54 Candles
Expedition
By Allen Sherpa
A group of men – most from the White Mountains of
Arizona – launched an assault on Mount Hood, Oregon’s highest mountain, in the
early morning hours of April 12, 2001.
Allen Sherpa was one of the climbers.
Here’s the story of the climb.
When vicious winds
approach 100 miles per hour, they can take a mountaineering tent and literally
shred it. When wind chill temperatures
hit 50 degrees below zero, frostbite and the potential for loss of limb become
very real and serious concerns. When
snow conditions are described as “white-out”, you lose all sense of direction
because you have absolutely no visible landmarks. Many climbers have walked off cliffs to their deaths in such
conditions. Many others have frozen to
death.
These were the
conditions we faced by mid-afternoon on April 12th between eight and
nine thousand feet on the face of Mount Hood.
For some of the less experienced climbers, all that was known is that
the situation was extremely difficult and they were colder than they’d ever imagined
possible. The professional climbers in
the group had seen these conditions before and knew the situation was becoming
serious.
As the climbers
gathered in a small huddle to discuss options, Show Low’s Bob Quackenbush
watched with amazement as veteran mountaineering professional Tom Egan of
Sisters, Oregon was literally picked up off his feet by a gust of wind and
thrown on his face into the snow. When
a 210 pound man carrying a 50 pound pack is thrown around like a leaf in the
wind, you’re facing circumstances you usually only read about or see in movies.
It had become
apparent it would be all but impossible to survive the night unless they could
somehow construct shelter. Lighting
camp stoves was completely out of the question in such high winds so any food
would have to come from the power bars or gorp they had hauled up the
mountain. The only hope for shelter was
to find an area with some protection from the wind and attempt to pitch a
couple of tents. Stuffing three or four
grown men into a two-man tent would be a bit more cozy than we’d hoped for, but
it beat the alternative of freezing to death on the face of Mount Hood.
Unfortunately,
another problem now faced the climbers.
With more than two feet of new snow on top of 200 inches of older snow,
the worry of avalanche became more than slight. It was agreed that Howard Jones and one of the professionals
would climb toward the 9,000 foot level to perform some avalanche tests and
scout the area for potential campsites.
Bob Quackenbush and Mike Harding, both real estate professionals with
Coldwell Banker McCarty Realty in the White Mountains, and Jerry and Jeff
Frendt of Port Huron, Michigan would try to keep from freezing by moving slowly
up the mountain near 8,500 feet as the blizzard continued to increase in
intensity.
After digging
avalanche test pits at 9,000 feet, Jones and one of the guides, realized they
were facing an extremely perilous avalanche hazard. The mountain was ready to give way. Even if they had found a place to try and set a camp, they stood
an extremely high probability of being buried in an avalanche. A decision was made to descend as fast as
possible. There were only a couple
hours of daylight remaining.
Jones and the guide
rushed down the mountain as fast as they could in the waist deep snow. Needless to say, it wasn’t very fast. When they reached the rest of their party,
they discovered the others had concluded survival was unlikely and the only choice
was to beat a hasty retreat from the storm.
An alpine descent under such conditions is one of the most physically
demanding things imaginable. It was a
hard, long few miles. Some of the
climbers were nearly pushed to their limits.
Darkness enveloped
the mountain when Bob Quackenbush finally made it to the Timberline Lodge. He fell in a state of exhaustion near the
entrance and closed his eyes while he tried to collect himself. The following day, he was sharing his
experiences with the others and said, “I was laying there and I began hallucinating. It was really funny. I opened my eyes and I saw the actor Tommy
Lee Jones standing in front of me smiling at me. It was weird!”
A lodge employee
jumped into the discussion and said, “That was Tommy Lee Jones! He’s here making a movie. When he saw you laying there, he came up and
looked at you. When he saw you were
going to be OK, he smiled at you, turned and walked away. That’s when you opened your eyes.” I guess stranger things have happened on
mountains before.
We’ll let this be
the end of the story, at least for the time being. The guys didn’t get to the summit on Friday the 13th. But they’re home, safe, and stronger for the
experience. So we’ll leave it there for
now. However, everyone on the team
knows you’re only beat when you stop trying.
Mike Harding and Bob Quackenbush say they’re going back and they fully
intend on standing on the summit.
Having gotten to know these guys, I believe they’ll just do it too. It might also come as a surprise to learn
that Howard Jones set out for the summit again at 2 AM Saturday morning. If you see him, ask him how it was up
there. Well, I guess that’s another
story. Oh . . . and one last thing. I did get my haircut without losing any
blood. And it was a good haircut too.