Climbing is difficult. My friend Alan Arnette reminds us that so is staying behind:
Climbers know what each day is like. They share the cold, the hunger, the pain in their lungs; and their hearts with teammates. They know the unknown.
Back home, the unknown is a mystery. Days go by with no information. No news is good news, they were told. But no news creates demons.
Then the phone rings, the computer beeps and all is well. Contact again. Smiles, a laugh, a tear of happiness. The team is together, focused on one goal.
A moment of clarity. The unknown is known. A deep breath. Then the silence returns as the connection ends.
As climbers we owe those who support us “back home” a great deal of gratitude.
Jason D. Martin weighs in on the American Alpine Institute blog:
It’s hard for me to universally condemn soloing because for some the reward is worth the risk. Most soloists don’t see what they’re doing as being that risky because they’re on terrain where they feel extremely comfortable. Does that mean I’m going to solo 5.10 or even 5.5, at this point in my life, probably not. Each of us has to make our own decisions about the risks that we take while climbing. And it is not really our jobs to dictate what’s right and what’s not right to those outside our parties who are unlikely to impact anyone else.
At altitude even a solo class 1 hike exposes you to risk – not class 5 risk obviously – but the risks are there. Going solo isn’t on my agenda any time in the near future and when and if I do go solo it will probably be on class 1-3 terrain. That said, I admire people who have the physical (and mental) skills that allow them to go solo with reasonable safety.
Philosophically, I believe in personal freedom. I also believe that pushing ourselves and taking calculated risks is beneficial. However, we live in a world where personal freedom is slowly slipping away and risk, no matter how slight, is seen as the enemy.
By the way, the climber featured in the above video is still with us. Her impressive climbing resume can be found at destivelle.com.
If I attempt Wetterhorn this summer it will be my first class 3 climbing. It looks challenging – mentally and physically – but if training continues to go well this summer I think it’s within reach.
It’s been sort of quiet around here since the Mt. Belford climb but training and planning for future climbs continues. However, some things have changed.
First, my former climbing partner Jermaine doesn’t have plans for any attempts in the near future. A new job and other issues require most of his attention. So the story of two out of shape guys getting fit and climbing mountains is now the story of one guy getting fit and climbing mountains.
Some of you will also notice that I’ve also merged a lot of my blog and social media channels. This site is still about climbing, and learning to climb, but it will also serve as my personal blog. You may see non-climbing content from time to time.
Twitter updates will continue but @TeamNSC will be phased out in favor of @johnwlittle. My tweets are not public but I approve most requests to follow – especially from fellow climbers.
Hopefully, these changes will free up some of my time and allow me to post regular updates. I definitely have more to say about training and the mountains ahead.
SummitPost is nice starting point for research and routes – not to mention some amazing photos of the mountain.
A nice view from Wetterhorn Peak in Colorado – possibly my next summit attempt later this summer.
Training
15 months and just over 100 pounds ago I decided that I was going to climb mountains. It was a horribly unrealistic goal for an overweight asthmatic who lives at altitude zero in Houston, Texas but that was the point. I knew that I’d need a significant challenge to keep me motivated to become physically fit. Besides, I’d always wanted to climb. One of my co-workers at the time, Jermaine Gonzales, had similar goals and decided to commit himself to the challenge as well. To further ratchet up the pressure I told everyone I knew about our goals and went public with it by launching neverstopclimbing.com. I was committed and begin training two hours, or more, almost every day.
We reached our first summit just five months later with a climb of Guadalupe Peak in West Texas. The hike to 8,751 feet is very strenuous but not difficult by climbing standards. Still, it was progress and it allowed me to turn my focus toward a significantly more difficult challenge – Colorado’s 14ers.
Read the rest of this entry »
I leave for Colorado Thursday morning. I’ll have a couple of days in Leadville before meeting up with Alan Arnette for an early Saturday morning attempt at Belford and Oxford.
The first attempt at these mountains, earlier this year, was a posthole nightmare that took us to only 10,600 feet before turning back. We won’t encounter snow that deep or rotten on this trip although some early snow might make the trip interesting.
I’ll update this post periodically before the climb.
Final Pre-Climb Update
The weather forecast for Saturday’s climb is excellent. We were both able to safely cut some our heaviest gear since cold and excessive snow won’t be a problem. This helps.
We probably won’t be able to communicate once the climb starts since the area is somewhat remote. However, we will be carrying a SPOT Satellite Messenger that will allow you to track our progress via the link below. The SPOT should be active by 6am when we hit the trail. Its signal may not get out at times so don’t be alarmed by whatever you see.
Thanks again to the many of you who have been supportive of this effort.
Routes
Mt. Belford – Northwest Ridge (Standard)
Mt. Oxford – From Mt. Belford (Standard)
Satellite Tracking
SPOT Messenger Updates (?)
Twitter
TeamNSC – We’ll be sending periodic “OK” status updates to this Twitter account from our SPOT satellite messenger in addition to any other updates we can get out.
Johnwlittle (John Little)
Alanarnette (Alan Arnettte)
We may not be able to respond to messages during the climb but we might be able to read them so feel free to send them on. We’ll reply when we can.
Photos
Photos will be posted on Flickr
Weather
National Weather Service
Life has been challenging since our return to Houston in late April. The economic nosedive created significant challenges at work for both of us and I was hit hard by flu. We’re hanging in there though. Jermaine has moved on to a new job and I’m training hard again after a longer than expected recovery period.
Our trip to Belford was a fantastic, if difficult, learning experience. You can learn a lot from falling face first in deep snow every 30 seconds for hours on end. So, the plan now is to take those lessons and return to Belford-Oxford in early October when the weather is admittedly somewhat unpredictable but likely less challenging than the conditions we faced in April.
Details are still being worked out. Jermaine might not be able to make it but Alan Arnette and Robert LeClair are apparently ready to go. The goal now is to finalize the plans by September 1. Stay tuned for updates.
Update:
We’ve moved the date up a couple of weeks so I will be heading to Colorado in September. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Robert will be able to join us.
We’re back in Houston. We made it to 10,400 feet after significant struggle with sometimes deep, almost always unstable, snow. There were a number of issues and challenges but also a lot of lessons learned. We’re mostly happy with our effort – we definitely gave it everything we had and we learned much from Alan Arnette.
I’ll post a full trip report Monday. Many thanks to all of you who followed along and offered advice and support. The adventure will continue.
“Getting to the top is optional, but getting down is mandatory. A lot of people get focused on the summit and forget that.”
- Ed Viesturs quote
