A few hundred meters of simulclimbing brought us from the top of the Minaret to the summit of south Howser, just before midnight. Our psyche turned to fear when we saw what was coming towards us from the other side of the mountain. A big black zeppelin flashing and roaring was approaching fast...We rushed down as fast as we could, and started rappelling down the Minaret. The storm was faster than we were and all hopes of survival were lost when our ropes got stuck. We decided to sit on a small ledge (500m from the ground) to await our destiny and pray that being electrocuted by lightening would give us mutant powers. Our fear changed to ecstasy, when for the second time today, we noticed that a thunderstorm was passing right next to us. We just sat back and watched in awe as we admired the best lightning show we've ever seen. The lightning struck hard down below in the valley and started a forest fire.
We climbed back up, got our ropes and continued our rappels. Once on the ground we still had to walk back to base camp... a full 50m away!
1:30 am, after almost 20h of climbing we were back at east creek base camp ready for a jamming session...
Check out the lightening picture we took from the ledge!!! (picture 1)
Picture 2: Cumbre!
Picture 3: Nico feeling the stress during the rappels.
Picture 4: Sitting ducks on a ledge, waiting to be fried
Black line is Doubting the millennium 5.12 600m
One rivet and 3 copperheads to protect the crux... Snowflakes started falling down, a thunder storm was coming in... Maybe it's time to go down?
To test Sean's back one last time before trying something long and hard we decided to try to open a new route on a neighbouring spire called the "lost feather pinnacle". We choose a beautiful dihedral system leading into an intimidating black roof. We were surprised to run in to bolted belays on the first part of the climb, but after the crux pitch we found no trace of human beings. So we don't know wether we finished a new line or freed an existing aid route, but the climbing was exceptional!! 7 pitches of incredible quality! Some of the more memorable moments were when Sean pulled on a big flake which started moving and cracking and Sean nearly shit in his pants. Or when Nico approached the big black roof which was wet and prayed for our only number four camelot to be wide enough for the crack... Luckily it was and we could finish the route fisting and grunting like a grizzly bear in heat. 
Below the black roof.
Sean woke up one morning and could barely move because of a terrible pain in his back. Carrying heavy backpacks, long days of climbing, hauling, hanging belays, who knows the cause... We ran back down to Golden for a couple of days rest, food, hot shower and the Chiropractor. Feeling a little better we headed back up and fixed the back on a crack named "Fingerberry jam" (5 pitches on the pigeon feathers). Amazing climbing! Thanks to Topher Donehue for this visionary line! 
The rope drag was pulling me down as I was starting to sketch out in this flaring chimney, my foot gently leaning on a big loose block. I could hear Nico shouting something. What's he going on about? Time to put in some protection...I looked at my harness: not much left, I must have done almost 60m... I put in a terrible looking green alien and try to pull up slack to clip it... I just need 10 more cm... Nico's shouting is as clear as blue sky now: "End of the rope!!!". Oh shit, trouble... I need to down climb to a lower ledge... "ROCK!!!" I yell from the top of my lungs as the loose block throws itself into the void and I start sliding down the chimney... I barely manage to stop myself as I see the chunk of granite ricocheting off the wall straight towards Nico... "ROCK! ROCK!" Miraculously it missed him by mm's....
Daily hygiene is always our great concern. To our younger fans: don't forget to wash yourself every day! 
It was snowing hard as we approached the summit, digging and swimming through deep snow and rock. We'd just climbed the Becky-Chouinard route with Chilean Juan. He's been up here in the Bugaboos for weeks now and is almost a local. "Look at me, I'm an Alpinist" I shout down at Nico. We're obviously a lot more confident on the mixed grounds of snow-ice and rock than we used to be. 
"Alright guys lets take a victory picture!" Nico screamed through the wind. The three of us gathered up and hugged on the summit of South-Howser, while Nico held the camera as far away as possible to take the picture. Suddenly bzzzzzz....Just as he was about the press the button, we heard some thunder rumbling in the distance and we started to feel electricity in the air. Sean having the longest beard could feel it the most... like trillions of bees going through his beard... "We need to get down fast!" There was so much snow up there we couldn't find the rappel stations... We were running all over the summit like chickens without heads digging in the snow. Quickly we threw in some nuts and started to abseil down. Luckily from there on we found the rappel stations...and as we started lowering we knew our chances of getting hit by lightening were diminishing. Needless to say we were happy to be alive when we hit the glacier. A fine adventure and great fun with Juan! Unfortunately we didn't get that victory picture....
An exciting moment when Lee (in his tennis shoes without crampons) had a little slip on an icy slope... Nothing to be alarmed about...
