Skyline Rescue by climbers

[FIGHT ON]

I snowshoed up a new route on San G last year, and was moving well over seemingly consolidated snow when I found that I suddenly began to slide. Just a little, mind you, but once the crust fragmented, I found that there was a hard icy surface about 3 inches down that would have become increasingly shallow as I climbed.

In other words, if I hadn't happened to slide right there, I might well have been a hundred yards higher when I began to slide, and would have had little to slow me for at least that far.

Pretty crazy, did you have an ice axe with you? That sounds like walking on a lake with thin ice!

The situation changed almost imperceptibly, and it wasn't some clever deduction on my part that revealed the risk. I was just lucky.

Luck, I don't take hardly any risks and have already used up enough luck to know snow hiking can be very dangerous.
I'm not going to pretend I know how to read what is or isn't safe. I don't have an ice axe or crampons. And even if I did I wouldn't really know how to use them to save my life! I've watched how to arrest on youtube but I would have to practice in save areas before I hiked in it. I can walk on flat stuff on trails but traversing long slopes? Forget it! Especially on Skyline! Have you seen how steep those chutes are near the top??? I have but only when there wasn't any snow. zoom and boom!

Yes, I think doing Skyline right now is probably dumb. But some people say it's always too risky...
z

I can handle the heat, it's the sliding down the snow/ice thing that I can live without.
Don't wanna end up like Jack...

[Cy Kaicener]

Joe - Doreen said that she is relieved that your friends made it out okay without Search and rescue and thank you for getting them up.
She wants to join this message board so I e mailed her request to Perry.

[backpack7]

Hi. I'm the guy who called SAR on Sunday evening on the skyline trail. I just wanted to clear a few things up. Joe, myself and three others were all planning on going up c2c to the tram station that day as one party. I have done c2c a few times and have also summited san jacinto via snow creek numerous times. My friend and i drove up to the palm springs museum in a separate vehicle than Joe and the other two. Joe and our other two friends were unable to meet us early at the trailhead, so we communicated with each other that the two of us would start earlier. The biggest mistake i made was leaving my pair of snow gaiters in my vehicle. Me and my friend began hiking around 7am and got to 5,000ft (where the snow became significant) around 11am/11:30am. We put our crampons on and followed what looked like an icy consolidated trail recently blazed by snowshoes. Unfortunately, this trail only lasted about 200ft. Having done c2c, i had no problem identifying where to go, but the quality of snow quickly deteriorated. The snow clinging on the skyline trail and the northern slopes under the tram right now is a type that i've experienced on snow creek before. There is a paper thin layer of ice, directly following by 2-4 feet of powder....even inside the shaded and steep chutes under the tram station. So we trudged on, post-holing and blazing a trail to about 7,500ft or so, just beyond the traverse. Throughout those few hours i realized snow kept filling my shoes to the point where my feet began to freeze and swell. Realizing that i could be in danger of frostbite i repeatedly stopped to massage my feet. We continued to blaze the trail assuming that the northern chutes below the tram station would be icy, and therefore our feet wouldn't penetrate too deep into the snow. As we got closer, i realized it was only becoming deeper and getting worse. It was at 7500ft that i could bear it no more. Worried about the other three I had called them to see what there whereabouts and conditions were. Unable to reach them I called a friend in Riverside to see if he could keep trying to reach them. At this point, worried about everyone I called SAR to let them know of our situation. My friend and I sat on an exposed log, placed our feet in our rucksacks and began to warm them. We weren't lost, we weren't hypothermic in anyway, nor were we physically tired despite all the post holing, but I was worried of these first signs of frostbite on my feet. At this point it was late and completely dark. While on the phone with SAR I saw Joe and our two other friends coming toward us. They had been following the trail that we had blazed. Knowing that if Joe and the other two could post hole the rest of the way for us (we wouldn't need to step too deep into the snow) I came to a decision and told SAR that we would be okay and that we would continue to the top. Because it was late SAR would try to keep the tram station open for us and wanted us to call once we got to the top. The snow was deep and we ended up using our knees more than our feet (due to the instability of the snow and the steepness of the last thousand feet) trying to summit the remainder of the chute. We got to the tram station at 10pm and Corporal Garvin was there to greet us and cheer us on. Amusingly he said "you guys have been the easiest search and rescue to date". I've assumed responsibility of the mistakes I made, I am grateful to Joe for blazing the remainder of the trail, and I am grateful to SAR for keeping the tram station open an extra 30 minutes and being prepared for a possible rescue. I just wanted to iron a few things out. This experience has taught me that no matter how many years of experience I have of mountaineering, it is still a dangerous sport, and one small or sloppy mistake can lead to bad results.

[KathyW]

backpack7: Very true - Accidents happen and mistakes are made by even the most experienced climbers/mountaineers. Thanks for your post. It is always nice to get a report when something goes wrong because it helps alert us all to the possible dangers involved with mountaineering and maybe it helps prevent someone else from having the same thing happen to them.

Kathy

[AlanK]

backpack7 -- Great post. Thanks for taking the time for a thorough report. And, of course, it's great that things turned out ok for you. You're tough!

[jth]

Leo gives a good description of what happened. Our friend Alain has a humorous description of what happened along with pictures on his facebook. Hopefully, he will post here.

[kd]

This might be the most important thread I have read on this site.

I am glad it all ended safely.
Kevin

[Cy Kaicener]

Thanks for the trip report Leo and for getting the facts in order.
I have found that at this time of year the sun does not reach the traverse between 7500 feet and 8400 feet very much if at all. There will be lots of snow and ice there long after the snow has melted at Long Valley. If in doubt, take the tram up if you get the chance a couple of days earlier and check out the trail from the top
(with the appropriate footgear and ice axe of course)

[Hikin_Jim]

BP7,

Thanks for the post. Ya guys done good. Your party was able to self rescue in tough, unexpected conditions. You're aware of your mistakes. Like I say, ya guys done good. Really valuable write-up.

Assumptions, they can kill you, but you kind of have to make those judgement calls -- or carry a 90lbs pack. I lost a family member due to an assumption he made about conditions (didn't bring crampons), but I still make "best guess" assumptions about conditions.

HJ

[kevin trieu]

BP7,

Your party was able to self rescue in tough, unexpected conditions. You're aware of your mistakes.

HJ

How were conditions unexpected?