[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: [at-l] Climbing Katahdin
Wow! Like so many outrageous feats, this is told so matter-of-factly
that it demands a couple of rereads just to make sure it all soaked
in. Baxter Peak to Chimney Pond in 3 hours? That sounds heroic by
itself; certainly makes me question any rights to claim "downHILL" as
an apt trail name. About the only thing that I didn't have to read
twice was the "slept for 24 hours" part. I'm gonna be awed by this all
day....Hope he finds another K2-er; they'd share something
extraordinary. Wow!
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: [at-l] Climbing Katahdin
Author: "Ern Grover" <ern@cybertours.com> at ima
Date: 10/26/98 6:41 PM
This article originally appeared in the Weirs Times,
Thursday, December 18, 1997
Climbing Katahdin: Twice in One Day? (By Philip I.
Hershberg, Waterville Valley, NH)
It all happened way back in August 1956. I'm 62 now, after
many years of climbing peaks in the Whites, Greens,
Adirondacks, Colorado, Wyoming, California, Washington,
Switzerland, Austria, Italy: You get the picture! I moved to
Waterville Valley to be surrounded by those 4,000 footers:
Tecumseh, Oseola and the Tripyramids.
Well, anyway, in August 1956, while a member of the
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute outing club, we college
climbers had a get-together at Baxter State Park in Maine.
We pitched our tents at the Chimney Pond Campground, located
at tat time about 5 miles from the nearest road.
The next morning, four of us, including three from
Rensselaer, namely Ira Schnall, some fellow whom I can't
recall and myself, together with a fourth young man from, I
believe an Ivy League school, decided to climb Mt. Katahdin
via the chimney route. This Ivy Leaguer was a fellow, whom
according to Bert Raphael who was at Chimney Pond at the
time but who did not join this climbing party went by the
name of "George Langer" or something closely allied to this.
In any event, the four of us arose early one morning and by
6:00 a.m. had begun the chimney climb, which, as best as I
can recall, involved about 3,000 feet, almost straight up to
the Katahdin summit, which at 5,268 feet, I'll call a mile
high, in any event the highest point in the state of Maine.
We made fairly good progress and, by about 1:00 p.m., were
only a couple of hundred feet below the summit ridge. At
this point, George Langer was reaching up for a hand-hold
and the climber immediately above him dislodged a rather
large rock, which struck George on his arm and also on his
leg. Although we did not know it at the time, because of his
injuries, George apparently went rapidly into a state of
clinical shock and because of this and the severity of his
injuries, was totally unable to move.
The other two fellows on the rope were, at the time,
cigarette smokers and were quite exhausted from the climb. I
was therefore elected to somehow get myself up the last few
hundred feet of the route, climb down the knife-edge back to
the Chimney Pond Campground and somehow obtain the necessary
help to the bring George back down from the mountain.
Luckily, I did know that there was a ranger at the
Campground and that he did have a litter-basket (i.e. a kind
of portable stretcher).
In any event, I did manage to get to the summit ridge by
about 2:30 p.m. and, moving as rapidly as I could, got down
to the Chimney Pond Campground at about 5:30 p.m.
Fortunately, there were a number of strong college youths,
as well as the Ranger, at the campground. After getting a
bite to eat, we took our flashlights, some blankets and the
litter basket and started to climb up the knife-edge route
to the summit, leaving the campground at about 6:30 p.m.
Because of the onset of darkness, it took us until about
11:00 p.m. to reach the summit ridge.
Once on this ridge -- which in spots is quite narrow,
leading to the "knife-edge" term -- we were eventually able,
in the dim aura of our flashlights, to make out my climbing
group, who had somehow managed to life George up the last
few hundred feet to the knife-edge.
Our "rescue" party then surveyed the situation. At this
point in time, George really looked quite lethargic and very
pale. Nevertheless, we had no choice but to lift him into
the litter-basket at just about midnight and to slowly begin
to lower him down the knife-edge. Fortunately, there were at
this point about six climbers in our rescue group, together
with the other two original climbers, so that the eight of
us were sufficient to carry the litter-basket and, at some
very steep points in our descent, prevent it from sliding
away from us and down the slope. In any event, we had to
take great care because of the precarious angle at which we
often carried the litter-basket.
Slowly and carefully, we continued down the mountain,
reaching the tree line at about 3:00 a.m. At this point, the
trail became less steep and the trees, which surrounded the
trail, made us somewhat less concerned that our "cargo"
might slide away on us. Eventually, we were able to reach
the Chimney Pond Campground at about 7:0-0 a.m.
Fortunately, there was a Harvard Medical School student at
the campground adjacent to the ranger cabin and he
recognized that George was in a state of clinical shock. He
then began to treat him by covering him with more blankets
and giving him some warm fluids to drink. Bert Raphael,
another Rensselaer Polytechnic student who had arrived at
the campground the previous day -- after we had already
departed for the summit at about 6:00 a.m. told me that he
was able to follow our progress in lowering George down the
mountain. He did this by following the tiny points of light
emitted by our flashlights.
Once George reached the campground, a number of other
college students who were also camped there carried George
out the approximately five miles to the road, from which
point, he was transported to the nearest hospital. In any
event, I understood that George survived, because he was
seen the next year by one of my friends at an outing club
get-together at Lake George, New York. He was reported to be
walking with a bit of a limp, however.
Well, as a result of this accident, having climbed and
descended Mt. Katahdin twice over a period of just about 24
hours. I was - needless-to-say -- quite exhausted. Some girls
at the base camp gave me a couple of bowls of soup, which I
ravenously gulped down. I then got into my tent and into my
sleeping bag and slept from about 8:00 a.m. that day until
just about 8:00 a.m. the next morning -- the only time in my
life that I have slept 24 hours around-the-clock.
Since that time in late August 956, I've told this story at
countless gathering of climbers in the Eastern United States
as well as elsewhere. Each time, I told those listening that
I had climbed Mt. Katahdin twice in the same day and was
looking for some other climber who had also accomplished
this same feat. Needless-to-say, even though I'm certain
that other individual have also done the same climb, I have
not to this day -- found a single other climber who has done
so.
I'd very much appreciate learning of any such individuals.
You can reach me c/o P.O. Box 352, Waterville Valley, NH
03215.
"Sweeter Rain" a.k.a. Ern Grover
ICQ: 922536 / AOL: MaineMan47
Website: http://www.cybertours.com/~ern/
Family Outdoors:
Read this list on the Web at
http://www.FindMail.com/list/sweeter-rain/
To unsubscribe, email to
sweeter-rain-unsubscribe@makelist.com
To subscribe, email to sweeter-rain-subscribe@makelist.com
Camping tip: You can start a fire without matches by eating
Mexican food, then breathing on a pile of dry sticks.
* From the Appalachian Trail Mailing List | http://www.backcountry.net *
* From the Appalachian Trail Mailing List | http://www.backcountry.net *
==============================================================================