| Author |
Topic |
Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 11:09 AM
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(I tried posting images in the TR but the system blows up when I use the [img] tags so you'll have to follow the links at the end of the posting for pics - sorry!!)
On Thursday May 10 2012, TJ, JW, Ferenc and I went into the Columbia Icefields to try to bag as many of the northern peaks as we could. Our main goal was the four twins but the Stuts were also on the 'hitlist'. The weather forecast was great for the whole time period except for Thursday which was a mix of sun and cloud, so probably a whiteout on the glacier!
Thursday was one of the hardest physical things I've ever done in my life. There was a total whiteout on the glacier, wind gusts of almost 100km/h and fresh snow and ice pellet. We navigated by GPS - TJ did an amazing job - he's never even been up there and he got us past all the crevasses and along the right contour lines to our camp, far past where most people end up staying. We made it within around 1 km of North Twin at around 11,000 feet where we set up camp. Setting up camp was brutal. Full-on blizzard conditions. Except for TJ (who always seems happy), we were not satisfied campers at this point! Eventually we got dug in for the night and had a restless sleep with the wind threatening to tear our tent in half and showing us with moisture and snow all night.
Friday was sunny but the wind was still pretty strong (25-50km?). We decided it was too windy for Twins Tower so we bagged the Stutfields instead. This isn't as easy as it sounds. Ferenc was displaying signs of exhaustion all day - but Ferenc always looks like this when skiing and to be honest, I was feeling quite out of gas myself! :) First we ascended Stutfield west, then descended to the col, then bagged Stutfield East, then re-ascended Stutfield West before descending to the Stut / North Twin col and then climbing back up to camp! All of this at elevations over 11,000 feet in a fierce wind and with TJ pulling us along on the rope. (The guy is an absolute MACHINE.) Ferenc was so exhausted when we got back to camp on Friday that he basically passed out in his and JW's tent. TJ, JW and I spent time at camp, eating as much as we could, drinking and building up an enormous wall to protect from the damn wind, which never seemed to relent. We started expressing concern for Ferenc because we thought he wasn't eating enough. He kept mentioning how fit we were and asking how we could eat at the high elevations because he couldn't force the food down.
      
Raff showed up on Friday evening with Adam and Jay. He was going for Twins Tower on Saturday as his last peak on the ice fields.
Friday night Ferenc started coughing and JW got very little sleep too. Saturday morning we decided the conditions were OK for North Twin and Twins Tower and headed out of camp just after Raff's party passed our camp. Ferenc was not feeling well. We went up North Twin so slowly that JW, TJ and I never even broke a sweat! I didn't even breath heavy and this peak is over 12,300 feet! Ferenc was hyperventilating once we got onto the upper ridge. We kept asking him if he was OK and if we should turn around but he said "this always happens to me at high altitude - I just need a few minutes break". Once we got near the summit we decided Ferenc was way too tired to take him on rope up the exposed ridge on Twins Tower. There was good coverage on North Twin so he reluctantly agreed to summit North Twin and wait for our return. The winds were cold at the summit so I figured he'd probably head down on his own. TJ found a crevasse just before North Twin's summit, so even with good coverage there are a LOT of holes up there.
TJ, JW and I followed Raff's party down North Twin to the Twin's Tower col. I was literally cr_apping myself over that view of Twin's Tower!!!!! :-) Easily the most exposed climb I've ever done on snow, we followed the other party to the summit where I managed to celebrate Raff's last Columbia peak with him - pretty cool stuff.
We down climbed the Tower quickly as the snow was softening up and re-ascended North Twin again (lots of re-ascending for these peaks!) before noticing that Ferenc was just done skiing the southeast ridge / face of North Twin. We skied the same slope and caught him at camp. He was not doing very good. Again, we were back in camp early (2pm 'ish) so we had lots of time to rehydrate, eat, sit around, build the wall even higher. The winds were steady all day and started getting fierce again in the afternoon. Gusts must have been over 50 easily - maybe over 60. I'm surprised the tents didn't rip in half. Ferenc still didn't eat much and still wasn't happy. We began talking about getting him off the mountain. TJ jokingly asked if he had altitude sickness. A lightbulb went in my head at this point and I expressed real concern that he might actually have some sort of altitude issue. We didn't really think so, but we knew people do get it occasionally in the Rockies.
          
Raff came by for a visit on Saturday afternoon and Ferenc agreed to head out with him on Sunday (we were planning to stay until Monday at this point).
Saturday night was not a fun one. Winds gusting well over 50-60 again, even with the snow wall it was almost impossible to sleep. Ferenc starting coughing around 11:00pm. He was still going at 1am - a steady, hacking cough. He could barely breath and JW was very concerned about the situation. JW and I urged Ferenc to hit the 911 on his SPOT - things were rapidly getting serious at this point. Don't forget that we're at 11,000 feet already for 3 days at this point, in relentless winds and cold and Ferenc hasn't seemed 'right' the whole time. Everyone was up by 2am and we sent the 911 so that we'd have help ASAP on Sunday morning. We were all up the rest of the night listening to Ferenc hack and gasp for breath - not great times for anyone, especially him. I know what the guys on Everest sound like now. I'm sure he must have come close to breaking a rib - he seriously coughed almost non-stop for 6-7 hours! As you can imagine - it was a long night for all of us - especially Ferenc who was scared and just wanted out of there.
Sunday morning dawned clear but the winds were still very strong from the west. We were concerned about a chopper being able to land but we started preparing Ferenc and his gear for an evac. We notified Raff's party about our troubles and they phoned dispatch on their sat phone to confirm that our spot had worked - it had and they were preparing for an evac. We didn't have a time frame but we knew help was coming. Ferenc was deteriorating and his heart rate was very rapid. His breathing was also shallow and laboured. The chopper seemed to take forever to come. Finally we heard it coming from the north and Ferenc showed signs of life as scrambled to get ready. He couldn't get out of there fast enough! :-)
 
The chopper managed to land close to our camp and two friendly guys came over. We explained the situation quickly, they loaded up Ferenc and his gear and let us know we should pick him up in Jasper that evening. We agreed and they were off!
We packed up camp, somewhat reluctantly as we knew we could have bagged the other two Twins - even though the winds were so fierce - but we knew our families would be very concerned and Ferenc needed a ride back from Jasper too. At this point we didn't know how serious Ferenc was, we honestly expected him to be totally fine within hours of getting to lower altitude.
We packed up camp and headed out. 3.5 hours later we were back at the car. It was so bizzare to be back in warm, sunny conditions. We were exhausted with no sleep and the whole situation but now we had to drive all the way to Jasper to pick up Ferenc and drive all the way home again. I guess stuff happens sometimes and you have to deal with it the best way you can. We got to within 10km of Jasper before getting cell reception. I quickly called Hanneke - my wife. She wasn't concerned at all (God bless that woman!) - she said she knew I played safe and she couldn't do anything about it so she just didn't worry! She also said that a Jasper rescue warden had called to say I was OK (we asked them to notify the other wives that we were fine) and that Ferenc was no longer in Jasper. He was transferred to Edmonton by ambulance with water in his lungs. Now we realized how serious things were.
We needed to get gasoline anyway so we drove to Jasper to see if Ferenc's gear was there - it wasn't. We drove home wondering what the heck was happening now. We knew he probably had HAPE but couldn't really believe it. I phoned Andrea (Ferenc's wife) from Banff and she confirmed that Ferenc was in an Edmonton hospital with signs of HAPE - at first they were calling it "pneumonia". We agreed to drive Ferenc's car home for her - she sounded pretty good, but she'd had a terrible night of worry about us, wondering what the heck at happened at 2am for us to hit the SPOT! Of course she had invented all kinds of scenarios by the time she got the real news.
Later we got word that Ferenc indeed had HAPE. Crazy! He was in serious trouble - thank God we called for help.
I spoke with Andrea the next morning too. Ferenc still had water in his lungs and was on oxygen (he could barely talk before he coughed). We talked a bit how this time Ferenc had probably pushed himself too far and got unlucky with the whole HAPE pre-disposition which made things really bad. Ferenc felt terrible about 'making' us come out early but of course now that we know how badly sick he was we can't be too angry at him about it! :-) Ferenc is mostly recovered a week later, but still not 100%.
There are so many lessons here. Listen to your gut. Don't mess around with serious situations. It sucks to admit you need help but if you need it, call for it right away. Don't push yourself so hard on remote trips that you don't have gas in the tank to recover. Take yourself out of the game if you're not feeling well and if you notice someone is sick don't let them on the rope in the morning! (We shouldn't have dragged Ferenc up North Twin at all and certainly shouldn't have left him there while we got Twins Tower).
This was a FANTASTIC trip other than the rescue! 4 peaks over 11000 feet in 3 days and a camping and navigating experience that was quite something. What a remote and rugged place the northern Columbia Icefields is! Serious business though.
Not to be taken lightly.
More trip report starting at http://explor8ion.com/ski/stutfield.html and pics at http://verndewit.com/stutfields and http://verndewit.com/twins |
Edited by - vern.dewit on 05/21/2012 8:22 PM
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the mountain parks, Alberta
Canada
102 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 11:48 AM
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I find it horrible that you would even consider leaving your friend alone on North Twin after him having breathing difficulty.
quote:
We packed up camp, somewhat reluctantly as we knew we could have bagged the other two Twins
Aweful. Placing such a high priority on "success" over that of the health and well being of your friends...lost for words really. Good for you for even writing this trip report personally I would be too embarrassed. 3 days you let your friends condition deteriorate? WOW. |
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Squamish, British Columbia
Canada
1002 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 12:11 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by skibum101
I find it horrible that you would even consider leaving your friend alone on North Twin after him having breathing difficulty.
Wut? Did you read the same TR as me? They got him to use his spot, got him evac'd. They did the right thing.
Great account vern. Love your photo essay also.
Question though:
quote:
Originally posted by vern.dewit
We kept asking him if he was OK and if we should turn around but he said "this always happens to me at high altitude - I just need a few minutes break".
Did Ferenc ever elaborate on this? What usually happens to him at altitude and did he make you aware of this before going on the trip?
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3502 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 12:18 PM
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Glad everyone came out alive and well. The pictures are amazing, thanks for the links. I'm not sure if I have the stomach for Twins Tower! Yow.
Thank goodness Parks was able to land a heli and evac when they did.
...Perhaps adding Diamox to the first aid kit is an idea. I carry a decent supply (30 250mg tabs) that would help buy time.
Some things to know about using Diamox:
It's not a magic pill. It speeds recovery by about 1/2 the time, and in a treatment (as opposed to prevention) case, you need to administer the meds and plan to descend and evac. It alleviates the respiratory distress, but you cannot continue to ascend. As soon as one of your party is hyperventilating, give him/her 250mg and create an evac plan. Keep administering as you initiate your plan, but the evac is the treatment, not the Diamox.
People discount AMS and HAPE in the Rockies and they're "low." True, but 3000M is the real deal, and 3700M is more than high enough to create problems. I've seen people fold up like origami at 3000M that were machines at 2000M. You never know. After a long and hard approach, everyone is tired, and it's also tough to know what are AMS symptoms and what is just being wiped out. The hyperventilating was a big flag. It's vitally important that the patient does not go higher.
As noted, Diamox is not a cure. It buys you some time, but don't say "yeah, we dropped some Diamox in our buddy, let's go climbing." If someone is in respiratory distress, it's a serious emergency and administering meds should not alter the plan to get the patient low and probably into the care of ALS. (Advanced Life Support, aka paramedics/doctors/etc)
I'm not Monday-morning quarterbacking. I'm hoping that others spending time high in the Rockies also come out all alive and well... |
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Kootenay Bud
2695 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 12:25 PM
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| Thanks for the report Vern. Well done to you and your group. I know by reputation Ferenc is a strong dude, as are y'all. |
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the mountain parks, Alberta
Canada
102 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 12:30 PM
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| That's my take on it based on his or her trip report. I think it's a great example of why people should take a first aid training course so that it doesn't take 3 days getting worse the whole time to recognize there is a problem. Loss of appetite, hard physical effort, problems breathing (hyperventilating), fatigue, coughing. He shouldn't have been going higher on Saturday and as friends and responsible people the group shouldn't have allowed him to. Alot of stuff was missed based on what was presented and it's a great learning opportunity. 3 days is a long time and he is very lucky they were able to get him out when they did. He could have died due to huge delays when all of the signs were there well in advance. I don't think anyone in their right mind would be offended by this either, it's been put out there to the public on the internet. They did recognize it when it was severe so at least they have that. |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3502 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 12:38 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by skibum101
...why people should take a first aid training course...
The best bit of "kit" I have ever invested in was my Wilderness First Responder course. I'm 2.5yrs in, and will be re-certifying without hesitation. |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
599 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 12:42 PM
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quote:
Aweful. Placing such a high priority on "success" over that of the health and well being of your friends...lost for words really. Good for you for even writing this trip report personally I would be too embarrassed. 3 days you let your friends condition deteriorate? WOW.
This is very unfair statement. Vern and his crew are experienced mountaineers. You go on multi-day trips; someone doesn't feel 100% but then he recovers. When things started getting worse, they called for help. Now that everyone is ok, of course there are regrets about Twins -- you don't go there every day same as you walk your dog on Nose Hill after dinner.
Excellent report Vern; reads like a novel. Glad all ended well. Please keep posting things like this; it opens up these fantastic areas to people of lesser technical ability like myself. |
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the mountain parks, Alberta
Canada
102 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 1:03 PM
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Hey i'm just stating an unbiased opinion based on the information that was presented. I don't have a dog in this fight and have no ego's to protect. This is the first trip report I have read from this person so I have no idea what your definition of experienced mountaineer is. I know a guy that has been on litterally 5 mountaineering trips and considers himself very experienced so....?
quote:
This is very unfair statement. Vern and his crew are experienced mountaineers. You go on multi-day trips; someone doesn't feel 100% but then he recovers. When things started getting worse, they called for help. Now that everyone is ok, of course there are regrets about Twins -- you don't go there every day same as you walk your dog on Nose Hill after dinner.
I think it's very fair. Anyone with wilderness first aid training would (should) have recognized there was a problem way before it became bad and the problem became obvious and worse when he was hyperventilating with breathing issues on the ridge, at which time they left this person on his or her own while they wanted to bag a summit. The problem is alot of "experienced mountaineers" don't know a from b when it comes to first aid matters. Personally I have no respect for them, no offense to the poster as I don't know if this person does have any or not.
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When things started getting worse, they called for
Seems to me that it was well after things got worse. I guess you would have to have wilderness first aid training to recognize that however.
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you don't go there every day same as you walk your dog
Not sure what you mean however this is part of the problem. You get a group of people together that only are able to escape to the mountains every few weekends and you spend time organizing the trip so are more reluctant to turn around when things aren't going right. It's a form of entitlement thinking (your comment).
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All of the above is only one persons opinion based on information as it was presented. A valuable example of why you shouldn't wait on problems to become worse and that the health of your "friends" should always be more important than a summit. FYI anyone with an ego is going to downplay their condition when in a group of destination oriented male peers. Anyways, maybe this should be another post so i'm done. On another forum I use usually this stuff is started on a new thread, hopefully clubtread is as open to using these incidents to learn from. Then again another forum I use totally balks at any form of dissent what so ever so...... |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3502 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 1:53 PM
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There are a couple of reasons why AMS often goes unnoticed and/or untreated in the Rockies:
1. The symptoms often creep up on people. It's the "boiling a frog" analogy. On a trip with a big approach, people might be bagged, and so a tired/suffering team member is just "not himself." Exactly what was happening here.
2. People go to Denali or the Himalaya and are expecting AMS/HAPE, but in the Rockies, the tallest peaks are all under 4000M, so AMS/HAPE occurs much less frequently.
Combine these two things, and it's not that hard for a deteriorating team member to get pretty bad before the 911 call goes out. "Suffering" is part of what we do, and knowing the difference between suffering/bagged/etc and the onset of AMS is a good skill to have.
Kudos for Vern for including the incident in the TR, and hopefully people will take something away from their experience. |
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Finally stopping that crazy suffering that is ice, climbing to concentrate on great ski tours!
3502 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 2:04 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by skibum101
...FYI anyone with an ego is going to downplay their condition when in a group of destination oriented male peers...
^^^^This. |
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Edmonton, AB
Canada
216 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 3:44 PM
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Thanks for the report Vern. Glad to hear that your friend's recovering.
When you get a chance, could you add some labels to that photo gallery? Aside from the better known landmarks, there were a few where I (and I assume others) couldn't figure out which mountain(s) I was looking at. |
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972 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 4:03 PM
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glad to hear your friend got down ok and you guys got up some peaks.
we were going to head out onto the icefields this weekend,but we decided we'd rather not see a single soul,not slog forever over crevasses and have a fantastic ski run on the way down...so we went and did joffre. |
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Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
331 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 5:57 PM
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| I am very glad that Ferenc is alright. Great trip report Vern. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:40 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Arcturus
Thanks for the report Vern. Glad to hear that your friend's recovering.
When you get a chance, could you add some labels to that photo gallery? Aside from the better known landmarks, there were a few where I (and I assume others) couldn't figure out which mountain(s) I was looking at.
Thanks! For labelled images go to my website, http://explor8ion.com/recent and look at the four summits under there. Also check out Eric's site at http://www.summitsearch.org/ under his Stuts and Twin trip.  |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:45 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by skibum101
I find it horrible that you would even consider leaving your friend alone on North Twin after him having breathing difficulty.
quote:
We packed up camp, somewhat reluctantly as we knew we could have bagged the other two Twins
Aweful. Placing such a high priority on "success" over that of the health and well being of your friends...lost for words really. Good for you for even writing this trip report personally I would be too embarrassed. 3 days you let your friends condition deteriorate? WOW.
Yeah - high altitude mountaineering is something that messes with your brain for sure! We made some decisions and felt some things that seemed kind of dumb once we were back down in warm temps and 'normal' surroundings. Of course you're being quite harsh, but that's OK, on some level we probably deserve it for not being more 'on the ball'.
Something you probably need to know about our group is that we are pretty strong - including Ferenc. I've done several long ski trips with him this year and not eating a lot at altitude is very common. I've also done 14 hour days where all I eat is a muffin and a couple of granola bars! It's not until the coughing started on Saturday night that Ferenc was really sick in a 'not normal' way. And we instantly hit SPOT and prepared for an evac. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:49 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by leimrod
Did Ferenc ever elaborate on this? What usually happens to him at altitude and did he make you aware of this before going on the trip?
He did a little bit. We (obviously) were quite surprised by this admission (he made it high on North Twin) as we had no clue about it. Apparently in Colorado he'd also start breathing laboured at altitude and really struggle with it. Like I said, this would have been a great thing to know ahead of time...  But nobody's perfect and obviously Ferenc wasn't expecting HAPE either! |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:51 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
Glad everyone came out alive and well. The pictures are amazing, thanks for the links. I'm not sure if I have the stomach for Twins Tower! Yow.
Thank goodness Parks was able to land a heli and evac when they did.
...Perhaps adding Diamox to the first aid kit is an idea...
Thanks man - and yes Diamox will be going in the kit for sure. |
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the mountain parks, Alberta
Canada
102 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:52 PM
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| Thanks for the candid report. Everyone makes errors at some point and to recognize them is how we all improve. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:53 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by johngenx
quote:
Originally posted by skibum101
...why people should take a first aid training course...
The best bit of "kit" I have ever invested in was my Wilderness First Responder course. I'm 2.5yrs in, and will be re-certifying without hesitation.
Sure thing - first aid is GOOD, but...
FYI, the rescue wardens and trained medical personell in Jasper also refused to believe it was HAPE. It wasn't until Edmonton that the diagnosis was made and even now some of the doctors are second guessing and throwing other diagnosis into the mix. |
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Calgary, Alberta
Canada
615 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 7:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by zeljkok
This is very unfair statement. Vern and his crew are experienced mountaineers. You go on multi-day trips; someone doesn't feel 100% but then he recovers. When things started getting worse, they called for help. Now that everyone is ok, of course there are regrets about Twins -- you don't go there every day same as you walk your dog on Nose Hill after dinner.
Thanks dude - appreciate it.
quote:
Excellent report Vern; reads like a novel. Glad all ended well. Please keep posting things like this; it opens up these fantastic areas to people of lesser technical ability like myself.
Right on - that's the idea! If someone learns from it than it's worth writing and discussing it. |
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Stuts and Twins
