[pct-l] your experiences with fear on the trail

[David Thibault]

Interesting Shroomer,  I hike in a normal snow year (2009) and was going to
respond with the
same - stream crossings and the cornice on Mather.

While I am sure I had an easier time because of less snow I did then by
myself so had no one around to bail me out if i screwed up.

Remember fear is good,  just don't let it be your ruler.
Day-Late

>
> Stream crossing in the High Sierra in a heavy melt off was consistently the
> scariest in 2010.  Some of those were the deciding moment for a number of
> folks who jumped forward rather than risk another.  We had a committed
> group of 5 who stayed together over the High Sierra and helped each other
> across, sometimes making human chains anchored to a tree or rock on the far
> shore.  Frightening, and in fact plenty dangerous, we did our best to hunt
> up relatively safe crossings, and attempted the worst crossings in the
> morning when the water level was much lower than later in the day.
>
> The other was following Smiles as she stomped new track up the face of
> Mather Pass (so scary I got no pictures of this ascent) and then we hoisted
> her over the rim of the cornice where she anchored herself back a ways with
> an ice axe and hauled me over.  We then anchored the axe back even further,
> lay on the cornice, again making a human chain out to the edge, and then
> hauled the rest of the bunch over the edge.  It was imperative that we
> spread our weight and move it back from the edge as a cornice collapse
> might have killed us.
>
>
> Shroomer
>
>
>