Asylum on a sea of rock: - The Mountaineers

The Merced River from New Dawn
to my right. i can see her from just the right
position and we can talk to each other by
yelling across the distance. so, even for a solo
climber, it’s not necessarily a solo experience.
Once you have unloaded all your
gear into the ledge—sleeping bag, bivy sack,
pad, extra clothes, food, water, personal bag,
storm kit and waste kit—all memories of
work on the wall are gone for the day. You
look down to see the pitch you just climbed—
strangely bare of all the gear used to ascend
it. Maybe you can also see previous pitches of
the route you ascended. it’s interesting to just
look around and pick out features of other
routes—ones you have done before or those
still on your list.
if you have a partner you compare notes
on what food you have, making selections,
carefully rationing, sharing some bites and
22 the mountaineer » july/august 2011
“Eating in the portaledge
is like that one amazing
first dinner in Marble-
mount after a three-day
climb in the Cascades.”
enjoying each item of your meal much more
than you would on the ground. For instance,
i love sardines on a wall, but when i once
bought some during a trip to town, i found i
could only manage a few bites. Eating in the
portaledge is like that one amazing first dinner
in Marblemount after a three-day climb in
the Cascades; except the joy of eating goes on
every night for 3-10 nights!
“. . . looking all
around at sights
only a person in
your exact, hardto-reach
location
can see.”
The hardest time to be in the por-
taledge is during inclement weather. instead
of the freedom of the views, you are now
confined inside an extremely small space.
Last night i had set up without the rain
fly and only later discovered the 90-percent
snow forecast. i had to redo everything to
insert the fly into the system while racing
against darkness, and feeling intense hunger
and exhaustion. When i finally got in, it was to
a messier-than-usual ledge where i continued
to do all my chores slowly, including the
making of soup and a freeze-dried dinner. i
slept restlessly with supply bags tossed about
everywhere.
The snow began in earnest at 5:30 a.m. and
the battle was on. i had a few cracks between
my ledge and the fly, so the “up snow” was
blowing inside the ledge and building fast.