 
This trip started at 1:40 am at the parking lot of Edith
Cavell. A short hike to the first snow
patch that leads to the east ridge in the full moon is breathtaking. We
put on our crampons
and started our accent. This where my epic began, nearly reaching the
ridge, my footing
failed and I slid down the corn snow in the dark and thinking to myself
"this is it!"
After 80 or 90 feet of high speed (it felt like 100 miles per hour) decent
losing the ice ax
right off the bat was not in the plans. Somehow, some lucky turn of event
I stopped
short of slamming into the rocks where we just crossed. Big sigh of relief
and adrenaline
rushing through my veins was definitely happening. A distance call from
the ridge, "...EDDIE!" |
 
Lucky for me that I packed a spare ice ax, with the adrenaline
that was coursing through
my system I started my accent again, collected the ax where I had started
to fall and
shortly was on the ridge where Mike was waiting patiently and perplexed
at what happened.
I showed him my Huge road rash on my left forearm and out came the first
aid. As you
can see from these photos, we continued our accent.
Whenever there were snow I was very slow going. Can you blame me?
Sun rise at 6:30 am, this sight was to be remembered forever. The First
Step to the peak
was so intimidating that talk of turning back was spoken, but not really
in our plans.
The interesting parts were just beginning, hanging out there and looking
under your arm pits
and seeing the Cavell pond beneath you is some thing that I cannot be
captured in words.
The summit was reached at NOON!
After a paparazzi session and lunch on top of the world, the ugly decent
of the west ridge was
to begin. But that is another story...back at the vehicle by 7:30 pm.
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