Here is the Bill Hughes version, best I can remember. (written 2011-07-17)
THANKS!!
Thanks to Chaffee County Search and Rescue North (“Take Care of Business”) for the amazing work and kindness to strangers in a bad situation. I cannot imagine a better example of the best of America has to offer. My deepest and most sincere thanks to the volunteers of Chaffee County Search and Rescue North, including:
Doctor Rick Ruider, James (wow!), Aaron, Bill, Chris, Pete, Joe ( Subject Matter Expert with ~45 year’s experience in mountain rescue, Joe sits at the bottom with a radio in case the rescue team is not sure what to do).
I also want to thank the members of Team Ibex for the experience, education, and brotherhood offered to me:
Rescued Number 1 – Tony – The eldest member of our team at 51, Tony never wavered. This is the man you want on your team when things are going badly. You are an inspiration Tony.
Rescued Number 2 – Scott – In many ways, Scott is the engine of Ibex, pushing the group to get together and continue to seek opportunities for brotherhood. Always ready to go.
Rescued Number 3 – Bill – The observer. I hope I helped in some way.
Rescued Number 4 – Karl – Provided humor to lift spirits, and group prayers to protect. Karl was NOT sick! Just a little altitude cough. It’s Go Time!
Rescued Number 5 – Don – Experienced in mountaineering, Don and his nephew John provided training and education to those of us with less knowledge. Thanks for the help Don and John.
Rescued Number 6 – Andy – As a former US Marine, Andy’s skills became apparent when things turned sketchy. Thanks Andy for being you. You are a great man and a pleasure to be around.
Rescued Number 7 – Mark – With the wisdom to carry the SPOT system in his day pack, Mark and his parents may have saved lives. Thanks Mark’s parents for providing their son with SPOT and keeping up the subscription.
Rescued Number 8 – John – The 21 year old nephew of Don, John met-up with Ibex for our annual adventure at the BV rock climb. John provided the team with knowledge and experience in mountaineering and tremendous youthful energy to carryout “missions” as directed by his Uncle Don. Always with a pleasant “no problem” attitude. Parents of John, you should be very proud of this young man.
Rescued Number 9 – Chad Gillum – Our leader and savior. In retrospect, I was never in great danger because Chad was NOT going to allow me to die on that mountain. I can only see that looking back. Quite Desperation will never be an option for Chad.
STORY
Myself and eight others were on our annual men’s trip to somewhere hike-able. This was the first year I was able to make the trip. Having just moved to Denver, I met Team Ibex (our handle) in Denver at REI, and proceeded to the mountains for our adventure.
First night out (Sat, 7/9) was dedicated to listening to live music on the way to higher altitudes. As always, it was a memorable time with a wonderful group of men. A good time was had by all. Next day (Sun, 7/10) we moved over to Buena Vista, CO (pronounced Boona Vista) by way of Breckenridge. Chad, our leader and most experienced mountaineer, was to give us an opportunity to rock climb “on-billet”. This involved Chad climbing up ~50ft to tie-off a rope to a rock face that allowed Chad to support each of us from below as we attempted to climb the rock face. In this setup, the climber can let go of the rock and will not fall as Chad has him supported. Everyone attempted the climb. We spent the night at Twin Lakes camp ground.
Next morning (Mon, 7/11), we were off to Maroon Bells for an attempt at Four Pass loop. This would involve climbing up Maroon Bells Pass, tracking along and across West Maroon Creek, over the first pass, three more 13,000 ft passes, and eventually back to the parking lot where we had left the car and van. Due to very late snowfall and resulting snow pack, we were unable to reach the first pass and surrendered on the slope of Maroon Bells pass, about 500 ft below the saddle. It was an incredible experience and all were happy to have been up and safely back to our campsite beside the creek. We spent two nights at that campsite and trekked back out on Wednesday 7/13 (Happy B-Day Mai!).
We walked around Aspen and had pizza. For some reason pizza is the answer after mountain hiking. Always wondered why there are so many pizza joints near climbers. I have learned since that people want pizza after climbing. After gear shopping in Aspen, we moved on to Buena Vista, CO. Chad calls this town BV and really wants to live here someday. We slept at a hotel in BV Wednesday night.
Mark set his alarm and placed a wakeup call for 4:30 am. Myself, Mark, and Andy were up and ready to go shortly after the alarm. The guys in the other room were down below and ready to go as well. Quick bite and off to attempt Mount Princeton (~14,000ft). We were at the trailhead called Grouse Canyon (~ 9,000 ft) and started up at 6:30 am. The trail was steep but relatively easy, traveling next to a stream with vegetation and flowers. It was beautiful.
We scrambled up the trail, finding a few cairns marking the trail for trekkers to follow. These would have been built by previous trekkers to help the next group find their way. At times during our trek we would add to cairns to help others and ourselves locate trail turnoffs. A cairn is just a pile of rocks that was clearly created by man, rather than a natural feature. We proceeded up the trail through aspen forest, with views behind us becoming ever more spectacular as we gained altitude.
There were signs of deer and other herbivores on the trail and as I recall a deer was spotted by Chad. Somewhere along the way, not sure of coordinates, I looked down to my left, and saw something blond. To give an idea of how the mind works, I thought to myself blond hair would be Chad. But, I thought, why would Chad be 50 ft below me when I could see he was up ahead in the lead position. I was at number 7 position in the team as we walked along this relatively flat trail, with John and Don behind me. Then I thought, looks like a golden retriever by the color of the fur. Again, why would a dog be up here? This all happened in a matter of seconds. As I peered down, the fur spot became a standing mountain lion. I had been looking at his/her haunches as he/she sat looking down toward the creek. I believe the noise from the creek, downhill from the cat, which was downhill from our group, prevented the cat from hearing us and running away sooner. It stood, turned in a counter clockwise circle, leapt on a boulder, and disappeared on the other side, downhill from us. Never saw it again. Mountain Joe, who we met at the bottom, tells me that, had I been paying attention, I would have noted that the tail curved inward toward the turn direction. In other words, when the cat swirled counter clockwise, the tail folded in clockwise. Theory, according to Joe, is that if you cut off the tail tip, the cat is helpless and will go in circles. Joe also told the black tipped tale makes a great shaving brush. My heart was beating rapidly, and I wanted to tell myself it was something else, but I had a full body 360 degree view. There was no doubt. The guys asked me how much it weighted. I have since looked this up and the answer is that a full grown mountain lion, and this one was clearly grown, weighs about 150 – 250 lbs.
Up into more open aspen forest, with unbelievable views behind us. Soon the forest of aspen and evergreen faded away to scree/talus field to the right of us, and grass/shrub to the left. We encountered a dead mountain goat somewhere along this phase. A skull, jaw, and vertebrae. Continued up to a scree/talus field which we climbed and crossed to achieve the ridge at ~13,500 ft. Along the way, we encountered lots of flowers.
Once on top, we looked off to the left (NE) along the ridge to view Princeton Peak (~14,000ft). It was a way off (~ 1 mile) along a very high ridge requiring rock climbing with drop-offs on either side. After climbing up the ridge for awhile, it was decided it was too much for us to attempt at this time of day. The decision was made to abandon the summit and turn back.
As we stood at the top and looked around, I stepped on a boulder which I would guess weighed 600 – 1000 lbs. I was walking down slope toward Tony, who was sitting to my right, when I set my left foot on a boulder. The rock moved, I leaned back on my other foot, and watched this boulder take off and travel thousands of feet down slope toward Agnes Vail Falls. We watched until the broken boulder was too far away to see. Karl happened to catch this on video. This was my introduction to the extreme danger of being below another person in these rock/scree/talus slopes. Also, awareness of being on a mountain in any location. Rock fall is natural and will occur, and it is every man’s obligation to be aware of the man below, and protect him from such occurrence. It is the obligation of every man to know what is above him as well, and to get downhill of and behind a tree or large rock when the danger is high to provide protection for himself. We learned later that the rescue team had shutdown the Falls to tourism due to this threat while we were in this valley because rocks can (though not likely) travel all the way to the Falls from the ridge. Several times during our trek I could hear huge boulders rolling downhill after one of our team had dislodged a boulder. Unavoidable, frightening, and awesome (as Chad put it). To finalize the rock fall realty, the same team that rescued us had extracted the body of a young women struck by a boulder in the same area about 1.5 weeks earlier. They explained to us that the decision process involves making a decision on bringing down the victim whole…or in two halves.
While on top, the decision was made to proceed down valley toward Agnes Vail Falls, rather than retracing our steps back down Grouse Creek where our vehicles were parked. I was not involved in the decision process and will leave the details to others. However, I understood that the decision was based on concern over passing the mountain lion again.
The trek down was considered treacherous (and gorgeous) as we would be going down the same/similar path (through a green meadow covered with alpine tundra flowers) that the boulder had traveled. Myself, Karl, Andy, and Chad formed the eastern most of two teams for the descent with sunny weather highlighting the flowers. By now we were all fully aware that the man above you could dislodge a rock and easily kill you without intent. Thus, the two teams to reduce the opportunity and to increase speed of the entire team. We made our way down one man at a time. The lowest men would seek shelter downhill of a rock while the man above made his way down. I found myself wondering if relying on sound and ground vibration were enough alert to coming rock, or would it be better to view upward as light travels much faster than sound or seismic. At one point we noticed two trekkers up on the ridge where we had been. It occurred to me that I was hundreds of feet below them, and possibly directly downhill. A rock similar to the one I had dislodged and watched travel down slope could well be coming my way. None were encountered.
The four of us on the eastern most team encountered a beautiful waterfall at ~12,000 ft. Remaining snow on this south facing slope was minimal so the falls was not significant. Nonetheless, it was beautiful. We continued down and met-up with the western team somewhere near the tree line. Descended together on a relatively flat downhill traverse. This is when I discovered the damage that can be done to ones toes going downhill. I taped each toe when we stopped, with John providing me some duct tape and knowhow. That helped, but still excruciating.
We continued as a team down through pussy willow, sapling aspen, and other vegetation, initially along the west bank of the creek, then the dryish creek itself, then the east bank. The creek was odd in that you initially saw water (at the falls), then you could hear water underneath rock and debris, then no water (heard or seen), then water again at surface. It was as if the creek sometimes travels underground then arises at a lower elevation. The decent was not too difficult and I was very thankful for the forgiving nature of the vegetation. I commented that where I grew up (TX mostly) you would not want to go through vegetation with shorts on, as most of us were doing, due to briars and snakes. The softer nature of the vegetation and the lack of snakes resulted in some scratched ankles, but no real damage. The more experienced mountaineer, John, had been teased for always wearing gators to protect his ankles. At this point, it was clear he had known all along what he was doing.
Down and across the creek (again), with a stop to refill our water bottles and bladders. The creek at this point was flowing on surface, underneath a thick brambles of pussy willow. Andy insisted that everyone fill every bladder and bottle with water (using Don’s water filter), regardless of calculations on how much was needed. This proved to be very insightful and we were all glad to have a US Marine along to keep it smart. We proceeded down and across the creek and up the slope to traverse the west side of the creek. We may have stayed at a similar altitude as we proceeded, though I cannot be sure. The creek fell away down below, and we were soon in an evergreen forest with a steep, rock/soil slope falling off to our left. It was here the going became very slow. We were tired and hungry, though by no means desperate. The fear was just starting to appear, as we realized, unless things started going our way soon, we could be in trouble.
This phase ended in my mind at the top of a steepish rock formation which we were to climb/crawl/walk down to some point below which had been scouted by an advance team (Scott, Mark, Chad, Andy). By this time, the rear team consisted of myself, Karl, Tony, John, Don, and Chad. Chad had already descended down this rock and done some advance scouting for the rest of us. The call was made to proceed down. Myself, Tony, and John proceeded down toward the bottom with a rising hill to our right. About midway down, we hear Mark calling up to us from below. We cannot understand the message until Mark looks up and around the corner and announces that they have encountered a 25 ft, un-climbable cliff below them. We are stopped and must go back up the hill. Mark’s voice sounded just like I felt. This was really bad news. I believe, but cannot be sure, that this was the second time this occurred. For those of us struggling at this point, it was like the announcement of death sentence. You knew you didn’t have the strength to re-climb this hill. And you had just come down to now turn around.
It would be tempting to place blame on the advance team for this situation. However, the reader should keep in mind that these men were just as tired, but had gone ahead to give the others of us more and better information, earlier. There was no way know for sure if the decision to go downward was correct until one arose from the falls to safety. That was and is the harsh reality.
So, we all started climbing…again. Tony, John, and myself decided to go up the very steep slope beside us rather than climbing back up the rocks behind us to Karl, Don, and Chad. At this point, Chad stood at the top of this rock after having descended and gone back up to relay information and check the health of his team (presumably). This upper team started across slope to the point my team was approaching from straight below.
I made it up the initial climb using what felt like the last of my strength, trailing behind Tony and John. As I got to a semi resting place next to a tree on this rocky soiled slope, I stopped to breath. As I looked uphill, a fist sized rock whistled by my face, within an inch of contact, or so it felt. I did not see this rock other than with peripheral vision. I yelled up slope to be careful, feeling anger, but quickly realizing this was just a fact of life in the mountains under these conditions. I sat down slope of the tree to collect my thoughts and felt, for the first time, someone might actually die here. It is hard to explain but it was deep and fearful, and very real.
I continued up-slope using larger boulders to shield from rocks falling from the team above. Called out to Mark and Tony to echo-locate as I went. This works quite well as long as you are close enough to hear and be heard. Finally reached the point where the team was gathering for what would become a night sleeping on the mountain side. We did not believe this at that time. It was here that I learned that the initial arrivals (Mark, Scott, Andy) had made the decision to push the emergency button on Mark’s SPOT system, alerting authorities by satellite (we hoped) that we were in trouble, and delivering to them (we hoped) our coordinates (latitude/longitude/elevation). I did not know Mark’s SPOT system had this capability, but was very relieved to learn that it did. Mark’s parents may well have saved lives by having this foresight.
The team continued to gather, we did a head count (as we had been practicing all along), and were all in the same place for the first time in a few hours. This was very important because the smartest thing a team such as ours can do (I have learned) is to stay together. Dispersing is very tempting at times, but has (apparently) proven deadly many, many times. The rescuers made the point again and again that our staying together in the spot where we used the SPOT was one of the wisest decisions we made.
We laid back on the steep slope and rested for a few minutes. It sounds silly now, but I believe we expected a helicopter to appear and extract us within a few minutes. That didn’t happen. Soon, members of the team were at work creating a fireplace and a fire, a shelter, and scouting other good sleeping locations. A knife was secured to a long solid stick in case of mountain lion or bear attack. At some point we inventoried food, water, emergency supplies and prepared for night fall. The decision was made to sleep in shifts, alternating fire watch. I lay down after a while with a tree trunk between my legs to assure I would not fall down slope, and may have slept. I am not sure. Lay down later next to Chad under the shelter. May have slept, but not sure. The emergency blankets (we had two) proved very helpful for the guys in shorts as it got chilly during the night. The fire allowed everyone to periodically warm up, and there was lots of firewood.
I noticed lots of evergreen trees that had died and either fell or were still standing. These trees are very twisted or cork-screwed. Joe (from below) explained to me later that an old wives tale has it that these are created by the Screw Owl. Legend has it that these particular type of owls (unlike regular owls) cannot turn their heads very well. While most owls can easily do a 360 turn, these guys cannot turn their heads at all. So, as the screw owl watches the rabbit run around the tree, he causes the tree to turn in a screw formation. (Hope I got this right.) Joe tells me that one in thirty dead trees are turned counter clockwise, the rest clockwise. Says he saw a cabin once made from all counterclockwise ones. He’s still not sure how that happened.
The night passed either really slowly or very quickly. I am not sure which. It was chilly, but not cold. The moon was bright and full. Not much sound, other than squirrels nibbling and mylar blankets shuffling. In the morning, Chad and Tony headed down slope to look for a way out just in case the SPOT had failed. The SPOT is a wonderful system. Sends a satellite signal out, but does not (apparently) have a confirmation mechanism back to the user. So, you just have no way of knowing if help is coming. So, you are well advised to assume it’s not and prepare for a longer stay, or an escape route. This is (presumably) why Chad and Tony went hiking. Scott brought a Garmin GPS and spare batteries, so we felt we had a plan to escape and Chad/Tony took this GPS with them, as well as the only water pump we had. We knew that it was critical Chad and Tony get water as they would be working very hard and might come across a creek to refill. The rest of were drinking water very sparingly as we sat and waited. We all pee’d in our bottles with full intention to drink this if/when necessary. We ended up with ~24 oz of water amongst nine men when the rescue team arrived. On his hike down, Chad found a creek and refilled his bottle. Tony came back up to us and looked completely tapped when he arrived. I point this out only to highlight how dire the situation was on this beautiful mountain morning, and to highlight how incredibly hard Chad worked to save us. As for water, we had a plan to go back down to the creek (1.5 hr one way trip) to refill water if needed, using water purification pills. This sounded like a really difficult task and we had no GPS/Garmin to make sure the water trekkers could get back to the same spot, our camp location. We were all looking at young John with his youthful legs, but even he was getting tired. Luckily, this water gathering trek was not necessary.
Chad and Tony headed down about 8:00 am on Friday morning (7/15) after a restless night’s sleep. We could hear them talking for awhile, but soon lost their voices in the distance. The remaining team used the two mylar blankets to attempt to flash airplanes or folk down below in the parking lot below, which we could see from our perch. We also used mirrors and smoke signaling, to no avail. Airplanes were common overhead, mostly way too high to signal. One private airplane flew over us low enough to (perhaps) see us. We were excited to see this, but with no wing dip or circling, we felt he had not seen us. Later we saw a plane flying down valley below us, just above the road, and believed this was the same plane. A pilot out flying for fun, not our rescue mechanism. As I recall, there was nothing else to provide comfort. John and Andy walked around uphill in search of a cell signal. Got 911 on the line at one point but could not hold the signal long enough to confirm anything. We sent our latitude/longitude coordinates by text message and this may or may not have worked. I have not heard. But, it was sunny and warm as we waited. And we were already discussing creating a nine man shelter during the day to provide better lodging if we were still out there Friday night. We would not be, thank God.
Somewhere around 10:00 am, a sharp whistle blast, three in succession, sounding like someone who has blown this type of emergency whistle before. I am thinking to myself this will be Chad, completely warn out, thankfully alive and well, to announce that he had found another dead-end. This was the only outcome I would allow myself at this point to avoid a deep depression. Mark responded with three sharp blasts from his whistle, and repeated. Soon, an orange vest and hard hat spotted down below. This was not Chad, and the news was good.
Dr. Rick slowly made his way up to us. He was breathing heavily and collected his breathe before speaking with (i.e., evaluating) our team. We explained to him that we were healthy enough to travel, but running low on food and water. He explained our situation and our options. Situation was that we had proceeded down toward Agnes Vail Falls, as many others had done in the past, which resulted in a “cliff-out”. In this scenario, a creek/river gets deeper and steeper as one travels down. Like a trap, the deeper you go, the more stuck and out of options you become. The options were:
- Turn around and go back the way we came with some resupply of food and water from the rescue team. This would mean back up to 13,500 ft, over the pass, and past the kitty.
- Using a continuous rope fall laid out by the rescue team, head down the valley, and over Agnes Vail Falls, one man after another. I suspect Dr. Rick suspected we would take this route, and he was right. Pretty much unanimous.
Chad was spotted down below us at about the same time we were speaking with (being evaluated by) Dr. Rick. Chad was with the two technicians (Aaron, James) who had accompanied Rick on the way up, all the while scouting our escape route with Chad. Turns out, Chaffee County Search and Rescue had met Chad on the way up, Chad being at the top of the Falls evaluating his down climb on the worst part of his journey. This would have meant climbing down a cliff face, and then walking to the parking lot. Chad is fully capable of this climb and would have (in all likelihood) made it down. In other words, we were saved with or without SPOT. Though there are few words to express the depth of character of a man like Chad, his wrist in the words of Henry David Thorough, expresses that which he will never know. Quite Desperation. Chad climbed back up to us to assist in the rescue.
The rescue consisted of approximately 12 pitches (each a rope 150 – 300 ft long) tied and anchored off from near our camp location at ~10,500 ft all the way to the bottom of Agnes Vail Falls (~9,000 ft). Roughly half a mile away. Each man puts on a harness around his waist and thighs to allow an anchor point for the safety equipment. Also, a helmet is used to protect from falling rock. Each man also wears his pack (day packs in our case) on the way down. Most of us were frustrated by our trekking poles which were now attached to the back of our packs since we would be using the rope to descend rather than the poles. These poles tend to catch every overhead object (limbs, rope, your buddy), and really are hard to deal with. With the climbing equipment (harness) and personal protection equipment (hard hat) strapped on, each man attaches to the main rope, one at a time. This is accomplished using a short segment of rope tied in a loop which is then attached to the main rope. The short rope provides the braking and fall catching system for the user. A carabiner (beener) is used to attach the short rope to the harness of the user, right at about belly button level. As the user descends from the anchor point (typically a tree), he encounters other tie-off points (anchors spaced throughout the pitch). These are designed to limit the amount of fall that can occur should someone lose his grip and fall. Without these, one man’s fall could result in a domino of men falling in response. It took me a few pitches to see the logic. The anchors and the attached rope are run along the escape path in such a way that the user is kept next to the trail or object to be scaled, typically going down in our rescue. This system is (I assume) tried and true but not without risk. One of our team fell and was thankfully not severely injured while tethered to this system. For me, this was another wakeup call. The Search and Rescue team were here to help me save myself, but this was to be the most dangerous leg of our journey due to rockfall and falling hazards. These men were all volunteers and were here to save, but there was no guarantee. Once descended to the end of a pitch, the user must transfer across to the next pitch. This means that the user or his rescuing assistant must unclip from the beener, untie the short rope from the uphill pitch, retie to the downhill pitch, and reclip to the beener. He is now ready to descend the next pitch. There were approximately ten of these pitches, the last two being on-belay (lowered by another person).
Pitch after pitch, watching for rockfall from above, we arrived at the saddle. On the trip down, I witnessed a rock land on Tony’s shoulder. Though frightening, Tony was unharmed with the exception of a scrape and bruise. When I reached Scott and Tony at the Saddle, I suggested to Tony he was lucky that the rock didn’t hurt him. Being the wise man that he is, Tony commented that lucky was not being hit in the first place. I agreed.
At the saddle, you are sitting on a relatively flat convergence of two water flows or creeks. Below you on either side is a creek or wash. On the left is a flowing creek that feeds Agnes Vail falls. Not much water in it this time of year. This is the feed from the creek we had refilled our bottles and bladders from the day before, at the insistence of our resident Marine. To the right looking down is a wash that is (apparently) a creek during melt (earlier in the year) and is a continuation of the ravine we have been traversing on our way down. This creek is dry and will continue to be our escape path to the top of the Falls.
On-belay, we were lowered down this semi gentle slope of very loose scree/talus/soil to the Falls. This traverse was uneventful, with the exception that the man lowering you down, Chris, is apparently leading this rescue effort. He never mentioned that and I would not have guessed due to his gentle nature, but he was very nice and called me “friend” as he advised me on my path down. The way this rig worked, Chris was tied to a rock behind him up on the Saddle. I was then tied to him via his harness and a device which he used to feed rope to me as I descended. This was similar to the device Chad had used to teach us to climb earlier in the week, but rather than feeding rope from below, as Chad had done, Chris fed rope from above. After each man descended, Chris would pull the rope back up to himself to lower the next man.
At the Falls, we encountered Bill, the rescuer we had met up above. Bill would use the same (or similar) mechanism as Chris to lower us down the Falls. I started down climbing though Bill said I could just lay back and let him lower me. I wanted to know if I could have made it on my own. Once it got technical I realized it would take too much time, so I laid back and let Bill lower me to the scree/talus below. Still don’t know if I could have done it on my own. Untied from Bill and un-knotted the rope as requested (to avoid catching when being pulled back up), then exited the Falls quickly. Below, the rescuers showed me why they made me exit to the right…a huge boulder that had fallen down the Falls days earlier.
Some Q&A with the S&R team (name, date of birth, residency, etc) and down to the parking lot. Learned that as a CO resident, had I purchased a hiker card, hunting or fishing license, or state park pass, my rescue would have been re-imbursed by the state of CO. However, mileage only. These guys depend on donations and often buy equipment with their own money. Mark’s Mom and Dad met us at the trail head along with their motorcycle friend’s Denny and Cathy. We all got hugs, even though we were filthy and likely smelled. Drinks were provided for all by Joe, sitting on the tailgate of pickup telling stories. We all waited until the last rescuer was safe in the parking lot. Shook each hand and thanked them. They looked embarrassed but appreciative that we waited. I cannot say enough about these men. They were wonderful and kind to us at every phase. They could have told us we were silly, but only gently admonished us for our behavior. They seemed to understand what a wonderful experience this would be for us once we were safe on the ground and looking back. I have since learned that they had a blast saving us. As suggested by Mark’s Dad, “If your gonna be dumb, you better be tough”.
I have cried my way (shamelessly) through the writing of this story sitting in coffee shops and breakfast houses in Denver. I know it must appear strange, but I get the sense there are lots of people with similar stories here. Like Mark’s parents seem to understand (if I read them right), life is to be lived and chances should be taken. Safety is good, but will never really allow one to appreciate life to its fullest. I don’t know if Team Ibex will ever again attempt a climb such as this, but for myself, I am hooked. The elation of standing near the top of the earth, looking around at the mountain tops in the distance. Well, it cannot be expressed.
The END
