[pct-l] Re: New goals

[goforth at cio.net (Joanne Lennox)]

----------
> From: Karen Borski <kborski@yahoo.com>
> To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net; CMountainDave@aol.com
> Subject: [pct-l] Re: New goals
> Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 8:14 PM
> 
> >Did you fail because of the length of the climb?
> >Borah was a very long 
> >grueling one day climb with lots and lots of 
> >elevation gain. Kind of like Whitney, but no crowds.

I did Borah on a traverse through the Sawtooths and it was undoubtably the
easiest climb that we did there, and kind of done in passing.One day climbs
are pretty hard on the body and not always the safest way to be in the
mountains.  Many people do not want to overnight in the mountains and to me
they miss the best part.  Anytime I could I would camp as high as I could. 
Chances are you will remember those nights to the day you die.

Saw a lot of clear and smoky crystals, some very large, on the approach to
Borah (just clusters sticking out of the sand)
 
As
> I've also heard that Granite and Gannett both need
> ropes, crampons and maybe guides.  But I've also read
> trip reports from people who picked their way
> carefully up without ropes or guides.  I don't know!
>   
I remember climbing Gannett mid 70s and it was a very long climb (started
in Titcomb Basin, went over a notch near Mt Woodrow Wilson, decscended a
steep chute, and then climbed another chute up to Gannetts Summit plateau.)
 Just before arriving at the summit, we met an elderly man alone and in
galoshes.  They were unbuckled and probably at least a size too large.  He
wasn't quite sure where he was(no map) but had come up from the Dinwoody
side.  It was an easy climb which we never roped up for, and route finding
was not a problem. In a white out it would not have been nearly as easy.

Granite was not bad either except for the lightening storm.  As soon as I
felt and heard the electricity and my ice ax snapping, I shot done off the
summit.  But I could not convince my husband that he should not sign the
register until the metal button on the top of his sunhat started zapping
his bald pate, and the iceax,which he had shoved behind his pack, gave him
pokes in the back.  He finally got the idea and came down quickly; by that
time I was practically in tears after all the pleading for him to come
down.  Thought I was going to see my husband fried right in front of my
eyes.   It was one of the few times that I felt really unsafe climbing (
Well okay, there were a little more than a few times that I was scared).

My peak bagging thing was climbing as many peaks as my age, which I did two
years in a row (age 55 and 56).  Trouble is it gets harder and harder. 
Must have something to do with why I went and found myself a horse. 
Although the climbing itch is really homing in on me this spring.

Goforth
> 
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