13
Nov
inReach message from Robert Danger Byrd
I now stand with my new friend Blaine Yates on the 14,505′ summit of Mt Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states.
I now stand with my new friend Blaine Yates on the 14,505′ summit of Mt Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states.
We wound our way through the ridge along some very dicey stuff with lots of exposure & little margin for error. Not blogging much, need to stay very focused
We just left Whitney Trail for the awesome 210 mile John Muir which I hope to hike end to end at some point. Read about the JMT here goo.gl/yBFrbK
Just crossed some steep exposed ice. Made it safely across. Hard work here, but all is well.
We are geared up and moving out now, headed for summit. It’s a cold clear beautiful day in the mountains. A good day to be alive.
Whitney is very steep climbing. We were exhausted last night after 10 hours & dined on 14deg pizza to avoid cooking. Melting snow for water now & gearing up
It was a big day with and we are now in our bags to sleep. Blaine is a strong climber.. View coming up was spectacular. We have a very uneven camp site.
Just completed our first shortcut & yes, it was a bad idea. 18 deg, dark and we have another 600′ to high camp. Excepting shortcut, trail is in great shape!
Took our first break at 2hrs. Moving out and just encountered our first snow, but its well packed and icy, no issue for our micro spikes 42 Deg, Perfect Day!
We are leaving the trailhead now & have 4,000′ of climbing before we reach high camp. Weather demands a lot of heavy gear, so it’s going to be a long day.
The allure of big breakfast & warm bed, won out over benefits of sleeping a few thousand feet higher. We have our gear locked and are driving to trailhead.
We had some excitement on the return trip which I blogged about in the Return Trip Challenges post. However the repairs held and we made it back home from New Mexico without further mechanical issues. The climb was a hard won success, and I just barely managed to carve another notch in my ice axe. The Wheeler Peak trip report is posted in its entirety right here.
To view a sortable table of all of the highpoints with completion dates, trip reports, photo galleries, blog entries an GPS tracks, visit the US State Highpoint Progress Page.
Wheeler Peak Trip Report
On Wednesday, October 28th of 2015, after fighting my way up steep slopes through deep snow, I fought to stand in 60+ MPH winds atop the 13,161′ summit of Wheeler Peak the highest mountain in New Mexico.
This highpoint trip was taken in “BigByrd” our 41′ motor coach and it was #40 out of the 50 states for me.
Highpoint Statistics:
Summit Date: Wednesday, October 28th of 2015
State: New Mexico
Elevation: 13,161′
US Rank by Height: 8th
Round Trip Hiking Distance: 8 Miles
Round Trip Hiking Time: 13 Hours
Highpoint Links:
Photo Gallery
Posts
Trip Report
GPS Track
We only made it as far as Las Vegas, New Mexico today, as we were presented with some interesting challenges.
Snowstorm!
First, we got caught in a snowstorm driving through the already treacherous mountain roads between Taos and Las Vegas, NM. The conditions were icy and visibility was low, and the tight curves and ups and downs didn’t help. The 32,000 pound coach was sliding a bit, and at one point a Subaru wagon slid over into our lane missing us by inches. We would have liked to pull over and wait it out, but there was no safe place to stop on the narrow mountain roads, so we took it very slowly and made it down the other side where the snow turned to rain.
The icy mountain roads were quite challenging
Air Suspension Malfunction
As we approached Las Vegas, the air suspension began to lose pressure so we pulled into a high school football stadium so I could crawl under the coach and investigate. As I crawled around under the coach freezing rain washed under the coach drenching me from head to toe, but I could not find the problem. We decided to head to a nearby campground to get some rest and deal with the problem tomorrow. We attempted to leave the parking lot, but the suspension had continued to dump and the fiberglass nose hit the ground so I could not move forward without causing serious damage to the coach. And now the coach was so low, I could not back up on account of a monster speed bump behind us. So we were stuck in the entrance to the football stadium with a game starting. Needless to say, we were not very popular.
A bridge to freedom
As a hail mary, I decided to try using our jack pads to build a bridge through the low spot, and low and behold it worked!
Clearing the ground by centimeters
So we were out of the parking lot, but were only able to drive a few hundred feet before we lost all air. In big coach like this the brakes lock up with powerful springs and are released with air pressure just like a semi truck, so without air pressure the brakes lock up. Now we are sitting on the side of the road unable to move, meanwhile the annoyed football fans are honking at us for inconveniencing them.
Air System, Smair System
It is a very complex air system that manages the suspension as well as brakes and has a complete backup system for redundancy. I was not sure how to troubleshoot the system as I’ve never had to monkey with it. I did have the service manual scanned so I changed into some dry clothes and sat down on the sofa to try and figure out what to do next. Feeling like I had a slightly better understanding, I took the Jeep, bought a creeper (much nicer than crawling on wet pavement), and went back under the coach looking for a damaged line, or something obvious, but could find nothing.
Sears to the rescue
The system was simply not replenishing the air supply as it typically does, so I threw another hail mary. This time, I picked up a Sears Craftsman compressor, spliced it into the system, and fired it up. It took a long time, but eventually the air pressure came back up allowing us to limp to a nearby campground.
Yes Dear, I totally have it under control
I was really feeling out of my depth and not sure what to do,but Susan was not worried at all. She really thought I had everything under control and I didn’t want to tell her otherwise, but I was sweating bullets. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was the prayer, but I was quite relieved to see those air gauges come to life.
My plan is to install the Sears compressor in the basement tomorrow to keep the air system pressure up, and hopefully that will get us back to Texas.
I laughed when Susan shared this story with me, so I encouraged her to write her first Danger blog post.
from Susan’s vantage point
As I strode into the Stray Dog Cantina, the proprietor yelled “Keep it clean, boys; there’s a lady in the house.” The only others in the cantina were nine burly men lined up at the bar, trading salty tails of mountain bravado. I took a table as far in the back as the tiny bar allowed. The proprietor walked up to me saying, “Sorry for the crowd, but it’s all I’ve got.” I ordered their only red and felt so conspicuous, I was compelled to explain that I was meeting my husband soon, as he was descending from the summit of Wheeler Peak. To which he said, “I hope he’s alright, because those three guys getting sloshed at the end of the bar are the mountain rescue team.” This was not particularly reassuring, and overhearing their slurred conversation that went something like this didn’t help:
“A local gets killed up here and nobody gives a @*#!……but let an outsider die and we never here the @*#! end of it…….and if a kid bites it, all hell breaks loose…those @#$@*%# reporters! They really rake us over the @#$@*%# coals.”
Maybe I should have waited in the Jeep, but the freezing weather drove me inside. Hoping Robert was close, I nervously refreshed my “where in the world is danger?” iPad app.
Susan & Robert at the difficult to reach Wheeler Peak Trailhead
This was my second trip up the steep winding road to the mountain. In the dark of morning, I drove Robert towards the trail. Finding several roads closed, we jogged back and forth to gain access to the trailhead. Finally, we made it to a steep, snow covered trail just wide enough for the Jeep. I put on my brave face, locked in the 4 wheel drive and forced the Jeep up the icy terrain until the trail narrowed to a horse’s width. I said a prayer, kissed my husband good bye, and promised I’d be on the other side of the mountain by nightfall, awaiting his return.
49 Years ago today, Brenda Joyce Byrd gave birth to a screaming 10 pound 11 ounce baby boy and named him Robert Lynn Byrd.
Danger sitting on the Hoosier Hill Rock
Robert grew up, (mostly) and a lot of other stuff happened that isn’t really important to this story or particularly interesting for that matter.
So in 2010 after Rick Crapshoot Overholt invited him to Climb Borah Peak the highest point in Idaho he was captivated. At age 45 he changed his name to Robert Danger Byrd and committed to walk, climb or crawl to the highest point in every state in America by age 50.
So 49 years and 40 states under his belt, the 50 by 50 goal is within reach with 1 year and 10 states remaining.
OK, that’s enough third person, it’s starting to get a little weird.
Your Invitation to the 50 by 50 Celebration
I intend to complete the goal by standing on the summit Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, at sunrise on my 50th birthday. And, I would like you to join me.
Guadalupe Peak is a 8.4 mile round trip non technical hike with a 3,015′ elevation gain; so anyone who is reasonably fit can climb it.
The trailhead is located at Pine Springs Campground. We will bring our motor coach and establish base camp. Some folks would ascend with me and some would stay behind. After the summit, we would descend and celebrate.
So if you would be interested in participating in this celebration, let me know so we can start planning.
Mission accomplished! I’m really hating snow right now.
Access road was restricted so there was no Jeep, not even a little blue truck waiting for me. So now I’m hiking last 2 miles down now to meet Susan
Either Jesus granted me the ability to walk on snow, or its re-freezing. NO POST HOLING for last hour. I was about ready to build a snow cave back
there.
Sunset was breathtaking, but now it’s dark, I have 3.5 miles to go & I’m still post holing. I do have a lamp. Yes I took a shortcut back there, what of it.
I’m going to hike straight to the ranger station and choke the ranger who insisted I didn’t need snowshoes. It’s only 32 miles further, but it’s on PAVEMENT!
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