Showing posts with label Alpine Climbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alpine Climbing. Show all posts

Monday, July 23, 2018

Doing Nothing Well: Finding Frogs--and Success--on the Summits

Finding flies in between breaks in the Bugaboo's notoriously fickle weather.
This is the last exciting shot you'll see until the end of this post--but if you want to see exciting views, you've got to be able to put up with the rest!

Frogs aren't something you see on summits. Regardless, with the high-altitude climbing season well underway, they should serve as the inspiration for any aspiring summiteer—and also as a useful guide in the lower elevations. Consider the frog, sitting on its lily pad: If there are no flies nearby, there is nothing to do but sit and breathe. Impatiently swimming circles around the lily pad would only scare flies off...and there is no use trying to chase down a fly if you are a frog. So nothing is done, save sitting and breathing and waiting. Yet, all that “nothing” is a powerful, purposeful something. It is preparation for the precise moment when the fly does arrive. Suddenly, our squishy friend becomes the picture of complete readiness, focus, and action: Frog-tongue-fly-mouth. Task dispatched, it's back to sitting, breathing, and being ready.

This is why the frog is the perfect—if improbable—guide for climbers, the symbol for what we should aspire to be at elevation: Complete action when the moment is ripe, complete repose otherwise. For climbers, the tight confines of a wind-battered tent, filled with a crushing pile of gear, and stinking tentmates becomes our lily pad. And if the weather clears it becomes the launch pad. But when the mountain coldly commands us to wait, there is nothing left to do but sit and breathe and be.

Placid tent-time at Mt. Shuksan's Winnie's Bivvy

It seems easy, but paradoxically, this is a crux for many drawn to the mountains. While summits have little value outside of the climbing economy, save for the occasional cocktail conversation, climbers nonetheless seek this currency. In its own odd and useless way, climbing culture is goal-oriented and its population is driven. One one end of the spectrum are “dirtbag climbers” living in vans, flush with time, but dedicating every dollar to the next expedition. And then there are the “corporate climbers,” used to crushing office hours and squeezing training for high-altitude achievement into any spare moment. Over my years as an alpine guide, I have come to see that the vertical world presents this latter group with a peculiar challenge, for little in their training or in their lives has prepared them for the subtle craft of doing nothing. It is contrary to everything they think life has taught them: Namely, that progress is made by doing something. In fact, often one must do several somethings all at once, if perhaps poorly—what modernity calls “multi-tasking.” Eating is done while meetings are done while emailing clients. Life in lower-altitude, higher-pressure environments has taught them that this is how progress is made.

Like a frog on the lily-pad.  Out-chilling the chill. 

This approach has its own set of hazards in the lower elevations; taken into the higher atmospheres it can become positively deadly. With thin air and fickle weather, progress happens at a pace the mountain dictates. Violate those dictates and die. With a storm raging outside, sometimes the only thing to do after breakfast is to wait for lunch. There will be no clients to email during this lunch...only you with your dwindling salami slices and—after conversation with your tentmate has petered out like the terminus of a glacier, and the crackers are long gone—you with yourself. Success on the climb means becoming comfortable with your self doing no thing.
After retreating from this objective in the Swiss Alps in the pouring rain...

...we tented in the fog and awoke to find this view in the morning.

At this point, the counterintuitive logic of “frog-style mountaineering” comes into play. Accomplishing the goal becomes dependent upon an ability to frame the goal in a way more suitable to the mountain world. Antithetical to modern culture, progress becomes measured in terms of an ability to be still, in body and mind. Within the tight confines of the tent an object lesson is offered to each of us: “You are not in control of everything. Simply control those things you can and let go of the rest.” Slice some salami, squeeze the empty mustard bottle one more time, sit, breathe, and wait—perfectly accomplishing nothing. This is precisely what climbing is about: action when appropriate and doing nothing well. And—if our climb is truly successful—we will carry this approach with us back down to the valley.


Kel Rossiter guides globally with Rainier Mountaineering Incorporated and Adventure Spirit Rock+Ice+Alpine Experiences. He is an American Mountain Guides Association Certified Alpine and Rock Guide and holds a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies..

Just before heading BACK to the tent for the second time in a day...
(Snowpatch Spire in the distance)

Monday, March 5, 2018

Guides for Glaciers: Mountain Guides and Mountain Enthusiasts on the Front Lines of Climate Change

Located in the most popular alpine arena in the North Cascades--Boston Basin--the Quien Sabe Glacier is rapidly diminishing.
National Geographic writes that "Guides are portals to the outdoor world."  Mountain guides are portals to the glacial world and today they are on the front lines of climate change, threatened both economically and physically by changes in the mountain environment.  Through their daily connection to glaciers and their interactions with client-climbers, guides are uniquely positioned to communicate about climate change in mountain environments and to take a lead in creating a healthy future for both mountain guides and all mountain enthusiasts.

Friday, June 16, 2017

When The Best Plan is No Plan for Climbing in the Alps Pregnant

About this last time last year, my husband Steve and I began planning an epic, albeit ambitious, trip: two weeks in France and Switzerland, with objectives to climb Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, and the Eiger (plus Mönch and Jungfrau, why not, while we were in the area!). We had been training together with the Mountain Tactical Institute's "Alpine Rock Climbing Training Program," and we were feeling good, strong, ready! Those weighted step-ups, sandbag get-ups and DW Specials were worth the suffering!


The whole plan was sketched out, including a backup climbing order if the weather didn't line up, I had all of the phone numbers to begin reserving space in the mountain huts... and then... we found out I was pregnant.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Guides for Glaciers

Climate change is making mountains more dangerous and threatening the prosperity of the guiding profession. This spring a historic mass of ice broke off from Colfax Peak, sweeping across the standard ascent route for Washington State's Mount Baker climb.
Photo: Kel Rossiter

Recently, Guides for Glaciers (G4G) was established, with a mission to address the issues of the changing mountain environment and its impacts on the guiding profession. G4G intends to mount an educational campaign to bring together common stakeholders in order to influence public policy and preserve the longevity and economic sustenance of the mountain guiding profession globally. The longevity of the entire guiding profession hinges on guides’ ability to advocate for climate change policy and preserve our mountain environments well into the future.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Giving Back- Amazing Climbs, Exceptional Climbers

Climbers descending from the Parrot with the Dufourspitze in the background
Some guiding seasons are punctuated by epic conditions others by extraordinary routes. 2015's guiding season was marked by exceptional clientele for me.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Mixed Bag: Alpine Climbing in the Tantalus Range

Ross Berg and client climb in the Tantalus Range. Photo by Ross Berg.
It was 10:37pm on a Thursday, August 21st and I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I received a text from Bram. "Hey, rather last minute but a friend is flying a client to Tantalus on Saturday. One more spot in heli - $215." I responded, "YES" and scrambled to find someone to cover my weekend shifts at work. I couldn't say 'no' to the Tantalus Range…

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Three's company in the mountains?


Approaching the North Buttress of Begguya (Mt. Hunter)
 ©Doug Shepherd
Climbing with three has it's appeals.  Splitting the work with an extra person, more warmth while cuddling, and general camaraderie. That said, I've been known to repeatedly say "I hate climbing in the mountains with three" and turn down climbing trips, especially on technical alpine routes.  My reasoning for this comes from many failed climbs with three people, due to general slowness, stuck ropes, difficult communication, and even a lack of stoke!

However, I've recently had a break-through, efficiently climbing large routes with a team of three.  Part of this is finding the right partners and part of it is due to finally figuring out the right gear and tactics for efficient movement with three people.  Keep reading for my take on making it work in the mountains with three.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

The Rainspeed climbing jacket?

Big bang from a small package... The MTR 201 Rainspeed jacket is designed for trail running but it's at the top of my list for rain protection plus it only weighs an unbelievable 210g.  Being an alpine climber, I obsess about weight and functionality with all of my Mammut products.



Friday, August 8, 2014

A Packing Gear and Equipment List for the North Ridge of Mount Baker


Climbing the North Ridge of Mount Baker is a unique summertime alpine objective: with the exception of a few ice couloirs in Sierras, it's pretty hard to find true blue ice climbing smack dab in the middle of the dog days of summer—but the North Ridge offers just that. Depending on how you handle the pitching out of your climbing, the time of year, and the particular route conditions, there are typically 3-4 pitches of enjoyable ice in the W12-WI3 range (and head further to climbers' right if you want to bump it into WI4), and a seemingly endless series of low-angle calf burner pitches to boot.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Climbing in Mammut's Motherland

Coming in from Chamonix the drizzling day before my wife Alysse and I were bombarded by images of “it” everywhere. But for the whole of that damp day we had to be contented with six dollar cups of Zermatt coffee and seeing “it” only on kitchen spoons, jigsaw puzzles, envelope openers, and other kitsch—the real “it” remained lost in the clouds. Now gazing out of our tent in the clear blue morning, we were greeted by the signature lines of the mountain that made Switzerland synonymous with climbing—the Matterhorn. And though the weather in combination with our travel schedule put the kabosh on a climb of its fine lines, Alysse and I managed to salvage the day with some rock climbing on the Riffelhorn, enjoying an excellent vantage point on this Swiss icon, and an impeccable wrap-up to two weeks of summertime ice, rock, and alpine climbing blended up in the way that only the European Alps can provide.

Looking out the tent in the evening...

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Summer in the Alps: Part 1


It has been a fantastic summer for climbing in the Alps. A big winter and continued spring snowstorms put the glaciers in good shape, and unusually long periods of high pressure during July and the start of August have allowed for fantastic climbing conditions.