TR: "I Seize Cause Im so Good Looking"
"I Seize Cause Im so Good Looking"
...That pretty much sums up the vibe of this trip. But let me back up a moment.
(Location: Mt. Washington, NH)
This trip started off simple enough. Head up wednesday nite and skin up to the shelters. Ski Thursday and half of friday. Celebrate Affix birfday with mass quantities of box wine. Friday afternoon we'd head down, repack and skin up into Gulf of Slides to shred the Gnar on Saturday and sunday. Well, if you you know anything about you'd know that knowing anything about anything is anyting but....where was i going with this?.....ummm.......yeah. thats not what happened.
Anyhoo, the first change in plans occured on the way up. New snow. LOTS predicted. Mainwaring, Ispoiler, and Affix made pretty good time from Dirty Jerz up to about Lowell, Mass. Thats when it started to snow. The further north we went, the more the snow, the slower the driving. By the time we hit 16, it was full on winter and it took us about 2 hours to get to North Conway. We rolled into the Intervale Motel around 1:30am as we were all beat like a red-headed step child.
Mainwaring and Ispoiler
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We awoke early to about a foot of fresh in N. Conway. New snow on me Birfday! Yah B!tches! So after some dancing and hugs, we geared up and headed up to Pinkham. At least 14-16" there. More dancing and hugs. While packing up, we met two nice gentlemen that interviewed the three of us for some TV show broadcast in VT and NH. They were doing a special on the snow rangers. So we got that going for us. Mainwaring is now famous.
Moving on. We had actually traveled back in time a few moths to February, as it did NOT look like April 5th. Once we adjusted to the time travel and turned off the Flux Capaciter, we skinned up the TR trail. Beautiful coverage. Not a rock in sight, and Ispoiler fell within the 1st 5 minutes on the trail. Lesson: Dont lean back with a 60 lb. pack on going downhill....even if it is the little hill before the 1st bridge.
Took our time going up. Hit the Shelters by 1. Ispoiler and Baker set up his new Bibler I-tent and Mainwaring and I piled into Shelter 6. After some lunch and a few more hugs, Mainwaring and I decided to head up to the base of Hillmans and dig a pit. (Most of Hillmans had natural sloughs release) Ispoiler wanted to hike up to the base of the ravine. We'd rendevous later for dinner and Box Wine.
Ispoiler picking himself up...
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Affix Feet....
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Maiwaring
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Affix
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As we skinned up to Hillmans, clouds rolled in and it was snowing pretty hard...a wierd "Graupel" type snow. There was a ton of new snow on hillmans so we took it very cautiously and went from safe zone to safe zone. And this is where it gets interesting.....Upon switching from skins to bootpack and catching up up to Mainwaring, he informed me he wasnt feeling well. "Not feeling well HOW?" i said? "Not feeling well, SEIZURE." You see, Mainwaring can get seizures. Not often. They are very rare. As a good BC partner Mainwaring had kept me informed. I had been aware of this and we had talked about the symtoms and proper protocol if it ever happened. Well, it was happening.
1st thing is 1st. "Can you get down?" Mainwaring said yes and i stuck close. As he skied by me he told me to "Keep your head on a swivel!", a joke from our favorite movie Anchorman. So im thinking he will be fine. We take off and I breifly forgot about our situation. Blower powder turns on ones birthday in April can make ya do that. Godamn were those turns sweet. Fulll on white room. Moving on. We got down onto the sherbie past the rescue cache. Mainwaring had started to lag a bit. I pushed him to make it to the bridge across from Hojos. As he made it to the bridge, he was noticibly not himself. He could not talk and my god his eyes were red. He pointed down the sherbie and iI immediately grabbed his ski poles and popped him out of his skis. Upon doing this he collapsed in my arms and it was now getting VERY real. I laid him down on his side and started hugging him. These werent the good hugs shared before. These were the "Oh my god he is convulsing and foaming at the mouth I need to keep him from seizing himself into the Cutler!' type of hugs. I started to shout for help as he was making seizure angels in the snow. Luckily I knew this was "Normal" and right on cue he fell asleep and started snoring. This is when i ran.
Knowing he was somewhat safe but not out of the woods yet, I took of running. Running in Ski boots at full speed in 16" of new snow if hard. Luckily my F1's are wicked light. This surely helped the situation:rolleyes:. 1st i ran to the Caretakers, but he was not in. I told a gentelman on the deck what was up and he ran down to Mainwaring. I then ran to the Rangers cabin, but no one was in. This was quickly starting to get worse. Then it was off to the leantos. Luckily Ispoiler was just packing up to leave. Thank God i caught him. We ran down to Mainwaring, who was now awake, and immediately put him in a puffy. We took off his pack and Ispoiler and I carried him back to the shelter. A few others had arrived and helped us get him into the shelter, get his boots off and and get him into his sleeping bag. Then Mainwaring asked, "Can you get me down?" Sure thing. I ran for the sheby and grabbed my board.
This was the worst best run ive ever had on the Sherburne. TOn of new snow. Maybe 5 people down it before me. My friend just had a seizure. Im going 1000 miles and hour turning only to take corners and waterbars. Not stopping once, I got the the base in about 10 minutes....maybe less. I had no time to check my watch. Once i reached the bridge, i sprinted to the visitors center. Upon barging into the front desk, i was greeted by Michael and was told the Caretaker had just called down. I must have missed him by about 10 minutes. the Snow ranger was called and he was on his way. Mainwaring was talking, but very out of it. i spoke with Chris, the Ranger, and he headed up on the snowmobile.
Now the worst part. WAITING. I knew Maiwaring was gonna be ok. But now what was I supposed to do? I just had to wait. Luckily Michael at the front desk kept me company. Very nice guy. I filled out some reports and had a brownie. I was informed they would be down around 5. I went and drove my car over to the Rangers garage thinngy and waited some more. I repacked the car and paced. The ambulence showed up and i chatted with them and gave htme all the info i knew. Finally the snowmobile came into earshot and fijally into view. Mainwaring was sitting on the back and our gear was in the sled. He was smiling like Rosie O'Donnel looking at a Christmas ham. Upon getting off the sled he commented on how warm my Donw bootie's were. So he was ok. :) We got him in the ambulence and he was taken off to the hospital in N. Conway.
I chatted with Chriss Joosen some more and was informed Ispoiler was packing up and heading down. Again, i was left to wait. I completely repacked the car again and hung out with Michael some more. Ispoiler FINALLY got down adn we high-tailed it to the hospital where we found Mainwaring hanging out in the waiting room with his helmet on....like the special kid he is...:D 5 minutes later we were at the Moat pounding beers. That was a long and stressful day, but it was comforting knowing we got our friend out and he was smiling and laughing at Ispoiler's bad jokes. :beer: We grabbed a Hotel room and hit the sack ehausted.
to be continued.....
