Picture of the week 31

This is Arrow Glacier Camp and the Western Breach with our yellow Eureka Scorpion Tent sitting ready and waiting. The line up the Breach is directly above the orange tent although it did zigzag to the left out of the photograph occasionally. 

We weren’t afraid exactly but were overcome with a thunderous anticipation of the, as yet, unknown challenges of the breach climb. I’d never seen any pictures of the scrambling sections or the type of exposure to falls we could be hiking through. All my trusted guide would say is, “If you go slowly, the mountain is easy”. The Cheeseheads from flatland hit the sack that night not believing any of it but his words turned out to be prophetic. I would in no way call our work that day easy but we did not find the scrambles precarious and the drop offs, although substantial in some spots, would have taken, just like a ladder at home, a concerted effort or complete brain fade to fall off.

Closed in January of 2006 because of an avalanche that took the lives of 3 Americans and 5 to 6 porters/guides, the Western Breach will no longer challenge any trekkers for the foreseeable future. I can only be thankful that the mountain gave my son and I safe passage through its potential dangers safely.