In June of 2011 I completed a 10 Day mountaineering course with mountain guides Matt Hegeman and Brent Langlinais.  We completed 6 days of mountaineering training and a summit of Mt. Baker before continuing on to successfully summit Mt. Rainier via the challenging Kautz Route.

After returning from a trip on Denali in 2014, I learned of the tragic news that my former Rainier guide, Matt Hegeman and 5 more climbers had died in an avalanche on the Liberty Ridge of Rainier.  My prayers are with the Hegeman family after the terrible incident.  Matt was a phenomenal guide who taught me how to safely climb on my first mountaineering experience.  I was personally roped up with him for the entirety of the ten-day trip, and thanks to him, I had a wonderful experience and a successful summit.

I have compiled 5 valuable lessons Matt taught me about mountaineering.

1. Lower your ski pole

“Keep your arms low below your heart and your hands will stay warmer” – Matt-  Before we took our first step onto Mt. Baker, Matt shared with us this brilliant little tip.  Three years later and I still walk with some of the shortest poles on the team.  This tip has kept my hands warm and frostbite free.  Matt was detail oriented and full of simple tips that actually make a huge difference.

2. A good mountaineer…looks good doing it

“There is a reason you don’t see pictures of Ed Viesturs climbing with gear hanging all over the place.” -Matt- Keeping a tightly packed bag and well-organized gear seems like a no brainer, but Matt’s acute eye for perfection taught me that good looks can be functional as well.  Sticking to this rule has, many times, saved me from losing a critical piece of gear.

3. Laugh a little, climbing should be fun

“Who needs hair gel? If you don’t use shampoo it just works itself out” -Matt- Matt took climbing extremely seriously but he never took himself seriously.  He always knew how to inject humor into the conversation and keep the team laughing.

4. There is always time to do it right the first time

“Mental fortitude trumps fitness ninety percent of the time” -Matt- Hegeman was an intensely philosophical climber who always showed us the most technically accurate method of mountaineering.  As a new climber I was greatly impressed by his greater focus on keeping your mind sharp and letting your training take care of the rest.

5. Safely returning home is the only goal that truly matters

“Most people can tell when it is time to turn around, but if not I will tell them.” – Matt- Matt loved to climb but knew the importance of doing so safely.  He taught me that it is OK to turn back from the summit, it will still be there tomorrow.  A hard lesson that he instilled in me from the start.

 

“He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord God Almighty is his name.”

-Amos 4:13-

Yesterday afternoon we arrived safe and sound back at our chalet in Chamonix.  We were blessed with beautiful weather and a successful summit!  The climb was more challenging than either of us had expected, but the experience and views were incredible.

Day 1 –

We woke to a delicious french breakfast at the chalet and were on our way by 8am.  We meticulously packed our bags the night before and were carrying 40lbs of gear each.  Chamonix has an excellent free bus system and we were on the first morning bus to the base of our gondola.  The Prarion gondola took us a short walk from the Col de Voza train station.  The plan was to then take the train to the base of Mt. Blanc at Nid D’Aigle.  We knew we were in luck when the train was at the station as we walked up.  We patiently waited in the ticket line as a women argued with the ticket attendant.  Before we knew it the train was closing it’s doors and taking off before we had gotten our tickets.  In a panic we tried to ask them to let us on and through the language barrier we somehow boarded seconds before the train was on its way.  Phew, what a relief it was to have just made it!  As the train began to roll away from the station something unexpected happened.  We were slowly pulling away from the station…downhill.  Instantly, Taylor and I looked at one another and our hearts sank.  We had taken the train in the wrong direction.

 

 

The train downhill would take us away from the mountain and delay the start of our climb for another two hours.  We knew this would make it nearly impossible to make it to our hut for the evening without traversing the most treacherous rock fall during the most dangerous afternoon sun.  We began discussing our options.

1. Get a taxi at the base of the train back to the Chalet and try again tomorrow
2. Take the next train back up, but shorten our day’s climb to stay at the lower Tete Rousse. This would require us to sleep in our bags in the snow, since we had neither reservations nor a tent.
3. Take the next train up, but continue on with the original plan, placing us at the Refuge du Gouter at late evening.  This would require us to cross the precarious rock fall during the heat of the afternoon when the boulders begin to loosen in the noonday sun.

None of these options seemed very appealing.  As I am sitting, bemoaning the situation that my lack of French fluency has caused, the train stops on the tracks alongside an uphill train.  Taylor ran over to the conductor to negotiate our escape.  Before I knew it we were hopping trains and headed in the right direction.  It was a huge relief to be going the right direction.  One look around the train and we knew we were in the right place.  Ice axes, crampons, backpacks, and beards.  This was far more suitable company than the baby and flip-flop wearing mother we had been sharing a ride with moments before.

For two weeks prior to our arrival there had been an accumulation of snow preventing the train from reaching Nid D’Aigle.  We arrived on one of the first trains since they had cleared the snow from the tracks.  By 11am we are strapping on our crampons and beginning our ascent of the tallest mountain in the Alps.  The sky was clear and the weather was warm.  Almost too warm.  After hours of climbing in the snow, the sun takes a toll on your body.  We ascended nearly 3000 vertical feet in four hours arriving at the Refuge de Tete Rousse (10,390ft) at 3:30pm.

 

 

We had reservations in the Refuge du Gouter (12,582ft) but to continue on would require crossing the aforementioned rock fall during the worst time of the day.  We met two climbers in the hut who are desperately trying to get to the Gouter that evening but do not have reservations.  One had an injured leg and they believed if they had any chance to summit they were going to have to get higher that day.  We agreed to swap reservations and stayed the night at the Tete Rousse hut.  In preparation for the summit bid in the morning, we cleared our bags of any excess gear and stowed it away until our return.  We did our best to sleep at altitude in a spartan bunk bed, crammed in a room with 12 snoring dutchmen.

Day 2 –

After a few hours of what I guess you could call sleep, we arose to prepare for our summit bid at 12:30am.  After a bit of coffee and bread we rope up and begin the ascent in complete darkness.  With nothing but the light of our headlamps we approach the Grand Couloir.  There is a fixed cable spanning the couloir for safety.  We tied into the cable and traversed the couloir, crossing through a gully in the middle that has been washed out by avalanche and rock fall.  Safely to the far side, we prepared a short rope for the 1,500ft rock scramble ahead of us.  The steep rock face was covered in ice so we moved slowly and deliberately.  Many of the rocks were loose and we had heard stories of men being crushed by falling rocks in this area.  Fortunately the cold of the night was helping to freeze much of the rock into place.  It was a clear night and you could see all of the way down to the lights of Chamonix, 10,000ft below.  The sun began to rise as we arrived at the Refuge du Gouter at 7am.

 

 

Safely through the rock fall, we knew that the worst section was now behind us.  We took a brief rest at the hut before continuing on toward the summit.  From the Gouter hut the tallest peak in sight is the Dome du Gouter.  It’s height is deceptive, though as we soon discovered.  By 9:30 we crested the top of the dome only to discover the challenge that still lied ahead of us.  It would be another 2,000ft of climbing to the summit.  A few Gu packets later and we are feeling up to the challenge.

 

 

By now we were above 14,000ft and the effects of altitude were undeniable.  One climber was delirious and falling down every few steps as his guide tried to drag him down to the Gouter hut.  We were blessed to have had an easier nights rest at a lower elevation before pushing on toward the summit.  From the Dome you must traverse a long, icy plateau until you arrive at a series of spines leading up to the summit.  The climb to the summit is very steep and we had to kick foot platforms every step of the way.  For every ridge that we peaked we would find another just beyond it.  This series of false summits only seemed to make this marathon of a day last even longer.  By early afternoon we made our way onto the summit ridge and finally knew that our dream would become a reality.  The summit ridge is a beautiful knife point ridge with thousands of feet of drop on either side.  A short 30 minute climb along the ridge and we arrived at the summit of Mt. Blanc (15,782ft).

After celebrating and dropping our packs, we took in the view from western Europe’s tallest peak.  It was a bluebird day on the summit and we could see all of Italy, as well as Chamonix, and the picturesque Aiguille du Midi.  We arrived at 2pm and had the entire summit to ourselves.  Shortly after, two americans joined us on the summit and shared in our celebration.  They were fellow members of the climbing party who we had exchanged places with on Day 1.  One of them was so tired he literally fell asleep on the summit.  We woke him up to take some pictures and get down before the altitude took its toll.

 

 

We descended from the summit retracing our steps back to the Gouter hut to finally get some rest.  15 hours after we began our summit bid, we arrived safely at the Refuge du Gouter.  Many climbers did not have reservations and were told they either had to climb back down the entire mountain or pay 100 euros to sleep on a bench in the changing room.  We had reservations in advance and were quite happy to have a warm dinner and bunk bed.  We were too exhausted to eat much food and were asleep by 7pm.

Day 3 –

We missed our 6am wakeup alarm because Taylor’s phone battery had died.  My camera battery went out on the summit, and his GoPro battery only lasted a few hours past that.  In this case, the battery problem was a welcome excuse to sleep a full 12 hours.  Even at 13,000ft we slept great.  We roped up and headed down the rocks toward Tete Rousse.  Once again we had to contend with loose rocks and steep, icy terrain.  On the way down we passed a climber heading up whose hand had been broken by a falling rock.  We kept our helmets on tight and our ears alert to avoid the same fate.

Near the end of the rock descent I heard a french voice shout “STOP! STOP!”  Taylor and I look back to see that two climbers have accidentally shifted a huge rock loose and it is dangling precariously on the slope above our heads.  As soon as we realize what has happened, we ran as fast as we could to the side of the trail and ducked for cover behind a boulder.  The Frenchman was holding the rock from falling but was struggling a great deal.  The rock was roughly the size of Grandma’s 32″ tube television.  The weight was too much for him to hold back and it seemed he was ready to let it go but we were fearful it could take a bad bounce and head our direction.  After pleading with him to leave it be he managed to lean it safely on its side.  Still shaken up by the incident we picked up our pace to get out of the rock fall.  By the time we made it to the Grand Couloir, we decided to run across rather than spend 20 minutes clipping in to the cable.  We made it across in about 20 seconds.  From that point on we were on (relatively) safe terrain and home free.

Once down, we hopped a short train, gondola, then bus and we were home at our chalet once again.  On return I enjoyed running water, showers, and a fresh meal.  Things we take for granted until we don’t have them anymore.  We are sharing the chalet with a team of guided climbers.  They have 2 guides and a 9 day itinerary planned for climbing Mt. Blanc.  They were quite astonished when we returned to the chalet two days later having successfully completed the summit.  They said, “You are heroes! You must have had a lot of mountaineering experience!”  I smirked, pointing to Taylor, and replied, “Actually, this was his first mountain ever.”  Taylor’s laugh said it all.

Next –

We were blessed to have had such perfect weather.  Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us along the way.  We felt strong on the mountain and are now preparing for Mt. Elbrus.  Mt. Elbrus is the tallest mountain in Europe standing at 18,510ft.  Although the elevation is quite a bit higher, the base camp is also higher.  Our total elevation gain during ascent will be less on Elbrus than on summit day of Mt. Blanc in which we climbed nearly 6,000ft in a single day.  The biggest variable on Elbrus will be the weather.  We will be in the remote Caucasus region of Russia near the border of Georgia.  I’m not counting on having internet access so it may be a week before we post again.

God Bless! -Parker and Taylor

P.S. Happy Birthday Sam! Love Uncle Parker.