My own Armageddon experience

[Phanuthier]

Backstory: Yesterday, I was climbing the Snake Dike route of Half Dome in Yosemite (a 8-pitch class 5.7R, that is, a Yosemite "R" which was 50m runouts with no bolts in between anchors for those that know what I'm talking about). The mountain we were doing was a clean sheet of granite (i.e. no trees or vegetation) with us climbing a dike on the cliff face. We had started the approach at 3:45am to try and get at the base by 7:30am since there was a 30% chance of thunderstorms by 3am. There were 4 of us, so 2 parties of 2.

Long story short, I was in the 2nd party and the 1st party had got ahead of us. On the 4th pitch of this 8 pitch climb, we had started to see puffy dark clouds form, but because the 1st party got ahead of us and this route was so runout it needed 2 60m ropes to bail, my party decided to keep going to see if the 1st party wanted to bail. After the 6th pitch, we realized the 1st party had topped out and we started saw thunderstorms approx 20 min away. I knew we were in trouble, so we tried to finish up the last 2 pitches quickly. After topping out (and a knarly class 3 walk off) we submit with thunderstorms a few seconds away. The walk off for half dome is chains aiding us down, as the walk off is steep (i.e. 75 degrees) and slippery for hikers.

Just as we reach the chains, the rain comes and it starts hailing pellets. I throw on my emergency poncho and we haul ass down the chains. A S&R Helicopter had just arrived on scene, and as I look down, I see a women is injured and requires S&R pick up. Lighting then hits the submit ground (granite) 150 ft away from me and I get spooked, but I try to refocus. I start treating the aid chains like a slide, letting my feet slide down a 75 degree angle while my hands slide along the chains (yes painful, but I didn't want to get hit by lighting). 40 seconds later, lightning hits the ground of where the chains end. Another 30-40 seconds later, lightning hits the side of Half Dome a few hundread feet away. As I bottom out, I see lighting hit the floor or the valley of Yosemite. All the while, hail is ripping away at exposed skin, I had about 30 lbs of climbing gear on my back and I had just finished a 8-pitch climb that had a 4 hour approach.

A quick shot of the scenery I am looking at, there is a S&R Helicopter a about 50 ft away with its blades ripping. Park Rangers are waiting at intermediate points as there is a mass exodus off Half Dome, making horse blinders with their hands so they don't see lightning hitting the ground every 30 seconds just a few hundread yards away from them. Hail and heavy rain grays out anything you see other than Half Dome that we were on. The mountain turns into a string of mini waterfalls and streams guided by the natural features of the mountain.

I reach the bottom of the chains and the heavy rain made small waterfalls all around the mountain. Trying to get the F off the mountain, I take one of the waterfalls and treat it like a waterslide, just sliding down. I did this for about 100 ft. When the terrain starts to level out and there are tree's, I start walking hoping lightning doesn't hit a nearby tree as lightning is still hitting the valley floor. However, I was still in my climbing shoes as the 1st party has my hiking shoes and I didn't know where they are.

After getting off the mountain, I was drenched, thin shells of clothing with what was essentially a garbage bag for a poncho, and I started shaking. I don't know if I was getting some adrenaline crash of sorts (as I had just finished a 8-pitch climb with a 4 hr hike to start, and the past 20 Armageddon minutes or so was sliding down a 1000-ft mountain)... and I haven't eaten in 9 hours. I keep on walking, but I'm slowed down since I'm in climbing shoes and after about 2 miles, Park Rangers (seeing as I was having trouble walking, with 30 lbs on my back, and early stages of hypothermia) find me and 5 of them escort me to the midway emergency station. (One guy walked behind me to look for signs to monitor my hypothermia, one guy is carrying my rope, one guy is helping carry my partners climbing gear, one guy to help carry my personal backpack, one guy to lead and radio in the situation). After another 2 miles of hiking, we reach the ranger station where I warm up by a fire pit, and the park rangers give me a spare pair of shoes (which are 3 sized too big, but better then hiking in climbing shoes). I finish off the last 2 miles in the shoes too big when one of the guys from the first party finally finds us. We then have a kum-ba-ya moment as the 3 of us (my party, and 1 member of the 1st party) are all roommates / play soccer together / climbing partners / et al and then go for pizze and beer. (I had soda since I needed sugar since I was shaking uncontrollably again, but this time I wasn't cold.)



(Wow, this was supposed to be shortened after "long story short" since I started deleting stuff that made it too long, but I guess its still too long.)

[Dion]

Glad to hear you are okay and survived the incident.

[Cowperson]

An awesome life experience and story you'll be telling your great grandkids 60 years from now . . . . nobody lost an eye so it was all fun in the end.

Congrats on emerging in one piece and great narrative.

Cowperson

[Mazrim]

It's a good thing you're lucky...it sounds like you knew you should have turned around earlier. It could have ended much worse.

I am friends with a experienced climber and he believes that his cutting it short early has saved his life, and pushing it is not worth it. But hey, everyone is different I guess.

[Joborule]

This is a good story. Thankfully everyone came out alright.

[Kipper is King]

Wow. Glad to hear you are alright.

[Kybosh]

Thankfully, I haven't had any really intense situations in the mountains yet. Glad everyone seemed to be ok from your group.

On a somewhat related note, Phanuthier, have you read Steve House's book Beyond the Mountain? It won the Mountain Literature Award in Banff last year. This is, hands down, the best mountaineering and general climbing book that I have ever read. He relates his experiences in such a human, fragile and honest way, which I find lacking in many other climbing works. Although our climbing experiences have been very different, I found myself relating with Steve over and over on many things beyond just climbing.

Hell, I recommend this book to anyone. Even people that have never even set foot on a mountain.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Joborule

This is a good story. Thankfully everyone came out alright.

I don’t think its a particularly great story. There’s no lesson learned, no reflection on what could have been done better, nothing to pass along to to other less experienced climbers, etc. Just a harrowing tale caused by unfortunate circumstances and probably a healthy dose of poor judgement (why did you summit if you saw storms inbound and knew they were going to hit you?)

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I don’t think its a particularly great story. There’s no lesson learned, no reflection on what could have been done better, nothing to pass along to to other less experienced climbers, etc. Just a harrowing tale caused by unfortunate circumstances and probably a healthy dose of poor judgement (why did you summit if you saw storms inbound and knew they were going to hit you?)

Okay okay fine, I thought it was a good read about a event someone encounter.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Kybosh

Thankfully, I haven't had any really intense situations in the mountains yet. Glad everyone seemed to be ok from your group.

On a somewhat related note, Phanuthier, have you read Steve House's book Beyond the Mountain? It won the Mountain Literature Award in Banff last year. This is, hands down, the best mountaineering and general climbing book that I have ever read. He relates his experiences in such a human, fragile and honest way, which I find lacking in many other climbing works. Although our climbing experiences have been very different, I found myself relating with Steve over and over on many things beyond just climbing.

Hell, I recommend this book to anyone. Even people that have never even set foot on a mountain.

Cool I might give it a try.

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I don’t think its a particularly great story. There’s no lesson learned, no reflection on what could have been done better, nothing to pass along to to other less experienced climbers, etc. Just a harrowing tale caused by unfortunate circumstances and probably a healthy dose of poor judgement (why did you summit if you saw storms inbound and knew they were going to hit you?)

We sumitted because I didn't know what Party 1 wanted to do. At the point where they were (Pitch 5-6) the anchor bolts were spaced 50m apart (really runout) so if they wanted to bail, they wouldn't be able to. The only way they could bail was to tie two 60m ropes together for a 60m repel, so they needed our rope. By the time we got up to the 5th pitch, they were long gone and thus we were not able to bail because we needed two 60m as well. One of the guys in the 1st party was one of my best friends, so there was no way I was going to leave him behind.

There are things we could have done better, but I don't know how this is gonna affect me. I'm not really a fan of mountaineering or any sort of alpine climbing, I just wanted to knock off all the possible major classics in California, and I did them all this summer. Between all the hiking, waking up early, navigating, dealing with weather, danger etc I think it would have to take a really good ascent for me to want to do another full day, mountaineering trip. (Compared to sport climbing or bouldering)