The Sacred Rope Team

After spending a few years in the outdoors community in Vancouver I had managed to meet some people with the skills, and a few of them were even the sorts that met my “personality and character” requirements. I don’t actually recall any longer what brought the subject up, but it turned out that there were a few of us who were willing to commit to the cost, planning effort and timing of a trip to Mt Logan. My rough idea of a team for the trip would be no fewer than three people and no more than six people. From my perspective (and there are definitely alternate views), the optimum arrangement would be four people climbing together as two pairs on two ropes. For me this gives the maximum in versatility and safety with acceptable load divisions of equipment, and minimal difficulties with group and individual plans and desires.
It turned out that I got my desires on this front and we were a group of four: The characters were Myself, Marcus Dell, Ian Hopper and Russell March – all well experienced outdoors and mountaineering people.

There is something very hallowed about a mountaineering rope team. On an expedition like this, each climber thinks very carefully about who they would be willing to climb with. As I mentioned above, a climbers life is absolutely dependent on the skills of the person on the other end of their rope. It is also critical that the members of a rope team can communicate easily and clearly – even when there is minimal or no “communication” as most people think of it. – It is often the case in mountaineering that high winds, low visibility, and difficult terrain conspire such that one climber is completely out of touch with the guy on the other end of the rope and communication by sight and sound are all but impossible. In these cases the climbing still goes on, and it often comes down to interpreting a vague tug on the rope or a slack line, or an almost inaudible shout as a significant message from the other climber. Misinterpreting these subtle hints can be very dangerous and you need to feel a “gestalt” with your rope team if you are to be able to climb and survive in these conditions. Likewise, as mentioned above, you are just as likely to have to spend many days and nights in very close quarters and terrible conditions with these same people and you had better be comfortable dealing with their personalities (not to mention their habits and bodily functions) at close quarters for long periods without relent!

My preferred rope partner was Marcus Dell. I had known him for years and done numerous trips in the back country around Vancouver with him (skiing, climbing, mountaineering, hiking etc.) There was no question in my mind that he was the right sort of person for this trip. Ian and Rus, I had met before and done one or two trips with in the past. They were both clearly strong and capable climbers I had no doubt, but I just didn’t know much about their personalities. It turned out though that this was not an issue since the two climbing pairs seemed to automatically sort themselves out the way I would have chosen it :)