The Red Lobster Journal for 1992
The Spearhead Traverse
Looking south from Pattison
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Approaching the Tremor - Shudder col
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The day became increasingly cloudy, and by the time we were approaching the Tremor- Shudder col, it was windy and cold. The last slopes up to the col were on steep snow and as Chuck kicked his way up the slope, hail started to pelt us and we had to yell loudly to be heard over the wind. Thunder and lightning began! It was getting really atmospheric. This was more like an adventure!
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Looking over to Overlord
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We crossed over as quickly as we could as the col was acting like a funnel and it was very windy. Thunder crashed every few seconds, and as it was late afternoon and as I was quite tired, it was time to look for a campsite.
The view to the south was both impressive and troubling. The tumbling glacier on the north side of Overlord and Benvolio looked impressive, but the weather had definitely taken a turn for the worse. The water running down the Platform Glacier where we stood added to the cold, wet feeling at the time.
We found a good spot in the middle of the Platform Glacier at the base of the cliffs. We pitched our tent as quickly as we could and climbed inside. It snowed a bit so we cooked just at the entrance to the tent.
Later, the weather eased so we stood outside enjoying the last of the sunlight. As darkness closed in, we shone our headlamps towards the Himmelsbach Hut at Russet Lake, and lo and behold, someone shone a light back at us! We weren't so alone after all. |
What a great morning!
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It snowed more during the night and the temperature dropped well below freezing. There were about five centimeters of the fresh stuff! The snow was not all that surprising considering how high we were, despite the fact that it was early August!
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More like a cable!
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On the way to the Macbeth col
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After breakfast we climbed out of the tent and tried to straighten out the rope. It had been wet the day before and had frozen into a cable (see photo) during the night!
Spirits were raised by the sun. It was cold and crisp and I felt good. It was time to move on and see what was over the next col. As we crunched along in the shadow of the cliffs to our left, our crampons bit into the firm snow and small patches of blue ice at the col. We were struck by the remarkable beauty of every view and every breath of fresh mountain air.
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Looking across the Fitzsimmons Glacier to Fissile from the Macbeth col
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After a couple of hours of very pleasant glacier travel, we found ourselves on the east side of Macbeth, looking down to the Fitzsimmons Glacier. The group of travelers ahead of us had gone over to Iago, around the south side of Mt. Fitzsimmons, and out of sight, but we decided to go down and cross the Fitzsimmons Glacier. We made mental maps of the ascent of the other side of the valley, keeping track of a number of landmarks, and descended toward the glacier.
We looked south-west down into the Fitzsimmons valley and over to Fissile in the distance. We thought that if we dropped down about 500 ft. we could go left and down a ramp of rock and on to the Fitzsimmons Glacier quite easily. When we got down there and looked around, there seemed to be too much danger of rock and ice fall on the route. Also, the final hundred feet was quite precipitous and we were not in the mood to try to set up a rappel. Therefore, we started looking for a way down the steep scree slopes straight ahead.
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