Saturday, April 23, 2011

Mt. Patterson/Riptide Peak

Yesterday I got out again sort of unexpected and got to join Triple-X-Wex, Ryan Creary and Fraser on a nice outing on Mt. Patterson. Out of the four of us I was the only one on regular AT gear, must be an age thing. BTW, my new nickname this Winter was "Geryatric", after whining too much about my problems with getting older. It seems like every time I get to go out with the young guns we have to do something steep and exciting with some overhead hazard. When we make plans the evening before it always sounds like: "nothing too big, nice line, super safe and ahjah, don't forget your helmet and bring your hockey gear if you got some". This time for a change the hazard loomed from the left for a change, which gave my neck a chance to adjust the other way. Next time I go with Andrew I should consider bringing my belay glasses I got for Christmas, might save me the Chiropractor visit. The pictures below are in no particular order and I had to steel a few from Andrew.This facial expression is part of the secret boot packer body language. It loosely translates to "thank you for the nice steps, brother, if you continue like this you can expect a BJ afterwards".
Here I'm diving into the top of the couloir, this is terrain with high consequences if something would go wrong.




Andrew walking the last steps to the summit with the upper part of the east ridge of Patterson in the back ground. Since it is a chilly minus 12 up there he is thinking of postponing his reward for the boot packing until later in the sheltered woods.




Almost at the top, watching Ryan boarding down the 1000ft couloir.
The headwaters of Mistaya River reflecting the sun rays. It's getting harder every day to cross it without getting wet.

No comments:

Post a Comment