Mt. Rainier Team member, taking a break, May 2009

Mt. Rainier early Morning Climb, May 2009

Hogsback, Mt. Hood, May 2009

Well, I’ll try my best to summarize my mountaineering experience between May 19-28. My mountaineering efforts in Washington and Oregon last month were met with challenges. Even though I had stood on the summit of Mt. Rainier before, this time, I chose to turn around near 12,000 ft., when a guiding group in front of us fell through a crevasse, and opened a huge chasm maybe the size of a whale, and about 30ft. below. That team was almost across a snow bridge when it broke. Three guides on that team were turning their team around. So, I asked two of the guides for their opinion, why they were turning around, and the conditions above, and they said, “too dangerous, soft bridges above.” I realized how blazing hot it was going to be coming down on slushy weak snow, plus the two of my team members were not well equipped for crevasses rescue, and my other team member was pretty set on going up. We had a little argument (actually, we were yelling, but we apologized and kissed up).  I decided to turn around with the guiding group because I didn’t feel confident about my team’s skills in the weak snow (I hardly knew them). I go with my gut, because guts have a tendency to save lives.  As I was going down with the other team, the guides asked if I was the guy at the end of the rope, and I said yes.  They said you were the wise man, and the two other guys were idiots (they had bunched up next to Kevin near the lip of the crevasse, while I went as far possible down the hill to make the rope taut in case they all fell into the crevasse).  That’s another reason I didn’t climb.  Kevin, my friend, was better than them, but one guy isn’t enough to feel confident about.  Long story short, they went up and came down.  However, one of the guys turned short from the summit suffering from cerebral adema (swelling of the brain, dizziness, throwing-up, etc.). The other two fell into crevasses twice, but not deep enough to fall completely inside. They all came down, we met up, and we devoured a huge dinner together brown and red sunburned faces (even through my beard).

The next day, I took my friend Kevin back to Seattle to fly out, and the other two guys drove back to Utah. I went to church the next morning at Mars Hill in Seattle, toured downtown Pikes Peak, and left to Mt. Hood thereafter, hoping for a solid attempt at the summit.  I went on ahead and spent the night in my truck at the base later that night, with an alpine start (at around midnight). When I woke up, there must have been 35 people in the parking leaving to climb, and another 25 at least on the trail. I quickly made some hot chocolate and oatmeal and left at about 1:30a.m., the weather was cold, but I felt good, as I was pushing hard, and managed to pass everybody I kept seeing in front me, maybe three dozen people. Only two guys off the trail passed me, and they were without backpacks, only skiis and a man purse on their back. When I got to the Hogs Back in a fast 4hrs 45mins, I heard little ice coming down. I recall the story the previous week where my friend, Kevin, was nailed by an ice chunk, and cut his lips and chin open, and saw big chunks of ice debris roaring past him. Two others were med-flighted out, and others were hit as well, so I was cautious again, walking up this far to at least check out the conditions. After looking around and examining the slope, I really wasn’t quite sure either way, but I didn’t feel threatened yet. I decided to go for it, and decided to cross the steep traverse as fast as possible. I noticed as I was walking, little ice particles coming down, but that was ok. Half way across, I was hit in the back with an ice-chunk. It didn’t hurt that bad, but it took me off my footing enough to decide that that’s enough.  The next one may take me down into the volcanic hole where I suffocate to death. I wasn’t going to play Russian roulette with the next ice chunk. I decided I was ok 500 ft. from the summit to turn around and try another day when the Hog’s Back was in better shape. Yes, I could possibly make it up without injury, but again, it had only been a week since people were med-flighted out, and I would just come back another time and attempt it again. Heck, Ed Viesturs was 300 ft. from the summit of Mt. Everest, so what gives.

As I came down fast, I decided to glissade down (sit on my butt with backpack strapped solid, and ice-axe in hand, and slide down the slope using my ice-axe as a break). And actually, I got going so fast, (it was still only about 7a.m. or so, and bit was hard ice), that I couldn’t stop myself, and decided to ride it out until it leveled out somewhere. Well, on coming to this mound on snow in my way, I thought I would launch off into oblivion. As it turns out, this mound of snow was a huge rock-hard layer that other glissaders had built up out of fear, using their legs and crotches to dig. When I came to it, My tail end popped right into the middle of it, and I felt like I had just busted my tail bone. It had knocked the wind out of me. I got up, and could barely walk another few hours back to my truck. I had to drive 10 hours home the next day. When I went to see my chiropractor two weeks later because of persisting pain, he gave me an x-ray, and said it appeared that I fractured my tailbone.

Tonight is June 19, and I am tonight sitting on a pink donut cushion my wife uses (I know pink) to take the pressure off my tailbone until it heals. I have yet to exercise or do anything that would harm or inhibit the healing of my tailbone. I will go back and attempt Mt. Hood at a later time. I am thinking when I heal, I will have to go back to intense training slowly, and build my strength back up. I have two Mt. Shasta trips planned this summer, and I hope I am able, but chances are not looking good for me. I have stood Shasta’s summit several times, and recall how steep it is from red banks down (where I glissade every time). When I am ready, I will go hard.  Next year, if I feel good, I may go up to Mt. Everest next year, at the 23,000 ft., and spend some time there before deciding to climbing to the summit a few years later. We shall see.

Our plan is we will leave at around 9:30p.m. on the trail, get up to Camp Muir (around 10,000 ft.), and sleep at about 6p.m., to get a midnight wake-up call, and an alpine ascent to summit. From Camp Muir, at Midnight, we will be walking in stable and crunchy snow, avoiding ice-fall and crevasses, roped up together. Kevin will lead the rope team, and I will be in the back with strength and ability in self arrest and crevasses rescue experience. We have four guys on the rope, with about 30ft. in between each other. Plenty of room. We expect to be at the summit around 8-10a.m. in the morning. Then after a few snapshots, we will head back down to Camp Muir, and pack up our tents and items, and head back down to our vehicles, maybe around 3-5p.m., and then head over to Seattle for Church on Sunday morning, at Mars Hill Church.

Yesterday, we went to Mount Saint Helens to check out the mountain. We took about 3 hours to drive to Mt. Rainier, and enjoy a ride with my friend, Kevin, listening to “Marriage and Men” by Mark Driscoll, from Mars Hill Church in Seattle on my ipod. Kevin was highly encouraged and challenged by the strong teaching and call to manhood. I heard it for the third time, and was challenged once again on this trip to be responsible and be a responsible voice in this group of climbers. God is blessing me and Kevin on this trip, as we are both being refreshed and felt a huge tug stay close to our Savior.

The other guys, Ray and Ramone are great guys. Ramone is from Argentina, and is a guide where he lives. Ray is an amazing rock climber and has ice-climbed with kevin up 2500 ft. ice-cliffs. We’ve got a good team, and I am blessed to be in their presence as well. We will update you when we return!

Our Team preparing for the Mt. Rainier climb the Next Day!

Kevin had summitted on Monday at the same time getting hit by ice, which is fine for our team. Maybe if there’s time on the way back, I may try again.  We’re going to head over to Mt. Rainier to prepare for the big climb.  We’re leaving today from Portland, and heading over to Mount Saint Helens to stroll around to the observatory.  Kevin and I are having fun, and going to meet the other two in Longmire tomorrow.  Ray and Ramone are from Utah, and are driving here.  We shall meet up, and divy up all our gear and food.  The mountain is looking promising for us, but anything can change in the mountains drastically.

Here are a few photos from Mt. hood while we waited in the climber’s lodge area, talking with other climbers.  Continue to pray for us, for good weather, for safety, and for God’s hand upon us.

Mountain climber waiting out Storm

Inside the Climber's Lodge talking about the hazards.

I’m going to pick up Kevin (one of our teammates for this trip) in an hour.  He just climbed Mt. Hood a few days ago, and got struck by a baseball-sized ice fall in the face, like someone had just punched him with a solid fist to the jaw, and felt like his teeth were knocked out.

He climbed Mt. hood a few days ago, got started at 10:30p.m. on the mountain, and by 4:30a.m. was stuck in 70-degree steep incline, and had to backtrack until he could find a place to sleep in his bivy sack on the snow, until the sun could peek up a little, and give him some direction.  By 5:15a.m., he started seeing many climbers, so he started up.  Towards the upper region, ice was peeling off these pillars and falling. When he was near the summit, he  saw one person get hit with ice-fall debree, as small as a plate, but good enough to knock him over about 250 feet down the hill, towards a group of 13 other climbers, and after having seen him fall that distance, they all decided to turn around.  The person who got hit, was good enough to get up and walk away.  There has been two heli-avacs this last weekend, and others have been hit by ice on this one section, but not bad enough to get heli’d out.

Also, at one point, Kevin heard a huge thundering crack, like an avalanche was getting ready to unload, a some major ice-fall was about to come down, and so he started running, even though he didn’t see anything.  Made his heartbeat a little faster than typical.  It’s just this one section below the summit that is causing all this rumble.  The sun is coming out strong right now, which is why this is all happening.  This is untypical for this time of year.

If these are the conditions, I will not subject myself to getting whacked by some ice.  We may wait a few more days for colder weather to climb up to that point, and check out the conditions.  I don’t need to summit (although that’s why I came up here), but my fav line is “getting to the top is optional, getting down is mandatory.”  We may climb Mt. Rainier instead first, and come back later.

Gotta go. I will post some photos when I start shooting.
Later and blessings,
Charleton

I am excited to announce my NEW and OFFICIAL Charleton Churchill Photography blog.  I will be posting my recent blogs, which you can follow.  These posts will go directly into my Facebook account, so whether I Twitter from my iphone, Facebook, or Post a blog, it will all be interconnected, and anyone can read from anywhere.  My posts on my new blog will be the best for viewing since that is where my hard images will be placed!

Also, I am leaving Monday night (night drive), driving to Portland, Oregon to go climb Mt. Hood on Wednesday morning with a friend, about 2a.m.  You can watch my posts daily or whenever I return from each climb.  I am climbing Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Baker, and Mt. Adams.  Hopefully, on some of these mountains I can get 3g service with my iphone, or some kind of communication services to let everyone know my current status.  I will be returning Thursday, May 28th, so watch daily as I report!!  I’ll be trying give you some raw photos from my iphone and my camera if I am able.  Here are some from last year’s expedition from Mt. McKinley, highest peak in North America, at 20,320 ft.  enjoy!