A Flash Flood, a SAR, Old Friends, Some Fine Climbing and an Awesome Sunset

They weren’t talking about us being stranded by flash flood waters, but indeed we were, if only for 20 minutes. The NPS Report. Great being stranded behind closed roads and not even knowing it! 😉

North Cascades National Park (WA) Injured Climber Evacuated, Visitors Stranded By Flashflood Rescued

On July 25th, park rangers on patrol in the Cascade Pass area were contacted by a climber who reported that a separate climbing party needed assistance – one climber was disabled due to a leg fracture and another had turned back due to signs of hypothermia. One of the rangers accompanied the reporting party along the start of an alpine route known as the “Ptarmigan Traverse,” while the other climber located and assisted the hypothermic man. During the assessment of the leg fracture and mission planning with the IC, a thunderstorm and deluge occurred. Due to the unstable weather in the region, a helicopter evacuation was delayed to the following morning. With bystanders caring for the injured climber, rangers hiked out, but found that the road servicing this popular trail had been washed out in a flash flood, stranding dozens of visitors. This unusual event required a “road rescue” involving several rangers and maintenance staff to clear enough debris to safely get a few people out and supplies in to accommodate those stranded in the trailhead parking lot. Early the following morning, two wilderness rangers were flown back and short-hauled the injured climber out. Follow-up showed that the climber had multiple fractures in his foot/ankle and the hypothermic climber had fully recovered. The road remained closed for several days. Wilderness district ranger Kelly Bush was the incident commander. [Submitted by Kinsey Shilling, Chief Ranger]

— In Yahoo Canyons Group, “adkramoo” wrote:

This 48 hour trip had it all. It was the last 3 days of Aaron’s and my 22 day trip to the North Cascade’s. Murray had broken his ankle and had to cancel, but Stevee B. and Aaron Watt accompanied us. We have come to the area for a long time and have met many folks over and over. A little below is a correspondence between Aaron and Alasdair Turner, a guide for Alpine Ascents, who we meet twice this year and twice last year.

I experienced my first flash flood in the North Cascade’s as I stood on the slopes, between to flashing draws. If only I had known how to work the video on the camera!! I got to play dodge ball a few times and was awed by the power.

First is Aaron’s letter to Alasdair. DON”T MISS the link to the pictures at the end of Aaron’s letter. Next is a link to Alasdair’s website, which has his story of the SAR and pictures. The ranger in the SAR is Kevorc, who we shared sunset with on Eldorado on the 6th night of our trip. A small world indeed. > Ram

> —–Original Message—– > From: aramras@… > To: alasdairturner@… > Cc: Ram Subject: Small World

Alasdair, > Hey It’s Aaron Ramras. My dad Ram and I are the Colorado father son team who travel out every July and always seem to run into you (Baker and Boston Basin in 08 and Boston Basin again this year). If you remember, you gave us your contact information this year in Boston Basin. Upon returning home a few days ago I stumbled upon your card while unpacking and took a look at your websight. Absolutely wonderful photography!!! Very cool stuff! And I was surprised to see that it seems we crossed paths again this year without even realizing it…

While reading your story and looking at the pictures and dates from “Broken Bones and Thunderstorms” on your websight, I recognized your green tent as the one our group quietly passed on the mix up arm around 7 PM, on the 25th of July, with the storm fully on. Crazy stuff!

So our story, days 20 through 22 of our trip, begins with a couple of friends from California joining Ram and I for a two night trip up to Cache Col starting on the late eve of the 25th. Our agenda was to climb the South Route on Formidable and then east face of Mix Up ( I believe you recommended the gully east of Gunsight to us. Ram climbed it via Gunsight in 1994 and 1995. Thanks!) It rained steadily as we packed in the parking lot but despite the ominous clouds and the rolling thunder, our motivated friends from Cali pushed us to start up the hill despite our instincts and experience with Cascade weather. As the four of us arrived at Cascade Pass, we encountered Lucy the ranger, accompanying an older man who seemed rather unsteady and pail and was carrying a heavy pack. He was clearly very badly shaken and seemed to be in shock, quite understandably. Lucy informed us that a fall had occured on the Mix-Up arm and a rescue effort was under way although the thunderstorms were prohibiting helocopters from approaching. We offered our assistance and shelter but were informed that somebody else had already provided the injured climber with shelter and was staying with them until the evacuation could be performed. What an act of kindness, I remember thinking! At this point the thunder was growing louder, yet our friends enthusiasm and drive overroad our skepticism and we pushed, perhaps foolishly, upward toward our destination at Cache Col.

As we reached the first stream, the clouds flooded out of the valley over Cascade Pass and the steady rains began. Some of us counted 6 seconds between the thunder and lightning, while others counted just 3. Regardless it was quite disconcerting either way, as I’m sure you noticed. On the way up we passed a ranger who was headed down. I did not recognize her but I’m sure you know who she is?? I inquired as to the progress of the rescue and offered what little assistance we could provide, yet she told us that the airlift would have to take place the next day but that a pair of climbers was accompanying the injured climber for the night. She expressed very obvious appreciation that somebody had been able to provide shelter for the injured climber. The rain lightened when we reached the mix up arm and saw a green tent which we assumed was the tent the injured climber was staying in. We quietly passed the tent as not to create any disturbance, as we heard voices. I confirmed with Ram that this tent was in fact the same one as in your picture on your websight. So it seems we just missed meeting each other once again. Both of us would be very interested to hear details as to the climber and if everything went smoothly throughout the night and with he evacuation??? And a flooded tent?! YIKES! And Craig only had a Bivy with him? Double YIKES! How long did you find him before the storms? How long had it been since his fall?

Once over the Mix up arm, the rains lightened and the thunderheads passed. We arrived at Cache Col to find the good campsight up and left of the glacier occupied. We instead wandered up right from the col to the top of the ridge and found a reasonable sight for two shelters. The next day we were up and hiking by 5 AM for Formidable. We passed upwards of 5 tents at Kool-aid Lake, and Ram commented on it being perhaps the most crowded weekend he had ever seen in the Cascades in his travels since 1992! Red ledge was still in fairly good condition, and offered easy passage with crampons early in the morning. We were blessed with excpetional weather on the trip up the Middle Cascade Glacier and around the back side of Formidable. After ascending heather ledges we began to ascend the steep snowfield, and with uncertainties as to where the route went, we guessed on the most prominantly looking gully. We encountered a moderately challenging moat that required 15 feet of low 5th class climbing to gain access to the upper gullies.After negociating the moat we wandered around searching for the obvious line and found nothing that struck us as well traveled. Eventually we decided to remain in our gully and ascended third and fourth class heather ledges up and rightward to as far as we could see. The ledges lead us to the crest of the East Ridge, which offered very exciting and exposed class 3 scrambling toward the summit! We encountered one rappel into the prominant notch seperating the east ridge from the final summit pyramid. Uncomfortable with rapping on the two pieces of webbing we found, I managed to weave down a complex yet fairly moderate downclimb into the notch and we proceeded on steep fourth class up to the summit. Absolutely wonderful variation to the South Route! On decent we discovered the actual route which was far more direct than we anticipated. Have you climbed Formidable? If so what was your experience? It took us 9 hours to reach the summit from Cache Col yet only 3 hours to descend to the bottom of the Middle Cascade Glacier from the summit.

Once off of the Middle Cascade Glacier, early on the traverse back to red ledge, the thunderheads once again rolled over the hills above, this time coming from the east. As I’m sure you are aware, the beginning of this traverse is a trail carved into steep dirt on the side of the hill with lots of boulders and rocks scattered along the hillside. Ram had proceeded ahead of the three of us since he was moving slowly on his old knees. While the other two and I rested and ate, we saw the skies open far above, and we watched in awe as the hail storm quickly approached. When it reached us, we crouched on the hillside as the hail came down as violently as I’ve ever seen it in the Cascades. I remember feeling quite fortunate to have a helmet on! I covered my ears with my hands as each stone that hit a spot of bare skin stung painfully for several seconds. As we crouched together, we watched as the surrounding hillsides seemed to melt away. Several dozen little mudslides came rushing down above and all around us, accompanied by rocks the size of basketballs tumbling down the hillside with stunning speed and force. The thunder was some of the loudest and most intimidating I’ve ever heard, or at least it seemed so at the time! Quickly recognizing that the trail was an unsafe place to be, we scrambled down underneath a huge, conveniently placed boulder and huddled together for warmth as the hillsides around us flash flooded. As we sat in the safety of our rock blockade, we wondered helplessly if Ram was ok? We could see him still moving accross the hillside in the distance. It was incredible to watch, as the storm progressed and as the trail was wiped out before our eyes. Boulders the size of lawn chairs began to tumble down the hillside as the hail turned to a steady rain. Although only lasting about 10 minutes in length, the storm was stunningly impressive and powerful. The Middle Cascade Glacier below had huge rivers of mud streaming onto it. Once the storm cleared, we proceeded on the muddy remains of the trail and found Ram, who described flash flooding even more impressive than that which we had seen! The Cascades rushing down the heather slopes under the snowfields were absolutely breathtaking, and a brilliant reminder of why we come back to these dangerous places that hacks like us have no business being in! We met the group of folks who were the partners of Craig. They claimed to not really know him well and that Craig was supposed to catch them the night before. Their camp had been flooded badly in the hail storm. We found that the snow bridge at Red Ledge had been nearly destroyed by the storm, yet we found an alternative decent via a mote dive and a dynamic move over a large moat onto the snow below. The snow bridge we had crossed just ten hours early had melted from a couple of feet thick to around 8 inches!!! Unreal.

The climb up from Kool Aid Lake to Chache Col offered perhaps the most beautiful moments of the entire three week trip! The skies swirled with clouds as a rainbow spanned the entire landscape above Magic and Hurry Up. The sunset over Johannesburg was nothing short of spectacular. We stumbled into camp 15 and a half hours after departing that morning, everybody tired and soaked. Yet we could not go right to sleep, for it would have been unacceptable to miss the incredible light show that was happening all around us. Truly a magical evening!

The next morning we taped our blisters and forced our battered bodies out of our sleeping bags for one last day before flying back to Colorado. We broke camp and proceeded down the Cache Col glacier to the notch to the left of Gunsight where we found an easy moat crossing. We found the backside traverse into Gunsight to be quite manageble. Is that how you approach the east face now? We left our full packs in the notch and proceeded up Mix-Up’s east face, roping up for the first and final pitches. Absolutely Spectacular! One of the highest quality moderate scrambles I’ve ever done! I see why you recommended it. A wonderful finale to another wonderful three weeks in the North Cascades. While descending the Cascade Pass trail we were baffled as we encountered not a soul. When we arrived at the car we were one of five cars left in the parking lot. Our questions were answered when we found on our windshield the notice that the Cascade River Road had been washed out and was closed to upward traffic. WOW! Must have been one hell of a storm down low on the 25th. We drove down the mostly repaired road, and camped along a river before flying home to Colorado early the next moring. Overall a wonderful two night trip! Not surprising to find out we almost ran into each other again! Would love to hear any interesting details you have from the experience. It was great seeing you again this year. Hope to run into you again in the future!

Also you’re Denali shots are out of this world!!!! Thanks for sharing!

Here’s some of our digital shots from our adventures on Formidable and Mix up. More to come from earlier in the trip if you’re interested…

http://picasaweb.google.com/aramv14/FormidableAndMixUp?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLFy4Hbs9XFvgE&feat=directlink

> or

http://tinyurl.com/n6oy4r

Here is Alasdair website link!

http://alasdairturner.blogspot.com/