Climb: The Tooth-Northeast Slab

Date of Climb: 3/4/2006

Trip Report:
On Saturday, Chris (ccmeter), Oscar and I headed up to The Tooth to try the NE slab route. On the way in we were really excited about the conditions, the snow was a couple of inches of soft above a firm base, really nice for skiing. We saw a bunch of people heading up to the bowl to yoyo all day long and honestly I was a bit jealous. The weather was looking beautiful. Looking up the slab we could see someone in the middle of climbing it self-belayed, and we were encouraged by this.

We stashed our skis in a little alcove and headed to the base of the route, where we found a pair of very talkative gentlemen there in front of us. They told us we could go ahead of them, so we established a belay anchor (two extremely sketchy shorty ice screws) and started climbing.

Chris led the first pitch, which was just steep soft snow. He kicked most of it down on my head and I learned that it is smarter to put your belay off to the side of the gully. He stuck to the rock on his right side and got some decent protection in, a couple of cams and a picket. Eventually he got to what seemed like a good belay station, made an anchor, and we followed up.

When we got there we realized that we couldn't go straight up any farther, so it would have to be a traverse over to the left. We could see the self-belaying badass dude over in the middle of the face, and asked him how the ice was. He said he got one bomber screw in right where he needed it. We figured that was the way to go.

Getting there was a different story. I started leading over and found that what looked like it might be good ice was actually 1/4 inch of ice on top of slabby rock, covered in a couple inches of poorly consolidated snow. I got a ways out, but was definitely in over my head, and eventually took a nice pendulum fall. We decided that for us, the route was "out" and we bailed from there.

Back down at the cache we bumped into Solo Badass, who had finished the route and rapped down the south face. I think the conditions are good enough to climb this route, if you are 1. a decent climber, not a gumby like me, and 2. are careful selecting your route. The spot where we ended our first pitch looked good from below, but traversing across that slab would be tricky with very little chance to place pro.

Skiing back to the parking lot was really nice though.

Gear Notes:
Bigger nuts would have been nice.

Approach Notes:
Trail is firmly packed to Source Lake, snow conditions above were nice and consistent.

what piece did you fall on?

This is an interesting TR. Doug Walker and I did the route in 2002 (Feb. I think). I led the first pitch and had to move from left to right above a small schrund on mixed terrain to get to the wall/corner on the right, which took two pins and a cam, I think. I kept going and did the leftward traverse that you describe. It was thin and sugary and I was really focused. I remember that Doug was climbing at that point because I think we only had a 50-meter rope. A fall by either of us would have sucked. I got to the trees and set up a belay at an exciting, cramped spot where you can look down the face. The rest of the route seemed easier -- two pitches to the N. Ridge, then we simulclimbed to the top. We rapped the S. Face. I think it took us 4.5 hours total from the base to base to pack up and snowshoe out. I think we had just enough firm snow to make it work, but I don't remember very much ice at all. Seems like a VERY conditions- dependant route. You should go back and do it.

Cheers,

John Sharp

a pair of very talkative gentlemen there in front of us.

---

Did'ja get the F-Bomb? That would be Jeff!
Hmmmmm, I was thinking of giving that route a try, but it doesn't sound very "in" to me. Is it ever?

That being you?

Factor 2!!!!

No, that wasn't me, but got a report from my friend this morning. Jeff's a great guy; nonstop talker though, and a bit adjective-challenged.

Wasn't factor 2, I was about level with the anchor and traversing. Probably didn't stress it too bad.

Hey,

Glad to hear you made it back safe despite sub-optimal conditions. Do you have any pics?

Do any of you folk think the south face route would be climbable now? Mostly exposed rock or is it covered by tons of snow/snice? I'm a super noob but thought it might be an accessible climb this weekend. Any ideas?

Cheers.

The south face is totally climbable right now. We rapped it after NE slab a couple weeks ago and it was mostly rock with some snow on ledges. Just be comfortable climbing 5.easy in boots/crampons - rock shoes would be cold.

any recent pics of the Slab?

No photos of the slab but here's the the south face/pineapple pass from a couple weeks ago.

Mark, did you have any snice between sticks?

Almost none.

how fortunate, any pictures for us armchair doods?

Unfortunately my camera was resting comfortably at home in my armchair. Man, it turned out to be a purdy day out!

(Yeah right, Nelson's an armchair dood, sure thing, okeedokee.)

Bala and I climbed this route on Sunday.

Great weather, but only moderate conditions. we started on the left side of the slab, trending towards the middle following better ice. most of the route was crust over the new snow. I was fortunate enough to get in 1 piece in the first 60m, resulting in a 150' runout through sketchy snow and not so solid AI3 to the belay. the rest of the route went well. good ice on the second pitch. I'd say that it should still be good for a week or so. perhaps Bala will post some pictures.

for those interested in the south face, there is a large cornice overhanging the approach gully.

P1 was quite a ballsy lead by Kurt. Almost vertical at places, with
shitty ice (if you can call it ice ), and no pro. Going up further
towards the right (near the rock wall) was easier when I tried
last time. Again, on P3, we had to swim up 60-65 degree snow
on smooth rock (needless to say, no pro here as well). Ridge
pitches were fun. We were pretty glad we did not break the
cornice off when we rapped over it. Given the short approach
to a short mountain, we thought it was quite a long route.
Definitely fun though . Here are a few pics.


Me leading P2:




Me "broke-backing" the ridge:




Kurt above the 5.low section on the second ridge pitch:




Kurt doing the first rappel: