MOUNTAIN CLIMBING MADE SAFER SEMINAR IMPROVES MOUNTAINEERING KNOWLEDGE.Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News LEE VINING - Climbing mountains in winter is dangerous. Guide Doug Nidever wants to make it safer for clients who take his five-day mountaineering seminar. Participants climb a frozen waterfall with crampons and ice axes, learn to navigate in a whiteout blizzard, build a snow cave A snow cave is a shelter constructed in snow by mountain climbers, winter recreational enthusiasts, and winter survivalists. It has thermal properties similar to an Igloo and is particularly effective at providing protection from wind as well as low temperatures. for shelter and learn to extricate a fallen climber from a glacial crevasse crevasse (krəvăs`), large crack in the upper surface of a glacier, formed by tension acting upon the brittle ice. Transverse crevasses occur where the grade of the glacier bed becomes suddenly steeper; longitudinal crevasses, where the glacier . Avalanches are a constant concern in the mountains in winter so climbers practice using avalanche radio beacons for search and rescue. Nidever, who has been teaching climbing since 1980, said people take the course for many reasons. Some simply want a taste of alpine mountain climbing mountain climbing, the practice of climbing to elevated points for sport, pleasure, or research. Also called mountaineering, it is practiced throughout the world. Types There are three types of mountain climbing. , others want to practice skills so they can scale bigger mountains. Blue Kusaka, who teaches English at Birmingham High of Lake Balboa, wants to develop the techniques necessary to climb all of the peaks in California over 14,000 feet. Don Kwon, a competitor in triathlons and Kusaka's rock climbing rock climbing Sports medicine An 'extreme sport' in which the participant climbs rock formations, with or without ropes Injury risk Fractures, abrasions, death. See Extreme sports. partner, likes to push his limits hard and find out what his body is capable of. ``For me, the juice is worth the squeeze,'' Kwon said. Climbing Mt. Everest is the goal of Mike Dunne
Mike Dunne (born October 27, 1962, in South Bend, Indiana), is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1987-1990 and in 1992. Career Signing with the St. , a retired firefighter from San Clemente. Dunne, 52, is making a two-month trip to the Himalayas and needs more climbing experience before the trip. The first day's task in Nidever's seminar was climbing 100 feet up a frozen waterfall in Lee Vining Canyon. Ice climbing ice climbing Sports medicine An 'extreme sport' in which participants climb ice formations with pickaxes, often without ropes Injury risk Hypothermia, death. See Extreme sports, Novelty seeking behavior. is a two-footed, two-handed operation. The climbers use sharp-pointed ice axes, one in each hand, then kick the front points of the crampons into the ice and push themselves up the solid waterfall. This can be exhausting, so the group learned to climb more efficiently, kicking and hammering only as hard as necessary to get a good hold. On steeper sections they practiced resting in the ``monkey hang'' - hanging with arms extended on the ice axes. The next day the climbers scrabbled scrab·bled adj. Covered with sparse vegetation; scrubby: "We can stand . . . and look out toward the scrabbled, snow-covered mountains in the west" Russell Banks. up the exposed rock in the canyon. For rock climbers such as Kusaka and Kwon, climbing in clunky winter mountaineering boots and crampons using the ice tools to hook into crevices was a new experience. The sound of crampons scrabbling on rock can be as annoying as fingernails on a blackboard. But the noise was muffled muf·fle 1 tr.v. muf·fled, muf·fling, muf·fles 1. To wrap up, as in a blanket or shawl, for warmth, protection, or secrecy. 2. a. by the wind that whipped snow off the canyon walls and into the climbers' faces. The day ended with more ice climbing practice, this time on the nearly vertical ice at Choinard Falls. Trout Town Joes in June Lakes was the starting place for the third day as the climbers sipped coffee while Nidever lectured on planning a winter mountaineering trip and navigating in whiteout conditions using compass and map or GPS. The climbers learned more about avalanches - what conditions made avalanches likely and how to avoid them. One of the ``red flags'' for avalanche danger is an inch an hour of snow for six hours or more. The next day the climbers snowshoed up a 2.5-mile trail that rose 2,000 feet through the snow to a saddle below Carson Peak. Three of the climbers dug a snow cave and spent the night in it. They learned that snow caves, a good emergency shelter, are warm but drippy drip·py adj. drip·pi·er, drip·pi·est 1. Characterized by dripping; drizzly: a drippy, wet day. 2. Slang a. Tiresome or annoying. b. . The next morning was the summit push, a climb over snow, ice and rock to the 10,909-foot peak. But when they awoke, the climbers found it had snowed nearly a foot overnight. The red flags were waving more than 6 inches of new snow. Climbers could hear the sounds of avalanches tumbling down the steeper slopes. The group quickly broke camp and headed down the mountain, spreading out at the riskier slopes to minimize the chance that more than one would be caught in a slide. When they made it back to June Lakes the climbers learned that one woman had been killed in an avalanche in the backcountry back·coun·try n. A sparsely inhabited rural region. near Lake Tahoe. Another group of backcountry skiers took a 900-foot ride in an avalanche - all were rescued. Sometimes the safest way to climb a mountain is to just wait for a better day. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Climbers who are participating in Doug Nidever's mountaineering seminar snowshoe Snowshoe a recently recognized cat breed; it is a medium- to large-sized cat with blue eyes, and coat color similar to a sealpoint or bluepoint Siamese, but with a white nose, chin, and ventral midline, and white boots on all feet. up toward Carson Peak. Bill Becher/Special to the Daily News Box: IF YOU GO |
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