Dana Couloir II AI1

yea yea... the title is a blatant violation.... ;-)

I needed a light hearted way to start this TR about a near death epic..


We were doing a late season run up Dana Couloir yesterday..

Just before we started up the glacier I glanced at my alti watch and noticed the barometer had dropped a bit, but conditions were sunny, clear, and beautiful at that point.


So we started simuling up the glacier...



By the time I setup an anchor at the bergschrund... Things were starting to go very south very fast with the weather... the "storm alarm" on my watch went off, and all hell broke loose with the wind up there... we had to retreat immediately..


I quickly setup a V thread on the bergschrund and my buddy Will was to go first and setup the next station below.. then my fiancé and I would come next, then rinse and repeat until we were low enough to down climb back to the rock...

unfortunately the high winds tied the double ropes in knots and it took Will a long time to get down that first rap..

in the process, the winds were just getting stronger and wilder with every passing minute, next thing I know, I am yelling AVALANCHE!! and my fiancé and I are in the direct path of it... so we leaned in to get as much cover from the bergschrund as we could, and proceeded to get buried by the snow, and pummeled by rocks.. that was pretty scary, but we were able to dig ourselves out... the terrifying part was the widow makers littered in the avalanche.. its an utter miracle none of us got taken out by one... we all got pounded by rock and snow, but fortunately no rocks of the widow maker variety nailed any of us..

So finally we make our way to the second rap, get it done and down climb the remaining few hundred feet to get off of the glacier and back on the rocks below..

We only thought all hell had broken loose while we were on the ice.. how wrong were we... now as we start descending we are shown exactly how furious mother nature can get...

basically the three of us got hammered by unimaginable winds.. I actually got completely picked up off the ground and tossed several feet backwards.. that happened three times to my fiancé.. and all three of us got blown down countless times...


the winds were sustained between 70 and 90 mph, and gusting well more than 100mph... obviously these are just rough guesses, but I feel reasonably confident about them, given that two of us have skydived several times, and I was also a motorcycle racer... it was truly punishing.. even to the point (similar to skydiving) where its very hard to breath, and you get involuntary gum flapping if you don't consciously keep your lips sealed as hard as you can....

to add insult to injury the winds were cyclonic within the canyon, so there was literally no where to hide... the cyclones would pick up small debris and water (which instantly froze to tiny hail) from the small lakes in the canyon... then just sandblast you relentlessly while it blew you off your feet in the talus fields...

at the end of it all, we got down alive, and we were all very grateful.. between the snow avalanche, rock fall, and incredible winds which brought the windchill factor down to hypothermic levels... we were indeed lucky to get down without one or all of us getting seriously hurt or killed...

and then.. for one last slap in the face... after we finally get back to the car around 8pm... we turn it on and fire up the a*# warmers ;-) We start driving up Tioga pass only to discover that the gates are locked at the park entrance due to the weather... now destroyed.. we get the pleasure of much longer trip home through Sonora pass..