As Close to Death As You'll Get

Trip Report

As Close to Death As You'll Get

Page Type: Trip Report

Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 31, 2009

Page By: noahs213

Created/Edited: Aug 3, 2009 / Aug 10, 2009

Object ID: 536300

Hits: 5015

Page Score: 90.48% - 47 Votes

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Table of Contents

What Our Plan Was

Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong Right?

Trying to Cheat Death in Every Way

The Aspen Mountain Rescue

We Owe Our Lives To The Aspen Mountain Rescue

Images

What Our Plan Was

NOTE: This is for reading purposes only. I wrote this in order to hopefully help out others. That's what matters to me. As this is a pretty touchy subject/story for me. This is what can happen in the mountains. Hopefully this will help others if they are ever stuck in my position. Also, I learned my lesson. I KNOW what I did wrong. I made a couple of mistakes. So please be respectful of my writing and don't instruct me of what I did wrong. I also know the descisions we made after our mistake were the best thing you could of possibly done. So please be respectful as it was hard even writing this.

Climbers are sometime’s faced with life-threatening descisions. Many escape death while many others become apart of it. Many think It will never happen to them and that there somehow invincible. Let me tell you, when things go wrong and you really think your going to die, that thought will change. Me and Kevin were faced with the Inevitable on July 31, 2009. This day will be remembered as really a miracle.

The Maroon Bells are nicknamed the “Deadly Bells” on purpose. They kill people. They are notorious for loose rock and steep cliffs. That’s an accurate description. If you fell at any bit of this climb you would end up 1,500 or so ft. on a rock pile. Between the two of us, we have significant experience. I am good with the more difficult class 4 and class 5 terrain(Meaning steep rock climbing). Kevin is very good with route finding and class 1-3 navigation. The Maroon Bells, while considered Colorado’s hardest 14ers, were in our range of experience. Both of us are also fairly good at weather decision making in the high country, though there is no “good” weather predicting at that altitude. A storm is able to form and come in a matter of minutes without notice.

Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong Right?

We left at 7:30pm on Thursday to get there as early as possible. Arriving at 1am we went to sleep and woke up just about an hour later to get an early alpine start at about 2:00am and we began “the approach.” The approach was rainy, but fairly easy. After finding a “cairn” – a pile of rocks – that marked our ascent route at 5:30am, we worked our way up the most frustrating section of the hike – 2,800 feet of elevation over the course of about 1.5 miles. Which means, it’s just about straight up. It’s annoying, tough to follow, and as I find out later, very slippery and dangerous to descend.

At about 8:30am we reached the top of the ridge at 13,300.

The First Section of the Climb

The final section to the summit involves playing the cairn game – moving a cross of very skinny ledges with loose rockand loose gullies as lead by cairns. Kevin was particulary good at finding the exact route. This was a fun way but very exposed and not the most solid rock at all. As a result, we finished this section, which is supposed to take about 1.5 hours for the fast climber, took us an hour total. Everything seemed to be going our way.

Looking at the second part of the climb to the right.

The summit was great. Though I wouldn’t recommend anyone get near it, the views are incredible. You can see EVERYTHING, from the dangerous looking summits of Pyramid and Capitol, to the spacious snowfield on Snowmass Mountain. It was incredible. We didn’t stay long on the summit, and headed down the saddle towards North Maroon Peak. We were faced with some technical (class 4 AND class 5) down climbs before we reached the low-point on the ridge at 13,700ft – the top Bell Cord Couloir (A couloir is a steep snow-filled gully). I lead until I scared myself to death by almost falling and slipping off the rock a couple times. You look down into the vast air and huge cliffs and that alone scares most off this traverse. That’s when I had Kevin find a easier way that would not kill us. After all that’s his strength.

Trying to Cheat Death in Every Way

We searched for the route up North Maroon and quickly realized it was more of a challenge than we expected. It also didn’t help that a big storm was coming in. Knowing we could not backtrack or keep climbing because the lightning WOULD kill us. The rain would also add a nice thin layer of ice making the rock dangerously slippery having you fall to your death. As we sat at the top of the couloir(saddle) trying to decide what to do, a storm blew in. The weather made a tremendously quick change for the absolute worse. At 10:45, it was thundering like crazy and snowing to where you could not see much at all.

It was either the icy traverse, frozen couloir, or this side.

We decided our only choice was to attempt to slide down this couloir with a trecking pole used as a brake. Kevin went down first and lost control flying into into a hole on the side. I went down next scared and I lost control going to the left of the couloir slamming right into the rock with my leg. We both knew this was first not possible and second suicidal. The snow was bulletproof where you would just keep sliding down for 2,000 ft. until you hit the rocks and died. I was on the opposite side of Kevin and I knew I had to get on his side but I could not traverse the snow. I pulled out a piece of emergency rope I have that’s about 10 ft. long and tied it to my waist and Kevin used the Pole as a anchor. I got across safely. We were in trouble. Now there was unclimbable snow above us and below us. Slippery Cliffs to both our sides. We were in huge trouble. We pulled our space blankets and hunkered down to wait out the storm. As the storm slowly began to “taper” off and the fog surrounded us, we realized just how bad our situation was. The climbs up to both South and North Maroon Peaks were wet from the storm AND technical AND exposed to long deadly falls. The couloir was filled with a very thick icy snow. Neither of us had packed for a snow climb – our crampons and ice axes were at home. The left and right edges of the couloir had melted out, creating intermittent and very deep cave-like openings that apparently are known as “moats.” Thus, down the couloir was not an option either.

This is where things got VERY dangerous. We knew we needed to do something, as sitting was not an option. I blew a whistle over and over to try to get help. I was getting to the point of hypothermia with no feeling in my hands or feet. We knew we had to move to not freeze to death. Our only way down was this couloir. We thought it was either death sitting, or death going down this snow. We chose the snow. Kevin lead the way by attempting to slide down it with his trecking pole. In a normal situation, You would have your ice axe to arrest with, stopping the fall. This time, there was nothing but a hiking pole. As I knew this was a bad idea for him, I was sure right when I thought he was dead. He was being flung left and right through the couloir on a very speedy downwards trek. He had lost control and was leaving my eye sight into the clouds. After a few HUNDRED feet of downwards movement he finally “exited” the couloir on the left (north) side, headfirst, into the cliff wall on North Maroon. His helmet took the full force of the fall and turned him around enough that my feet hit snow. He had basically slid a few hundred feet down at high speed into a cliff and didn’t break a single bone.

We were both NOT in good physical condition. He was bleeding from somewhere. I had a hard time moving my leg as it was also bleeding from hitting the rocks. We were both scratched and scraped everywhere, and Kevin’s right leg was exceptionally painful. I stood there starting to get quite emotional because he was not responding to me and I knew I couldn’t loose a good friend and live with him dieing right in front of my eyes. He finally replied and screamed up to me not to try this, but to stay put. I agreed. At this point, I realized how badly our luck had turned. His SPOT tracker, a small GPS/satellite device that allows us to tell home that were “OK” or notify 911 that we were in trouble, had come off of its harness during the fall and continued down the couloir. We had just lost the last connection to help for at least a couple of days. But things improved slightly. He searched (slowly) around the area, and as Kevin looked further down the couloir, he realized that the moat he was in continued downwards for a VERY long time. He had a chance to get down by crawling through the moat. He yelled to me that he had a chance of getting it.

One of our last photographs. As you can see the weather is starting to move in.

From here, the two of us were split up, with no way back to one another. I was starting to get dangerously cold and I knew if no rescue came in the next 2 hours I would have to find a diffcult line up all these wet cliffs back over the summit of Maroon Peak and back the route we came from in order to not die from hypothermia. Kevin started down as the fog FINALLY started to lift. No rescue came in the next couple of hours so once again I thought would I rather die by hypo. or die actually trying to get out. I chose to go on this uncharted territory. I have never prayed so much. This included traversing the very steep loose rock with cliff sections every five feet. This rock was extremely slippery keep in mind and I was screaming and trying to cuss my way out of the occasional slip of my hand or foot. I knew I would be history If I totally slipped.While I wasn’t sure what Kevin did at this point, he worked his way down the couloir, using some ledges along North Maroon to get down as far as he could. At 13,300ft, he discovered his SPOT tracker in the middle of the snow. Unfortunately, it was in a very steep section, and he had no way of getting to it. All sudden I slid on the rock and grabbed the closest rock which luckily was solid and in place. I caused a rockfall. One of the rocks actually bumped his SPOT tracker out of the couloir down into a moat on the side! Within 10 minutes he had the device.

With the orange box in his hand, he was forced to press the 911 button. He knew pressing the button would mobilize the search and rescue (SAR) teams that were necessary, but It would cause panic back at home. He pressed the button.

Kevin was stopped by the couloir and the end of the “moats.” He was stuck. He chose to traverse the side of North Maroon Peak in hope to find the route down that peak. Of course soon he climbed himself into a trap when he was stuck on a ledge with 300 ft. cliffs below him and no where to go except hope the rescue will come.

Being alone and tired in the wilderness can be a trying experience. I started hallucinating thinking my parents were right there with me. But then I would find out its just a rock. I would go on random acts of crying thinking if I would ever get to see my loved ones again. This kept happening over and over to me except they were different things. My life flashed in front of my eyes. I thought of everything in the past and present and just hoped I would survive. Route finding and searching can be tough, especially when there is nobody to backup your decisions. My route needing the best routefinding especially with the downclimb. And I knew. . . .that was not my strength. I finally climbed my last unstable cliff and the summit was ahead. Then I noticed, this downclimb is going to be whether I survive or whether I die. The weather seemed to be coming again. I just knew, with more rain, this would be it. The weather held off luckily and my route finding was pretty strong. I got off track once but in about 2 hours I was back at 13,000 ft. at the saddle where we were 12 hours ago.

The Aspen Mountain Rescue

It was about now that SAR sent out an airplane to try and spot us both. Unfortunately, wind kept him from circling as low as he wanted, but it was encouraging to know that they were looking. I started to head down the steepest part from the saddle with a bad leg and in horrible condition. I had to be extremely careful because I would be dead if I misplaced just my feet. I got about 1,000 ft. down when I heard something. At sometime around 6:30pm, the SAR helicopter came searching for us. I was extremely happy, we had a good chance. After a number of passes, they finally spotted Kevin, and with some help from his flashlight, he made first contact. There were about 30 guys on the search and rescue looking for us.

By 7:15, an Aspen Mountain Rescue team was on the ground and in contact with Kevin. Kevin conveyed my last known location. I just kept blowing my whistle hoping there would be someone around. Now every 10 or so steps I would fall to the ground from exhaustion both mentally and physically. I knew my legs could not take my much farther. Kevin was surprised to hear my whistle as I heard his and we were very happy to know we were alive… somewhere I hope. I got down this face to the trailhead and kept falling and yelling for someone nearby. At one last attempt I collapsed. I stayed there. I could just not seem to get up. And then I heard someone yell,” Noah?”I yelled,” Yeah, I’m Noah” The two mountain rescue team members came to me in a rush and told me I look like a zombie trying to walk. I told them I was alright and not hurt. I asked if Kevin was safe and they told me he was and they were working on getting him down off the cliffs. I was very relieved to hear that news. They fed me a bunch of food and water and told me I was going to get down.

We both got out on to the trailhead after dark and were fed dinner. I layed in the warm Mountain Rescue Truck thinking of this traumatic day and that I really should be dead. It’s something that I never wish to experience again. I was first worried about my parents because I was suppose to be home 6 or so hours ago. I knew they would not be thinking positively. They drove us to the cabin they had in Aspen. I made a bunch of different phone calls letting everyone know I’m okay.The sheriff and SAR directors talked to me to get a feel for how things went and how I was. They told us we made all the right descisions except going down the snow. Soon we were at a hotel that thankfully Kevin’s dad had booked for us. Finally, after almost 22 hours of climbing we got some much needed sleep.

On the summit of Maroon Peak

We Owe Our Lives To The Aspen Mountain Rescue

We owe so much to the Aspen Mountain Rescue as well as the Pitkin County Sheriff. They were all great to us, and I can’t thank them more for the work they voluntarily do help people like us caught in unfortunate circumstances. It’s amazing what they did. Second, the SPOT tracker turned out to be the real life-saver. Without that we would have been spending the night and cold conditions.

As I look at the Deaths on Maroon Peak. I see that 75% of them were from the couloir we were on and from situations like we were in. The Aspen Mountain Rescue Team told us we were lucky to be alive. They said most climbers would definitely be dead from what happened to us. I thank them personally.

We were lucky the mountain gave us a second chance.

The quote I followed the whole time.

“You always have to make descisions, unless you know your situation is going to get better.”

-Written by Noah and Kevin

Images

Comments

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Mountain Impulse

Captivating Story

Voted 10/10

Thanks for sharing and your openness about your emotions when you're scared to death. Sounds like you both had way more than your share of luck to survive the uncontrolled slides you had.

Posted Aug 3, 2009 3:17 pm

Deltaoperator17

Version 2

Voted 10/10

So, this is how the press sees it...LOL

http://hikerhell.blogspot.com/2009/08/teen-climber-rescued-from-ledge.html

Posted Aug 3, 2009 7:54 pm


	Kevin8020	Re: Version 2
	Hasn't voted	I suppose if you shortened it, that would fairly accurately describe my half of the story...
		Posted Aug 4, 2009 3:43 am


	Deltaoperator17	Re: Version 2
	Voted 10/10	I am thankful you 2 are alive. Moving forward some good advice would be if something could go wrong it might? If you are in the mountains long enough snow and ice and bad weather will fall upon you. Take ice axe and crampons and the appropriate gear always (of course no substitute for making good decisions). Work on being better prepared. Maybe a follow up report on how this epic has made you better prepared and what steps you took could help young men just like yourself. I have a 17 yr old of course he knows everything. It is tough when the grey matter between your ears is preventing your ear canals from hearing the wisdom that I am sure has been given. Learn from this Kevin and Noah! Kind Regards, Steve
		Posted Aug 4, 2009 12:24 pm


	noahs213	Re: Version 2
	Hasn't voted	I apprecaitte the advice. We were both thinking about bringing crampons and an ice axe. But we thought we would not need them since it's just about August. We learned you need to bring them no matter what. Especially when your challenging the "hardest" 14'er in CO.
		Posted Aug 4, 2009 4:36 pm


	Deltaoperator17	Re: Version 2
	Voted 10/10	By the way Noah, well written TR and people will learn from it. Good job and we are all pulling for you when you get older to complete that lofty goal of yours, isnt 14- 8000 meters peaks without Oxy?
		Posted Aug 4, 2009 6:01 pm


	noahs213	Re: Version 2
	Hasn't voted	Thank you. I did not right all of it. Kevin did help quite a bit. But it really depends on the way I climb them. My goal is the 14 8,000m peaks. Whether I winter ascent them all or do them all by new routes I just want to climb them. If I go in winter I will use Oxy but in summer I would not plan too. I should start my preperation climbs in the next coming year! I just will have to figuere out the sponsors and who would have such lofty goals as me. We'll see. Thanks for the encouragement though.
		Posted Aug 5, 2009 2:26 am

knoback

Yikes

Hasn't voted

Nice! Even the best alpinists usually bring a light rope and light rack, whether or not they intend to use the gear. I hope you don't abandon the fast-and-light approach because of this experience. Just needs a little tweaking. And save that 8K stuff 'til you're old and can't climb hard anymore (and don't need your brain - have you seen Ed V.'s MRI? Shrinkage.).

Posted Aug 4, 2009 8:34 pm

TJ311

Great TR

Voted 10/10

Sounds like a very scary ordeal. Thanks for sharing with us.

Posted Aug 5, 2009 10:29 am

merrill

Learning experience

Voted 10/10

If you both were "good at weather descision making in the high country," why did you leave the trail head in the rain? I know it's easy to see in retrospect but I appreciate the TR. I'm sure it was difficult to write knowing people would question many of your descisions. Hopefully everyone that reads it will learn from the poor descisions that were made and the two of you will be safer on future climbs.
Merrill

Posted Aug 9, 2009 12:10 pm


	noahs213	Re: Learning experience
	Hasn't voted	I left the trailhead knowing there was going to be better weather the next day as it was just 2 in the morning. Weather in Colorado comes and goes very quickly. We were both prepared to stop the climb if the rain did not stop. It did though by 4 in the morning. It was very good weather the rest of the day until the middle of the traverse. All I want everyone to do, is to learn from what happened. That's what really counts.
		Posted Aug 9, 2009 7:37 pm


	merrill	Re: Learning experience
	Voted 10/10	Your reply nailed it. I think everyone that is reading this TR has been reminded of the vigilance required just to be high in the mountains and the potential dangers lurking every second. I think many climbers have some close calls but it helps to be reminded again and again by experiences just like yours. I think we listen better hearing your story of living through a nightmare than simply feeling sorry about a climber that died on the mountain and never hearing the "whole" story. Good luck and be safe. Merrill
		Posted Aug 9, 2009 11:23 pm


	noahs213	Re: Learning experience
	Hasn't voted	Thanks Merril I appreciate the help. And everyone else for there kind words and contructive critisizm.
		Posted Aug 9, 2009 11:50 pm

centrifuge

it sounds like

Voted 10/10

you made the best decisions you could given the circumstances. you were in a situation no one can appreciate without being there, and I am happy to be reading your trip report and not another story about a fatality. Its interesting because I had a similar discussion about crampons and ice axe with the guys I was climbing El Diente with on the second, they didnt want to bring either because of the time of year. We ended up bringing both, and still stayed off the snow due to horrible snow/ice conditions that I think characterize snow in the rockies this time of year. Aside from all else, it this was a very well written report with lots of great insight. Thank you for sharing.

Posted Aug 9, 2009 12:45 pm

MoapaPk

whew

Voted 10/10

Hard snow takes a LOT of people. I'm sorry you had to be reminded this way, but I'm very glad that you lived.

Posted Aug 9, 2009 2:29 pm

Sierra Ledge Rat

Experience...

Voted 10/10

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Experience comes from getting into bad situations. The key is to get the experience without getting killed in the process. I had similar experiences as yours when I was a 16-year novice old climber. I am lucky to be alive, and so are you. Learn and move on.

Posted Aug 9, 2009 5:21 pm

triyoda

Lessons learned?

Hasn't voted

Thank you for providing your account. IF you could summarize your takeaways what would they be?

1. Would you start on a commited traverse like this again when it was already raining at the trailhead?

2. After summiting the first peak, in retrospect, if you had just descended the route you went up, without continuing the traverse, would that likely have prevented being iced in up high at the saddle?

3. When you were at the saddle, I realize there is a danger of lightning, but not as bad as being on an open summit. Do you think you would have been better off just hunkering down without going into the couloir? Did you have enough warm clothes to just to hunker down? Basically I think you are very lucky to not have taken a fatal fall in the couloir; I would tend to think the risk of lightning was lower than the risk of the couloir (I realize this is subjective assessment of relative risks that is why I am asking for you thoughts).

I am just trying to get sense of what I can learn from this situation, from you who lived it.

Thanks again for the report and I am glad you safe.

Posted Aug 9, 2009 5:56 pm


	noahs213	Re: Lessons learned?
	Hasn't voted	1) It was raining at 2 in the morning. Which we expected because the weather report called for it. It was a clear day when the sun came up. We knew weather might roll in after 11 or 12 as usual in Colorado. 2) If we descended the regular route it would of been both longer and the descent from the saddle is quite steep added the snow. It would of been safer, that's for sure. We should of done that, but it was clear weather until the middle of the traverse. 3) It would of been safer to not go down the couloir. Sadly, we did not find that out until we climbed ourself into a trap. That's one of the big mistakes we made. That and seperating. I did have many layers on and emergency equipment. It didnt help that my feet and hands were soaked though. That's what cost me and kept me cold. It's hard to hear the noice of lightning and not be afraid that high up. That was our mistake. Next time we can learn from these things. That's what counts. I have finally moved past this and continued my climbing thank God. Thank you all of you for your comments. As I'm very happy to have lived through this. It really does open your eyes up.
		Posted Aug 9, 2009 7:32 pm

KevinCraig

You lived, so learn

Hasn't voted

Hopefully you have learned to respect the mountains and the potential dangers they pose. Demonstrate that respect by getting proper training and experience before doing anything like this *ever* again. Thankfully, you don't have the death or injury of a rescuer on your conscience.

Already you are sounding like you are taking this way too lightly. You are "finally past this and have continued your climbing???!!!!" Dude, you and your friend almost DIED less than a month ago and endangered countless other people in the process. This happened because you lacked skills, experience, judgment and knowledge. You need to stop and SERIOUSLY reflect on this and map out and follow a process to acquire the skills and experience to SAFELY and RESPONSIBLY take on challenges like this in the future. NOT shrug your shoulders, say "whew!" and keep on the same course.

Safe and responsible fast and light climbing is the result of years of experience and skills development. One of the most important principles is the willingness to turn around if you are not prepared for the conditions you encounter or are likely to encounter on any given day.

Posted Aug 9, 2009 10:13 pm


	noahs213	Re: You lived, so learn
	Hasn't voted	Ok. I realize all of that. First of all, I'm not shrugging my shoulders. This left me in a emotional wreck. Of crying, not being able to sleep for a couple of days. This dragged me down in every way. I was even thinking about therapy. I really don't appreciatte you walking all over this issue when you have absolutely no idea how I felt or how experienced I am. Especially when you have not gone through this specific situation. I had the experience for it. Do you think I just did this out of no where? You have no room to talk. Absolutely none. My Saviour had this happen to me for a reason. I can't dwell on the past my whole life. I have to eventually move past it. And you really think I could of just turned around?? Oh ya, let me go climb back to the summit and get struck by lightning. Have you read this full TR at all?There is a difference between constructive critsism and just basically downing what I did. I could barely even handle this. You think I can handle you saying this when you have no idea where im coming from? There comes a time standing up for yourself especially when it comes to climbing. Especially by just almost downing this whole situation. You have absolutely no idea about this whole thing. NONE. This is for reading purposes and for people to find out what actually can happen. Maybe I shouldn't of posted this. Because people like you critsize me, and think I'm just a lame kid that does not know what he is doing. It makes me sad to hear stuff like this to me or others. Yes, I have alot to learn but I had experience for this climb. The rescuers told me personally that I did everything right. I brought extra layers, 3 kinds of fire starters, compass, map, guidebook, rope, chalk, emergency blanket, everything. The only thing I did not bring was an ice axe and crampons. Which I learned from! and will bring next time. So please get your comments of "This happened because you lacked skills, experience, judgment and knowledge." out!! As i know multiple sources of even Everest summiters on the rescue team that told me I did everything right except not bringing the ice axe and crampons. They are WAY more reliable sources for me then your "advice". They actually have an idea of the situation and were there. Yes, there are things I learned from this. There are things I could of done better. But wow, I just don't apprecaite this kind of crtisizm and assumptions you make when you don't know any details except this small TR. . . .It just makes thing's harder for me. I don't mean to offend you. But that did just make me a little upset reading that.
		Posted Aug 9, 2009 11:37 pm

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