Page 11 - 2009 AMA Winter

John leads the difficult pitch before the halfway ledge
The Lotus Flower Tower
“Irene! Yeah man, Irene!” The enthusi- sumed as only climbers are, with detail; I moved, quickly. The pain of numerous
asm behind the voice and the signifi-
cance of the Black Hawk Down movie quote (the code word that initiated their long awaited operation) were not lost on me; I had just escaped a meeting at Whitehall and finally, after a lengthy period of planning, training and fund raising was on route to meet the rest of the team and begin our journey to Canada.
24 hours later and crammed into a bean tin of a different flavour I recalled the people around me on the Underground as I took that call; rushing around lost in their own worlds of SMS, time pressures and iPods. I pitied them a little knowing that I was heading for a better place and a more sat- isfactory way of living. I envied them too though; knowing that they would be at home that night, cocooned in the warm security of the concrete world they have created, no hanging belays, sickening exposure or fear. Yes I envied them, but not too much.
There are many amazing things in nature; there are Giant Redwood trees, beautiful glacial valleys, perfect splitter cracks and unbelievable Granite towers reaching for the skies. Unfortunately there are also shoe eating Marmots, Wasps and Mosquitoes. The latter had been bugging us for most of the trip but at least we have left the black clouds of the Yukon behind. Not so for the wasps...
We squeezed all of our packing into the night before departure and it stretched beyond all our estimates, all of us con-
what cooker to take, how many screw gates and how many wires? A mountain of metalwork, down, Dyneema and Goretex that we would not see again until Whitehorse.
Optimistically referred to as a city, Whitehorse is really a large frontier town in Canada’s Yukon Territory and our staging post in to what is worryingly known as the Cirque of the Unclimables. 12 hours drive and a helicopter ride out of Whitehorse, our objective was one of the top twenty routes in the world: the remote and difficult 2500ft SE face of the Lotus Flower Tower.
red hot pokers in my ankles and shins car- rying me over the difficult ground we had spent so much effort picking our way through just minutes before.
This trip started for me with an overheard conversation; the participants sadly declar- ing to each other that despite having some funding guaranteed that they would have to withdraw from organising an expedition to the Lotus Flower Tower due to other commitments. This was the last event planned to mark the 50th anniversary of our mountaineering club and was an adventure climbing opportunity right up my
Nick Heppenstall face climbing below the chimney
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 9