to myself – I don’t know if I can do this – I don’t know if I can do this – I don’t know…
At the last bolt things get really wet and uncomfortable. I don’t hesitate a second to step into my sling. Still, the next couple of moves above the bolt are tricky – there are feet (wet and snowy) but for hands I have to reach higher up to a shelf with almost a dyno after stepping out of the sling, using the bolt for its best friction, and making a couple further highsteps. Exposure is not that great, moves are certainly doable, I hesitate a couple of times and then commit. My right foot miraculously holds in place. The next ledge is too high; I desperately use my left knee to balance on it and reach with my left hand for the shelf above. Sure it’s a good shelf – but encrusted with pebbles, sand and garbage brought through with melted snow. A last acrobatic swing and I’m saved. A strong desire to vomit rushes through my stomach. I stay there for a couple of minutes to regain composure. Oh my, I’m sure not going to lead the next one!
Renaud comes up slowly, and even mentions ‘take’ a couple of times, something I’m not used to hearing with him. He’s up. We still have one more pitch to go to get to the liberating cave – the first sight for a bivy mentioned in the guidebook. If we get there, we can sleep (last night was a short one with only 5 hours after the long drive from Belgium), revitalize, and hope for that smiling sun from Mme Soleil weather forecast to prove this whole stupid mountain wrong and make it miraculously dry again.
Renaud goes up. The going is still 6a, still slab, with few bolts in sight. It has been snowing for already 2 hours; it is hard to deny, even for the most optimistic, climbing-clouded brain, that it is dry and comfy. After the second bolt he starts making his characteristic sounds of the ‘tough going’. He hesitates, but he’s strong, he’s fit, he onsights 7a in the gym, he goes for it. Suddenly I’m jolted off my stance and bang my body into the wall. He’s down, and my dynamic belaying got him 10m below the bolt. He seems ok, I feel probably worse than he does, he recovers and goes up. It’s still snowing – a bit unreal, Christmas-like atmosphere; at least we don’t see the sun in the valley anymore.
Sure the chimney to the left of the bolt line looks easier. Now he opens his mind to my wise advice of experienced chicken. There he goes. But the bolts are too far to his right, on the wet slab. He gets a sling around a constriction, goes higher and I loose his sight. Suddenly I see something swoosh through the air – and Renaud follows. The fall is a bit longer this time, fortunately the sling holds. My yellow cam is lost in the abyss though.
Consequences are worse this time – he has trouble breathing, looks like some ribs on his left side might be broken. After a couple of minutes he carefully asks me if I don’t want to try leading the pitch – it’s only a couple of meters that separate us from the cave. After a look at his whitening face and blue lips, I take over. No, we are going down, NOW! I lower him, pull the ropes and the epic rappels start.
Through the climbing we already mentioned between us that it would probably be difficult to descend due to the diagonal nature of the line. Now we will have to find out. I pack my irrational (or maybe rational enough seeing all those ledges with heaps of debris) fear of rappels deep below my skin, take over the backpack and go off. Snow keeps falling. Traversing is more and more draining as everything is now completely soaked – starting with my down jacket, shoes, backpack and certainly the rock. We somehow manage five or six of them, until I take a wrong anchor too much to the right. And what an anchor it is! An old bolt and a screw tied off with a nut, both screws looking like these pins one uses in the office to clip different papers to the wall.
I am daring, I believe our rope will reach the ledge below – I go down again. It’s dusk, light gives up on us, our efforts are boring and senseless anyway. Sure, things turn around and boomerang back, and as that time in Callanques with Gabe, just before our unplanned bivy on the Traversée sans Rétour, I see the rope swinging in the air – or rather I guess it swinging in the air as I don’t even have my headlamp ready. Remember Freedom of the Hills and where they mention you should practice your knots under a cold shower in your bathroom with the lights switched off? Yeah, that’s exactly it, with a difference that my mind keeps reminding me in a frigid voice, very reminiscent of my mom’s, that I’m hanging off an anchor from the 50ies on the north face of the Eiger, THE EIGER damn it, clipping in my prussic and trying to go up – with my backpack, the snow, the rain, the mountain that all want me down.
After half an hour of effort and some 5 meters gained on the rope (have you tried prussiking up wet ropes on overhanging terrain with a heavy backpack? Just break one foot in the process and it’s as close to Touching the Void as you can get…) I finally get to the vertical jugs again and Renaud belays me back up to our impasse for the night. At this moment we see a helicopter overhead.
Sure, I managed to forget – we are not in the 30ies when poor Germans and Austrians were trying to prove how fit and strong they were and the best way to do it was dying on the Eiger; we are not even in the 50ies when proud new generation banged off the summit continuously despite some wreckage in the process – we are in the conceited 21st century, helicopter taxi service is available for most willing and rich enough to have a cell phone or at least a strong headlamp.
Helicopter makes a couple of circles, rescues some more unfortunate optimists on the Normal route, and picks us up in the process – after the dispatcher yells at me for five minutes that they are not a taxi service – while I manage to collect myself and remember in time that my partner does have a broken rib which qualifies this rescue for a superhero effort and not the taxi ride the rescue team so much fears.
Hmm, all this to just tell you that Eiger is still a horrendous mountain, despite the gore-tex , rubber, and super-light and super-strong equipment of our brave new world. Going back into my dreams again.
***
Here is the picture of our route up the Geneva Pillar, Chant du Cygne by Michel Piola...
http://uasunflower.blogs.friendster.com/...er/geneva_pillar.JPG
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tisar
Oct 18, 2006, 8:44 AM
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Maybe the most thrilling read I had for a long time. And that's about all I can say in a positive way.
I may not know why, but I somehow like you a bit. That's why I beg you, beg you on knees, to switch on your fecking brain next time. Bravery is one thing, but stop that before you get yourself or one of your partners killed. If guys like stone shake their head over your plans, this might be the best time to head back to bed, snug into your blanket and have a long, long thought about them.
Hope Renaud will recover soon. Glad you're okay. And a little disappointed that the dispatcher didn't beat the shit out of you. I'd have done, believe me.
- Daniel
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overlord
Oct 18, 2006, 8:48 AM
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nice story. could you have made it withou the rescue though? just wondering.
i hope he heals fast. broken ribs suck big time. oh, and
In reply to: he onsights 7a in the gym
is not qualification for eiger :P
and mountains will always be dangerous. nature always has some teeth in store to bite you in the @ss :wink:
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paolo75
Oct 18, 2006, 9:08 AM
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oh boy...UA, with all the due respect...will you ever learn?
Seriously...why you keep on having this sturm-und-drang behavior towards mountain?
Why you keep on choosing routes that are way ahead your current possibilities? are you enjoying or it's just a "I have to do!!" kind of thing?
The only thing I feel I have to say is Watch out UA...as you might have noticed this last time, this can be a dangerous game.
With friendship.
P.
ps: I hope Renaud is ok. Please say hallo by my side.
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uasunflower
Oct 18, 2006, 9:09 AM
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In reply to: nice story. could you have made it withou the rescue though? just wondering.
probably - it would have been a very uncomfortable and cold night, with more unhappy traversing and scrambling to get off the wall - but we were not exactly totally desperate yet...but then, now, we'll never know...
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chrtur
Oct 18, 2006, 10:26 AM
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UA, I looked several times when I saw the topic title :D
Very good written story which captures the climbing epic very nice.
I have some questions:
How did you plan the climb? How many days? What did you bring? Weatherforecast? Was there a lot of rockfalls?
What about the helicopterrescue? How did it feel to use it? The cost?
What about Renaud? How is he doing? Did you go to the hospital?
- Christian
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booger
Oct 18, 2006, 10:27 AM
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UA, how did they get you into the helicopter? Did you get attached to something and then fly through the air :shock: ? Did they do you one at a time :shock: ? Who were t he other people in the chopper? What happened to them? I would have been shitting myself!!!! Anyway, please describe that part too!
Please send our best wishes to Renaut, keep us updated on his recovery, and let us know if there is anything we can do to keep him from the pain of boredom while he's on the mend!
-boogah
ps... guess this means he's not coming to Fonti this weekend, but you'll be bouldering for a while, eh? :)
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mikes
Oct 18, 2006, 12:57 PM
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very good read. I have climbed a different route up the pillar in July 2000. We also had snow/ice on the rock, a storm cloud move in and bad protection. Despite all this is a great mountain.
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uasunflower
Oct 18, 2006, 2:28 PM
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In reply to: I have some questions: How did you plan the climb? How many days? What did you bring? Weatherforecast? Was there a lot of rockfalls? What about the helicopterrescue? How did it feel to use it? The cost? What about Renaud? How is he doing? Did you go to the hospital? - Christian
Plan was for 2 days as the climb is 1000 meters and days are short now. We thus brought a bag with sleeping bag, pad, Taboulet for food + some energy bars and 2lt of water. There are 2 spots for good bivies mentioned on the topo, a cave after 10 pitches and a ledge after 15.
Weather forecast was good throughout the week before, we already looked at the face one of the previous w-ends and knew it needed a day or two to dry after rain, but doesn't have much snow during this time of year as it's pretty vertical. Forecast for the w-end had perfect sunshine throughout switzerland and french alps until at least monday.
Theree was very little rockfall - it's much more dangerous from what it appears on normal route. Overall maybe 2 or 3 times with small stones that didn't touch or impress us.
Helicopter - took us a second looking up the anchor, the possible bivy spot and our drenched cloths to decide. It's there so why not use it? I know, it's open for debate, but i never pretended to be anything more than a big chicken...Cost - will find out, normally covered by Belgian Alpine Club's insurance policy.
Renaud - spent the night in Interlaken hospital where they did loads of tests and x-rays and let us go mid-sunday morning with painkillers. Very nice and welcoming for a hospital...
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uasunflower
Oct 18, 2006, 2:41 PM
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In reply to: UA, how did they get you into the helicopter? Did you get attached to something and then fly through the air :shock: ? Did they do you one at a time :shock: ? Who were t he other people in the chopper? What happened to them? I would have been s--- myself!!!! Anyway, please describe that part too!
That was pretty spectacular for me as it was my first time. They came over with this super powerful lamp, looked things over, there were ledges above us, so they moved close to the wall on higher ledges, a guy came down and took us one at a time, with a kind of strong sling with inversed Y attached to his cable and then himself and your harness. They took Renaud first, then came back for me. You fly through the air on this cable - probably 30m lower than helicopter, then they get you to the helicopter level and land. It was not that bad in the dark - i was hypothermic and trying hard to manage my shivering rather than thinking clearly about my surroundings.
Before they had to evacuate, also one by one, another pair from the normal route, apparently the leader fell and had problem with his basin - more serious than us apparently.
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stone_d_cologne
Oct 18, 2006, 2:50 PM
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In reply to: The value of the high mountains is that of the men who measure themselves against them: otherwise they are no more than heaps of stone. W Bonatti
I climbed my first 8b last weekend. beautiful day with good friends in a golden october setting.
that heap of stone is an invaluable thing now!
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uasunflower
Oct 18, 2006, 2:58 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: The value of the high mountains is that of the men who measure themselves against them: otherwise they are no more than heaps of stone. W Bonatti I climbed my first 8b last weekend. beautiful day with good friends in a golden october setting. that heap of stone is an invaluable thing now!
tastes differ :wink:
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shakylegs
Oct 18, 2006, 3:10 PM
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In reply to: Plan was for 2 days as the climb is 1000 meters and days are short now. We thus brought a bag with sleeping bag, pad, Taboulet for food + some energy bars and 2lt of water. There are 2 spots for good bivies mentioned on the topo, a cave after 10 pitches and a ledge after 15.
Well, that’s your problem right there. You brought Taboulet. What you should have done is to bring Cassoulet. Hmmm, duck confit, sausages, pork belly, pork rind, white beans. Um, wait, this is a climbing board. Never mind.
Glad you’re okay. Your kids will one day be able to tell their friends what a hard-ass their mommy is.
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heiko
Oct 18, 2006, 3:13 PM
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UA, you're "famous" (thx Paolo for the link)
http://www.rega.ch/...ilungen.aspx?id=1440
(Italian language)
There are safer and easier ways to get press coverage, you know. :roll:
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uasunflower
Oct 18, 2006, 3:15 PM
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Thanks, shaky, you're right, as always! It's your fault anyway, with all those books of yours - i had to do smth to get out of my couch and stop reading :shock: 8^)
In reply to: Some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help |
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core
Oct 18, 2006, 3:32 PM
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Wow Julia, nice piece! You still as ambitious as ever! :lol: I have no criticism, just stay strong and healthy.
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core
Oct 18, 2006, 3:35 PM
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In reply to: How hard-ass is it really to be choppered out from a ledge up 1/3 of the Eiger North face? Geez guys, are you all a bit morbid?
It's be pretty hardass is you were ape-hanging on one arm from a heli-skid as it roared away! (Especially if you dynoed to it!)
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stone_d_cologne
Oct 18, 2006, 9:16 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: In reply to: The value of the high mountains is that of the men who measure themselves against them: otherwise they are no more than heaps of stone. W Bonatti I climbed my first 8b last weekend. beautiful day with good friends in a golden october setting. that heap of stone is an invaluable thing now! tastes differ :wink:
I doubt that my taste for the mountains I climb and want to climb differs greatly from your taste (as our successful trip to grand cap might have proven), but our tastes of the ways we want to die do differ for sure.
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timstich
Oct 19, 2006, 12:19 AM
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Wow Julia! Your trip report was incredible! I'm glad everything turned out alright with the descent and the helicopter. What was the name of the route you were attempting? Does it go up the right side of the Eiger North Face? I had heard there were routes there with bolts. No doubt about it, you are both pretty bold. And it is funny, when I was walking below the Eiger for the first time, I didn't get the sense that it was so big after all. But it is, is it not? Ha.
Thanks for writing that.
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uasunflower
Oct 19, 2006, 7:39 AM
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tim, exactly, it doesn't look that big...route was on the right side, on what is called Geneva pillar, it's still 1000m long and hardly covers half of the actual face. It's number 24 on this pic, called Chant du Cygne - the prominent diagnal line in orange on the right.
http://alp1.deasil.com/media/ALP02/eiger.jpg
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heiko
Oct 19, 2006, 7:52 AM
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In reply to: It's be pretty hardass is you were ape-hanging on one arm from a heli-skid as it roared away!
Excuse me guys, but could anyone please explain this sentence to me? Guess my English is not quite up the par this morning.
In reply to: I doubt that my taste for the mountains I climb and want to climb differs greatly from your taste (as our successful trip to grand cap might have proven), but our tastes of the ways we want to die do differ for sure.
trophy.
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stone_d_cologne
Oct 19, 2006, 9:39 AM
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In reply to: In reply to: It's be pretty hardass is you were ape-hanging on one arm from a heli-skid as it roared away! Excuse me guys, but could anyone please explain this sentence to me? Guess my English is not quite up the par this morning.
es waere ziemlich hartarschig gewesen, wenn sie affengleich an einem arm von der kufe des helikopters gehangen haette als er weggeflogen ist.
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tisar
Oct 19, 2006, 9:48 AM
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In reply to: In reply to: In reply to: It's be pretty hardass is you were ape-hanging on one arm from a heli-skid as it roared away! Excuse me guys, but could anyone please explain this sentence to me? Guess my English is not quite up the par this morning. es waere ziemlich hartarschig gewesen, wenn sie affengleich an einem arm von der kufe des helikopters gehangen haette als er weggeflogen ist.
Your translation lacks the weird grammar twistes though. Hartarschig? Wonderful! :lol:
- Daniel
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heiko
Oct 19, 2006, 9:49 AM
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In reply to: In reply to: In reply to: It's be pretty hardass is you were ape-hanging on one arm from a heli-skid as it roared away! Excuse me guys, but could anyone please explain this sentence to me? Guess my English is not quite up the par this morning. es waere ziemlich hartarschig gewesen, wenn sie affengleich an einem arm von der kufe des helikopters gehangen haette als er weggeflogen ist.
:lol:
google translator tells me this:
"Es ist ist hübsche hardass ist du Affe-hing an einem Arm von einem Heligleiter, wie es weg brüllte!"
uh, sry for the short hijack. over and out.
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