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“Missed It” Wall 5.9 PG, 5 pitches, II, 6/22/24 Alex Pederson, Zack Williams, Spencer Moore What is the difference between a first ascent and a wildly preventable navigation error? Intentionality I suppose. Due to indifference and blasé attitudes towards where a route starts, what transformed our “off route” miscalculation into a full day of adventuring is a commitment to the joy of uncharted terrain. It seems as if this route is new, but in the style of the times I am going to spray about it on the internet and hope no one climbed this in the 70’s. I would hazard a redefinition of traditionalism in the 21st century is to keep the “fuck it we ball” attitude and check with the grey haired locals just to be sure. Hoping to capitalize the long days of the solstice, Alex Pederson, Zack Williams, and I decided to jaunt around the green creek circuit. Late Friday after a roofing gig in Acme, I rushed over to the trail head and ditched my tar stricken denim for soft shells. We bounced down to the river and crossed over the log bridge with what I must say is probably the best tensioned hand line I have ever encountered. Whoever did that, bravo. We chatted about old growth, scifi books, and climbing plans all the way through the second crossing and up to the river. It was a little past 9pm and we had taken just under two hours to get to the cairn that marked our final river crossing. We navigated upstream to a calmer section of the creek and waded knee high water to the other side. After a particularly fridged barefooted river crossing in Cody in January, snow melt rivers felt cute in comparison. I still yelped at the sensation of water that was probably snow 45 minutes earlier. Barfie toes are barfie toes after all. At camp we hunkered down for a leisurely wake up time of 4am, and drifted off to sleep after some celebratory beers cooled off in the creek. The forecast turned from rain on Sunday to rain on Saturday. We weren’t really sure if we could complete the circuit given the unpredictable weather, but we decided to see how far we could go until things didn’t make sense any more. We scrambled up the gully to the start of the Mythic Wall. There was a fair bit of snow at the base of the route, and we made a plan to start left and then traverse right into the route after avoiding the worst of the wetness. I opted to take the first lead by tying in and stealing the rack from Alex’s pack while throwing him a bight of rope. Even though you could probably hang one-handed on the grippy dunnite even if coated in Vaseline, something about wet rock triggers the instinct to go somewhere else. To put it succinctly, I went too far left; Like way to far left. I went so far left that I was closer to the Green Creek Arête than the Mythic Wall. Whoops. When Alex and Zack met me at the belay, they raised their eyebrows in disbelief at my route-finding choices and handed me the two cams back that I had placed in a full 65m pitch of low fifth. I was basically told to “try again” and just go as right as possible and see where we ended up. After 10 or so meters of traversing I met a flake and finger crack that led to a ledge just big enough to mantle onto. Pounding each hold with my fist, I ripped out what choss I could and plugged a small nut and a black totem into the wall and sacked up for the moves. Some finger locks, a layback series, and a heel hook mantle proved to be the physical crux of the route. As I followed a hand and fist crack to the right, I gardened blocks and flakes from sections of the wall by either ripping it out or watching it crumble as I tested each move. After an inspiring serpentinite bearing crack system, a foothold blew on my final mantle move and I lost any confidence in slicken-lines and fault scour. I found a belay out left on more solid dunite and brought up Zack and Alex. As Alex led the next two pitches, Zack and I talked religion, machine extruded Mexican food, and literature. Alex took off on a #2 crack that bore some interesting stemming and jamming, and ended at what amounted to a perfect tree anchor. We seemed to be lucking out on ledges big enough for a party of three. His next block also started with excellent jams, leading to a precarious tombstone shaped stack of loose flakes the size of flatbed trucks. He shouted “don’t touch anything to the left of the #2!”, and jutted right to a ring lock sized crack that took excellent nuts and small cams. A tricky high foot and a crimpy rail led up left to yet another mantle, and a fantastic belay ledge. We were 15 meters below the fourth class section of the Green Creek Arête leading to the 5.6 headwall. I opted for the last lead and stemmed up a chimney with excellent jams and one memorable offwidth move. There was a great #1 sized crack to finish topping out, and a convenient tree to belay off of. We topped out, ate a quick snack, and carried the rope over to the start of the 5.6 pitch of the GCA. A party of two was rapping down as we flaked out at the base, and we exchanged pleasantries during their descent. Non sequitur: We found a pin anchor midway up the pitch for a rap station in an absolutely unnecessary location no more than six feet away from a visible tree anchor with tat. While I am not above placing pins in the alpine, I do so pretty sparingly and only when there is no other option. With ice and mixed climbing, I keep a few small pins and a pecker for iced up cracks. These pins were placed poorly in a very haphazard fashion out of the way of the line of descent next to a crack that could have taken nuts just as well as the tree that was already slung. We found another pin anchor backing up a 1.5ft diameter tree that was slung too high and choking out some branches. I don’t want to throw shade at anyone because people make mistakes and placing pins is somewhat of a lost art, but for real please pick a choss heap that is on the ground to practice hammering iron, and pack some extra nuts and tat if you are really trying to beef up an established rap station. We removed the loose pins and replaced a bunch of sun bleached tat on the tree anchor. Ultimately I don’t want to make people feel bad for ethics in climbing, I think it is a better approach to gently bring them into the fold. If the people who ended up placing those pins ever read this, the super popular route that you are climbing probably has established rap stations, and if you can’t find those stations please use pitons literally as a last resort. /endrant Zack, tired of riding the middle, sprinted up the 5.6. Alex and I topped out just as the clouds started looking evil. We hesitated before dropping to the saddle heading towards the South Twin. The snow was soft and saturated. With each step closer to the South Twin, we grew increasingly less enthusiastic about being up high. Passing squalls peppered us with rain, and we finally paused halfway to our purported link up. Examining two cornices on the S Twin, we hesitated further. Turning toward Baker, we watched a lenticular cloud at the summit succumb to grey blankets of overburdened cumulus. All across the valley we watched patches of rain sweep the range. We had a lot of time left in the day to tag the twin, but the super wet snow gave us bad impressions of the cornice hazards. A wet slide by Cinderella sealed the deal to go down. We opted for a leisurely lunch before our retreat, leaving the epic for another time. Bursts of rain peppered us as we began our first rappel. We admired Blake Harington’s line adjacent to the Mythic Wall and undid the aforementioned pin nest on our way down. After a second rap, we downclimbed the 3rd class ledge ladder as the rain shifted to the south side of the valley. Boulder hopping and generally avoiding killing each other with loose blocks gave way to our camp, where we rehydrated and snacked while packing up. As god has no small sense of irony, instead of cutting myself on the razorblade rocks we had been palming all day, I slipped on a wet root and an errant branch sliced a section of my palm open on the way down. As we made our way back to the car (and as I grumbled about how this kind of shit never happens when you go sport climbing) we looked back to the range, now certain that a bail was warranted for the traverse. In dripping glee, we made our way back to the trailhead and crossed our final log of the day. We celebrated with a staggering order of Taco Bell – which arguably is the most hazardous terrain we encountered that day – and deliriously gorged ourselves on extruded Mexican food, extoling the virtues of long days in the mountains in good company. Route Description: P1: 4th to low 5th class. Simul climb 65m of choss ramp moving left to 5 meters of a baggy finger crack around 5.6 P2: 5.9 55m. 10m of blocky climbing traversing right to a finger crack. A small downward sloping triangle block guards the only feet before the finger crack. Two hard finger moves lead to a layback and mantle, protected with a black totem and small nut. Move up and right to a hand and fist crack containing smooth serpentinite and fault scour. Pull through a small overhanging move and mantle again. Trend left to another hand crack nestled in a right facing corner for a decent gear anchor on a ledge with a small bush. P3: 5.7 30m. Follow the hand crack at the base of the belay ledge to a small tree. Move right and up a blocky crack system to a bigger tree with a good belay stance at the base of yet another hand crack. P4: 5.8+ 30m PG. This is probably the most fun pitch of the entire route. Great movement off the deck leads to a crack system that narrows as it moves up. The flakes peter out to a crimpy rail with slopers, with a committing mantle move for a finisher. Halfway up the pitch are three truck bed sized flakes loosely stacked on top of each other. Careful, these are widow-makers and will absolutely kill your belayer if disturbed. P5: 5.7 15m A fun stemming corner and offwidth lead to a roof with thin hands. Protects well with some ringlock to hand sized pieces. Top out at a slung tree that marks a rap station for the Green Creek Arête. P6: 5.6 finish with the 5.6 crux of the Green Creek Arête Protection: Double rack to 2, healthy nut rack with some hand size hexes thrown in for good measure. Location: Go to the base of the Mythic Wall and get off route by moving too far left.

Trip: Mount Fairweather - Carpe Ridge Trip Date: 06/16/2024 Trip Report: Coming off the heels of Eli's awesome climb on Carpe Ridge, Sarah and I also climbed this route from June 13-16th. It was a very historic year on Fairweather to have two parties climb Carpe within just a few weeks of each other, considering the previous ascent of Carpe Ridge prior to this year was the Smileys back in 2013...11 years ago! I already wrote a full length trip report on my website that can be found here, but I'll include the route topos we made below and a few brief notes. The PDF can be downloaded for a complete route overview on one page. Flew into Fairweather Glacier with Fly Drake, and made it to 10400 foot camp first day. Big 5700 foot day with full 40 lb packs. Followed the historically done route the whole way traversing left initially, climbing the narrow couloir and following the rocky ridgecrest before following open snow slopes right of the crest from 8000 to 10400 feet. Snow below 7500 feet was firm and awesome. Perfect crampon booting. Above that was isothermic slop. Put snowshoes on at 8k. After waiting a full day at 10400 camp due to active snowfall (8-12 inches), on day 3 we traversed right to bypass the big cliffs above the 10400 camp, then climbed up steeper but good snow all the way to where ridge narrows at 12k. The historic route of going left around these cliffs definitely does not go anymore...huge overhanging ice serac shedding crap constantly. Continued up past small flat 12400 foot camp, fell into crevasse at 12500 feet, slogged through deep drifted powder from there to 13400 feet, made it to south peak at 13820 feet and camped at 13700 foot low saddle between south and main peaks. Day 4 climbed to summit and descended standard west ridge/north basin route to 9800 foot LZ for pickup early morning on day 5. Ice nose was climbed by traversing the blue ice left of the aerated white ice wall that would crumble at the slightest touch! Had historically good weather. After we flew out there was even 3 more days of awesome weather which we used to try and climb Devils Thumb. More on that later. Carpe Route.pdf Gear Notes: Team Gear - MSR Advance Pro UL 2 person tent: This is the lighest alpine tent you can get. It's small and sucks to be in especially with my 6' 9" height, but critical for its durability and low weight. - One 60m half rope: Since we would not be descending the route, no rappels would be needed so only one rope was brought - Two standard snow pickets: One per person - Ortovox Pro snow shovel - Six Petzl Laser Speed Light ice screws and V thread tool - Small set of stoppers and a few small cams from 0.2 - 0.5 inch: We did not end up using these - Six single length runners and two double length runners with 2 wire gate biners each - MSR Reactor stove - One medium and Two mini fuel canisters: The non winter mix canisters did not perform very well, but the winter mix one we had did quite a bit better. With the great weather forecast we had, we felt comfortable bringing this low amount of fuel. My Personal Gear - Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L Pack: This is my favorite pack money can buy....period. - Big Agnes Lost Ranger UL Sleeping Bag (Just the orange inside section rated 20 degrees F): This modular sleeping system has two separate bags. Combined they are rated 0 degrees F but using just the inside bag gives you one of the lightest 20 degree bags out there. - Thermarest NeoAir inflatable sleeping pad - Big Agnes Third Degree foam sleeping pad: I always double up with a foam pad when sleeping on snow in case my air pad punctures. If you cannot fix the puncture you're fucked without a backup foam pad. - MSR Denali EVO Snowshoes - BD Couloir Mountaineering harness - Pulley and MicroTraxion with prussiks and three locking carabiners - BD Cobra Ice Tools with BD Spinner Bungee leash: This was my first time using these and I liked them well enough for mountain objectives. - 1 Liter Nalgene water bottle with insulator - Petzl Sirocco helmet - One BD Z-Distance trekking pole: Lost in crevasse :( - La Sportiva Olympus Mons Mountaineering Boot: This is the only good mountaineering boot big enough for me - BD Stinger automatic crampons - Good pair of glacier glasses - Small plastic bowl and spork Personal Clothing - Under Armor wool base layer pants - Fjall Raven G1000 Pants - Polyester base layer T shirt - Under Armor Wool long sleeve shirt - BD First Light Hybrid Hoody: Great soft shell that fits my large frame perfectly - Columbia Yocum Ridge shell jacket: I did not end up using this - Cotopaxi down vest - La Sportiva Primaloft Insulating coat: Can't remember the exact model of this coat but it was my main big puffy. Only needed it twice for a short amount of time - Balaclava - Rab Endurance down mitts - BD Gloves - Three pairs of socks Food - Five Peak Refuel freeze dried meals - Small box of Cherrios and ziploc bag of dried milk powder - Two small bags of beef jerky - Two small bags of M&Ms - Six small packs of Fruit Gushers - Four Natures Bakery Fig Bars (AKA Barely Edibles) - Two small Shot Blocks - One Tube of NUUN water enhancers Approach Notes: Fly in to 4700 feet on Fairweather Glacier with Fly Drake. GIve this guy full respect...he deserves it!