Puma Ghostwalker
Part 1......KEEP A COOL HEAD
After the Y2K scare was over, Frankie an I decided to do an Alpine style ascend to the top of Mt. Marcy.
Mount Marcy is the highest peek in New York State, a mere bump to the Rockies, the Tetons and the Cascades but its right up the road.
The lad Frankie was about thirty years my younger and many years ago when he was just out of high school I hired him for the summer to work in my business.
He worked his ass off and when it was time to start college he studied very hard so he could get a good inside job. Many years later Frankie thanked me, saying that I helped him finished college. When he was up late studying for exams wanting to go to sleep he would think of how hard we worked, in the rain too. I’m from Oregon and. it rains every day…..all most anyway.
Frankie was my climbing partner and we rock, Ice and Mountain climbed every chance we could. The good boy got himself a job as an IT for an Italian bank in NYC but worked long days prior to January First 2000……..AKA…….Y2K…..
We planed the climb during the Doctor Marten Luther King Holiday, that way Frankie wouldn’t miss a days pay.
I was looking forward to trying out some new gear, I love new gear….
We each had the new Garmin Rino two ways with GPS. I uploaded the topographical map for Marcy and added way points to track our ascend and match it
With paper.
We had a problem, with all our planning we could not predict the weather and an Arctic Blast came in the night we left for the Mountain.
Pulling into the parking lot at zero dark thirty we pulled the seats down and catnapped for a few hours. As day was breaking we stepped out to grab our gear.
OH!!!.MY GOODNESS……….
Now I have been all over the world and have been in some pretty terrible weather, a Typhoon aboard ship in the Pacific and Korea is a really cold place.
When we steped out and said hello to -32%F I knew we were in trouble. Although I was in charge and was responsible for the boy’s life, we had all the right gear
The best money could buy. I knew we will survive this, so we clipped on our crampons and signed in and hit the trail.
It didn’t take long…….
To go from bad to worse…..
I reached into my side pocket to grab a drink of water……It was frozen solid already….
What do they say……?
Water, water all around but not a drop to be found……
The most important thing I have found, no matter how bad things get………KEEP A COOL HEAD!!!........ OR………… You Will End Up Dead!!!!
Think, don’t panic, you must block out fear….
To be continued…….I Know I’m such an Ass…..
Part 1......KEEP A COOL HEAD
After the Y2K scare was over, Frankie an I decided to do an Alpine style ascend to the top of Mt. Marcy.
Mount Marcy is the highest peek in New York State, a mere bump to the Rockies, the Tetons and the Cascades but its right up the road.
The lad Frankie was about thirty years my younger and many years ago when he was just out of high school I hired him for the summer to work in my business.
He worked his ass off and when it was time to start college he studied very hard so he could get a good inside job. Many years later Frankie thanked me, saying that I helped him finished college. When he was up late studying for exams wanting to go to sleep he would think of how hard we worked, in the rain too. I’m from Oregon and. it rains every day…..all most anyway.
Frankie was my climbing partner and we rock, Ice and Mountain climbed every chance we could. The good boy got himself a job as an IT for an Italian bank in NYC but worked long days prior to January First 2000……..AKA…….Y2K…..
We planed the climb during the Doctor Marten Luther King Holiday, that way Frankie wouldn’t miss a days pay.
I was looking forward to trying out some new gear, I love new gear….
We each had the new Garmin Rino two ways with GPS. I uploaded the topographical map for Marcy and added way points to track our ascend and match it
With paper.
We had a problem, with all our planning we could not predict the weather and an Arctic Blast came in the night we left for the Mountain.
Pulling into the parking lot at zero dark thirty we pulled the seats down and catnapped for a few hours. As day was breaking we stepped out to grab our gear.
OH!!!.MY GOODNESS……….
Now I have been all over the world and have been in some pretty terrible weather, a Typhoon aboard ship in the Pacific and Korea is a really cold place.
When we steped out and said hello to -32%F I knew we were in trouble. Although I was in charge and was responsible for the boy’s life, we had all the right gear
The best money could buy. I knew we will survive this, so we clipped on our crampons and signed in and hit the trail.
It didn’t take long…….
To go from bad to worse…..
I reached into my side pocket to grab a drink of water……It was frozen solid already….
What do they say……?
Water, water all around but not a drop to be found……
The most important thing I have found, no matter how bad things get………KEEP A COOL HEAD!!!........ OR………… You Will End Up Dead!!!!
Think, don’t panic, you must block out fear….
To be continued…….I Know I’m such an Ass…..