How to Get Started as a Climber

Let's see.

[laughs] Well, I'll just, uh, I'll, I'll just bring us down after all that stoke, you know? Like, uh, we always try to not do two sad stories, but, you know, I, I think this story, I mean, of course it's sad, but it's also, like, to me it's more, like, just always on this podcast wanting to share the, the realness of our, of our sports and, and what we do.

And, um, you know, what kind of caught my eye this week, we're, we're obviously in the middle of a season for climbing in the northern hemisphere, and we spend a lot of time talking about the Himalaya.

I'm not gonna talk about the Himalaya today, but I'm thinking, like, in our, in our, like, own country then and a bit more locally where we spend a lot of time.

So, like, you know, Europe, US, South America.

These are-- This is like a really, uh, South America, obviously Southern Hemisphere, but it's a big climbing season for us down there in, in Peru, um, and Bolivia through the summer.

And, uh, there's been a series of accidents on, on really famous, what I would call, like, trade route peaks, um, and trade routes.

In Europe on Mont Blanc, there were two fatalities, one guide, one client, um, on the normal, like, Gouter route on Mont Blanc.

Uh, they were climbing through the Death Couloir or the Bowling Alley, great names, which is an area of s- known rock fall that has regular accidents through the climbing season, um, and can get so bad where the governments actually shut down, uh, the climbing route for periods of time.

So two deaths there.

In Peru, Huascaran, the tallest peak in Peru, as a normal route, and there have been, uh, two separate accidents that killed four climbers.

Um, a porter down low in the ice fall, what's called the Garganta, while carrying a load up to I camp, with two others injured in that accident.

And then really sadly, a guide and two clients, a group of three close to the summit, it sounds like probably got lost in a whiteout, were probably out too late, got caught in a storm, and, uh, most likely fell into a crevasse.

Probably one didn't see it, pulled the other two in.

Um, and, and so they're still officially missing.

The-- But rescue crews have been looking for them for a number of days.

Um, and again, on a, on a normal route.

And then as we started recording today, reports are coming out of a rockfall accident on Mount Rainier.

I don't have too many details yet, but it sounds like probably non-guided climbers or group was affected by rockfall.

I think there was one fatality and possibly some other additional injuries on the normal route, the Disappointment Cleaver route on Rainier.

And so this for me, like, triggers a, a couple of different things.

One is mostly just, we've talked a lot about this, like these accidents are, quote-unquote, "normal." And normal not just for today, but over many years.

Like, lots of climbers climbing these normal routes.

Climbing is still dangerous.

Um, some of these easiest routes have very specific-- kinda like the ice fall on the south side of Mount Everest, like the Disappointment Cleaver is a dangerous route for rockfall.