Los Pireneos 2010 – Part 5

3 Jan 10 – 1740 Local
Location: Huesca Bus Station/Bus from Huesca to Sabinanigo

Holy Jeez! The past few days have been ridiculous. I thought about breaking this post up into several, but then figured it was worth it to show how much has happened since I last wrote.

SPANISH NEW YEAR – 31 DEC 09

After an unsuccessful attempt on Aneto, Dan and I took a long nap, in order to prepare ourselves for midnight New Year festivities. There was a big party scheduled at Reugio la Renclusa and people had been arriving throughout the day – there were nearly twenty of us in attendance. We spent the evening talking, eating, drinking, playing games and generally enjoying the fact that we had made it back to a refuge so full of great people. The food was delicious; the refuge staffs put on chocolate and other snacks for everyone, and even free champagne. In Spain, for the twelve seconds before midnight, a gong is rung every second and you are supposed to eat a grape. We did this and at midnight everyone shook hands and kissed. As the party died down, it became just us and the refuge staff. We had been talking with one of the staff who spoke perfect English (she had an American mother) and it had become very late. We all started drinking Spanish liquor together (I wish I could remember what it was), until early the next morning. It was a great way to celebrate the New Year and a good way to unwind after our experience on Aneto. We were very glad that the next day was a rest day.

Figure 1: The crowd on New Year's Eve.

Figure 2: Dan and I celebrating the new year in Spain.

REST DAY – 1 JAN 10

Today was quite uneventful. Basically, we spent the whole day drying gear, eating and drinking. In the afternoon, we tried to make a toboggan out of our packs and shovels, but it wasn’t as much fun as we had hoped. Late in the afternoon, Inaki and Javier arrived. They were both planning to climb Aneto alone, but decided to link up. We all planned to wake up at 4:30 the next morning.


ANETO ATTEMPT #2 – 2 JAN 10

We woke up this morning at 4:30 to utterly perfect weather. It was cold, windless, there was a full moon and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We quickly boiled up our water and had a little food. As we were boiling water and eating, we were gearing up to go. Soon, around 5:15, we were on our way. Inaki and Javier headed straight up the valley. We chose to take a slightly more technical approach and ride the ridgeline to the Portillon. Objectively, it was slightly riskier, but we thought it would be faster, plus we had gone up the valley on the previous attempt. The climb was utterly beautiful. The full moon illuminated the snow and the rock was pure black. It seemed as though we were climbing through a black and white calendar. Eventually, after several hours, we arrived at the Portillon Superieur. We were happy to find the correct gap in the ridge so quickly. We stopped, took a snack break, roped up for glacier travel and began descending towards the glacier. As we began moving out of the gap, Javier and Inaki caught up to us. We continued down and across the glacier, now in near white out conditions. Soon, we realised that we were just breaking trail for the Spanish, so we waited for them to catch up and the four of us began taking turns breaking trail.

Figure 3: Slogging up the glacier.

After about an hour of slogging up the glacier, the weather broke. Again, it was epically beautiful. Walking along the edge of the giant crevasse that had formed where the glacier didn’t quite meet the mountains, it seemed as though all the dreams I had dreamt as a fourteen year old boy were coming true. I had been training for serious alpine climbs for a long time and was finally making my way towards a high summit! As we approached the summit ridge, we began cutting switchbacks into the side in order to ascend. Soon, we were at the top and only had one more obstacle between us and the summit – the Paso de Mohamet. Mohammed’s Pass is a blocky ridge, approximately 45 metres long, with vertical drops on either side of well over 600 feet. Dan lead the way across, while I belayed him off my axe jammed under a rock. We fixed the line and the two Spanish mountaineers followed. I brought up the rear and was the last on to reach the summit. We quickly took some pictures, shook hands and were generally jubilant. Soon, it grew cold and we started back.

Figure 4: Standing on the edge of the glacier.

Figure 5: Still moving along the glacier.

Figure 6: Aneto's summit ridge.

Figure 7: Aneto's summit.

It was a long haul back, but the faster we went the warmer it was. We arrived at the Portillon and were happy to be so close to the refuge. Dan and I took out our shovels and prepared to slide down the valley. When Inaki and Javier saw the first gully we were planning to slide down they decided to walk. We continued sliding/running down hill and made it to the refuge about half an hour after leaving the Portillon. The other two arrived about 45 minutes later, as we were already cooking. We celebrated the ascent with leftover wine and some Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai from the night before. Dan and I quickly packed our gear and we all began the 15km walk out. Javier offered us a ride back to Benasque and we couldn’t refuse. So, we booked it out with them with three or four times the weight on our backs.

After a quick 15km, we crammed into Javier’s tiny Fiat and headed into town. Along the way, Inaki offered us a free floor to sleep on in his hostel room. We immediately accepted – WARM SHOWER! Eventually, we found a parking spot in Benasque. We headed to a restaurant and had some beer and food together. Javier was driving back to Madrid that night, so we went back to the car, recovered our gear and said goodbye. Inaki, Dan and I headed to the “hostel”. Inaki went in to get the key and then took us to the room. It turned out that all the regular rooms were taken, so we had a two bedroom apartment, which included a washing machine – awesome. We got cleaned up and put our clothes in the wash. Since all our clothes were in the machine, Dan and I wore Gore-tex only to dinner. We all ate a great dinner and were soon back in the room for some much needed sleep.


TRAVEL – 3 JAN 10

This morning, we packed up, grabbed some breakfast and checked out Barrabe’s (the mountain shop) one last time. We also paid for some internet usage and sent some reports home. We said goodbye, thanked Inaki for everything and took off. By “took off” I mean we went to the outskirts of town and tried to hitch a ride. Eventually (an hour later), some one stopped and took us 15km down the road. We tried to get another ride, but weren’t having any luck. So, we moved down the road and tried again. Then, we got ridiculously lucky. A camper van, with a pirate flag in the window, stopped and a guy stuck his head out the side yelling “come on!”. So, we ran to them, he opened the back and the van was full of climbing/mountaineering/skiing gear. We tossed our packs in the back and hopped in. The driver threw down a map and asked where we were going. We replied “Ainsa”. “Oh…Ainsa” he said “we go to road here”, pointing to the road that lead to Ainsa. “OK, where are you going?” we asked. He pointed to a city past Huesca. So, we told them we could go there instead of Ainsa. They readily agreed and we started on the three hour journey to Huesca. Huesca is a larger city than Ainsa, but slightly more out of the mountains. We knew we could get a bus somewhere from there, though. They didn’t speak much English, but they pointed out all the great crags along the way.

They dropped us off in downtown Huesca. We found the bus station and the next bus to Sabinanigo was at 1825hrs, 3 hours away. So, we grabbed a burger and started wandering the city. We went to the “Plaza del Toros” (I really wanted to see a bull fight, but there weren’t any going on) and the local cathedral, which was built around 1302, it was gorgeous. We then made our way back to the bus station and waited. Now, we are on our way to Sabinanigo. We may make it to Torla tonight, we aren’t sure.

Figure 8: Inside the cathedral in Huesca.

Figure 9: The Huesca bus station.

VIGNEMALE SOON!

Los Pireneos 2010 – Part 4

31 Dec 09 – 1700 Local
Location: Refugio la Renclusa

This morning, we tried for an alpine start on Aneto. At 4Am, we woke up ready to go, but it was a total white out outside. So, we went back to sleep and woke up every hour after to check the weather. Eventually, everyone else in the refuge woke up, as well. So, we joined them for breakfast. Finally, around 8:30 or 9AM, the weather cleared a bit. We saddled up and hit the hill. It was slow going. We were unsure of the avalanche conditions, because of the weather and visibility. So, we just took it really slow, picking our way up the valley. As the weather cleared more, the scenery became breathtaking. The mountains were gorgeous even shrouded in clouds. The terrain was demanding, but nothing Dan and I couldn’t handle, which was good because I was more focused on looking around at the scenery.

Figure 1: The scenery.

Figure 2: Scenery + me.

Figure 3: Dan on our first attempt on Aneto.

The climb is supposed to follow a valley on the climber’s right side of a ridgeline, then one crosses through the ridge via one of four gaps (one of which is the good one), after which one descends to the glacier, crossing it and moving up to the summit. We arrived at what we thought was the Portillon Superieur (the good gap) and began making our way to it. It is supposed to be an easy descent to the glacier, but as we were in a semi-white out, we rappelled down. Well, it was a good thing we did, because it was not the gap we should have been in. After a series of very sketchy rappels, which may or may not have involved an anchor backed up with a camera strap, we made it to the glacier. By this point, our feet had become blocks of ice from hanging in our harnesses for so long, so we decided to bail. We followed the ridgeline back to the actual gap, went through it and were back in the valley. It took some route finding to get off of the ridge’s cliffs, but we were soon riding our shovels down the valley back to the refuge. Everyone was happy to see us and cheered our arrival. They had been contemplating coming to find us. I recounted the story many times, very slowly in broken English/Sapnish and with sign language.

Figure 4: Me rappelling out of the wrong gap.

Figure 5: Dan headed into the abyss.

Figure 6: Hanging out, getting cold.

Figure 7: Bailing back through the good gap.

Now, we are all napping. It is New Year’s Eve and we need our rest for the party tonight.

Los Pireneos 2010 – Part 3

30 Dec 09 – 1500 Local
Location: Refugio la Renclusa

Yesterday, we woke up early in the construction site we had slept in. It was a great bivy, dry, warmish and just outside of Benasque. The weather was not great, so we decided to try to climb a low peak near the village. This turned into an adventure unto itself. From the ground, it looked like it would be an easy gully climb. Once we were on it, however, it would have been pretty difficult, so we stuck to the edges, out of the gully. This resulted in a few hours of hard bushwhacking before we decided to turn around and head back to town. When we made it back to town, it was time to eat lunch, so we grabbed a bite. We had planned on fuelling up and then heading towards Aneto. However, the gas station was taking a siesta that would last until 3PM. So, we kicked around, window shopping at Barrabe’s, eating, looking for wifi, etc. Finally, we got some gas and started on our way to Aneto.

Figure 1: In the construction site.

Figure 2: On our way towards Aneto.

After a bit of walking, a skier picked us up and gave us a ride all the way to the road that would take us to the trailhead. He was skiing near the spot he picked us up at, but took us the whole way because he was worried about us getting arrested for hitch hiking. After he dropped us off, we were quickly picked up by the Hospital Benasque bartender. The Hospital Benasque is not actually a hospital; it is a fancy hotel that is also the trailhead for Aneto. We started moving along the trail towards Aneto, but it started to rain and was getting dark, so we bivied for the night. We had some dinner and went to sleep.

Figure 3: Bivy in the rain.

We woke up the next morning in a downpour. We had to hole up in our bivy bags for several hours. As the water creeped deeper and deeper into my sleeping bag, I curled more and more into a ball in the bottom of my bag. Eventually, it stopped raining so hard and we could start moving. As soon as we started moving the weather got better and we had beautiful views the whole way. The last part of the walk to the refugio was relatively steep and was hard with our packs on. We made it, though, and were impressed by the views from the refuge, both up and down the valley. The innkeeper was pretty grouchy, but it didn’t really bother us, as we had a place to dry our gear and prepare for our attempt on Aneto tomorrow.

Figure 4: Dan getting some water on our way to Aneto.

Figure 5: The refuge.

Los Pireneos 2010 – Part 2

28 Dec 09 – 1745 Local
Location: Bus from Barbastro to Benasque

Today, has been a long travel day and is not over yet. I am on a bus as I write this. We arrived in Barcelona this morning at 9:30AM, after a very weird layover in Madrid. Our plane made a stop in Madrid. We were supposed to stay on the plane and continue to Barcelona. We had to get off and go through customs, though. So we ran several kilometres through the airport, eventually found customs, and found out we were actually taking a different flight to Barcelona. It didn’t really matter, we eventually made it to Barcelona. Although we arrived at 9:30AM, we had to sort our gear for travel, which took us until 11AM. We had to fly with two bags each and then consolidate them into one bag each, which took awhile.

Figure 1: Sorting gear in Barcelona.

Once our bags were sorted, we made our way to the train and headed into Barcelona. We would have about 30min to find the bus station and get on the bus, once we arrived in downtown Barcelona. While we were on the train, a Japanese tourist chatted us up, making sure to tell us that “climbing is very hard and danger”. We disagreed and began discussing local architecture, which he seemed interested in. We made it downtown, located the bus station without much trouble and got on a bus to Barbastro. The only issue we had was figuring out where our assigned seats were. The driver told us, but we didn’t understand, which meant we were kicked out of seats until we got to the back of the bus.

Figure 2: Dan waiting for the train in Barcelona.

Figure 3: At the bus station in Barbastro.

We arrived in Barbastro around 4:10PM. We walked around town for a bit, which seemed pretty dead. We had some tapas for dinner, the waiter didn’t really like us because we didn’t speak his language, oh well. Now, we are on a bus to Benasque.

STILL HAVEN’T SEEN ANY SNOW!

Los Pirineos 2010 – Part 1

27 Dec 09 – 2300 EST
Location: Somewhere over the Atlantic

Last night, I took the overnight bus from Norfolk to New York City. My time in Norfolk was great. I got to spend quality time with my family, see some friends and played in the annual Boxing Day golf tournament. All in all, it was a great week. Eventually, though, it was time for me to catch that bus at 11PM on the 26th and start my next adventure.

After sitting in the Norfolk bus station for awhile, the bus finally showed up. There were too many people heading to New York City for all of us to fit into one bus. So, they made one bus an express to NYC and the other a schedule bus, which means it stops at a bunch of intermediate towns. Since I wasn’t interested in getting to NYC early, I opted for the schedule bus, which was significantly less crowded. It was perfect, we all had at least two seats to ourselves and didn’t pick anyone up at the other stops anyway.

Soon, I arrived in New York City at 7:30 in the morning. I left the Port Authority and headed to the United Nations Headquarters. I had never been before and had an entire day to kill before my flight. Well, it turns out that they don’t give tours of the UN on weekends, oh well. Instead, I hopped on the subway and made my way to the airport. I figured I could check my bags and then head back into the city. Well, Iberia Air doesn’t start checking people in until 2:30PM. At this point, there wasn’t much sense in going back into the city with my bag. So, I hung around, read, slept and sorted out my bag for transit.

Figure 1: NYC! Empire State Building.

Figure 2: United Nations Headquarters.

Figure 3: In front of Trump Tower. Yes, I realise it looks like it says "rump".

Dan showed up at the airport around 2PM. We checked in, uneventfully. Waited around the terminal, looked at our maps, had some snacks and, eventually, got on our flight. We took our seats in row 35, blerg, and took off for Spain. The flight, so far, has been the usual, a movie, dinner, sleeping, reading, etc. I am looking forward to hitting the ground in Barcelona and getting this trip underway.

New Hampshire/Maine – 2009 – Part 5

Location: Joe Dodge Lodge, Mount Washington, NH, USA

I woke up this morning ready to, finally, do some climbing. The caretaker hadn’t shown up all night, which had us all a little worried, but there wasn’t anything we could do. Eventually, the ranger showed up to give us the avalanche forecast for the day and we chatted a bit about the caretaker. He left quickly to look into it. I decided that I wanted to be the last one out, since it had snowed so much over night. So, I took my time cooking up some rice, sorting out my gear and kitting up. Brian left first, then a guide and his client, and I was next. I headed out along the trail the others had left. After only about fifteen minutes of walking, though, we all bunched up. We decided we would all work together breaking trail and made our way out of the trees and into the Huntington Ravine. We stopped and started scoping out the routes. The guide and client had talked about doing Central Gully, but were opting for some ice climbing at the base of Yale gully, due to avalanche conditions. Brian and I decided to link up and do North Gully.

Figure 1: The left side of Huntington Ravine.

Figure 2: The right side of Huntington Ravine.

As we moved across the ravine bowl, we realized the avy risk on North Gully was too high. I decided to head up Yale Gully, via a snow chute, while Brian would take a slab of ice. Once at the top of the ice bulge, we would link up and decide where to go from there. Once we met up again at the top, we decided to just continue up Yale Gully. About halfway up, Brian bailed. He didn’t want to have to come back to the ravine to pick up the gear he had left behind. This was OK with me and I continued up, alone. The route was amazing. It was mixed ice and snow, at about 55 degrees, but fun. The views were great from up there. I could see into other gullies at times, and the ravine was beautiful. Slowly, the weather closed in, as I climbed, and eventually I was moving up in white out conditions. When I topped out, I opted to down climb rather than hike out. The weather was too bad for me to safely route find an alternate route down.

Figure 3: The entrance to Yale Gully.

As the weather deteriorated, it deposited a layer of powder on the formerly crusty snow. This was bad. As I moved down the gully, small bits of snow were rolling down next to me. I stuck to the edge of the gully and moved slowly, and luckily avoided the 2mx3m slab that cut loose above me. It was nothing terrible, but definitely impressed on me the importance of avalanche awareness. The rest of the descent was relatively slow. I just kept hoping that the guide below me hadn’t opted to follow and I was kicking snow down towards him. He hadn’t and was just tearing down his anchors when I got back to them. We linked up again and left the ravine together.

Figure 4: Trying to get a picture of myself in the gully. It didn't work well.

We quickly made our way back to Harvard Cabin and I made lunch for myself. The caretaker finally returned (he ran into ski boot trouble and had to spend the night in town), so I paid my fees and left. I sped down to the trailhead, retrieved the gear I had stashed and got a room at the Joe Dodge Lodge. I sorted out my gear and got ready to head to Boston, tomorrow.

It was a great day in the mountains. I wish I had been able to climb a lot more, as planned, but am glad I went to Maine. The avalanche hazard was apparently high over the past few days and it looks like the weather will be pretty bad tomorrow. All in all, it looks like I got here just in time for a perfect weather window, climbed a great route and am ready to head to Virginia, and eventually Spain.

New Hampshire/Maine – 2009 – Part 4

Location: Harvard Cabin, Mount Washington, NH, USA

This morning, I woke up early to leave Sunday River. Issac, unfortunately, slept in, which made my leaving difficult. I didn’t want to just bail, as he had been so nice to me. Luckily, when he did wake up, he helped me carry my bags to a nearby fork in the road. Before we reached the fork, though, a local ski instructor stopped and gave me a lift into Bethel. He dropped me at a gas station on Highway 2, which leads towards Mount Washington. I searched for a ride, but everyone was headed the opposite direction. So, after an hour or so of that, I started walking. Along the way, a lady saw me from another highway and waited for me in the off ramp, as I approached. She was nice enough to give me a ride to West Bethel, which was about six miles away, and up a big hill. I was thankful because my gear was HEAVY. She dropped me at the West Bethel post office. I went in and chatted with the old guys who were hanging out there, although it was really hard to understand their accents. Eventually, one of them decided that since he had nothing better to do he would drive me all the way to Gorham, NH, which was about 20 miles away. I couldn’t believe it. 30 minutes and lots of conversation later, I was at the Gorham gas station. This particular gas station is known for being easy to hitch a ride to Mount Washington – not today. I was so close, I could see it, but no one was heading my direction. I waited almost two hours and asked at least 60 people, but no one was headed towards the trailhead. Finally, a guy with a beard walked up to me and offered a ride. He talked about climbing with me the whole way there, as I fended off the advances of his giant dog. Eventually, I arrived at Pinkham Notch and was ready to do some climbing.

Figure 1: My gear, in front of one of the many beautiful gas stations in the North East.

I went into the Appalachian Mountain Club’s shop at the trailhead and first had some soup – I was starving. Then, I sorted out my gear, as I would only need minimal kit for my limited time on the mountain, this time. I stashed all my spare gear in the employees living shacks, and took off. It was a slog up to Harvard Cabin, coupled with minor route confusion. Eventually, I made it and it was great. Wood stove, 80 degrees Fahrenheit, benches, other people. Good times.

Figure 2: The great scenery.

Figure 3: On the trail, at last.

Figure 4: The interior of Harvard Cabin.