| |
|
| | |
|
| Climbing | |
|
| | Climbing | | 8 Days | | |
| | 65 LBS Pack | | |
|
|
| | |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | It just may have been the trip of a lifetime, but I hope not.
Last summer my cohorts and I packed into the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Mountains of west central Wyoming. We brought climbing gear and there we climbed several relatively easy routes as an intro to larger scale wilderness multi-pitch climbing and mountaineering. I had been meaning to write it up but never got around to it. We all agreed that we had left unfinished business up there and planned for a return this year. I trained up again with the cardio, several hikes up Humphrey's, and weighted backpack on the stepper at the gym. Then with about 3 weeks until departure my partner (we had planned on an efficient climbing team of two) bailed out. Life will do that. I had given up hope when I decided to look for a partner on the universal climbing web-site (which shall go unnamed). To my surprise I received an enthusiastic response from a local guy who was dying for a trip to the Windies. We met up and climbed several times at Pinnacle Peak to look each other up and down, make sure each were safe, reasonable, capable, etc. I suppose it is something like computer dating but rather more consequential. Hell, computer dating is just sex, this is climbing! He turned out to be 32, an excellent and experienced trad climber (much better than I), and extremely fit. A substantial miss-match but he wanted to go so go we did.
On d-day (Tuesday 8/15) we caught the 5:40am flight to Salt Lake City, rented a car, drove the 4.5 hours to the Big Sandy TH, shouldered packs and hiked in the 10.5 miles to Deep Lake to camp. A rather long approach for climbing. My pack had 8 days of backpacking stuff plus 21.5lbs of climbing gear/rope for a total of 66lbs. A fair load to lug up to 10,500'.
Our first climb began with reveille at 0400, a quick bite and coffee, packing up and hiking the final approach by headlamp. A classic "alpine start". Our objective was a route called Minor Dihedral on Haystack Mountain 11,978'. Rated 5.9 and about 1150' of climbing, 10 pitches, grade III. It is always a thrill to be gearing up at the base of a tall climb. Its wilderness so there is no fixed hardware. You have what you bring with you in terms of rope, cams and nuts, slings, etc., your partner, and your ability and self confidence. That's it. Look up and go solve the problem. No bailing out early or calling your mommy. Very committing. I led the first pitch of 5.8+/5.9 and some of the route after the tougher dihedral pitches. Some of it was pretty spicy. I will say that the Windies' climbs were pioneered by guys like Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard, Fred Becky and other stalwarts back in the '60s. They are majorly sand-bagged by today's standards. A 5.9 is a real climb, at least in my opinion. We topped out and scrambled off down the "Grassy Goat Trail" descent. Back in camp by late afternoon for the second of many horrible freeze dried dinners and some Lagavulin 16. Crashed early.
Our second climb began with another alpine start and hike up past the unnamed lake at 10,602' under the incredible north face of East Temple Peak. We chose the North Ridge route on Steeple Peak 12,030' rated at 5.8. Grade III, 5 pitches, 650' of climbing. Described as an adventure climb, the salient feature of Steeple Peak is the chimney that splits the summit into two enormous vertical slabs. Quite simply unreal. It's like a cathedral in there, or maybe the inside of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. As the term "chimney" suggests, you use body friction to hold yourself in place as you wriggle and thrutch upward between two walls with barely enough space to admit your body, gaining a big block wedged between the walls to belay. From there the chimney is wide enough to stem and use classic chimney technique (back and hands against one wall, feet against the other) to move upward. Not much protection so you just move up and depend on friction not to fall. The total chimney sections are about 150' of climbing. Spooky. Don't fall. Exit the chimney for a final 110' of 5.9 climbing (an alternate finish to the usual 5.8 route) to top out directly on the summit. Amazing views. Scrambling and 4 rappels take you back down to the talus slopes above the unnamed lake, then back to camp for more freeze dried slop and Lagavulin.
Friday we moved camp over to the the Cirque of the Towers. Something like 7 miles and the "climber's pass" just below 11,000' above Arrowhead Lake. Camped a couple hundred yards north of the waterfall in the upper cirque, positioned for the ensuing climbs. The next day I planned to sleep in and take an easy hiking/recon day to recover from 4 days in a row of activity. Around 7:00am my partner left camp to "hike around". I got up late and enjoyed doing some recon over to Pingora to get familiar with the approaches to a couple of routes on our list. This is good to do so that when you are on the trail in the wee hours of a climbing day you know where to go, important junctions, landmarks etc. and you aren't stumbling around in the dark looking for the climb. I returned to camp after noon to find him there, where he revealed that he had just free soloed the East Ridge route on Wolf's Head. He explained that he had not wanted to freak me out with worry and so he had kept the plan on the down low. Even though this route is only graded 5.6 and 1000', 10 pitches, grade IV, a free solo is a significant climbing accomplishment. And I can assure you, it also is sandbagged and is way more than 1000' of climbing. I know, we did it together 2 days later.
Sunday we were up at 0300 for an even earlier alpine start. Weather was reported to be on the way and we had planned to combine the South Buttress route on Pingora 11,889' graded 5.8 with the East Ridge of Wolf's Head (which he had just done). The route on Pingora was a very cool hand/finger crack route. A longish approach with maybe 550' of climbing, we topped out but decided not to pursue the link up with Wolf's Head due to the approach of weather and the need for some pretty nasty class 5 down-climbing from Pingora to the connecting ridge. The guide book called it "easy class 5" but like everything up there, way sandbagged. We rappelled off the southwest side of Pingora and were hit with rain just as we were getting back to camp around 1:00pm. Pretty happy I wasn't up there on the ridge in it. Later that evening we talked to a party that was and they reported hairy wet conditions and a pretty scary day. They were glad to be down off of it.
Monday was to be our final climbing day. My partner said he was good to do whatever I wanted, and Wolf's Head had been my primary objective all along. He said cool so another alpine start and up the "grassy ledges" approach listed as class 4 in the guide books, but of course, that is total nonsense. There are plenty of places where a fall would be fatal for certain. That means class 5. We were un-roped and in approach shoes carrying ropes flopping around. Sketchy to say the least. The climb is amazing. It begins with a class 5.2 but totally un-protectable pitch up the "sidewalk" a smooth ramp 18" wide. Not difficult but if you fall off either side you're dead. After several hundred feet of climbing up the knife edge that is Wolf's Head you traverse a thousand feet westward, weaving in and out between several towers along the spine. The drop is dead vertical on either side and about 600'. There are several places where you traverse along a single finger or toe crack above that drop off. Mighty airy and exposed. Really cool. Add a squeeze chimney (a chimney so narrow that you need to take off your pack and sling it from your harness down between your knees) right in the middle of the ridge. I was leading in there and at one point had to keep my head oriented sideways because my helmet would not fit through the chimney in the long direction. The summit was terrific and 6 rappels and several hours of scrambling got us back to camp. A long and exhausting day but a real bucket list climb for me.
Tuesday we broke camp and packed down to Big Sandy Lake, breaking the hike out into two chunks so we wouldn't be racing the clock on the last day to get out and drive to SLC for our flight. Lightening and thunderstorms rolled in and hail rendered the tents less than comfortable, but all in all we had good weather by high mountain standards for the trip. Wednesday we hiked out the last 6 miles, ate everything in sight at country stores and gas stations along the route back. Got home totally exhausted. Needed to sit on the couch for several days to recover. The whole thing had been pretty much at my limit. I guess I now have a better idea of what that is.
This trip shares top billing with only one or two others on my list of all-time toughest adventures. The climbs from my partner's perspective were pretty easy and he led all of the tougher stuff and most of the climbing in total. Any one of those four climbs rates as a destination climb for me. In fact Wolf's Head and Pingora are two of the "Fifty Classic Climbs of North America", a book that Roper and Steck published in 1979 as a sort of climbers bible that drove the climbing scene for two generations. I'll have a hard time topping this one. Hauling heavy loads at altitude is getting tougher, VO2max is decreasing year by year and there isn't a damned thing I can do about it, and it is taking longer to recover with advancing age. That explains my opening remark. But oh, wait, I've heard about this awesome place with awesome climbs and August of '24 is only 11 months away. Better start training up now. |
| _____________________
"Aequanimitas."
- Antoninus Pius |
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
