Downward Bound-Stories of Failure

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Clint Cummins

Trad climber

SF Bay area, CA

Mar 21, 2008 - 11:45pm PT

Ed,

Nick Vanderbilt and Francis Gledhill disappeared on the Wishbone Arete on August 22, 1984. There was a search, but their bodies were never found. They were climbing buddies of mine from college. I felt a bit guilty that I had not tried to persuade them to try something less committing.

Nick's mom was not Gloria Vanderbilt.

http://www.americanalpineclub.org/AAJO/pdfs/1985/365_inmemoriam_aaj1985.pdf

[Edit to add:] Ed, it's OK if your memory was not exact on that detail. It was over 22 years ago, and you didn't know him, so I wouldn't expect you to have it exactly right. Of course he did have a mom, and she was bummed, like any mom would be. I remember getting a call from another of his climbing pals when he did not show up in the Tetons. I didn't want to hear the news. For me, it was the "dark side" of being a climbing mentor.

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Mar 22, 2008 - 12:08am PT

Clint
Thanks for clearing up the important facts of the matter after all these years.

There were a very sobering set of entries in the Robson Hut's log book. First of Vanderbilt himself, then of the SAR team that came up and searched for them. It is an amazing place and the scale of that mountain was quite unlike anything I had attempted prior to setting my boots on its flanks. I think that with the experience that I have now it would be doable, unfortunately I'd have to get in much better shape, and I'd have to want to go through that kind of suffering... and even then it's a crap shoot.

I think we were there in late August and essentially missed the summer weather. But being there a year after those guys was sobering. And we opted out of the Wishbone to do the SSW Ridge and failed.

In Kruszyna and Putnam "The Rocky Mountains of Canada, North" guidebook they state:

"Mount Robson (3954m)
The Monarch of the Canadian Rockies, aptly known to the Indians as "The Mountain of the Spiral Road" (Yuh-hai-has-kun) on account of its distinctive horizontal banding. Mount Robson has captured the imagination of generations of climbers. By reason of its position, its challenge and its history, it is not only one of the great peaks of North America, but one of the great peaks of the world."

You do not have any reason for guilt, you know how it was when we were young and things were simple... why not give it a try? Who has not fallen under the spell of those route descriptions in Roper and Steck's Fifty Classic Climbs in North America? We read the stories of the first ascent and the history of the routes and they seemed so remote in time, so long ago... and then the route description so deceptive:

"From the town of Jasper, drive west on Yellowhead Highway for about sixty miles to the Kinney Lake turn off. Take the new road north for a few miles to the lake. Hike north eight miles along a good trail to Emperor Falls, not far below Berg Lake. Leave the trail in this area, scramble up loose couloirs for several thousand feet until reaching a broad shale terrace at about the 8000 foot level. Traverse south on the ledges for a mile until reaching the Fan Glacier. High camp can be established on moraines below the glacier."

"The Wishbone Arete is reached easily from here, and once the ridge is attained, there are no more significant routefinding problems. Myriad variations, all short, can be made on the lower section; higher, the route is less complex."

"The descent..."

that's all there is to it...