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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Welcome John Wittmayer! What's new?
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Living in the Slocan Valley....still roaming the mountains...loving life!
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Ah, the wind blows out of the past...
Hi John. It must be twenty-five years since we last saw one another. I think of you often and it's good to hear you're alive and well. I hope you'll find this place to your liking and that you'll share some stories.
David Harris
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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No, not me..although I have had pretty strange haircuts in my life.
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Hey David!
Yo, long time. If you make it out to the Kootenays look me up.
My backyard is the Vahallas, and Selkirks and Purcells just around the corner. I am a little feeble, but still fit enough to climb and in my mind and heart, never quit. Mostly though, I just potter around in the garden and smile at all the hippy girls...
Cheers,
John
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matisse
climber
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Hi John,
you have many old friends here.I sent you an email.
Sue
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Rumors of my recent near death experience are generally inaccurate.
IT WAS WAY WORSE THAN YOU PROBABLY HEARD!
But I'm not dead yet!
Hi John Wittmeyer,
Sounds like you're not dead yet either and living near Slocan City. That's trout country!
Fond remembrances of Rice a Roni dinner and freezing our asses off with Serl on Slesse over thirty years ago now.
Hope you're well.
PB
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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John had his tumble on Chogolisa in the summer of 1980. I visited him at VGH after he got back. He was undergoing various treatments, and on the usual drugs. As it was berry season, I made John some blueberry muffins. (Fresh home made food always good in hospital.) He seemed a bit disappointed that they hadn't been 'enhanced', although that would have been out of character for me, plus maybe not medically wise.
John may not remember my visit - drugs do that to you. Several times I've visited people in hospital, who later can't remember a thing.
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Just sent this to JB, but thought I'd repeat it here too...
It was basically....falling and bouncing 3,000 feet down a 55 degree mixed SW face (my belayer un-clipped from his anchor during a storm without telling me, screaming winds making it impossible to hear each other), buried under three avalanches, rescued by a Japanese team who also suffered avalanches and general terror during the same storm, carried out over some of the roughest terrain/icefalls/raging river gorges on earth for 10 days on the backs of 5 foot tall porters, who were likely stoned on poppy glue the whole time, who obviously didn't want to be bothered with a beat up infidel, who then stole everything I had, in agony with my knee blown up like a basketball, severe infection setting in the lower down the mountain we got, and the tibia popping out from the side of my leg,yuk, hand broken in two places, probably the onset stages of cerebral and pulmonary edema, and general shock----builds character, yo. Yes, I was pumped up with a variety of drugs for 7 weeks while in VGH, so that part is a little hazy, ha ha. Unfortunately, my body took two to three years to heal and I never recovered my climbing ability--or really got back the mental toughness one requires to get up big mountains and hard routes...a kind of post-trauma shell shock I suppose...nevertheless, I still climb and hike these days..a little skiing, and still love the mountains and always will. Life throws you curve balls and that was a crazy ass, life altering experience my friends. Most of you've been there, had outrageous experiences, and others I know, so no point preaching this. Humbling to be sure...Like the site and the memories folks...
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Hey Tami!
...you and Peter raised the bar for all of us...I can only remember watching in awe as you guys shimmied up stuff in Squamish and made it look so easy. Plus, you were incredibly cute! I mostly viewed Squamish rock as training for mountain trips, but I was always impressed with the wave of younger local climbers who were so skilled and left us in their dust...
Cheers,
JW
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Hi PB, how about standing in 6 inches of water in your flooded Burnaby basement with our guitar amps plugged in, jamming? Ha ha...now that's what I call death defying....
Ya, Slesse was a good one...didn't Serl dig a 30' foot tunnel through the snow and top out on the ridge while we watched, glad it wasn't us leading the damn thing? He was always the sharp end of the rope and willing to try anything...then that huge traverse to get off the mountain, all night climbing stuff you could really see..
Last time I saw you was when you were working in a logging camp up Butte Inlet. Serl and I were doing yet another bushwhack into Wadd, or I was tree planting, I can't remember why I was there. I remember looking up and seeing this huge dark shape in the twilight...the face Mt Butte...and I said to you, why don't you climb that thing...
Cheers,
JW
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Hi GF,
Hickson was this scary 5,000 foot ice choked couloir...it went on forever it seemed. Being in it was like playing pinball with the Gods..freaking rocks shooting down it constantly, bouncing off the walls and generally being impossible to predict where they were coming from and where they were going as they whizzed by our heads. I think Dave Jones was with us on that trip...and get this..he had never iced climbed before..hee hee..so we kinda gave Dave an ice climbing clinic while on route up the thing. He learned quickly..As usual, Serl led the hard stuff, but I had my hero moments too...huge run outs on crappy ice...no protection...but you just climbed on and on and on...and hoped for the best, head down ducking the bullets raining down. I loved the Waddington area...it was the real thing. Serl and I tried a new route up a spur ridge on Wadd, but I broke a crampon in pieces, and staring up at the thing realized I would be hopping on one foot, dragging the other along, for countless pitches, and chickened out. I wish I didn't though, and I know Don was disappointed...he probably wanted me to tie the pieces together with dental floss and stay with it...oh well, it would have been nice for posterity, but we reluctantly turned back, looking over our shoulders wistfully at the summit, so close, and so so far away...
Tiedemann was simply nuts..the thing was way way bigger than it seems...really foreshortened..and we got caught in a nasty storm...all took falls...saving each other in turn...and one funny moment when we were on our way down after topping out was when we were looking for a previous bivy site dug into a bergschrund...poking about...lost on the enormous face..and I plunged through a hole and landed up in my cached sleeping bag..and I promptly made a pot of tea...we sat there all night..eyes big as dinner plates...raging storm outside...thinking, oh boy..this is definitely big time mountaineering, yo! We definitely chewed off on something we didn't have years of experience for..but, we had lots of heart...and were fearless in a novice sort of way...
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Hey Bruce Kay,
We probably did meet, likely at the Coop where I worked off and on in the 70's...
North Face of Mt Clarke was awesome, one of the sweetest climbs on excellent rock...it was so freakin' long though, went on and on...I remember we ran out of water on it and I risked slurping from an evil looking and tasting shallow pond in the hollow of a rock halfway up. Couldn't help it, we were parched. Don and I made a few trips up to the Chehalis Range...it's definitely worth the slog in. I regret that I didn't climb the Tuning Fork with DS though...we drooled at it from various summits, but ran out of time or courage or both on those trips...though Don got the job done finally...one time we were on the way up, the usual bushwhack, when we stopped and sat down for a break. I noticed that the rope appeared to be missing...didn't you bring it? No, I thought you did! No rope, sitting on a clump of Devils Club, swarming mosquitoes, began to pour....welcome to the Coast Range bud!
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Bin Dur
Sport climber
BC
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Jun 10, 2011 - 12:26am PT
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Ya John!
When I started out I was a library geek - reading everything about climbing - and you and Don were my heros for sure!
Dean
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 10, 2011 - 01:27am PT
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A thread on adventures in the Chehalis has considerable promise. A good place for serious alpine adventures, and barely 100 km from Vancouver.
And one on the Waddington area would be awesome.
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Chief
climber
The NW edge of The Hudson Bay
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Jun 10, 2011 - 01:42am PT
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OK Mighty, agreed, we could use a Chehalis thread, you start it.
Anyone who's been to the SW Coast's "Bugs" will probably agree and post up.
I've got few pictures but some good stories.
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bmacd
Social climber
100% Canadian
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Jun 10, 2011 - 02:01am PT
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Jun 10, 2011 - 10:15pm PT
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Holy pots and pans! Hahahah! Peder!...priceless...
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johnwitt
Mountain climber
winlaw
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Jun 11, 2011 - 03:08pm PT
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Yep, the whole glacier tech thing was a scam...this so-called Hydrologist lifer from Ottawa was running data for BC Hydro every summer to see where they could build future dams in the Province, drilling ice cores, checking snow pack, melt, etc. What it was really, was a lame excuse to fly around in a helicopter to amazing areas, drink and eat steaks on taxpayer dollars. We weren't complaining...but the "data" we collected comprised of years of averages on ticker tape receipts stuffed in green garbage bags...no one actually took it seriously..and one time we got the green bags we carried out mixed up with the green garbage bags we also carried out and dumped in a Whistler garbage bin. When we realized our mistake, we spent the night rummaging around in the garbage bin with competing bears looking for the errant green bags. There were a lot of green bags to go through, and the whole exercise was basically a panicky, stinky mess. So, the end of the story is that Peder and I are the ones to blame for the current climate change disaster....
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Jun 11, 2011 - 03:37pm PT
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I think access to a power boat on Garibaldi Lake was also part of that project. Sure made access to peaks at the east end of the lake a lot more pleasant.
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