Trip: Del Campo - FA: Brawndo
Date: 12/14/2009
Trip Report:
On Dec. 14 A2THEK and I climbed a 2 pitch ice line on the lower N face of Del Campo peak. Unfortunately the fresh dump of snow on Sun. night stopped our progress up the rest of the face. It was still a worthy endeavor with a fairly short approach. We spied the line last week from Morningstar peak and made plans to come back and have a go. With the forecast calling for more typical Cascades weather we figured it was either Mon. or not at all for awhile.
The approach was straight forward. Park at the Sunshine Mine trailhead, follow the trail to the major drainage that leads to the valley between Lewis and Morningstar. From here head straight up the drainage instead of following the trail up the avalanche slopes that head toward Headlee pass. Follow this to where the terrain steepens directly below Del Campo’s NF.
The climb itself consisted of 2 full pitches. One being a thin mixed lead to an ice belay right below the upper tier. The second pitch was a full 55 meters of solid blue ice. We rated the climb 3+ R due to thin conditions of the lower pitch, although short screws proved useful here. Two double rope rappels from trees brought us back to the start of the climb.
We decided to name the climb Brawndo in honor of the “Thirst Mutilator”
