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Glacier National Park - 8.6.08

8/15/08
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Posted by Stugie on 8/11/08 10:37am
   For those of you who feel inclined to read a tale of unspeakable woe, I will try to feed your fancy.  If not, just scroll down a ways.

   The plan was to hit MT early last week, head to Glacier and hit a lot of remnant snow.  I arrived in Missoula to transfer from the "Sturgis" truck, over to the "Hit the mountains" honda civic.  And then the worst thing possible happened - my can of bear spray exploded as the weight of my pack awkwardly pushed it into the cement parking lot.  Luckily, the entirety of the can was thrust out and bounced off the back of my ski pack onto the back of the civic.  No one was directly hit.  However, the repercussion got two of us pretty good, and we spent the night washing in milk.  *I never thought having friends that have been to jail and told me, "if you ever get maced, DON'T USE WATER!!!" would pay off, but it did*  That night, when the unrelenting burning finally began to subside, I got up to pee.  I don't know what an STD feels like, but I guess I should have washed my hands better.  At least we had more milk...
   Once in Kalispell, I took my pack and we figured we'd give it a few days to wash and air.  So we climbed a lot.  Some really great routes and fun times with good friends in the Flathead Valley.

Lars leading a nice 120 ft route




   We spent some time in the Flathead Valley climbing with friends and leisurely kayaking on the lake.  We visited Bird Island and watched a fair number of hummingbirds flit around and did a bit of swimming.

Flathead Lake


Swimming


   We finally decided to head up and try to nab some lines in Glacier.  Originally we were planning to hit the snowfields above Logan Pass, up on the E flanks of Piegan, and off of Siyeh Pass.  However, upon arriving at Logan, we decided to play around there and see where the day took us.

Heaven's Peak - probably a good July destination


  Upon arriving at Logan Pass and hiking up, we found out that a lot of people in MT are not as familiar with year round skiing as they are in WA.  We were asked "Why do you have skis?" - while walking across and in plain view of some very skiable snowfields.  One person even asked us where the gondola was (and yes, they were serious) and someone else asked how we would stop before we hit the dirt.  One thing I did notice though was that the rangers in GNP were FAR more friendly to skiers than those in MRNP...they practically encouraged us to go. 
   However, after the first snowfield my back and shoulders felt as though they had been incredibly sunburned - the bear spray had not worn off yet.  It was seeking to victimize me yet again!  By the time we got down, I felt as though my skin had been ripped off my back and was constantly feeling that way.  We hurried down and soaked my fleece at the Weeping Wall and I sat waiting for the stoplight on the now one lane Going-to-the-Sun road soaking, and then pat drying with a towel.  It worked, and although painful, we still managed to nab about 1200vf on three different patches up in the Logan Pass area - off of Reynolds and then Clements.  Can't complain for August.  Despite the bear spray, my joy-o-meter was going through the roof!

A couple of patches on the N side of Reynolds

Photo by Dan Richardson

Ascending the first of a few runs...

Photo by Dan Richardson

Nice horns...


Dan finishing up our first lap with Reynolds in the back
Cool.  In that first photo did you use a Lensbaby, or was it post-processed?

cool, you gassed yourself!  Reminds me of back in the 'Nam era when in basic training they had us practice donning gas masks, walking thru a gas filled room, etc.  The last part of the exercise was to walk into the gas filled room, take off the gas mask, and stay there long enough that you would have to talk at least 2 deep breaths (not to mention saturation of your eyes, hair, skin, clothing, etc.).  The gas was so thick you couldn't see across the room; I vaguely remember it was CN gas (now called mace).

Kam - I post processed the picture using the "spherize" option in CS2.  However, after looking at the picture, I was wondering what it would take to set up the picture in that way.  a Lensbaby?

Acarey - Yeah, I gassed myself.  I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.  That god forsaken stuff is horrible.  The training you refer to sounds like pure torture to me.  I'm actually considering just not carrying it - especially after all the mishaps I'm hearing about from some other with that stuff!

ha ha ha, excuse me for laughing, I'm glad the bear spray injuries were  not more serious, definitely no laughing matter when it is happening.

6 or 7 years ago, I set out to scale Mt. Moran, about a mile from the trail head, some guys came running down in a panic, stammering breathless warnings of a mean bear chasing after them. I was prepared with my can of bear spray (unfortunately I had tied the nozzle to my backback strap, kinda feeling like Rambo), so I continued with confidence. Sure enough, a big'ol black bear came strutin down the trail -- I tore at the canister (can't remmember but I probally expected the tie string to break - it didn't) I ended up tearing the canister away from the nozzle, resulting in an in my face mace explosion... many hours rolling in agony... rolling in the lake... I learned me a lesson that day. Only to puncture another can years later on a backpacking trip in the Spanish Peaks, luckily that incident was not as painful.
BTW -- I worked for the USFS on a grizzly bear survey project years ago in the Bob Marshell, Scapegoat, Flathead wilderness areas outside Missoula/Great Falls. We hauled around bear lure (rotten fish guts and cow blood) b.c. camping 9 days at a time, setting up hair snag stations, really cool job, no close calls with bears. I think the island population in the Yellowstone ecosystem is a little more aggressive with people.

Thanks for the awesome TR, That snow doesn't look too bad - and that's pretty proud vert for August. I hope you can get all that pepper off the pack. Airing my equipment out/exposing to elements for several weeks, seemed to work with my soiled gear.

Sounds fun ( - the mace in your face) !!

Dan - thanks for the kudos and tip about the gear.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who's experienced this!  :D  i'm working on airing it still...

author=danhelmstadter link=topic=10780.msg44081#msg44081 date=1218571869]
ha ha ha, excuse me for laughing, I'm glad the bear spray injuries were  not more serious, definitely no laughing matter when it is happening.

6 or 7 years ago, I set out to scale Mt. Moran, about a mile from the trail head, some guys came running down in a panic, stammering breathless warnings of a mean bear chasing after them. I was prepared with my can of bear spray (unfortunately I had tied the nozzle to my backback strap, kinda feeling like Rambo), so I continued with confidence. Sure enough, a big'ol black bear came strutin down the trail -- I tore at the canister (can't remmember but I probally expected the tie string to break - it didn't) I ended up tearing the canister away from the nozzle, resulting in an in my face mace explosion... many hours rolling in agony... rolling in the lake... I learned me a lesson that day. Only to puncture another can years later on a backpacking trip in the Spanish Peaks, luckily that incident was not as painful.
BTW -- I worked for the USFS on a grizzly bear survey project years ago in the Bob Marshell, Scapegoat, Flathead wilderness areas outside Missoula/Great Falls. We hauled around bear lure (rotten fish guts and cow blood) b.c. camping 9 days at a time, setting up hair snag stations, really cool job, no close calls with bears. I think the island population in the Yellowstone ecosystem is a little more aggressive with people.

Thanks for the awesome TR, That snow doesn't look too bad - and that's pretty proud vert for August. I hope you can get all that pepper off the pack. Airing my equipment out/exposing to elements for several weeks, seemed to work with my soiled gear.


Hauling around fish guts and blood...How could a job get any better? ;D

Several years ago, an old can of bear spray leaked in my outdoor gear storage closet. I still get nasal congestion and itchy eyes now after digging through my stuff.

author=acarey link=topic=10780.msg44066#msg44066 date=1218508417]
cool, you gassed yourself!  Reminds me of back in the 'Nam era when in basic training they had us practice donning gas masks, walking thru a gas filled room, etc.  The last part of the exercise was to walk into the gas filled room, take off the gas mask, and stay there long enough that you would have to talk at least 2 deep breaths (not to mention saturation of your eyes, hair, skin, clothing, etc.).  The gas was so thick you couldn't see across the room; I vaguely remember it was CN gas (now called mace).


looks like a newbie posted to this old thread to make it active.I missed it back in August.

While reading about the bear spray I too instantly focused back to having to take my gas mask off in the concrete bunker filled with green gas, standing at attention, reciting my ss# and waiting for the DI to giver permission to leave. The pain as I marched back to the barracks was excruciating.  However, a hot shower did the trick and then I was fine.

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glacier-national-park-8-6-08
Stugie
2008-08-11 17:37:16