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spotly

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  1. Trip: The Tooth - Standard

     

    Date: 5/31/2014

     

    Trip Report:

    The winter approach is still in ok condition. Snow was firm enough early morning but post holed a fair about through the basin on the way out.

     

    No big plug at the top of Pineapple Pass and there was even a nice tunnel to crawl through (or go over). There's still a fair amount of snow on the back side of the pass so we were forced to go lower than normal. No biggie though, since there were good steps.

     

    The rock route was snow-free and dry.

     

    Two single rope raps from the base of the rock got us back to mellower than normal snow in the basin. There's a bundle of webbing w/link on climbers left at the base of the first rap.

     

    Fun day out and had the route to ourselves till the last rap. Sure got hot on the way out though...oi.

     

    I twisted my leg up pretty bad post-holing between two boulders in the basin and now my knee is twice normal size. Doesn't seem to hurt though...unless I bend it too far.

     

    I brought an ice ax and used it on the backside of Pineapple Pass. Partner did not and seemed to do fine.

  2. I'm curious where you got on and off the ridge at on the way up. We dropped directly towards the lake then over flattish snow and up the same gully you went up. From the summit me decided to try to stay on the ridge coming down and managed to downclimb the on ledges and hidden chimneys to a col then decided to drop from there towards the lake on steep scree and snow, bypassing much of the ridge.

     

    Nice pictures. I agree - turtle.

  3. I have spent an unexpected night out in an emergency bivi sack...and am convinced it kept a cold uncomfortable night from becoming a body retrieval.

     

    We did the West Ridge route and wound up doing an unexpected bivy on the decent too. It was well below freezing and we had an emergency blanket that saved our butts...barely. I always carry an emergency bag now.

     

    Yeah, that green valley sure is nice after something like that :)

  4. Chason opened up his emergency blanket. This ended up being a sheet of shiny plastic. We wondered what use it would be in an actual emergency.

     

    Not much, as we found out when stuck near the summit several years ago. Lesson learned: better to have an emergency bivy sack. Or better yet, not enyoy the rock so much :)

    StuartWestRidge_037.jpg

  5. Nice pictures and a good description of the route up NEWS. "Take the easier left gully, as the right does not have good pro and takes some committing moves. Continue working up and left over easy terrain. Do not go straight up or right unless you want to deal with offwidth pain." Brother, you go that right. My partner led that in tennis shoes because his toe was hurting. We thought we'd finished off the harder moves until he went right. He spent a looong time on that off-width, skating and shaking and with one piece 10' or more below him said "I think I'm going to take a break here." LOL. We put on quite a show for the peeps on top of SEWS. Good times.

  6. I'm tired this year and it seems like an effort just to get out when the conditions are good. I think we'll hold off on this until the hard-packed steps are already kicked in...maybe do a nice hike somewhere instead. Thanks for the reply on conditions - really appreciate it.

  7. I have a double-locking trunk on the car so if they break a window, at least the trunk release won't work. Not sure if it's all that easy to break into a trunk otherwise but at least it's safer than leaving car camping crap in the backseat of my truck - looking for a steel box with a sturdy lock system for that.

     

    Really sucks that these guys got all their crap stolen.

     

    When car camping for more than a night, I always move the expensive gear from the tent to the trunk during the day and take along the cheapo tent. Then just before I leave, I wake up the guard:

     

    IcicleRidge_April2012_007.jpg

  8. I'm thinking about heading up the do the standard route on The Tooth this weekend. Anyone been up there in the last week? Hows the approach from the upper lot(especially the little slidey area below the cliffs? Big ice block at the pass? Snow on the route?

     

    Thanks.

     

     

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