THE DESCENT OF DEATH (Day 4)

Last day at our campsite and we made the best of it. We ate, struck camp, packed our sleds and packs and we were all going back up to the same place the four of us had skied the day before.

We tested the snow crossed the ice (ok I fell on the ice and had to put my self-arrest training to use) and we put four sweet runs in before we slipped our way down the trail back to civilization. We made one run and then headed further viewers left to a bowl Doogie would name, “You’re a little bitch, nuh-uh, your mom, that’s what she said, Bowl”. This Bowl was beautiful caked in solid wind buff and wide open. The top was. of course, caked in ice but that still left plenty of room to rip! While our communication wasn’t the best and I did sort of figure 11 most of the bowl, generally “You’re a little bitch, nuh-uh, your mom, that’s what she said, Bowl” was sick.

Lunch and two more runs (1 with an audience of fellow BC skiers) and we were back to camp to strap out sleds on. Skiing down the GoS trail with a sled is a good time. You can’t exactly let it rip but it adds a new element to skiing. I’m not going to describe it but I am going to suggest it…

SEND IT!

THE WINDS OF DEATH (day 3)

We were determined to get some turns in on the third day so we woke up early and booted up through the trees in an attempt to cross over the summit and get to one of our favorite places, Oakes Gulf. The snow was safe but the wind and ice were not. About 900 vertical feet up the slide the snow turned to a sheet of ice and the wind went from infrequent gust to a strong continuous wind. So once again we made the decision to down climb to safety. But this time it didn’t mean that we had to climb all the way to the bottom just about 20 meters down and then we made turns!!!

We stayed in the trees on the ridge and ended up right at camp fro lunch. We’d had a taste of the goods (and summer sausage) and at that point we wanted more. Huck, Igor, Doogie, Ali and I headed up to the gnar on viewers left while Ernesto and Toma hit up the bobsled ride (a stream bed near camp). That afternoon was why we decided to go on the camping trip of death. The hike up was quick the snow was stable and soft (Wind buff, luscious, luscious, wind buff) and we shralped. We took three runs and headed back to camp to finish off our bottle of jack! (the coffee mug I’m drinking right now still taste of pine needles and jack)

THE WIFFLE BALL GAME OF DEATH (day 2)

Doogie drove up in my car and when he saw the equipment room that is my trunk he insisted that we bring my wiffle ball set. Just keep that in mind…

Waking up cold is best remedied by hot oatmeal, boiled in melted snow with pine needles ALL UP IN IT! (The pine needles were in everything we ate or drank on this trip and honestly I already miss the taste and the pine spitting contests that we had.) After the hard day hiking up to the camp we had a slow start on our second day and around 10 we made our way 100 feet down the trail to the closest slide (non skier note – this is a treeless piece of the hill that makes for great skiing) that we were planning on skiing. Before we headed up we wanted to make sure our avalanche safety and self-arrest skills were up to par so we spent some time at the base of the slide practicing the basics.


Around noon we felt ready to boot pack it up the slide and let’em rip! But wait a minute we need to check the snow stability first… Igor and Huck dug a snow pit checked the stability and we booted right back down ☹ the snow looked unstable and we made the call not ski the slides, so as not to die…

We headed back to camp ate lunch (summer sausage – no it is not good – yes I am eating it right now) and we decided to make the best out of the sunny day. Wiffle ball and Jack Daniels was the best we could do and it was great. Igor, Toma and Ali decided to ski the GoS trail back to the trail head were there is a ranger station and porcelain while Huck, Doogie, Ernesto and I soaked up the sun and played America’s favorite game in, what I Imagine is one of the strangest place it has ever been played.


Because I know you care; our box score:

Name singles doubles triples homers runs catches swigs
Huck 0 1 0 0 0 0 2
Doogie 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
Ernesto 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Me 1 0 0 0 0 0 2

So yeah we tied because that ball was not meant to be hit in 15-degree weather and while we duct taped it up that ball is officially dead. So we were left with a Frisbee, a bottle and the sun and that’s what we did for the rest of the day. Classic spring break lounging!

THE ASCENT OF DEATH (day 1)

We met at MIT at 6am Monday morning and headed north. Before we could start trekking up the Gulf of Slides (GoS) Trail we had a few things we/I needed… First Doogie and I needed a mug to drink out of so Einstein’s Bagel shop was nice enough to sell us each on of those refillable cups and everyone enjoyed one last meal inside. Next I needed a down jacket, because it is freaking freezing up there! So with our last minute shopping done we drove to the Notch and loaded our sleds.

Because we were going to be camping for 4 days we needed to carry in tents, stoves, food (mostly sausage and various forms of sodium), sleeping bags and all the other camping necessities on top of our regular ski gear. All this means we were carrying a LOT of weight behind us, up 3 miles and 2000 vertical feet. Basically four us had sleds attached to us like mules and as we skinned up we pulled… and pulled… and pulled. The other three wore multi-day camping backpacks (not light) and helped push the sleds as we pulled. Honestly a miserable experience that drained so much energy out of me that I refused to use my skins for the remainder of the trip to avoid remembering that experience (I’m crying right now thinking about it – don’t look at me).

After reaching our campsite at the base of the GoS, westill had plenty of work to do before we could go skiing. I had never been winter camping and to be honest I’ve only been camping a few times ever so when it came to setting up camp I had no idea how much work we actually had to do. First we chose an avalanche and wind safe site with room for three tents and room for a “kitchen”. Next we had to flatten the snow and dig out space for the tents (two of which had no floors and therefore needed deep pits to insulate them – don’t worry mom mine had a floor) after setting up the tents we started digging out the kitchen. The kitchen was a U shaped snow bench that held our stove and butts, it was great!

Once camp was set it was time boil snow to make water and cook meal 1, mac and cheese with chicken, delicious… sitting in our kitchen, freezing (it was -10F) I was stoked to be done with the heavy work and excited to get some turns the next day without having to skin up the 3 mile trail before reaching the fun skiing (yes that’s why we bothered to camp – easy access).

THE CAMPING TRIP OF DEATH

Mid February I received an email from Igor asking if I wanted to go backcounty skiing in New Hampshire over the weekend, while last year this would have been a normal request and an easy answer, this year I’m in college on Long Island. So I wrote back and said that I couldn’t make it but my “Spring Break” was in late March and if everyone wanted to work their schedules around me, we could go on that skiing/camping trip we had always talked about. Well lucky for me MIT has the same spring break as Hofstra Law and everyone was in. A gabillion emails later Igor, Doogie, Huck, Ernesto, Toma, Ali, and I were on 93 North headed to the Gulf of Slides on Mt. Washington. These next four posts will go day by day over the camping trip of death - as named by my beautiful girlfriend.

Yikes 7/1/07

Sunday after a day of rafting I went back to Rumney, to go rock climbing with Igor. As previously stated I find it difficult to write about rock climbing but feel compelled to tell you about Sunday briefly because there were so many firsts for me.

We warmed up on a 5.8 that I cleaned and rappelled off of. That was my first rappel.

We climbed a multi-pitch route! It was super easy, basically a hike but good for figuring out the rope system on multi-pitch especially when the other multi-pitch we were going to try doesn’t exist! That was my first multi-pitch climb.

Ok, I’ll try harder on this next first. We had just finished a fun 5.8 called Drilling for Dollars and we were waiting for one of two other routes to open up. Either a 5.8+ or a 5.10a that are both very popular, however the Quebexicans were all over the place, mainly on these 2 routes, so Igor opted for a 5.10d, named something – I imagine it was named something but I can’t be sure. Before starting the route, Igor said, “its time to get over my fear of falling”. And that’s what he did, yikes. This is a very difficult route (as you may have guessed from the 5.10d rating). So I had Igor on belay about as tight as I could get him without pulling down on him when he came off the rock. He was about 4 feet above his last draw and it took about 6 feet to catch him which even though I’m not an MIT student equals about a 10 foot fall. For my mother’s sake I won’t go into detail but this was my first big catch (I made that term up I mean belaying and stopping someone else on a big fall).

Igor was fine and we took some time to chill while the Quebexicans yucked it up in French, English and Spanish (all very funny) while still climbing our intended routes. Finally, about an hour later, they got off Lonesome Dove, the 5.10a the Igor had his heart set on. I told Igor “I doubt I’ll get up this but I’ll give it a shot.” Igor decided that rather than lead, lower, belay me until I gave up then have to clean the route he would lead, top belay and then move over to the 5.8+ from above. That way I could finish my last route and Igor wouldn’t have to climb the same route twice. Igor had no problems with this extremely fun climb and set up to give me a shot. This climb is very balancy and does not have many jugs (big holds). As I got past the bottom and ran out of jugs, I tried to go off route and climb a crack but I soon realized (by realized I mean I came off the rock twice) that going up the route was my only chance. At first I didn’t see any holds but eventually I changed my perspective and noticed the smallest cracks and bumps. After deciding to climb the real route things started going really well. I climbed my first 5.10a!!!!!! and we went home.

High Side 6/30/07

Not our pics, again

I thought I signed up for another kayaking trip with MITOC but because it turned out to be a rafting trip, I’m still alive. 9 of us left MIT at 6am and headed out to the Dryway, a class 4 section of the Deerfield river (class 4 means big whitewater and is why I say that I would have died in a kayak). At the put in the MIT cars met the RPI cars, we ran shuttle to the take out, inflated our rafts and we were good to go/have a safety meeting because I hadn’t been in a raft since I was 13 and it was on a lazy river.

Oddly enough, when the group split into the rafts, all the BC skiers ended up in 1, odd. Ernesto was our guide and Doogie was training to guide which left Ali and I up front along with one non BC skier, Slobodan. The first run, led by our experienced guide was a lot of fun. The Dryway starts right below the release of a dam and about 100 yards into the run, we hit the rapids. Unlike the Winni, where I went kayaking, the Deerfield is cold water and as we ran the first rapid, I felt how cold, with multiple waves crashing into me.

During our safety meeting we were told to keep paddling until we were told to stop and we must have done a good job because Ernesto decided it would be cool to take us surfing! I didn’t know you could surf in a raft but we did it! Our first shot didn’t workout but we caught the eddy and gave it another try. Ernest told us, “when I say forward, I mean forward. Seriously, jump forward.” And as we paddled hard into the wave and finally got into the surf we heard “FORWARD” and Ali and I basically jumped into the water with the wave pearling (I’m guessing on that term) over the bow and the 2 of us pushing all of our weight on it, we were pressed between the water and rubber! Sitting there on the wave, not paddling but just balancing is an awesome feeling and because I was so focused on the task at hand I didn’t even notice the freezing water.

As we made our way down, we ran through a handful of rapids and even took one of them switch! The second to last rapid on the Dryway is called, Dragon Tooth and it is massive (we saw multiple kayakers swim). We head into the rapid paddling hard and follow the tongue half way through, when all of a sudden we come up on a wall of water. As we hit the water my contact shifted in my eye and I had to close my eyes to make sure I wouldn’t lose them. This meant I paddled the mankiest section of the river blind which also meant I probably wasn’t being so useful because I was hitting the side of the raft with my paddle rather than the water! Either way, Dragon Tooth is a sweet rollercoaster that guarantees you are soaked at the take out!

The last rapid, while not as intense as Dragon Tooth, was plenty exciting. It starts with an entry about as wide as a raft that drops about 2 feet (it looks big) into a re-circulating hole called Terminator! Ernesto lead us through rest of the maze (oh yeah this rapid is called Labyrinth) without a problem and we were out of the boat and loading Ali’s Civic with rafts (funny picture).

For the second run, Doogie was our guide! We didn’t get to surf but we really had a good time! Evidently, it takes 3 seconds to get a raft to start moving in the direction a guide wants it to and Doogie, while an experienced kayaker, had a little trouble adjusting to this.

We made it through a few rapids sans incident but soon enough, Doogie railed us into a rock and Ali went for a swim. Luckily Ernesto was able to pull him out right away. After that rapid, came another shallow rapid section, where Doogie did something, (I have no idea what that something is) Ali and I kept paddling and then we heard some commotion, looked back and Doogie is sitting on a rock in the middle of the rapid, Ernesto is guiding again and we are being told to paddle hard up river to try to rescue Doogie. We didn’t make it to Doogie so we had to eddy out about 40 feet from where he was. Ernesto tossed him a rescue line and pulled him through the still freezing water.

After laughing at Doogie I asked him if he was ok and with chattering teeth he said “cold”. But Doogie manned up and got back in the drivers seat! One more rapid and the excitement began. Doogie was taking on a maze of a rapid trying to get us river left of a large boulder when all of a sudden, he didn’t. The right side of the boat slammed up into the boulder and we were pinned. Let me restate that, pinned sounds so nice and comfortable. The right side of the boat SLAMMED into the boulder and the water started pushing the left side down so the right side was moving up the boulder. Yes this means the boat was going VERTICLE! Ernesto yelled “HIGH SIDE” as Ali and I were jumping up on the right side of the boat to level us out. We managed to counterbalance the water and ended the rapid going switch, hooting and hollering, stocked to, one not be swimming and two have had such a rush! Thanks Doogie that was sweeter than candy.

Doogie pulled through and led us through Dragon Tooth without a problem. We picked up 2 kayakers who had lost their boats and ran Labrynth (Doogie nailed this one as well) with their dead weight. The BC ski boat had an awesome day!