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| Hike & Climb | 10.00 Miles |
4,254 AEG |
| | Hike & Climb | 10.00 Miles | | | |
| 4,254 ft AEG | | | | |
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| IV • Trad • 5.7 Good • 6 Pitches | | |
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| no partners | | We did Babo as a backpack. We had a slight mishap in which one of the party's car got a hole in their oil pan from the road in. This caused two not to be able to participate. Which in the end turned out to be a good thing since two more climbers would have stretch out the length of our climb.
We initially were going to do the "typical" ascent up Babo on Saturday followed by the Southeast Arete on Sunday. With the mishap, we ended up just going to our base camp on Saturday.
The hike in was pretty easy except for the fact that I was carrying my backpacking gear, 10 liters of water (dry camp), harness, helmet, PAS, and a 20 lb rope. We took numerous breaks because we were "waiting" for the crew that was helping out the oil pan people to join us. We still managed to get to camp before they did.
We had an awesome happy hour at our camp. Someone brought bacon! I don't eat bacon in the real world but I could not resist trying it since I had kind of skimped on our food (blame it on having no time to pack). It was AWESOME!!!! We also had wine, cheese, and crackers. I can't believe that people would bring such things to share while carrying heavy loads - I guess not everyone was carrying rope 
In the morning, we left camp around 7:30 AM. We headed up the trail. We entered into the area that was most affected by the fire in the early summer. We left the trail to bushwhack over to the SE Arete.
Our party consisted of 6 climbers. We had two ropes. One of our leaders was very experienced and then other was not as confident. The climb up was 6 or 7 pitches.
We had a lot of time to chill while waiting on the other climbers. One of my favorite activities was to watch the ravens. There were perhaps hundreds of them flying around. Sometimes in pairs. Sometimes in groups. Sometimes all of them. Very awesome!
On one pitch I was the last one to leave. The two girls before me had some "moments" which were a bit unnerving. I was able to separate myself from that and just focus on the task at hand. I was also able to look down which was several thousand feet compared to what is normally just maybe 60 feet. It was very thrilling.
We summitted as the sun set. It was pretty cool since Joel and I are usually very conservative and never run out of daylight on hikes unless it's planned. But then again, I suppose this was kind of planned.
We took the typical route down. Which if you've never been there before is pretty intimidating in the dark. The trek down included very steep slopes with a lot of rocks just ready to roll. It also included a pretty long rappel down the Ladder Pitch in the dark! I found that pretty exciting!!
We got back to camp, had a break and a snack. Then headed back to the cars. We got to the cars about 12:30 AM. Talk about a long day! Then we drove back home. I think that we arrive home near 3 AM. I was glad that my flight wasn't until the afternoon on Monday.
That was our first big mountain climb! Hopefully there will be more to come... |
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