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Spending a night hanging on the Salathe headwall in the rain (2017)
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I've never shared a trip report here, this is my wildest one and thankfully still the closest call I've had which happened back in Fall 2017. This was my 2nd time up the Captain and I have yet to return since but I would like to. First time was pretty epic too but in very different ways, maybe 3rd times a charm? |
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Great TR! Glad you guys made it through that. |
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Wow. Amazing story. Thanks for sharing that. When we get cold and tired and scared, mistakes are easy to make. Glad you didn’t. It sounds like you guys really bonded together as a team with the Chatt guys to get out of there as quickly and safely as possible. |
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Great story. Thanks for sharing. Any of us who've been climbing a long time can relate to the intensity of the situation, the camaraderie of teams helping each other out in a bad situation, the well-deserved sense of accomplishment, and the feeling that you've gotten away with something. But it's nice to sometimes read about other's adventures and not be the protagonist every time! You guys made a lot of good choices. |
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Well written ... a good story .... not sure if attracts me to big walls or ....scares me away. |
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That was fun to read! It sounded wild! Thanks for sharing! |
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I’ll give you a thumbs up for your perseverance and keeping a good, positive attitude but also a serious thumbs down for no rain gear and down sleeping bags. I don’t know any of you, but I would’ve still been bummed to hear that three guys had frozen to death on the Salathe Headwall. My second thought would’ve been “well, no rain gear and down sleeping bags, what did they expect”? |
Mark Hudonwrote: You're right that we made a couple really really poor decisions on gear and we got incredibly lucky as it could have been a deadly mistake and it was close to being that. It's been a while since I wrote this and I'll take another look but pretty sure and I really hope I got that across, maybe its a bit positive I think you're probably right that I could have done a better job in sharing the seriousness of things. I spent a lot of time intensely reflecting on the experience after and I know that the lessons that were there for me to grow from I took and still take seriously. If anything I hope others who see this and find themselves at the base of a big wall with a splitter 7-day forecast and are considering leaving weather gear because of the forecast remember our close call - other climbers probably wouldn't make the same mistake, it's pretty dumb for sure but we were 3 climbers each with somewhere between 5 and 10 years of experience at the time and a lot of experience in wilderness outside of climbing and we though we were experienced enough to not end up in a situation like this but obviously that was not the case. |
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Since starting to climb El Cap again in 2009, the forecast has changed from perfect to not so good 25 to 30% of the time. ALWAYS be prepared for bad weather. |
Mark Hudonwrote: Besides fleece layers (what do you use?) What else do you bring In your kit to be prepared for bad weather? |
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Such a wild experience! |
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Thanks for the TR! |
Alex Ghiggeriwrote: Fleece tights and top. Some sort of synthetic insulated coat. Really good rain pants and rain coat. Gloves or mittens and a wool hat. Two pitches before getting to the lip of the roof they were on Sous La Toit ledge. Not a large ledge but certainly good enough for three. I’d have changed into all of my bad weather gear there before heading up. (I would have stayed there till the storm had passed) |
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Awesome! |
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Really enjoyed your TR! Brought back distant memories when I did the Salathe with Jim Donini in 1971. |
