Everest Ridge

I'm not sure why we don't have any pictures from this event. This was by far the most nerve racking event of the club this year. The reason being was we werent equipped for the challenges up ahead. I was borrowing equipment from our Bishop at the time. The crampons were almost three decades old! Also my ice axe featured bright pink and green streaks across the shaft. What decade was this from? 70's? 80's? Being as it may, we were grateful. We reached base camp with the rest of the group and went to bed. The next morning we took off the face of Mt. Timpanogos. Right off that bat we hit a massive storm. The goal was to get training for the weather, the top was not really an objective at this point. Conditioned worsened it was time to turn around. We were approaching what they call the "step." The most technical portion of the climb, going much higher would of been crazy. Heading down, I had no control of my movement. I was slipping and sliding all over the place. Kt traveling behind me started to loose her balance as well. She slipped and all she could say was "Cea!" She slid past me but as Kt started self arresting her trekking pole caught my crampon. I looked down and it seemed that everything happened in slow motion - like in the movies when the guy has his foot caught on a rope when an anchor is about to pull him down. All of a sudden I was in the air like I stepped on a banana peel. I am sliding down the mountain with Kt. Kt stops and sling shots me, which in turn pulls me head first, on my back down the mountain. I turn on my belly still going head first and jab my ice axe into the snow. My body turns the correct way and I begin to self arrest again. Eventually, I slow down into a stop after a good few hundred feet of sliding. Kt later jokingly told me that her first thought was "Oh no! I killed him!"

Here is a great video of some club members through the thick of it (Featuring the one and only Colin Hale): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lPXFmUbpzc&feature=player_embedded