Loading…
30
Vent: got cliffed out above Lake Serene in October and now I build in bailout points
Two Octobers back my buddy and I tried to loop past Lake Serene in the Cascades and we hit a 40 foot wall of wet slab with no way down but back the way we came, which cost us 3 hours of daylight and a very quiet walk out. Some folks say that just means we should have studied the topo map better, that the route was always there on paper and we were sloppy. Others say no map tells you how slick the rock is after a week of rain, and bailing was the right call. My take is that route planning should include planned exit spots every few miles, not just a start point and a finish. Where do you all stand on bailout points, do you mark them ahead of time or just figure it out on trail?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
river35126d ago
Man, the "study the topo better" crowd drives me nuts. A map can't show you that the slab is running with water or that the downclimb holds are greased. Here's my real question though: when you mark these bailout points now, what counts as a bailout in your book? I'm talking about a spot where you can actually drop off the ridge and hit a trail or road, not just any old flat rock where you could hunker down and wait. Planning an exit every few miles sounds great until you're staring at a green patch on the map that turns out to be a brush nightmare with no trail under it. So do you scout those exits on the way in, or trust the map and hope the line goes?
3