That’s a picture of me taken by a fellow hiker just after passing one of the most difficult points on this scramble.
Devil’s Thumb. Where “devil” is in the name, the devil is in the details. We had already done a good bit of hiking that day, but now it was time for a rock scramble. It would mark the first time decisiveness was personally visible in a real world situation (not a movie or a classroom or from behind a desk) and it impressed upon me that it is a real and necessary attribute of solid leadership.
The trailhead was not well described in the information resource available, but we did find it after questioning a bit and having to literally climb some rockface to get further on it. The trail, if you could call it that, led around the side of the prominence that towered before us. Then, the ground began to drop away as steeply on the left side as it rose on the right. We were thousands of feet up–a dizzying height. It was looking more like a goat path at times than anything a human would hike or scramble. I began to question whether this was really the trail and the wisdom in following it. I was not alone in my thoughts, but we all pressed ahead.
Eventually, one stopped and turned back at the heights. The rest of us went on and hiked some more distance. The person on point changed from time to time. I was up front for a time. Then another was and we sort of cycled through as folks stopped to rest or just take in the view. Since there was some question about the correct route and what to look for, I asked some folks who were coming back towards us where the trail led and they said up a draw. Others moved on and whoever was at the point started to climb on this side of the draw which was largely made up of lose stone and scree.
We started up and came to another face of stone. Two managed to get up it. I was halfway. Our leader had moved to the top where the point was and was trying to encourage two others to follow, but they were having difficulty. The person on point was not finding a solid way forward. Was this the trail?
After seeing the disintegration of momentum and direction, our leader said something like “this isn’t working”, and turned around and came right back down right past me. We were taking a new direction. It was a very decisive move. Clearly things were not working on several levels so he turned and put his energy into another direction, fully dropping the idea instead of clinging to it to muddle it more or driving it further to exhaustion of mental of physical stamina of the hikers. There was already plenty of opportunity for injury or falling. Various scenarios of possibilities and what I could do were running through my head much of the time.
Bottom line: He assessed and redirected. It wasn’t rash. It wasn’t thoughtless. It was decisive. You could see the assessment being made, a new consideration, then a dropping of the current plan and total turn in direction. It came with a bit of merited frustration, but also of confidence. That’s not working. New idea. This is what we were doing now.
Two of us lower down on the rocky outcrop turned went on with him. Two others assisted a third who was still working down the rocky outcrop–all intent on following us.
The group regained momentum. We started moving again. It’s exactly what needed to be done. I had not seen someone salvage a situation quite like that before when other minds got burrowed in or clouded. It really made an impression on me. I still think of it a few years later.
We made it across the scree filled draw with a bit of brain, brawn, and some intestinal fortitude and worked our way up on the opposite side and then climbed the final approach. Two more hikers dropped off the advance, deciding not to make the final ascent. One before the crux and one after.
Seven of us had started and four climbed to the top of Devil’s thumb. The devil was in the details of that climb, but it was decisiveness at the crux that carried us over the pivotal point and on to the top. That is what leadership looks like. It was well worth the ride.
Here is a picture of our leader, Rich, and a fellow hiker enjoying the view from the top of Devil’s Thumb above Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta Canada
The lower red circle actually denotes two of our group. The sitting pink blob is me. Right behind me is a standing green blob – our guide, Rich.
A view of Devi’s Thumb towering behind Lake Agnes towards the left. I hadn’t noticed, but it does look sort of like a thumb.
Portraits of a Traveler 