BEARTOOTH BACKCOUNTRY CABIN PROJECT

Just to mix things up a bit I thought I would share one of my other passions, working with logs.
When I picture what I want to do with my life the answer is very clear, build cabins and climb mountains. This video shows how I spent a good portion of my summer last year, starting with selecting a cabin site and finishing the season with a completed cache and the cabin walls up. Enjoy!

Brake the Damn Box

Life has a way of kicking you in the ass. No sooner did I post that I was ready to step back into the alpine climbing game then two days later I found out that the shoulder that has been bugging me is actually a torn rotator cuff, with a possible six-month recovery period. Not only does that put my expedition to Pakistan at risk, it also means that as a self-employed tile contractor I can’t lay tile.

“Why me? Why now? Oh, Oh poor me!” That is how I felt last night when I found out. I felt totally defeated. I couldn’t sleep because I was worrying about how to pay for the bills or just pay for life in general. And what about Pakistan? My climbing partner Doug and I have been planning the climb for a couple years now, and with the peak sitting at 7,600 meters, I looked at it as a necessary step in my quest to realize a super project I’m planning in the future. 

That was yesterday and I have cried about it long enough. Today the sun is out, it’s a beautiful warm winter day, and I have a new perspective. It is my choice how I view my current situation, and I have the power to put it into whatever context I choose.

A golden opportunity is how I choose to look at it. The situation is making me get out of my box, and getting out of one’s box is always a good thing. First of all, my day job, I hate it! Now I am being forced to look into new career paths, which is exciting and scary! And what about Pakistan? Well, I’m still planning on going to Pakistan in June, and this gives me a great chance to try some new training cycles that I have been thinking about. I look forward to the challenges ahead and I feel fortunate that I have to step out of my box. As a matter of fact, I plan on throwing that damn box away so I can never go back to it. Everything is a step forward! So just like my childhood hero, Steve Austin, I plan to get better, stronger, faster! I’m not saying I’m the Six Million Dollar Man, I’m just saying nobody has ever seen me and the Six Million Dollar Man in the same room together. Onward!

The sun is starting to rise and we don't know it yet but hell is about to be unleashed on the mountain.

Profile of the north face from the standard route on the southwest rib.

Approaching the north face.

Doug finally feels safe to crack a smile after we are off the face.

Dead sea bird in the glacier on the approach, maybe a bad omen.

“Rock!”  Doug Chabot and I where at the belay, tethered to the icy mountain face together. We heard the rumble and simultaneously looked up to see the sky above us filled with a barrage of stones. Doug yelled the warning of rock to Steve Swenson who was out on lead above us. There was nowhere to hide, nothing but 70 degree ice for hundreds of feet in all directions. There was no escape. I remember thinking of a turtle as I tried to suck my body under my helmet and backpack. Doug doing the same beside me began saying, “fuck, fuck, fuck!” I could hear the fear in his voice.

We were in Tajikistan, on the north face of Peak Karl Marx. We had already summited the 6,800 meter peak by the standard route, and were now trying for the first alpine ascent of the north face.

Then, the rocks hit. Steve, who was out on lead, had one ice tool ripped out of the ice. To his credit he managed to not fall. A fall would have been catastrophic. Doug, who was beside me, suddenly seamed to go limp and started to moan. He had taken a direct hit to the shoulder. Then my world went black for a split second, and my ears began to ring, I had taken a rock square on top of my helmet. There was no fight or flight. We had no options. All we could do was wait, wait and see if that one unlucky rock would come and take one or all of us off the mountain face.

That moment is burned into my mind, it has haunted my dreams on many occasions.

After many rappels always under constant rock fall, we escaped to the safety of the bergschrund.  Steve and I were unhurt, but Doug had been hit by another rock, this time to the face. There was a lot of blood, but luckily nothing was broken.

That was a year and a half ago, and I have struggled with the thought of going back to climbing big objectives. But everything is a learning experience and everything is training. From Steve I learned how to remain unflinchingly calm under stress. The guy was the picture of efficiency and calmness on the retreat off the face. Doug who took two big hits, one to the shoulder and one to the face, showed how to be a tough son of a bitch! Because of his injuries he couldn’t help much on the descent, but he kept moving and did what he could. A lesser person could have shut down physically and put the team in an even worse situation. I learned from myself to trust my judgment. The day before the climb I voiced concern about the weather being to warm, but I was very easily persuaded to go have a look.

Lastly, I learned that the big mountains are where my ambitions lie and where I want to be. Its okay and healthy that I stepped away and took time to reflect and look inwardly at myself and decide just who and what I want to be. And now I feel ready to step back into the game. I leave for Pakistan mid-June. Onward!