http://climber.org/reports/1970/942.html (climbing trip site)
Peaks: Mt Sill - Swiss Arete
Difficulty: class 5, ice axe, crampons, glaciers, helmet, rope used, snow travel
Actually the year was 1968, 42 years ago when I was 25 years old. I signed up for the Palisides School of Mountaineering course based at 3rd Lake up the N fork of Big Pine Creek. John Fischer was the head guide (recently killed in a motorcycle encounter with a deer) The cost was $365 for 6 days of training with two climbs, one over 14000 ft. The first route was up Moon Goddess, Temple Craig. My first technical climb and I was hooked. I believe the route was finalized by Don Jensen earlier that same year. The crux of the climb was a traverse across a wall ("Deaths Traverse" with huge exposure all the way to the bottom of the climb on the L-shaped snowfield). A climbing team on Sun Ribbon paralled our climb. I was the last climber on the rope team and carried the piton hammer and cleaned the route. The top half of the climb was too loose for newbies, so we exited up a chute of the left to the ridge line. The scramble of the chute was unroped and easily the most dangerous part of the climb. Guide advice: be careful. A few days later, I climbed the ever popular Mt Sill via the Swiss Arete. The step-around was no big deal and the hand-jamb up the crux took some effort with my 225# weight. Great Sill memories that I repeated 24 years later in 1992 with my son, Mike and late Bishop guide Alan Bard. Alan pushed us high up the snow chute to start the climb as high as possible. The post-holing wore me out and at the start of the roped climb, I couldn't raise either leg without severe cramps. Alan remarked: "Ed, do you want to get to the top? I said yes. I drank all of the teams water at that point and got to the top. Thanks to Alan and Mike. Alan remarked that we have our names in the summit book along with some of the climbing greats before us (names we would all recall from historical times). Unfortunately my name from the 1968 climb was in an old register since removed for preservation. That really makes me feel old. Any ideas where that register might be? Sure would be great to give it another try in the next few years! Mike and I completed five 14k peaks that year, with Sill being the technical icing on the cake. It sure feels great to be hiking along the trail and talk to climbers destined for their first climb up the Swiss Arete. What a connection. We can talk like I climbed it just the other day, nothing has changed out there, just me. And the next climb will put me right back in the groove. Some interesting notes about the first Sill climb and approach in 1968. We stayed overnight in the climbers rock hut at the top of the 3rd lake couloir(removed many years ago by the Forest Service). I lost my climb film canister down one of cracks at the summit, its still there somewhere. On the return, the guide (Doug) left me to descend the 3rd lake couloir back to camp (at my own speed, of course). I didn't ski then, so I post holed and stumbled and fell down the snow field, crossed the log jamb at the outlet of 3rd lake at 9PM under a full moon and got back to camp wiped out but safe. All the celebration dinner was gone by then and I was content to collapse in my tent. What a great time! Regards, Big Ed.