Snake Dike Fiasco

Snake Dike Fiasco

September 23, 2018

The main F5 annual event this year was in Yosemite which meant I could easily get there, unlike the previous year in the Tetons which wasn’t financially feasible for me. The Level 5 activity was a Snake Dike climb, which I signed up for, imagining that we’d be climbing in pairs of competent partners. Over the next few months, the plan morphed into one lead climber in each group with multiple followers. To cut a long story short, what ended up happening was that there were 6 groups of 4, each with 1 leader and 3 followers. Some of the leaders weren’t even all that experienced outside. Many of the followers had never climbed outside, or only done casual single pitch cragging; many also weren’t experienced hikers. Everyone had been assured - even despite my informed, factual protests to the main organizer - that this climb would be very easy and way below our limit.

( Read More )