John Frieh Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Trip: Burkett Needle - West Ridge "Smash and Grab" (FA) Date: 7/4/2009 Trip Report: Summary: First Ascent of the west ridge of Burkett Needle on July 4th 2009. Dave Burdick and John Frieh: "Smash and Grab" 5.8 M4 IV. Burkett Needle courtesy of the great John Scurlock. The west ridge is the left hand skyline: Alternative view from north; west ridge is the right hand skyline: Itinerary July 3: SEA -> Petersburg, AK -> Burkett boulder -> High camp July 4: High camp -> west ridge -> summit -> rapped South Buttress Route -> high camp July 5: High camp -> Burkett boulder -> Petersburg Burkett Needle climbing history to date: 1964 - North Buttress (5.6) - Layton Kor and Dan Davis. August 9th. (1st Ascent and 1st Free Ascent) 1982 - attempt on the west side by Steve Monks and Damian Carroll. April/May 1995 - attempt on the South Face (V 5.9 A3 difficulty) - Joe Reichert, Gardner Heaton. March-April 1995 - South Pillar (V 5.10 A3+) - Greg Collum, Greg Foweraker, and Dan Cauthorn. May (2nd Ascent) 1999 - Le Voyage des Clochards Celestes (VI 7a+ A3+, ca. 1200m) on the south-east face - Lionel Daudet, Stbastien Foissac. May 29th (3rd Ascent) 2005 - attempt on the South Pillar by Carl and Bill. July 2006 - attempt on the South Pillar by Carl and Kale. July 2006 - attempt on the West Ridge by Dave Burdick and Micah Lambeth. July 2008 - South Pillar ascent to base of final 5.7 pitch by Zac and Nick 2009 - South Pillar ascent with a new three pitch free variation + 1 rappel that rejoins the South Pillar route above the aid pitch (5.10+) - Jens Holsten & Max Hasson. June 10th (4th Ascent) 2009 - West Ridge (IV 5.8 M4) - Dave Burdick, John Frieh. July 4th (5th Ascent) Pictures and prose: This trip was all Dave. Dave had the approach dialed from his last trip in 2006, stalked the daily NOAA updates and always immediatly called the both the chopper pilot Wally and local climbing guru Dieter Klose at the first sign of high pressure. It only took 3 years but he finally nailed a solid window I wasnt expecting a second trip to Alaska this year but the phone rang the Tuesday prior and in a little over 48 hours later I was sorting gear in Dave's garage. We were in Petersburg around 10:45 am on the 3rd... following a quick stop at the grocery story and lunch with Dieter we loaded up the chopper and a half hour later we were deposited at the Burkett boulder. We grabbed enough supplies for a few days, cached the rest and headed for a high camp on the ridge climbers left of the glacier. Drop point; Needle in the background One bag of chips or two? Approach stoke High camp. Radio tunes courtesy of a well positioned MSR windscreen We left camp the following morning @ ~6:30 am and minus a few crevasses to avoid and an almost lost ice tool were @ the base of the ridge with out incident around 9:30 am or so. Fat kids make better post holes Dave drafting; Devils Thumb in the background Can you feel the stoke yet? At the base of the ridge The ridge started with a mixed pitch before leading into clean granite. We changed into rock shoes and started simuling Let's get this party started More please Dave loving it... can you tell? Following a nice simul block we encountered enough snow on the ridge to warrant changing back into boots (this becomes a theme) From hand jams to ice tools A few mixed pitches took us to the top of the false summit. To be completely honest when I pulled over the top of the false summit I wasnt sure if the ridge was going to go. It looked hard... at least to this sucky climber. View from the false summit We rapped in to the low point in between the false summit and the true summit for a better look... from below it didnt look as bad and Dave stepped up to give it a go We changed back into rock shoes yet again It turned out the climbing was significantly easier that it appeared and Dave made quick work of the best pitch on the entire route Dave! Dave was nice enough to let me have the next one My turn Dave following I brought us to the final snow summit where guess what! We changed shoes yet again Boots for the summit 5th Ascent! We rapped the south buttress route per Zac's recommendation and the suspicion Jens and Max had beefed up all the rap anchors. Even though the rope got stuck 3 times this descent is the way to go IMO. We found the south buttress route topo was invaluable in assisting locate the next rap anchor. Hi jinxs Rapping the golden slab The highlight of the descent was rapping the severely overhanging A3+ aid roof pitch. Love the exposure Dave's turn We reached the base just after sunset. Speaking of... Done A quick stroll back down the glacier brought us back to the tent and a late dinner. Headed home The following morning we packed up and headed back down to the Burkett Boulder were we signaled Wally who promptly picked us up and whisked us back to Petersburg. Love the 3 day weekend! Shouting Out: - Dave for putting this together. He made it happen! - Dieter Klose for the beta, a place to dirt bag, rides and letting us browse his black book of climbs and history for the Stikine area. - Emily for the airport service and tracking the spot Gear Notes: We took: 1 tool per person crampons pins picket double rack to a #3 + 1 #4 c4 double set of nuts (one set was burned getting down) 50' of rap tat (used all of it + both our cordelettes) I'd recommend Double set -> 1 camalot + 2, 3, and maybe a 4 c4 double set of nuts (keep one set in the bag for getting down) lots of rap tat tool per person pons picket maybe??? better safe than sorry? Approach Notes: Wally is the man Quote
Rad Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 The memories of a man in his old age are the deeds of a man in his prime (Floyd). And for Max and Jens: Quote
olyclimber Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Nice weekend juant fellows. Saw maxs pic and John scurlocks of the needle, what a cool place. Congrats to the both of you and to Dave for persevering. Thanks for the tr. Quote
Maxtrax Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Way to get at it fellas. That ridge between the false and true summits looks pretty sweet. Quote
billcoe Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 In case you need one more dude to step and relay how awesome this is: consider me that dude. What kind of elevation/distance are we talking about here? Say base to summit and shoulder to summit? Awesome job and TR. Dave: for having his shit together. John: for that and sharing the stoke with us cube farmers. Quote
climbaround Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Yowza! Cooler than a moose and twice as hairy! Quote
marc_leclerc Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 (edited) Great Job Guys... nice looking route. In your little history of the needle I think you missed something, Zac Hoyt and Nick Elson did a route (FA?) in there a couple years ago.. I will get more info and post back to you... okay.. this is Nick's Quote about B-Needle : "23 days of bad weather! Alaskan hardman Zac Hoyt and I climbed to within 100 feet of the summit of Burkett Needle via the South Buttress (5.10+, A3+) before being turned back by a fierce storm." They didn't get an FA I guess.. Again, good work on your route! Edited July 8, 2009 by marc_leclerc Quote
John Frieh Posted July 8, 2009 Author Posted July 8, 2009 Great Job Guys... nice looking route. In your little history of the needle I think you missed something, Zac Hoyt and Nick Elson did a route (FA?) in there a couple years ago.. I will get more info and post back to you... okay.. this is Nick's Quote about B-Needle : "23 days of bad weather! Alaskan hardman Zac Hoyt and I climbed to within 100 feet of the summit of Burkett Needle via the South Buttress (5.10+, A3+) before being turned back by a fierce storm." They didn't get an FA I guess.. Again, good work on your route! Yeah... we met Zac in town... he was on the South Buttress route also so even if he did make the summit it wouldnt have been an FA. Super cool super motivated climber. They were turned back due to rime ice! I did include it in the history up there. Thanks everyone for the props! Something I may or may not have forgotten to add in to the TR here: [video:vimeo]5497987 The rap off the A3+ pitch is so overhung one has to swing over and in to reach the next rap station... I had the bulk of the gear as being the fat kid was always first to rap to test the anchors and as you can see more or less suck at swinging around :laf: Dave was kind enough to capture it on video Quote
Dan_Miller Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Up on the Stikine, it's all about the weather. Which is frequently very wet for long periods of time (hence the Icecap) even in the summertime. Obviously Alpine Dave and Dieter Klose had it pretty well sussed out. Thirty years ago on this date I sat for weeks under the Burkett Needle and only fairly briefly did we see it. Luck with the weather gods plays strongly into making ascents in the Coast Ranges. Really strong effort guys. I'm mightely impressed. Quote
JensHolsten Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Nice work guys...love the route name! A couple of clarifications on John's info. The SB of Burkett Needle went all free at 10+, there is no rappel. Also, we did not beef up any of those anchors you rapped off. Original webbing all the way...nice work again! Quote
NoahT Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Geez, two PNW teams within a month of each other--that probablly counts as crowded up there. Well done! Quote
John Frieh Posted July 8, 2009 Author Posted July 8, 2009 Nice work guys...love the route name! A couple of clarifications on John's info. The SB of Burkett Needle went all free at 10+, there is no rappel. Also, we did not beef up any of those anchors you rapped off. Original webbing all the way...nice work again! Original webbing!?!? You guys are brave! You guys need to ask your sponsors for rap tat next time I'm fairly certain you or Max's entry in Dieter's book mentioned a rappel...? Quote
JensHolsten Posted July 8, 2009 Posted July 8, 2009 Max and I climbed two new pitches around the aid and then tried to continue a much more difficult variation on the SE face. We were turned back by steep, poorly protected rock and made a rappel back down to the top of our second pitch before shooting left (third pitch variation)back onto the SB. Future parties will not need to rappel, the only reason we did was to get back to the route. Quote
John Frieh Posted July 8, 2009 Author Posted July 8, 2009 Ahhh... cool! I knew I remembered reading something about a rap so that makes a lot more sense... very cool you guys found a way to make it go free! Congrats again on all your ascents up there! Quote
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