Page 12 - 2009 AMA Winter

street, and one I could not pass by. With the unhesitating enthusiasm of one igno- rant to the challenge, I quickly made a nui- sance of myself and barged in.
Eight months later, many lessons learned, a team assembled and trained and a huge amount of money raised I stood in the only supermarket in a remote Canadian town playing supermarket sweep! Not dissimilar to Dale Winton in many ways, our game show host for the day was Will Brant. Will, a triathelete and big guy with more than a passing interest in food had kindly agreed to take care of our dietary needs for the expedition and had put together an amaz- ing menu of pancakes, trail mix, energy gels and hot dogs to while away the two weeks of bad weather we were expecting in the Cirque. The only problem was that we only had limited time to shop, pack and drive. Will gave orders and we followed.
We had been working our way through the woods around the huge boulders and their brushed and chalked lines. Oft fre- quented, it wasn’t them we were looking for today. We were heading for the iconic curving finger crack known as the Exasperator on the main wall of the Stawamus Chief’s Grand Wall rising high above Squamish. It was just as we caught site of the wall that the pain registered.
Outside, the 7 seat SUV we had hired was starting to look a little sorry for itself. Bags were now strapped on the roof, unpacked under the seats and squeezed into every space possible. Dubbed ‘Irene’ by the team, she had to carry us, our equipment and fuel 750km to a remote helicopter landing site in the Yukon bush.
We ate up the distance along Highway One, doing 450km before reaching the next town and our first change of direction! We left the tarmac behind for a dead end gravel track. It was here that the adventure aspect really kicked in.
It was about the time of the first puncture that we realised the disproportionate amount of fuel the automatic four wheel drive was using on the rough road.
We pulled out the huge nail and did the maths, we were approaching a decision point where we could reach the HLS but not return. I phoned our pilot on the satel- lite phone and he kindly agreed to fly us out more fuel when he picked us up. We con- tinued.
I had just stepped on top of a well cam- ouflaged wasps’ nest and they were fight- ing back with a vengeance.
“They are following you!” Will’s voice cau- tioned through the woods. I did not need further warning and kept moving. Wasps repeatedly sting and excrete a chemical that attracts others to do the same. The colony was swarming and most of them were on my arms and legs!
The second puncture an hour later was equally unexpected and somewhat unbe- lievable. It was also, without another spare or repair kit, a critical failure. One that none of us was happy with, now 100km away from the nearest civilisation. I had debated early on about the level of insurance cover that we would need for the vehicle on this trip. Thankfully I decided to play it safe and went for the maximum. The rental compa- ny would recover us and replace the tires.
It is only at times like this that you realise just how remote some parts of the world are. It took the rental company 24 hours to reach us, bringing 4 spare wheels, fuel and the news that we had mistakenly been given a vehicle with soft winter tires! If they had not supplied the extra fuel we had requested we would perhaps have literally shot the messenger!
We reached the prearranged RV, set up camp and drifted off to sleep, wondering
whether the grunting was the wildlife or Henry dreaming again.
If ignorance is bliss then knowledge is most certainly a burden. My lips, nose and eyelids were beginning to swell and the itching and swelling in my groin and arm pits indicated that my lymph nodes weren’t happy. I had been stung, a lot, per- haps twenty times or more but I thought I would just about get away with it.
The anticipation was at fever pitch the next morning and we repacked our equipment in equal loads ready for the aircraft. Stripping down our equipment yet again, Will agreed to only taking half a haul bag of spare clothes, whilst I stuffed all my spare gear into a jacket pocket!
Shortly after ten a high pitched whirring signalled Warren’s approach up the valley. A huge man in a tiny aircraft, Warren is a legend in the Yukon, flying to places no one else will and in conditions that see every- body else grounded. He is the only person currently willing to fly a heli into the Cirque and the only means of avoiding the gru- elling and dangerous ascent from Glacier Lake, the only float plane landing in the area, a hard day’s walk away. He used to fly a float plane there, going via the Cirque in order to do a bombing run of people’s haul bags and gear before dropping them off. He has since been persuaded that this is too dangerous!!
As we piled into a waiting car that Nic had flagged down I could feel the tingling on my tongue, the beginning of swelling. I knew what came next; I had been a wilderness medic for years and had treat- ed people in the same position.
Two hours later we had our base camp set up under one of the huge boulders in the beautiful alpine Fairy Meadows. The tower- ing walls and boulders seemed strangely familiar to us after spending so long looking at photos, videos and topos and I decided to push straight out to get a good look at the LFT whilst the weather held. Nobody wanted to be left out and all seven of us hiked the 3 hour round trip to the base of the route.
It is only here that the true scale of the LFT can really be appreciated, it simply goes on and on and on for 2500ft, a series of inter- linking cracks and chimneys from summit to base.
“Can you bring my friend in to take a pho- tograph?” I mumbled through the oxygen mask. The nurse looked at me and raised an eyebrow as she gave me the Adrenaline and Antihistamine injections that we had discussed and decided to leave behind in the UK. “There are no real nasties in Canada” I declared to Baz, “We don’t need to worry about anaphylaxis”.
Sven coming to immediately after the rock fall. Note the damaged helmet
The rash was now incredible and over the
10 ARMY MOUNTAINEER