Scrambling with Mum, Larry, Mark, Keri, Josh, Matthew, Tony and Pat.

Hiking with Mum, Larry, Mark, Keri, Josh, Matthew, Tony and Pat. We started this scramble with nine and ended it with four. No.... the other five didn't plummet to their deaths down the vertical walls of this striking little peak.....they just chose to turn around once we got to the east side of the mountain. 

From there, Mark, our Mum, Matt, and I continued on around the back of the mountain towards the summit. Upon reaching the ridge, there were stunning views of the mountain's sheer south face. We didn't quite make the true summit, but settled for a lower summit cairn. I was very impressed that Mum made it that far. Overall, a very pleasant day and a scramble that I'm sure I'll complete someday.

Some of the troops: Larry, Tony, me, Mark, and Josh

          The airy south face of the mountain          .....the same thing with people: Mum, Mark 

                                                                        and Matt 

    
Mum at the summit

Mount Yamnuska II  

• February 8, 2002

Solo scramble. Wow! Talk about stupid! I'm glad I can look back at this hike and laugh about it now, but I wasn't laughing at the time. It was snowing in the morning, but the forecast predicted clearing in the afternoon - boy, were they wrong! It got worse as the day went on and I was pretty much in a blizzard as I made my descent. The thick and low-lying clouds made visibility extremely poor - perhaps 20-30 m. I didn?t make it to the top because of icy conditions on the mountain and weather concerns. On the way down I tried to take a short cut down a steep, narrow gully. The snow was deep and I thought it would be sufficient enough to prevent me from falling. I thought wrong - underneath the snow was a thick layer of ice and about 5 m down the gully my foot slipped on the ice and I went feet first down the gully. I was sliding extremely fast and I couldn't stop myself. Also, I couldn't see a thing because snow was flying into my face as I went down. I was completely out of control and I spun around and was now going head first on my back. I managed to turn over onto to my front , but I was still going head first and I was just waiting to smash head first into the side rock of the gully or fly right over the edge of the cliff. I was certain that I was going to die or be seriously injured. It was the scariest 30 seconds of my life (so far..). I suddenly hit something (a large rock or snow pile) and went flying into the air, doing a complete 180 in mid-air, and landing on my back (facing forward now) in a snow bank at the side of the gully. I sat up, swearing my face off, in quite a state of shock. I had no obvious injuries, but I thought I might have internal injuries, as my side and stomach hurt quite a bit (it turned out to be nothing and I was fine a few days later). The only real casualty was Mark's trekking pole that I let go of while on the ride! It's up there somewhere!

I got down the rest of the mountain as fast as I could - not only because I was completely freaked out by the fall, but also because the snow was falling fast and I couldn't find my ascent tracks or see anything more than 30 m away. As well as being the scariest, it was obviously also one of the luckiest days of my life. If I had not hit that snow pile or rock I almost certainly would have gone right over the cliff and died. I hope I learned my lesson!

Ps. I want that trekking pole back, so I'm going back to get it soon!

    
On the summit ridge; a cloudy and snowy day

    
This was about as far as I got; visibility was very low and the snow started to come quite hard; this picture taken about 20 minutes before "the incident"; I wasn't smiling much after that!