Snowboarding Aconcagua
Jan 02 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
In early December four men set out to ski/snowboard mountaineer South America’s highest peak. Among the group was John Griber, a veteran snowboard mountaineer sponsored by the North Face from Jackson Hole, WY who has clocked more over 20,000 foot snowboard descents than any other snowboarder in North America. Also in the group was Ryan Sutter, whose stint on the reality show “The Bachelor” has made him a minor celeb of the tabloid caliber. Sutter, a fireman in Vail, CO, is friend’s with Griber and when he heard about the mission to snowboard Aconcagua, he aksed if he could join the mission. Sutter has run triathlons, but had never been over 14,000 feet prior to this trip.
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The goal of the trip was to not only summit Aconcagua, but the group was hoping to webcast the entire trip via Sattelite. Things were looking good the first week, but then weather came in and it became a waiting game, which left the group captive in their tents for a week while temperatures dropped to negative 20 and lower with a cold howling wind. In the end Sutter and Griber summited to 21,000 feet and then decided to call it quits on reaching the peak of Aconcagua. The following is an interview with Griber upon his return just prior to Christmas.
JG: It was good but the hardest thing was that we should have summated, but the weather came in and spanked us. We were on track for 12 days. We were moving really efficiently. We were all healthy, the weather was in our favor and we had spent a few days at camp two, over 19,000 feet.
JG: After a few days at 19,000 we came down and rested. This is part of climbing a mountain. You can’t just push because your body has to acclimatize. That’s when a cold front came in with high winds and unclimbable conditions. We made one or two more tries up to camp one. Then we just waited for a while. It was essentially like 12-13 days straight of bad weather. On top of it was negative 20 and with wind chill it was more than that.
Lat34: Was there a break at all when you thought you may be able to pull it off?
JG: There was. Ryan and I tried a one day deal and went for a push. We left at one a.m. and essentially went from base camp at 13,000 to 21,200 and that was it. I couldn’t get past that. I ran out of gas. I gave myself a turn around time because the weather was coming in non-stop. The weather would come in from twelve to two every day and then shut down the mountain. I told myself that there would have to be a turn around time because it was always coming in at a certain time. This s key in climbing because if you don’t turn around, that’s when you get into trouble. I actually didn’t even make it to my turn around time. I ran out of steam after about 9,000 feet of elevation gain.
Lat34: Were you disappointed to not get to the peak
JG: No. It’s important when you are climbing to know that the peak isn’t what make a climb successful. Coming home is the first priority. At 21,000 feet I strapped in and snowboarded from there. The snow was fabulous. Epic snow actually. Great powder. For all of the reasons that make the snowboarding good, light knee deep powder, that’s what made it a tough ascent. It was deep snow, so I was breaking trail in boot top powder, which is deep when you are climbing. That’s what started taking it out of me. I had been moving for 12-13 hours and through the night when we started off. If was basically 15-20 below and you have to move consistently and you can’t stop at all. I was surprised that Aconcagua was a tough mountain and I have climbed a lot of mountains.
JG: It took the wind out of our sails a little. It all looked so smooth and consistent and then when we got shut down it was like holy s#*t we are not going to be able to get up there. The weather kept shutting us down consistently. If we had another week we could have gotten up it.
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JG: Yeah. That was a smart move to come back early. It just was important to be home with my family and when we saw that it wasn’t going to happen that was it. I put all of my eggs in one basket and tried to go for it for that one day, but I realized my family needed me more than the mountain. I’ll go back with my son when he’s older. He’ll break trail for me.
Lat34: How was it taking Ryan Sutter up there? He had very little climbing experience prior to this.
JG: It was fine. His experience is limited. He has camped and been in the mountains, but that’s about it. The waiting game was hard for him. His strength outdid his high mountain knowledge, so for him it was like, “Come on, let’s go.” You can’t do that though when dealing with a mountain like this. It’s a long process to get up on those mountains
JG: I have no idea if he would want to do this again. He might have been disenchanted with the whole process. When you have stuff going on at home and you are sitting in a tent with four stinky dudes, you really question your priorities. You realize that mountaineering is far from glamorous.
Lat34: How was it once you really started to push on the mountain toward the end of your big day?
JG: It started getting pretty steep and firm. I was 500 feet above Ryan and I didn’t feel as comfortable with him going up. There was a point if he would have lost an edge, he would have been minced up. The way the snow was and at that pitch at 40-plus. I just didn’t feel comfortable with him going up any further and he knew we could make that call at some point with him. Just given his experience and the steeps and that he was at 20,000 feet in a no fall zone, he had to know there was a point when he may not be able to safely go further.
JG: Reaction time is slow and you may not even know it. I just made a call with Ryan and said if you are tired pull over and hang out and I will be right back. Then we rode down. It’s a big deal for him to snowboard from 20,000 feet. It took me a couple tries to get to that level and he did it on the first time. There are only a handful of people in the US who have done that. To be able to say you snowboarded from 20,000 feet regardless of summiting is a big accomplishment.
Lat34: You know all about the waiting game being one of the most well-known snowboard mountaineers in the US. How many mountains have you climbed?
JG: I can’t even count. I think I am fairly certain that I have more over 20,000 foot ski descents than anyone I know of. I think there is something to be said of big mountain skiing. It’s a different way to approach a mountain.
Doug Stoup and John Griber in Kathmandu after Ama Dablam waiting their turn for a shave at Nabin's hairdresser.
JG: It’s ridiculous when people say we are going to climb this mountain. And you are like, ‘what if you fail because you are effected by high altitude of the mountain or it just doesn’t let you climb it?’ I go into it all saying I am going to attempt it. I guess this wasn’t a new occurrence to have bad weather on Aconcagua so I had to approach it like I approach all mountains. To just go there and see what happens. I have turned around off the summits of mountains before. I have not been disappointed ever by bad weather. It’s part of it. I have been on the tops of lots of peaks. It doesn’t make me less of a person if I don’t make it to the top. It’s just part of mountaineering. You never go into something saying you are going to conquer the peak.
Lat34: What do you still have to do and do you need to go back to Aconcagua?
JG: You know I am satisfied. I would have liked to have gotten to the top of that mountain but to be home skiing with my son two days later is so cool and blows my mind. For me it’s not a one upmanship type thing. The next thing is not rail sliding Everest with a panda hat on. You have to keep it all in perspective and climb for the love of it, not the show. I have done more than most people have ever dreamed of doing.
JG: I am working on a North Side Everest climb in March where I have been hired as a filmer. It’s a big climb.
