Fellow fools,
I'm planning a little adventure and am considering the E Ridge of Inspiration. I think we're up to it but I'd like some beta on condns, descent etc. FYI, we did the E ridge of Forbidden and are looking for an alpine rock route of similar or better caliber...and we're actually looking forward to thrashing in to the Terror basin.
A few questions:
1 - I'd like to take just 1 rope (60m). Is that good enough for the descent of the W ridge or down the S face variation? Are there any landmarks for where you started that S face raps? Maybe we can utilize the gear you left behind...
2 - What can you say about the upper Terror glacier. My glacier experience (3 years and a dozen routes or so) is lower than my rock experience (13 yrs of trad rock all over). Obviously we'll bring ax/crampons/rope. Any special considerations or comments on difficulties, moat, bergschrunds? It will be late August when we're there.
3 - What rock gear is needed? Standard rack? Large gear? I'm confortable running it out on terrain up to 5.7 or 5.8 but probably want to have the right gear for the 5.9 crux.
4 - Where is the best place to camp?
5 - Estimated time for RT from high camp? (on E ridge of Forbidden we took 21 hrs from a camo low in the Boston Basin back to same - w/a nap on the slabs under the light of the full moon - and we had to wait for 90 minutes before we could pass a slower party at the start of the route).
FYI, we're giving ourselves 4 days car to car - 1 day in, 1 day to climb, 1 day for weather contingencies, dashing up MacMillan, or just absorbing the wilderness ambience while dreaming of pizza, and 1 day out.
Thanks.