By Vikki Hopes - Abbotsford NewsDon Scaman was coming down the Bugaboo Spire in eastern B.C. with a team of fellow mountain climbers, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Suddenly, the lead climber dislodged an ice sheet six inches thick, and began barrelling down the mountain, as if on a sled. He was travelling towards a massive crevasse, and he swung his ice axe into the snow, frantic to find an anchoring point.
It didn’t work. His fellow climbers could do nothing but watch in horror, certain their friend would be swallowed by the gigantic chasm ahead.
Instead, the momentum sent the climber clear over the gap and safely on to the other side.
A few shots of tequila and a good rest followed.
It’s the kind of scene that doesn’t happen often with Scaman, but when it does, it makes an impact.
An Abbotsford doctor, Scaman has seen a lot in his 30-plus years of mountaineering, but mostly it has been from the perspective of appreciating the world’s natural beauty.
He has scaled so many mountains he has lost track of how many climbs he has done. They have included 10 ascents of Mt. Baker – seven to the summit – and three climbs on Mt. Rainier.
He has made numerous treks in the coastal range and Rockies, spent six weeks hiking around Nepal, and recently returned from Patagonia, a region located in Argentina and Chile.
Scaman, 58, returns to Argentina this December as part of a 13-member team scaling Cerro Aconcagua. It’s part of a fundraising effort called Climb for Prostate.
The team has so far raised about $120,000 for prostate cancer research.
Scaman was invited to join the team, which heard about his mountaineering experience and wanted to have a doctor on the journey.
It was the ideal opportunity to combine his passion for the outdoors with a way to raise funds and awareness about a crucial men’s health issue.
“Men’s health has always been neglected. Women do a far better job of taking care of their health than men do,” he says.
Scaman was also attracted to the challenge of conquering the western hemisphere’s highest peak – 6,962 metres (22,841 feet).
“It’s always been something I’ve wanted to do. This is as big as I’ve wanted to go.”
The group consists of two others from Abbotsford – John LeBlanc and Ken Hurley – as well as men from Chilliwack, Surrey and the Okanagan. They range in age from 49 to 59.
They have done three climbs together – twice on Mt. Rainier and once on Mt. Baker – and have trained individually throughout the year. Scaman, for example, is an avid runner and also enjoys kayaking, playing hockey and skiing.
He also gets together whenever he can with the three other men he first started mountain climbing with in the late 1970s. They all had an affinity for the outdoors and tackled Mt. Baker together on their first climb.
“We didn’t even know what we were doing, but we made it to the top,” Scaman said.
They nicknamed themselves the Abbotsford Veg – as in “vegging out.” They later took rock-climbing lessons to perfect their skills for the more technical portions of their climbs.
However, Scaman said he prefers basic mountaineering over rock climbing.
“That’s a young man’s sport. You have to be like a monkey to do it,” he laughs.
The Climb for Prostate team arrives in Santiago, Chile on Dec. 20. From there, they travel to Mendoza, Argentina to begin the 14-day trek.
For more information, visit www.climbforprostate.com.
