The DAWGBLOG: August 2008

BC Day long weekend '08 started off and almost finished being one of the best, now one for the books..... Friday Ricky and I hit up the Agrifair and stopped into the Fat Pig Saloon for a beer and a small high school reunion. Saturday I got up at 5:45am and met Warren Koop for a rode ride to Ryder Lake which was pretty sweet, 85 km from my house. In the afternoon Ricky, Kurt and I hit MEC and got some outdoor gear before the fireworks where we ate some killer gelato. Sunday morning I packed my gear for Mt. Baker, went to Valhalla, grabbed some food and stove fuel, then off to Ricky's parents where we were going to meet and have lunch. By 3:30 we were through the border and on the way, and at 5:30 we were on the trail towards the base of the glacier which we got to at about 7pm. We set up camp, Ricky and Kurt went for an evening glacier ski while I cooked dinner, by 9:00 we saw an amazing sunset and hit the sack. 3AM was the wake up call and we enjoyed coffee and oatmeal I asked Kurt "you got tensor bandages in case one of us rolls or blows our ankle"? He said yes and at 415am we were all roped together, headlamps on and we were off. We took it pretty slow because of Kurts telemark ski skins were not doing any justice... we still managed to summit by 915, where we chilled for a good hour, signed the summit book and ate. We started back at 11ish after a look around the rest of the glacier, and at around noon we were at the Roman wall where the weekend turned from unreal to ........Kourva, Schiesen, Puta and any other word in the book, this small steep section called the Roman Wall we decided to carefully slide down Kurt was below Ricky above and I was in the middle..... I got going a little to fast and I dug my right foot crampon in the snow and did it ever, the rest of me kept going and my ankle took the impact it snapped, I dug my ice axe in the snow to stop completely and looked down.... My foot was near 90 degrees from center. Kurt lowered me the rest of the way down maybe 40-50 feet, then Ricky and Kurt used ice axes to make a splint, tied rope around my harness and started to pull I was in charge of saying 1-2-3 pull and the 5 hour pull began to base camp. One hour in we had some help and by half way we had an army of 7 helping. Several of them tried to call but cell service was wishful thinking. I got into the tent and rested while one man ran to the bottom to call the rangers, others tried to build crutches out of trekking poles, Kurt ran to the tree line and got two branches. With 4 guys, one holding either end of the branch. I had my arms around the middle of branch holding me up, my bad leg roped up we started hobbling down....200 meters down and the chopper arived. I was prepared to hobble down if the cost was too high but the US Navy Chopper took me to St. Joseph Hospital in Belingham for free where I was given pain killers and x rays 2 hours later mom showed up and took me home. Tuesday I went in for surgery a broken fibula and ligament. Thanks to everyone that helped me. Knock on wood I called the outcome before I knew it .....