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POST - HEATHER ADVENTURES / 2009 UPDATES
GENERAL UPDATE - 2006 thru 2009
Well… 2006 through 2008 was a work and work some more adventure. CBM logging in southeast Kansas was an 8 hour drive from home and many weekends were spent driving 16 hours and working 24 on the Q-barn (or what the locals refer to as the Hanger: they seem to think my plan was to store aircraft). The actual plan was to have enough shop space to keep me busy locally. Although I miss climbing on the Tower, much of my climbing equipment was utilized raising arches in the construction of this 24 foot tall Quonset hut. Although I raised an arch and assembled 2 entirely on my own, only by the help of family and friends was the entire shell complete in less than a year of weekends. Interior construction goes on and on…
Devils Tower Update
Although my own 24 hour challenge is not happening; life goes on at Frank Sanders' Devils Tower Lodge. In Summer '06 Frank upped the ante to 16 summits on Walt Bailey Memorial and he still didn't need the whole day for the new record; he did it 7:30AM to midnight. Frank is in my "man of steel" category, up there with Rich Willey. Frank's challenge for '07-'08 was to climb the Tower every day for a year. He missed a few days but summitted over 360 times (July 4th to July 3rd). This challenge was a publicized event to bring attention to the plight of Native Americans on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Frank sponsors a charity that has been providing support for the Porcupine Clinic. His registered non-profit charity can be found at www.devilstower-sacredtomanypeople.org.
Snowriding Update
January 2006 was our last trip with the snowriding Crews clan. We met Californian cousins Melinda and Mike Helbock and their kids (Steele and Slater) at Steamboat Springs for a week of fantastic powder days; an expanded clan get-together. With Alex and Valerie away at university, Steve and Nancy skipped their ski vacations for '07, '08 and '09. Although Steve and Alex joined me for a few weekend trips, Valerie and her boyfriend (Jeff) for some others, it was just Tommy and me for the full week trips in '07 and '08. My snowboarding average is down to 11-13 days a year. It was just me for the '09 week trip so I started thinking the Alps. Warmed up in January for 3 days with Steve and Alex in WinterPark, then 2 with Valerie and Jeff; I was set to leave for Chamonix, France in February on Friday the 13th.
Valerie Crews - Weekend powder day at WinterPark, CO
The Passing of a True Man of Steel
Rich Willey (Dad's 1st cousin) set record times around the perimeter of Australia on a motorcycle in 1974, again in 1976, and finally in 1987. He completed the first two 10,000 mile rides solo. The 1987 record still stands at 6 days, 17 hours, 6 minutes; shared by his Aussie riding partner: Gary VanStratten. Rich passed away a few days before I left for my snowriding trip in Chamonix. I was sorry I would not attend his funeral, but have no regrets as I know he would not have wanted me to cancel an adventure. I visited with Rich in September '08 to return his travel logs of the Australian record attempts and we reminisced for hours about our independent Australian experiences as well as other challenges and adventure that keep life interesting. I told Rich that none of my brothers, Tommy, Steve or Terry, were going skiing this year and I was thinking about doing the Alps. He said: "Do it. Do it now. If you've got the time and you've got the money and you've got a plan, then do it. Because you never know where life will take you and you may never get another chance." (Just the kind of advice I like to hear; the kind that agrees with the little voice in my head.) A few days later I had booked the trip.
Chamonix - February 2009
Was supposed to fly out of St.Louis around noon Friday and be in Chamonix Saturday morning. Left the truck at my folks house and got Dad to drop me at the airport. Below is from an email I sent to my brothers:
Well, my plane was late for to get me to Newark where I was to leave for Geneva. So without waiting a day, all they could find was one out of Chicago to Paris but they couldn't get a confirmation for a seat from Paris to Geneva where my bus to Chamonix was booked. So I told her to book me to Paris and I'd wing it from there. She was real nervous about that because all the flights in France seemed to be booked so she thought maybe the French were real into traveling on Valentines Day and I wouldn't be able to get a train or anything but I figured there were worse places to be stuck than Paris. But while she kept trying to find connections all over the planet and back to Geneva, the confirmation came in for a seat from Paris to Geneva. So all that rest I thought I'd get flying' over was just a hellish nightmare of layovers and dragging baggage around and getting to bed just before midnight Saturday. So Steve will never forgive me for not heading for the slopes till 1:30 Sunday.
So I take the bus marked for Le Brevent which is the closest and easiest slopes; I just wanted to make a few turns to warm up or loosen up after the trip: whatever. But for some reason the bus stops first at the gondola (they call them telecabins) that goes to the top of Mon Blanc, you know, the Mer de Glace and all. But I don't know this cause it's under construction with no signs at the base and these people are all talkin' French so I'm not gonna start hollarin' hey where's this thing going. So halfway I get off and onto another one that keeps goin' up and I'm lookin' around at some serious mountains with very few tracks and wondering where's the bunny slopes. There was a sign on a midway building that reads AIGUILLE DU MIDI. Well I always thought Warren Miller said you take the GWEE DVD to the top of Mon Blanc and I guess he said AH GWEE DO MEE DEE. But I'm reading this sign to my camcorder as AYE EYE GWILLY DO MIDDY so I still don't have a clue. So here's the tunnel at the top and the not recommended without a guide and climbing gear signs and I'm thinking what the hell: you even need a guide on the bunny slopes around here? But then I'm not seeing any bunny slopes. Well a skier turns up and he speaks English; he's got ice climbing gear hanging on his pack and I ask if you need it and he says well there's a rope you can let yourself down on and well you could follow the tracks down... but...
OK. I said I wasn't doing the Mer de Glace without a guide; so I take the telecabin to that midway point and damned if there aren't the same fear-mongering signs there as well. There was nobody to follow but I'm thinking it will be too late to get to another lift and I've never taken a lift down before, I'm not taking 2 in one day. So I take off following tracks and perhaps chose poorly right out of the gates because the tracks keep splittin' up till I'm following one board track and I'm startin' to think what if I find this idiot's carcass froze to the top of the cliff that he couldn't get off of last night? Well after breaking off from his tracks in a field of little scrub trees (where he had chosen poorly) I scrapped my way through the little buggers and ran into a skinny mogul trail where those who had chosen wisely must have come. Anyways there was one more place where I could see the value of a guide when I went flyin' out onto an ice flow (with a little snow on it) and I was going to turn down till I noticed no tracks and thought "maybe they know something" better stay on the catwalk; but I first had to carefully unstrap my board, maintaining edge and then using it's edge so I didn't skid down this bouldery ice flow on my ass. There were 2 more ice flows like that only I stopped first and crept carefully across while considering the value of ice crampons. Anyway I was down in a couple hours sweatin' like a dog saying: and I was just going to make a few turns and then call it a day. And the moral of the story is: then I booked a guide for Wed & Fri. Tell Mom I've got the guide booked, without the rest of the story.
Did Les Grande Montets today (Monday). I will send this tomorrow when I go down the street for an internet connection and the next communication will be when I see Dad at the airport Saturday. Ride on. GREG
Chamonix from a mogul trail on Mont Blanc, France
The rest of the week went great… mostly. Took a wrong turn in poor visibility (windy/snowing) on Monday and had to hike back from "closed - avalanche danger" signs. Bagged another hour of hiking twice that week due to my greed for fresh pow that no one had gotten because they knew better. I had determined that going off in minimally tracked woods without climbing gear or a guide is much like going out of bounds at an American resort. Difference in Europe is there is no out of bounds and very few danger signs. It's your problem if you launch off a cliff; they'll just scrape up the carcass when someone finds it. Had a guide (Darrel) on Wednesday and a foot and a half of fresh snow. Booked for a group which could have been up to 5 but we only had 2 skiers (John & Bill) and me, which was great. The Aiguille du Midi didn't open till they'd cleaned some snow off the cables or something. We did some warm up at Grandes Montets then headed up to the Mer de Glace.
Top of the Aiguille du Midi, Mont Blanc
The value of a guide was clear when he took us to the edge of a 20' ice cliff. We dropped into steep fresh powder and swooped right outa there. It was totally excellent. I would have thought there'd be a crevass right below that upthrust of ice. Of course, Darrel knew it was good to go and how to get there. I thoroughly enjoyed that run down the Mer de Glace, so much so that I forgot to take any more pictures after we got started. After climbing a huge flight of stairs from the base of the glacier we did a back-door tree run into Chamonix with heaps more fresh pow. John and Bill didn't like the trees but I told Darrel that was the kind of thing I wanted on Friday. I wasn't going to do a group because I wanted trees, steeps, chutes, the baddest stuff they had; but I didn't want to slow anyone else up either (who maybe just got off a Warren Miller video shoot and wanted to hike a mile to jump off a cliff or whatever). He set me up with a guide (Chris) for Friday who got us a lot of first tracks even though it hadn't snowed since Tuesday night. Turns out there are glaciers all over the place here. We were on and off of glaciers all day. One of them T-boned into the Mer de Glace, or rather the moraine came up just short and Chris got out a rope to get us down past the rocks. Later he got us into a beautiful ravine by backtracking on the opposite side of a little ridge above a cliff through some tight trees. I'd have been way on past that slot before I realized the cliff makes the ravine inaccessible; actually, without a guide, I wouldn't have entered the woods there anyway. We had to cross a couple tracks in the ravine but mostly we were carving our own. All in all, I have a whole new respect for the notion of using a guide.
[Chamonx GREG.JPG]
Greg Crews - On the stairway off the Mer de Glace (to Montenvers)
I'd love to return to Chamonix someday, but first maybe New Zealand and Canada. Then there's Alaska and the rest of the US of A. Ride on...
G.A.CREWS
TOWER TALES TRILOGY
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