By Dick Dorworth
Idaho Mountain Express , April 18: Tyler Jones is 25 years old and was born in Sun Valley and graduated from Wood River High School. He was one of those young men who knew what he wanted to do in life at an early age.
When he was 14 years old he announced to a high school class discussing life goals that he wanted to be a mountain climbing guide. He has followed that intention and passion with unerring intensity. Today the 6-foot-1-inch, 175-pound Jones is a guide for Rainier Mountaineering Inc., one of the most respected climbing guide services in America.
Jones' mother, Sharon Pyle, and step-father, Tom Pyle, work for Atkinsons' in Ketchum. His father, Bill Jones, works for Sun Valley Co. Tyler's resume reads in part, "In the last few winters he has been mostly unemployed, out climbing and skiing in western North America, his springs usually spent working and climbing in the Alaska Range, and the past handful of summers he's been guiding up and down Mt. Rainier. His fall is filled with little work, lots of sun and rock climbing.
"In the course of his guiding career he has reached the summit of Mt. Rainier 61 times. He has also been to the top of Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, four times, once as a solo effort. Among his other mountaineering alpine climbs are ascents of Alaska's Mt. Hunter, and Mt. Alberta, Mt. Robson and Mt. Edith Cavell in Canada. And in May, Jones will be part of a trio of American climbers, all of them RMI guides, going to the Caucasus Mountains of the Republic of Georgia, more specifically to the Svaneti region near the village of Ushguli. At 2,200 meters Ushguli is the highest village in Europe and is inhabited by about 200 people.
The expedition is headed by fellow RMI guide Jason Thompson of Bozeman, Mont., who in winter is a professional ski patrolman at Big Sky ski resort. The other member of the group will be Seth Waterfall who, in addition to working as a guide, is a member of the Crystal Mountain, Wash., ski patrol.
Jones and partners will explore this little-known part of the Caucasus with the goal of climbing the 17,060-foot-tall Mount Shkhara. There is very little information available about the climbing and skiing history of this area, but the expedition intends to explore the South Face of Shkhara. From the few photos they have been able to acquire of this face, it appears to rise some 8,000 feet above the valley floor and is split by a massive couloir. They hope to climb and then ski down this couloir.
Jones and his expedition mates believe that the couloir has never been skied, and their expedition overview indicates it could also be a first ascent. As well, the overview states, "While climbing/skiing the couloir is our main objective, this project is about exploring the ski mountaineering possibilities in the range and discovering the Svan people for ourselves."
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union there has been a certain amount of turmoil and political unrest in Georgia, and travelers have not been permitted to cross the border between Russia and Georgia, though, according to Jones, the border opened up a couple of weeks ago.
Still, to avoid any complications at the border, the group will fly directly from Amsterdam, Holland, to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, on May 16. They hope to reach Ushguli sometime between May 18 and 22, depending on travel arrangements.
The expedition is working with the newly formed Svaneti Mountaineering Tourism Center. The center was formed as a local response to the disorder in post-Soviet Georgia, which has deterred interest in traveling to Georgia. The center is part of a movement to change the "current situation of unrest as well as the outlook viewed by potential tourists." The area, according to the expedition overview, has been branded as unsafe, and it contains one side of a major mountain range to be explored.
Jones and mates intend to do a little exploring, a little climbing and a little skiing, and, in the process, "encompass a significant amount of human interaction," including a stay with a host family in Ushguli arranged by the mountaineering center.
The expedition has been awarded a Hans Saari Memorial Fund grant to help pay expenses. Saari, a popular and talented Bozeman ski mountaineer, was killed in a fall in Chamonix, France, several years ago. (Another local, Sara Lundy, received an education scholarship from the Saari Fund to help her participate in the American Mountain Guides Association's ski guide course.)
No comments:
Post a Comment