The heat and humidity push my thoughts to cooler things. This past Sunday, on my typical Queen City Bakery run, I did my usual perusing of the Sunday New York Times. A story in the Travel section was on Glacier National Park.
According to the article there were, at one (1) time, one-hundred-fifty (150) different glaciers in the park. Now there are only twenty-five (25). The article went on to suggest the remaining glaciers will recede and be gone in roughly a decade. This makes me want to get to that park sooner rather than later. I’ve never seen a glacier but I have prepared for them.
A few years ago I went to Estes Park, Colorado to attend mountaineering school. Most of the school took place in
Rocky Mountain National Park. There are no glaciers there. But, in late April, there’s plenty of snow at higher elevations.
There’s also plenty of Elk. Elk poop is approximately the same size, and about the same color as, Milk Duds. The locals call them Elk Duds. But, I digress…..
Though we did not get to be on any glaciers we did learn about them and how to traverse them. One (1) thing you do, when traveling in a group across a glacier, is to “rope up.” This means you and your expedition mates fasten yourselves to a climbing rope. The theory being, if one of you falls into a crevasse, the other members of the expedition drop to the ground with all their body weights on their ice axe arresting the slide and fall.
But, there’s more to it than that. In addition to “roping up” you fasten your backpack to you with a shorter rope. If you fall into a crevasse, you’ll need to get your ass out. By making a simple block and tackle you can ascend a rope while your pack stays momentarily put. The idea is you’re hoisting, momentarily, less weight up the rope.
The other thing you do is arrange a make-shift toe loop with another short piece of rope. This is your other device to ascend the rope if you’re in a crevasse. Though there were none to fall into in Rocky Mountain National Park, we were able to practice. We do ascents up the rope while dangling over a cliff.
We practiced all sorts of things having to do with mountaineering in addition to glacial travel. We’d be walking along over a snow field on a steep slope when the instructor would stop and yell, “Rig for glacial travel!” This meant secure your pack with the simple block and tackle, rope up, and affix your toe loop to the rope. Then we’d continue on across the snow field. The instructor would be somewhere in the middle of the group. All of a sudden he’d yell, “FALL!” This is what you’re supposed to do if you loose your footing and start to slide or find yourself heading down a crevasse. The others in the group were supposed to immediately drop to a prone position with their body weight driving the pick end of the ice axe into the snow. The instructor would be sliding but we’d stop his slide when the rope tensioned and transferred his motion through the rope to our climbing harness, through our bodies, and into the ice axe.
Of the schools and classes I’ve attended, mountaineering school was one (1) of the hardest but also one (1) of the most fun.
The article I read this past Sunday brought back the vivid memories of that trip. It also made we want to get done with the singletrack project even quicker. I’ve a ton of climbing gear. I’ve not used it all year. That’s a goddamn shame.
Ride On.
