Ice Fest '08

Last weekend, I ventured to Munising, Michigan for the 2nd Annual (for me, for Munising it was the 25th Annual) Ice Festival. The details of my adventures at last year's fest are here. Once again, Mark and Felicia (whose fascinating adventures of life on a boat can be found at Life Aboard Mazurka) loaded up Stella the amazing boat of a car with snow tires that can get through anything, and picked up me and Colleen for the adventure of the season. This year had a lot of the same sorts of fun- a bevy of somewhat healthy snacks balanced with stops for not so healthy food, fascinating conversations, lots of dudes in beanies, two very friendly guys named Ron, fun attempts at climbing, interesting presentations from extreme climber types, and lots of great people.

Here I am scaling at least 2 feet higher than last year.











One of the things that stuck with me after the weekend (aside from the flu. Thanks for the gift, baby Sophia!) was a presentation given by Stephen Koch. Stephen has snowboarded from the highest peak of every continent, except Everest. He attempted Everest but because of those pesky weather systems, wasn't able to get to the very top. He got pretty darn high though. Many years ago, I climbed to the top of Kilimanjaro that dorky way- where you have a porter and go up the boring 'ol trail. Having stood at the top of that big guy, I can NOT imagine, in a gagillion years, snowboarding down it. It's absolutely terrifying to think about. (Let's not get into the fact that I can't snowboard down a bunny hill.)

Stephen's detailed account of how he almost died in an avalanche in the Grand Tetons had me on the edge of my seat. Actually, I was laying on the floor about 7 feet from where Stephen was giving his presentation. I was tired from a long day of climbing hanging daggers. But, if I was on a seat, I would've been at the edge of it. I just don't even know where to begin with this story. He was alone. He was about 2/3 of the way up the mountain. His snowboard was on his back. Avalanche hits. He gets knocked over and is sliding down the mountain on his back- snowboarding. He's losing gear along the way. Little things, like his backpack. And an ice axe. But chill out folks, he still has one ice axe left. Tumbling occurs. He hears one of his legs do something very wrong. Now his leg is in an L shape. That's not supposed to happen. Still tumbling. Tumbling stops. He's relieved. Until he realizes he's in mid air, going over a cliff. Oh sweet Jesus. Hits the ground. Back does something that is not right. Bowling balls of snow and ice are still flying down the mountain so he had to get out of the way. He wrapped rope around his gimpy leg, and rigged up a way to get himself out of the way. His friends wouldn't be expecting him until late, so no one would look for him until morning. That meant he had to get through the night. With a completely gimpy leg, the other leg with a torn ACL, something broken in his back, and a few broken ribs. And virtually no gear. He sat crouched down, and breathed quickly, in and out, like a woman in labor, so he could keep his energy up. He did this ALL NIGHT. Thankfully a helicopter did come find him the next morning. And, after a ton of surgeries and rehab that year, he went back the next year. This time he took someone else and had more avalanche savvy about him. He made it to the top and snowboarded down.

I'm fascinated by the psychology of people that do stuff like this. In one way it seems so selfish and insane. But, on the other hand, it's nutty and he's putting his life in danger a lot, but it's his life. And maybe his extreme riskiness inspires others to take risks in their own lives. One person's snowboarding down Everest is another person's decision to run a 5k.

Here's Stephen snowboarding down Everest.











Maybe he's just crazy.