It doesn’t happen every year. Usually about every 4 or 5 years. When it does, I can’t resist. It happened to us the first time, in the early 90’s. We descended Middle Echo, one May day, finished the short raps and came smack into a walls of ice. For the next 2 hours, we dangerously weaved our way through the snow and ice. One stretch we crawled in a 2.5 foot high tunnel, half filled with flowing ice water, for 40 yards. That same day we cut steps in an ice wall with the only thing we had that was hard enough to do the job, the edge of our helmets, cracking mine in the process. It was a 95 degree day, out in the sun, but in the slot? The ice turned to vapor (Sublimation) and we were in a hazy cloud. Huge blocks of ice hung overhead. Blocks that would crash down soon. When? Spin the wheel. Pays your money, you takes your chances.. After getting out that day, we sat on a ledge, in the high heat and sun, in our wet suits, getting our core temp back up, smiles a mile wide. Our response to the experience was to…….Go back there 4 days later, of course. A huge block had collapsed in the time between descents. In this way we learned that something special could be found in that canyon, at certain times.
Cable Mountain towers above Middle Echo. It has just enough angle, that snow lands and accumulates for a bit, but it is too steep to hold the snow for long. So it slides down the wall and into the canyon in a series of mini avalanches. In this way, the canyon fills with snow, with every storm. It is unusual for there to be snow in May. It takes a huge snow year for that to happen, but an above average snow year will provide wonders to those who dare, in February and March. The thing about it, is almost every week the conditions and the route through can and does change. Snow has accumulated up to 85 feet high, then melts out, isolating slopes and forcing one to weave through tunnels and passage ways inside the snow masses. You often don’t know you are so far up…until you see ….gulp….a hole. Other places, gaps in the moats form and the unwary could plummet dozens of feet, deep down into the unseen and black abyss.Then the blocks over head can collapse at any time. Huge icicles form overhead too, turning the canyon bottom to brown and blue ice fields with their icy drips. These areas are passed one at a time and without dallying. Also, down canyon snowfields tend to melt out along the canyon walls, in ways that the unsuspecting could break through to their demise.
Now that I have made the case for how totally insane and potentially reckless this is….It is also, off the charts, surreal in its beauty and diversity. All life has objective dangers. There is just a little more of it here, during those special spring seasons. With all of this in mind, four of us headed up and in for a peek. Very wise are those that go from the bottom up, for more hazards are visually observable going that way. And one can just turn around if it becomes more dangerous than one wishes to experience. One also can’t get trapped between the raps and the bottom, where the snow is most often found. The objective? Get to the bottom of the lowest rap, then get back out in one piece. Bring ice axes, thermal protection and your alpine judgment.
A group of 2 had gone down the canyon, found the snow and without choice, made it down thru. We came a few days later. We found the conditions to be safer than average compared to my half dozen trips through, in the last quarter century. We did not have to “tunnel” at all, staying up on top. Melting along snowfield edges has not really started yet. What we did note, was the moats are forming, soon to isolate the upper snow fields from access and force tunneling. These holes we observed were frightful to peer into. It has been a week since we were there and I am sure a more sinewy route, with snow above head, is likely to be required now. Watch for that huge dripping icicle too!
We encountered something different than I had seen before. There were places, with sand ripples on the canyon floor. WAIT! That was NOT the canyon floor, but solid and human supporting ice. Coulda swore I was on the ground. Small floods had moved sand across solid ice. We would drop off these false bottoms into swims. Tom was likely sick of hearing me talk of this experience, over the years. Same with Guy. Both signed up. Tom led most of the way, with a wicked little smile in the corner of his mouth. Guy stayed back spotting and generally helping us over the moats before dealing these dangerous spots as “last person at risk.” Kat said no initially due to commitments, but moved mountains and the timing of the commitments so as to partake in all the fun. A great time! Once the 6 hour round trip was over, I hit the road for home…The next big snow year? Yeah, I will be back. The stories I could tell of past snowy trips in there!!
Tom
Kat
Guy
Some other guy
The light before the dark
Broken ice
telephoto of a large icicle 80 feet up
What the dripped on walls looked like
and the canyon floor below the icicle
Thin ice passage
Moat ahead
The hole to the left of Kat (in blue) is 50 feet deep at least
wondrous passage
Looking up toward a different world
The ground is 70 feet below here
Finger holds
Delicate
Happy campers
Miss the moat top or collapse it and its a long way down in there
Happy Tom
Out of the deep
More pictures?
https://picasaweb.google.com/108034287150978265447/MiddleEcho21716#
Ram
2008 was a big snow year, so there was substantial snow left, all the way into June that year. There was very hard snow and ice in equal amounts. Seventeen year old Aaron Ramras and I drove hours out of our way, to take a peek into the canyon. While there was a snow slope leading into and out of the snow section, the middle part offered no travel up high, with huge snowfields wedged way over head and the slot clogged with snow down low, with vertical walls of snow and ice at both ends of these clogged areas. One was forced to find a squeeze down low, or climb part way up the snow and ice, to find a spot one could wedge into or stem through, between the ice and the slimy wet vertical walls. In one spot in particular, passage looked impossible….except….there was a snow arch 12 feet up. We climbed up and slipped through, then down and found a tunnel through. We made it to the raps and then returned. When we were returning downcanyon, we heard a huge CRASH from back where we had just come from. One of the serac blocks had fallen.
Has anyone noticed that the sound of thunder will increase a groups pace, almost like an involuntary reflex? Ever noticed yourself adding a mile an hour to your pace, when it starts to sprinkle? So when Aaron and I heard the crash, our involuntary response was to talk in whispers…..as if lowering sound vibrations would lower the odds of a block collapsing on us. Weird, these humans, huh?
Aaron stemming up onto a block, on the way in
Squeezing through in Middle Earth
rock to the left, snow to the right and a crawl through tunnel ahead, down low
Snow, above, below and to both sides
This hole was a dead end
The slot chocked by ice
The key to the route going. The crawl through snow arch
On the way back from the last rap. The top of the snow is an overhang wave and may have been what collapsed on our return trip…Tom, if that upper snow went up another 15 feet at that angle, it would essentially be our turn around spot from a few weeks back
Aaron going down another lucky passageway crux, on the route, down 15 feet, into “Middle Earth.
Taylor
Good Lord! Please invite me to join you on one of these trips. And, as I’m one who has been to that special place known as “Poe”, please tell me about that skull cap.
Ram
Just short of 35 years ago, two young, athletic and talented guides descend Poe. A bold venture. I have plied several stories from Jenny and as per her sensibilities, kept them private. I can only hope that someday I will be graced with Mike’s experience in there.
In October 2009, before the inventions of the sandtrap or Aguanchor, we attempted to ghost Poe, failing this time, on the rap before the Wart pothole. Dan Ransom made a video of the attempt. Here is Dan from that trip
A year or so later, A friend of Jenny’s, named John Johnson found the video and sent it to Jenny, out of the blue
.
Here is John in Woody canyon March 2010
John with Jenny
Jenny started a cautious correspondence with Dan. Eventually she started coming on trips. Eventually she returned, 30+ years after her first descents with Mike…… to Tight Asp (East Baker), Kaleidoscope and Poe too. It was quite remarkable to see her experience these 3 places, 3 decades after those remarkable descents. A big privilege indeed.
We visited and ghosted Poe several times in the coming years. One of those times, we were accompanied by Murray Clark. Murray is simply one of the funnest, kindest and most generous people on Earth.
Murray here, near the Bakers
So enamored of the canyon was he, which I believe he did twice with Jenny. He had those “commemorative” hats made, as a surprise gift and sent one to each of us, on the trip. I had an exact hat, sans the embroidery. I used that one, saving the gift from Murray…until I lost the plain hat. Well its just too warm a piece of gear to be without and I now use the embroidered one in cold places, such as Echo a few weeks back.
no man/woman is a failure who has friends.
Clarence Oddbody
Ram
ratagonia
A slightly revised version on the Latest Rave now available.
Tom
Canyonero
Now that trip actually really looks fun. Way better than Middle Echo in July.
Ram
Chatting with Johnny B, reminiscing about first time we found ourselves in a snowy Echo AND from the top. I mean the thing was full on hard ice, in May and at this one spot overhanging. That was where we encountered the tunnel. It was along the left wall and I mean I had to stoop a little when on hands and knees going through. The sound of the rushing water that half filled this mostly round 2.5 foot diameter passage added to the intimidation. Before passing thru, we sent Johnny B into the dark hole, headlamp a blazing to scout if it came out again or dead ended.
One of the best lines ever. Vogel and I talking in the sublimation cloud, at the tunnel entry, distracting ourselves from the fear we were feeling, as Johnny scouted the hole….We call ahead to him………”Is that going to work?”
Johnny’s reply, muffled by the ice and tunnel, but loud enough to hear
“You got a better idea?”
Actually….no
Mike
Just making sure nobody missed that one.