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January 05, 2004

Back Country Day Blues

We had it all planned out and for the most part, as I expected, it all went as planned. A posse of us got up early and made steak and egg burritos. A good carrying meal. We then went to the Mountain and met some other friends who would be joining us. A couple lifts and a gondola ride later we headed for the, out of bounds, back-side of Mammoth Mountain via Dave's Wave. Our goal was to ride Hole in the Wall down the Tamarack Lodge, then hike the Sherwin's and get some deep back country powder action.

I'd seen Hole in the Wall from the other side, but had never attempted to board it. It provides narrow passage through a giant cliff band that would not be passible otherwise. It is like riding through a short cave, naturally formed from eons of wind, rain and avalanches. Brandon and Bryce chose an insanely steep line with a mandatory rock drop. Even thought he rock drop was only 5-8', it was so steep, they easily got 20-25' of air before touching down.

The hike up the Sherwin's was mostly uneventful. I wasn't sure how my cardio was doing, but I ended up doing better than I'd worried I'd do. Once on the summit ridge, we broke into teams of two, each picking a different line down the mountain. Brandon and I, who both had avalanche transceivers on, decided to do The Perch, which is the summit of The Sherwin's. Its also the farthest to hike to.

On the summit I pointed out to Brandon that the 'true' summit was still slightly higher. On the top, there was a platform of rocks about 8' off the ground. I commented on how cool it would be to drop in off the top of that rock, the true summit. I was only kidding, but Brandon immediately offered to record it. So I climbed up with my board and gingerly strapped in as Brandon held my board to make sure I didn't fall off prematurely. After hesitating for a moment, I dropped in. The landing was flat, so I didn't end up riding away, but it was still fun.

We then headed off along the prominent ridge-line. I was about to drop in to a narrow chute, but Brandon recommend he recon it first to make sure it didn't dead end in a cliff. Sure enough it did, luckily, I didn't drop in there. So I dropped in a little further down. I saw that there were many rocks below, but there were obvious, if narrow, ways to get between them.

The first couple turns were glorious. Sweet, soft powder gave way to low laid turns. I was relaxed and happy, until... I was making a sharp toe edge turn, my board was essentially pointed straight down the steep gully, when I hit a patch of ice I was unprepared for. I immediately went down painlessly, but started sliding uncontrollably in the only direction it is possible to fall. I was sliding head first down the gully as I dimly realized I was headed for a rock band I had intended to work around. There was nothing I could do, nothing to do, but slide.

I remember hitting rocks for what seemed like too long a time, and then I remember flying off the last large rock and landing in the snow, still attached to my board. Pain shot through my right leg and left butt cheek. My elbow seemed hurt too. Miraculously, my head seemed untouched, except for a minor scratch on my right temple. I tried moving my right leg, but couldn't as the nose of the board had buried itself in thick snow. It took me a minute to work it out, roll on my back and sit up. At first there was too much pain to take stock and see if I had broken anything. Slowly I realized my legs still worked. I got up and tried making a couple turns, which I could do with much pain. Then I heard Brandon's voice yelling my name. I responded and asked where he was. Later, Brandon told me he had been calling my name for a while, but I must not have heard him. He was worried. He had seem me drop in, then heard me hit ice and finally heard my board hit rocks. I made tentative turns through trees to get to Brandon and we kept going on the long traverse needed to get to the boot path leading towards civilization. Each turn hurt, but not as much as the walk out. The path was an uneven snow path with boot holes at uneven depths. After 1-2 miles of that, there was another mile or more of road to get to the bus stop. At the bus stop we noticed that I had broken the super strong hi-back part of my binding. I don't know how hard I hit the rocks, but it was obviously hard enough to break my bindings. The bus took us to The Village where the cars were. The last walk I had to do was from the bus-stop to the cars. It was very painful.

Now I'm resting. I didn't break anything, but I'm badly bruised in a couple places. I'm very lucky I didn't do anything worse. Such are the risks of my lifestyle. I don't regret it, nor am I sure what I would do differently, other than try and be more aware of changing conditions. It was still a REALLY good day. It was beautiful and sunny with the majesty of the Eastern Sierras looming over us the whole time. Innumerable snow covered peaks saturated our view in all directions. It is hard not to be glad, when you are with friends in a place as beautiful as this.

Posted by wonko at January 5, 2004 09:13 PM

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Comments

Posted by: guidedog at January 6, 2004 07:58 AM

Posted by: mench at January 6, 2004 12:52 PM

Posted by: useEvil at January 8, 2004 02:01 PM

Posted by: Wonko at January 8, 2004 02:53 PM

Posted by: useEvil at January 9, 2004 02:38 PM

Posted by: useEvil at January 9, 2004 02:39 PM

Posted by: Wonko at January 9, 2004 04:32 PM

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