Glissading Gone Wrong: Into the Abyss

0:02It's late morning on the 30th of June, 2022. On the lower slopes of the Grand Teton, the tallest peak in the Teton mountain range in Wyoming, the sun reflects brilliantly off bright white snow. This rugged landscape that sits just 10 miles south of Yellowstone Park is famous for its breathtaking climbs. Today, it's living up to the hype. The air is clear and crisp, and the peaks tower imperiously into an impressive blue sky. A blustery wind whips across the glacial corry, the only sound in an otherwise vast and silent expanse. Up here, in the summer months, the craggy rock formations cradle pockets of snow, like water cupped in a giant's hand.

0:50In one gully sits an immaculate snowfield, its smooth surface glistening invitingly. Onto this pristine white powder crunch two pairs of boots as a duo of hikers pick their way down the mountain. Suddenly, they stop. Rosy-cheeked and breathing hard, the two men gaze down the slope, a look of anticipation growing across their faces. They glanced at each other and exchanged small, excited smiles. The conditions are perfect. For the next section of their descent, these two climbers aren't going to walk. They're going to slide. Glissading is something that mountaineers do, and you glissade on snow, so you can descend very quickly, and it involves just sitting on your butt, your legs are out.

1:46You take an ice axe off to your side, you press it down to control your speed, and it's a whole lot more fun than hiking. And you just slide down, and you can slide down sometimes a thousand feet or so. The two men sit, positioning their walking poles across their torsos like miniature paddles, ready to dig into the ice and anchor them should they lose control. They turn to each other. Someone needs to go first. Slowly, with an awkward shuffle, the taller of the two men begins the descent. Soon he's in full toboggan mode, sledding down the hill on his backside, grinning from ear to ear. After a fair distance, he stops and gestures to his friend that it's safe.

2:32The second climber follows with equally childlike glee. They repeat this pattern until the taller man glissades down to a rocky outcrop and stops. As before, his friend watches from above and sees his partner give the high sign to say it's safe. Or at least, he thinks he does. Immediately, the second hiker is picking up speed. It's steeper here. His walking poles aren't slowing him down. He is hurtling towards his friend, losing control with every meter. Snow kicks up around him in white, dusty bursts. Just as it looks like he's going to slam into the rock and come to a painful stop, he flies clean through a small gap in the outcrop and disappears.

3:26is. The taller man, a Washingtonian in his 60s by the name of Jim Zingerman, watches in horror as his friend, 62-year-old Dan Wenker, slides right past him and plunges off the edge of a cliff. From Jim's point of view, I disappeared. From my point of view, went over there, screamed something out, and started falling. It's like when you fall when you're in a dream, where you're falling and you really don't know where you're going to land. I'm in pretty big trouble here.

4:05Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet 62-year-old amateur mountaineer Dan Wenker. In June 2022, a small group of friends are taking on the Grand Teton in Wyoming, when adverse weather conditions force Dan and his buddy Jim to abandon plans for the summit and head back down the mountain. Having hiked a fair way, the pair decide to slide down a snowy stretch of slope.

4:49As Dan skids towards his friend, he loses control and plunges into a deep, glacial ravine carved by a waterfall and known as an ice moat. I got the wind knocked out of me when I hit that wall on the ice. And when I was starting to drop, I started banging around a little bit and got knocked unconscious. Plummeting into icy darkness, survival from here will be miraculous. And when Dan comes to and takes in his surroundings, it's clear the fall was just the start. It's pitch black. There's a raging waterfall on the right of me. I can feel an ice wall behind me. This sheer rock wall is in front of me.

5:33And as I looked up, I could see a small dot, which is the sunlight. there is no way I'm making it out of here. I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.

6:11It's June the 28th, 2022. Beneath the white underbellies of passenger planes taking off into the expansive Utah skies, a car sidles into the short-stay drop-off at Salt Lake City Airport. 62-year-old Dan Wenker parks the car, climbs out, and heads to the back to fetch his wife's luggage. It's just a quick goodbye this morning. They'll see each other soon. They've been in town for a wedding, their daughter Caroline's no less, and now Dan's wife is heading home. But not Dan. He's staying on just for a few days to partake in one of his favorite pastimes. Dan hands his wife her suitcase. And as he does, his expression changes.

6:58I don't usually have this conversation with her, but looked at her and said, you know, if anything happens to me on this climb, don't call Caroline and Anthony on their honeymoon. A committed family man, Dan doesn't want to bother or concern his daughter during such a special time, even if he runs into trouble on his upcoming climb. Despite this slightly nervy comment to his wife, there is no particular reason to think things will go wrong. Dan is careful, skilled, and won't be tackling the climb alone. Plus, it promises to be a doozy The Grand Teton, if you've ever been to Wyoming I equate it to the Mona Lisa When you're out there, you feel as though the mountain is looking at you from every angle You know, it's an epic peak and it's something that's on most climbers' to-do list Dan is an ardent amateur mountaineer And as luck would have it, his daughter arranged her wedding within striking distance of a peak that he's always wanted to climb.

8:02The Grand Teton in Wyoming stands at nearly 14 ,000 feet tall, soaring above the Teton mountain range just near the town of Jackson. It's a formidable ascent. It's difficult. It involves, contrary to what our other mountaineering experiences were, where you could just hike up, you're on safety ropes. This involved a lot of technical climbing too for 1 ,000 feet up. And so it was a whole new experience. Having kissed his wife goodbye, Dan drives straight from the airport up through Jackson to the base of the Grand Teton to meet the team. The buccaneering adventurers heading into the mountain this morning are Dan, his two friends Jim Zingerman and Mark McGuire, and Mark's son, Nicholas.

8:49Today, Dan will have to rely on the experience of his fellow climbers, Mark and Nicholas in particular. Because it was a technical climb at the top, like the last thousand feet is a peak that goes straight up. And so Mark McGuire and his son were very good technical climbers. He had been climbing since he was in his teens. Jim and I were not. And so it was a good team of people. Not only do Mark and Nicholas have the expertise, they've also got the gear. Including something that will have great significance later on. Mark and his son had two climbing ropes. Because there were four of us, they prefer to, when you do technical climbing, to only have three people maximum on the rope.

9:38And so because there were four of us, Mark and his son brought two ropes instead of one. Dan greets his fellow climbers in the shadow of the mountains. Giant, fang-like peaks surround them, angular, white and gray labyrinths that grow endlessly upwards to the clouds. The men check over their packs once more, steal a quick glance up at these snowy behemoths above, and share an excited grin. Nearly 14 ,000 foot up, there's their target, the top of the Grand Teton. There's four of us, and off the trail we went.

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12:44The day begins with a hike up through the verdant lower section of the mountain. The four men are surrounded by summer greenery and vibrant wildflowers. Glacial streams trickle happily past a steady tramp, and up ahead, a streak of spiky brown and green pine trees resembles a layer of earth from which the majestic snow-capped summits seem to grow. Their destination towers above them, drawing them on. And though the four walkers chat amiably, they keep their wits about them, checking the path for signs of bison, elk, and moose, as well as more pertinently, bears and wolves. They're entering the wild, a place where it pays to keep your wits about you, especially given this is where they're going to sleep for the night.

13:33It's about a six-mile, 6 ,000 vertical foot gain to get up to this area called the Lower Saddle. We were going to camp there overnight. The weather looked great. We had bought a permit and built in an extra day just in case something happened. It's what most people will do. They'll sleep at the lower saddle, wake up early in the morning, go up the mountain, come back down, then head back. And that was the plan. The group makes it to the lower saddle in good time. It's a curved, rock-strewn mountain pass. They pitch their tents, eat dinner, and prepare to hunker down for the night. Just as they're settling in, however, Jim makes an admission.

14:17He is exhausted. He has recently been unwell and has lost ground on his training. The six-mile hike, coupled with the altitude, has taken it out of him. He doesn't think he'll make it any further. We said, OK, we'll just make the decision when we wake up. So we woke up the next day, and although the day was partly cloudy, you know, it was doable. But Nicholas looked on the weather app on his phone and there were threatening thunderstorms in the area that day. What you don't want to do is be on the top of a 13 ,700 foot peak with lightning going off because then you're just a human lightning rod.

14:54So we decided that because we had the extra day built in, that we would just kind of hang around, camp that day. And then we would wake up the following day. By this point, that was the 29th. On the 30th, we would wake up at about four in the morning, and we would climb. So the four men potter about for a day in the lower saddle, before settling down once more for a short sleep before the big hike. But Jim has now totally ruled himself out of tomorrow's climb. He still doesn't feel right. The others agree. It's no good continuing if something is off. This is a treacherous and grueling climb. They've trained for it, yes, but they have varied levels of experience, and none of the three friends is getting any younger.

15:41Not that Dan would have done anything like this as a young man. In the grand scheme of his life, mountaineering has been a relatively late discovery. Dan grew up in Philadelphia, the second largest city on the eastern seaboard. He was born into a hard-working Protestant family, his father a carpenter, his mother a nurse. In the 60s and 70s, Philly was a city marred by urban decay and criminality, but shot through with blue-collar pride and strong communal and artistic spirit. With all its noise, smoke, and bustle, it was a far cry from the mountains of the American Northwest. I grew up in the city, and so I was a city guy pretty much my whole life.

16:27Really was a Boy Scout dropout, quite frankly. I only lasted two weeks in the Boy Scouts. In his adult life, a series of job opportunities took Dan up north, and he and his family settled in the town of Yakima in Washington State. Despite an active, sporty childhood, Dan's work in food sales and marketing had resulted in a sedentary adulthood. In 2010, as a big birthday loomed on the horizon, he resolved to make a change. When I was turning 50, I decided that I needed to do something to stay in decent condition. When you live in the Northwest, you know, all the mountains are there. Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Mount Adams.

17:09And they're all 12 to 14 and a half thousand foot mountain peaks that are snow covered all year round. One day when I was driving from our town in Yakima over to the city of Seattle, which is about a two and a half, three hour drive. Looked over at Mount Rainier on a clear day and thought, you know, what if I could climb that mountain? It was a question that Dan was not qualified to answer. So he took it to a colleague who was. Went and talked to a guy in our office, said, you know, here's what I'm thinking of doing. I don't even know if this is possible or not, but what do I need to do and what's involved?

17:51And he said, you know, first of all, he said, it's doable. You know, for a guy like you, he said, it's going to be the toughest thing you've ever done. A climber himself, Dan's colleague Pete, didn't mince his words. But seeing that Dan was serious, he agreed to help him train. The next six months consisted of grueling hikes in the hills around Yakima. By the end, Dan was 30 pounds lighter and in the best shape he'd been in years. He was ready to climb Mount Rainier. The problem was, when he eventually got to the top, he wanted to do it again. You know, the deal with Mount Rainier was supposed to be one and done.

18:28That was going to be the thing that would shock my system to get into good shape. From there, I'd figure out something else. But what happened instead when I got to the top of the mountain had the largest impact up until that point in my life. Other than the birth of my children and the marriage to my wife, climbing Mount Rainier dramatically changed my life. After a chance encounter with a neighbor, Dan joined a church climbing group. and soon he was spending his weekends traversing ridges and scrambling up escarpments. It wasn't just the exercise that appealed to him. He had found a community and was making new friends.

19:11Even when he and his family relocated to Atlanta, he stayed in touch with his fellow enthusiasts. It was on one of their regular skiing holidays that Dan was chatting to two of his climber friends, Jim Zingerman and Mark McGuire, and an idea formed. When we were skiing in Montana, they were talking at our ski trip and started to say, you know, we ought to climb the Grand Teton in Wyoming. And so I thought, well, this will be awesome. Dan told his buddies that he was in. It worked out well, he said. His daughter was getting married in Salt Lake City in June, a short drive from the Teton mountain range.

19:48Everything was lining up nicely.

19:55Right now, though, in his tent, pitched in the lower saddle for the second night in a row, Dan is struggling to sleep. There was a little increase in wind as they were all going to bed, no more than expected. But this, this is something else. During the night, the wind started to increase. The first time I heard it, I heard, I was like, there must be a plane or a jet, you that's coming overhead, I heard this noise. And then the noise started to get louder and louder and louder. It gradually increased and increased and increased to the point where it was the strongest winds I had ever experienced.

20:36At this point on the mountain, there is almost no foliage to speak of. The four men are hopelessly exposed to the howling gale. Gusts reach 50 miles an hour. Dan has pegged his tent firmly into the ground and piled rocks on the canvas to anchor it. But even so, he lies tense, listening. Suddenly, something tears. His tent stays have snapped in two. If he doesn't fix them, the canvas itself might rip. Dan fumbles around for his headlamp. I couldn't stand up because the winds were so strong. so on my hands and my knees with my headlight retying the the tent stays and so gradually throughout the night I had to go out and re-tie every one.

21:25The wind got so strong at one point I was concerned my tent was going to explode and blow down the hill and so I sat up on the side of the of the tent and would lean against the side and it would actually blow me over. And so at about 3 o 'clock, the wind died down a little bit. At 4 o 'clock in the morning, when Mark and Nicholas came by my tent, you know, after getting zero sleep and said, Come on, Dan, we're going. You know, I said, I'm not, I'm done.

21:58It was due to be the most technical climb Dan had ever done. It was always going to be a challenge, even well-rested. Dan tells Mark and Nicholas he doesn't want to be a liability. Like Jim, he is going to sit it out. So the two remaining climbers set off in the 4 a.m. gloom headed for the summit. Almost as an afterthought, they drop something they've been carrying. They won't need it now. Now as the two of them, you know, we had talked about the extra climbing rope. And so they were going to take one rope. They were going to leave the other rope in the base camp. When Jim wakes, he's surprised to find Dan still in camp.

22:42But he agrees last night's weather was brutal. He understands Dan's decision to back out. The two men make some breakfast and wait to hear from the climbers. A text comes through. Mark and Nicholas have reached the summit, but the winds are making the going tough. It'll be a while before they're back. Dan and Jim should head down on their own. The two men pack up, but just as they're preparing to leave, they notice an extra item of kit lying forlorn in the middle of the camp. So you need to realize that our packs are probably loaded with tent and all our gear and everything are probably about 40 pounds.

23:25And we're going to be hiking down to six miles, 6 ,000 vertical feet. So at some points it's kind of steep. So I'm looking at that rope, say a 70-meter rope that weighs about 10 pounds. So imagine you're going to put 10 more pounds in your pack, and I'm looking at the rope. Jim's kind of looking at the rope, and I'm thinking to myself, I really don't want to carry that rope. And so Jim, you know, Jim Zingerman is probably, he's one of those guys, everybody has a buddy that's the nicest guy in the world. And Jim is that guy. And so at that point, he goes, I'll carry the rope. Jim packs the rope, and they're ready to go.

24:05but just before they set off they spot someone nearing them on the rocky slopes it's a park ranger passing on patrol the ranger stops and asks dan and jim if they're planning on glissading during their descent on sliding down segments of the slopes they look at one another we said we might be and he said well if you're going to glissade make sure you can see where you're going and make sure you control your speed. And they're polite to him, but Jim and I have been, you know, we've been climbing for about 16 years now. We're like, yeah, you know, we know what we're doing. There are two ways down from the lower saddle on Grand Teton.

24:44You can either scale a steep wall known as the head wall or clamber down a narrow chute about 150 feet long and 50 feet wide with rocks on both sides. Dan and Jim opt for the chute, as there's a bit of snow for their crampons to bite into underfoot. The chute is fairly steep, however, and the danger of slipping carries particular jeopardy. If you trip coming down there and slide with crampons on, you could very easily break your leg just because the crampons, the way the grip could get cut.

25:24As it turns out, the chute presents no problems. And as they descend further, the going gets easier. The two men pack away their ice axes and crampons. The weather is so nice, they even take off their coats. They're making good time. The beauty of the downhill hike in the glorious summer sunshine is more than making up for the disappointment of not reaching the summit. Suddenly, Dan stops and points off to their right. A little below them is a pristine snowfield. I said, you know, we really should be glissading down there instead of hiking down this rocky trail. Made our way out to the snowfield.

26:08The snow is soft and everything. It was a beautiful day, so we didn't unpack our ice axes. And we thought, well, we've seen people just glissade with hiking poles, and so we retracted the poles and we figured we'll use those. Stretching out beneath them is a gorgeous, glittering slide of perfect snow, an ideal surface to speedily skid their way down the slope. Jim goes first, sitting and shimmying down the powder with ease. His hiking pole provides a rudimentary braking system should he need it. Jim slides a short way down the slope before stopping and signaling back to his friend that it's safe.

26:48Dan follows, eventually stopping next to Jim and allowing him to go ahead again. And like this, the two men descend the Grand Teton on their backsides. It was a phenomenal day. We were laughing, we're high-fiving, we're out in the wilderness doing what we loved. You're with your buddy. At that time, two 62-year-old guys that were acting young, you know, in the crystal clear blue skies. It was awesome. The day continues in this enjoyable fashion, and the men make good progress. They're steadily making their way down the mountain. They reach another downward incline of pure white. About 150 feet away, the pair spot a rocky outcrop, a collection of large boulders, and decide to head that way.

27:35Dan watches as Jim glissades down the slope. He reaches the rocks, stops, and takes his pack off, perhaps taking a break. Dan peers down at his friend in the distance and waits patiently for the all clear. Jim turns and signals. And I thought he gave me the high sign that it was all good. So off I went. In fact, Jim is not signaling that everything is fine. There has been a serious misunderstanding. And now it's too late. Danny's already on his way. He rapidly picks up speed. He's going faster here than on his previous slides. He digs his walking pole into the ice, frozen particles flurrying around him.