Blanca Peak, CO
Jasper and Colin flew in from Berkeley for one of our big Denali training trips. The plan was
to drive up to the Como Lake trailhead and make the approach to the lake on Friday, then spend
the weekend making summit attempts on Blanca, Little Bear, and Ellingwood, and back to the car
on Monday morning.
We all met at Robin's place at 6:30am on Friday morning for biscuits and to finalize our gear distribution. Robin initially stated that we would be on the road by 7:00, so when we got on the road at 7:30 we all thought we were doing quite well. We had to make a stop in Espanola to pick up some stove fuel, and another stop in Taos to rent Colin some snowshoes. We got to Como Lake road at about noon. We left one of the cars near CO 150 and packed everything into Robin's trooper for the rough ride up the road/trail as far as we could get. We ended up parking at 8,761'. We hit the trail at 12:30 with the goal of going about five miles and 3,000' up before sundown. Again, given Robin's estimate of being on the trail at 11:30, this was good. It made me a little uneasy when Meg told Robin that she couldn't lift up her own pack and had to be assisted - her pack was the lightest of the bunch and about 30 pounds lighter than Robin's. After about an hour of hiking, a few things became very clear. The first was that Jasper and Colin were in way better shape than I was. They were very quickly hundreds of meters ahead of me. The second was that Meg was going at this hike very slowly. She was easily as far behind me as Jasper was ahead. Robin was staying back to hike with Meg, but otherwise I assume he would have been up with Jasper and Colin. When Jasper and Colin got to the point where the snow on the ground was deep enough to warrant putting on the snowshoes, they stopped and waited for everyone to regroup. Once we were all snowshoed Robin made the request that we hike as a team which meant going at Meg's pace. We all agreed that this was a good idea and we continued the hike up towards the top of a ridge, after which the trail drops down into the canyon that leads up to Como Lake. After another hour or so we stopped for a food break at the bottom of the canyon (the only downhill portion of the approach). At this point it was becoming clear that Meg was hurting badly from an energy standpoint. She needed to put on warmer clothes as the temperature was now around 10F. Unfortunately she had packed her down jacket and other warm clothes at the bottom of her pack and was being very reticent about getting them out. Robin grabbed his down jacket out of his pack and gave it to her. As we sat there eating for about 10 minutes, Meg's condition worsened to the point of starting to look hypothermic. She was uncontrollably cold and couldn't get her gloves on because her hands hurt too much. Robin got a bunch of his extra clothes onto her and then convinced her after much effort that walking would keep her warm and that she would have to keep moving or she would freeze. In retrospect we probably should have turned around at this point, but at the time the idea didn't even occur. We were very intent on getting to Como Lake and the feeling was that if we could get Meg up there and set up camp, then we could get her warmed back up in her sleeping bag and she would be fine after a night's rest. We were currently at 10,150' with 1500' more to go to get to Como Lake. The decision was made at this point to let Jasper and Colin go on ahead and that way they could have a camp set up when we arrived, and maybe even have some warm beverages going. This was a fine idea in principle, because they were certainly capable of getting up there safely on their own. However, we hadn't thought carefully enough about who had what gear and it turns out that they had no pots in which to heat water. Once we got Meg walking again she heated up some, but her energy level was very low and we had to stop every 30 paces or so. To her credit, she made it much farther than I would have expected for someone in her condition. But after awhile it was becoming clear, based on our GPS coordinates, that Meg did not have the strength to get to Como Lake. At one point, Robin suggested that she ditch her pack and that when we got to camp he would come back and grab it for her. This was also a bad idea, as Robin was assuming that the camp was much closer than it was (about a mile). Soon after this the sun set and it became dark. It was nearly a new moon so we had to use headlamps. Of course, Meg's was in her pack so there were only two for the three of us. It was about this time that Robin ran out of water and my Camelbak hose froze solid. Even without a pack Meg's strength was decaying quickly and after pushing her farther than I thought was wise, Robin finally agreed that it was time to make an emergency camp on the trail. We found a less-slopey piece of trail and went to work setting up the tent. I pulled off my sleeping pad for Meg to sit on while we worked (her hands were too cold to help) and Robin extracted his sleeping bad and tried to get her to get into it. She was being very beligerent about getting into the bag with her boots on, so rather than argue with her he just unzipped it and wrapped her up in it like a poncho. We set up the tent as quickly as we could, but as we were working I started to lose feeling in my hands and quickly became useless as well. With the tent body in place we got Meg, my ridge rest, and Robin's sleeping back into the tent and got her zipped up in it. Then I inflated my thermarest and opened my sleeping bag and got in as well to quickly warm up before I too got hypothermic. While I warmed up and tried to offer some snuggle-warmth to Meg, Robin finished the tent fly and stakes. Then I told him I'd start heating water for hot cocoa if he would get the cook kit out of my bag and a fuel bottle. It was then that we realized our worst mistake - I had stored my fuel pump in one of the fuel bottles, and that fuel bottle happened to end up in Jasper's pack. [NOTE: Robin actually had a spare pump in his cook kit, but was unaware of this] Meg was still not recovering well so we decided we needed hot water. Robin would walk up the trail and find Jasper and Colin, retrieve the fuel pump, and return while I tried to warm Meg with body heat. Meg was frightened by the idea of Robin leaving by himself and started to hyperventilate. I managed to calm her down and we layed there trying to be warm while we waited for Robin. It turns out that we were only about 500 meters from Jasper and Colin. Robin was back very quickly with the pump, some extra food, and warm extra clothes for Meg. By this time I was warm enough to be functional and Meg had progressed from hypothermic to just very cold. Robin switched places with me and worked on warming Meg while I started melting snow for drinks and dinner. By this time we had exerted ourselves so much that all three of us were feeling nauseous and were not hungry at all. Meg tried to refuse to drink the hot water we made for her, but Robin convinced her. It helped immensely. Robin and I drank about a liter of hot water each and Meg had as much as she could without feeling like she was going to throw up. I made a single 20 oz. Mountain House dinner (chili mac) but Meg wouldn't eat it and Robin and I had a hard time finishing it between us. Having done what we could, we hunkered down in the tent with our three pads and two sleeping bags - Meg and Robin attempting to share one bag with mixed success. The three of us were all pressed together for warmth. I estimate that the temperature outside dropped to about -10F during the night. It was not a restful night for any of us. At about 6:30am Jasper showed up outside the tent to see how we were, and we all got up except for Meg. Robin made breakfast (omellete) while Jasper went back to get Colin. The eggs tasted awesome and I found myself being (finally) very hungry. Meg, however, was still not feeling well and was refusing to eat. I think Robin coerced her into eating a few bites, but that's it. She was still cold and didn't want to get out of her bag, so she went back to sleep while Robin and Jasper went after her bag. They were gone for almost an hour getting the bag, and during that time I melted water to refill people's Nalgenes and Camelbaks. My new down booties worked great for getting out of the tent and walking around - they were much warmer than my now frozen boots. Meg got out of the tent once while they were gone to go to the bathroom, but this adventure only reinitiated her hypothermic reaction and again she was very out of it. When everyone was back and Meg finally had her own gear, we started the debate of what to do. I personally was wiped out from the hike in and was all for going back immedaitely. I also really believe that it was the only right move for Meg. The only question in my mind was if she was up to the task and whether she would recover over a day of rest to make a descent the following day more safe. Jasper really wanted to stay. He was in the best shape of anyone and was ready for attempting summits. Colin was also feeling well enough, though his legs were aching from the hike and he was short of breath (having flown in from sea level two days ago). Robin made the argument for resting a day and then seeing what Meg's condition was. I made the case that Meg's case hadn't really improved after a night of rest and that we didn't really know the extent of her problems. Waiting might not be a good plan. The only issue was whether or not she could make it down safely. I think that our desires for whether to summit or rest were secondary to questions of her safety. In the end this idea persuaded everyone that the decision would be made based on Meg's condition after another hour of trying to warm up. If she felt safe enough to descend, we would do so. If not, we'd rest and try to get her warm and eating. After an hour, Meg was successful in getting up out of her bag and walking around camp a bit without becoming hypothermic. We made the call to descend. Jasper and Colin returned to their campsite and packed it up while Robin took down his tent and I made another dehydrated meal for lunch (beef stroginof). Robin, Colin, and I devoured it in no time. The time was almost 1:00pm and Robin said that we should not make another one in the interest of getting down while we still had daylight. I was still hungry, but would survive on Power Bars for the remainder of the trip. With everything packed and Meg in OK shape, we started down the trail. Going downhill on snowshoes proved to be quite easy and we made excellent time. We made it back to the bottom of the canyon where Meg had initially showed signs of hypothermia in about an hour - better than three times faster than the ascent. Meg was moving slowly, but fast enough and wasn't feeling too bad. As we got to lower altitudes everyone felt a little better and we stopped for a snack break up above the only up-hill portion of the return trip. Turkey jerky and cliff bars were the order of the day. Meg managed to down about a half liter of gatorade which helped her a lot. From there, we all went back to the car as fast as we could, with the exception of Robin who stayed back to hike with Meg. When Jasper got to the car, he ditched his pack and headed back up to take Meg's pack for her. We were all at the car by 4:30pm. Meg's condition had improved dramatically with the lower altitude and warmer tempearture. We drove back to Los Alamos and had pepper steak at Robin's place. In some sense, it was a disaster of a trip. A good 1/3 of each of our packs was weighed down with stuff we never used. We brought 18 dinners and ate 2, 5 liters of fuel and used 0.75. Our ice axes, crampons, rope, pro, etc. never got touched. We didn't make a single summit attempt and barely made it to base camp. However, it was very educational to see how quickly hypothermia can set in and how debilitating it can be. We learned how to cope with it and which decisions we made were good and bad. I feel like the next time this happens we will be infinitely better prepared to deal with it. Written by Mouser Williams on
2003.03.30
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