escreality

Trip: Triumph NE ridge and Thornton Peak Sep 14-16 Date: 9/24/2012 Trip Report: Sorry about the timeliness of this post, but the photos are worth sharing. My climbing partner took them, but was too shy to write up the report. Two of us started at the Thornton Lakes trailhead around 3PM and made good time up to Thornton Lakes. We stashed ski poles at the outlet of the second lake thus beginning our yard sale of gear. We pushed a bit to get to the notch above the second lake by dark. We ended up making it at dusk and eating dinner under a sea of stars and a glowing milky way. The smoke from the forest fires seemed lower down and didn’t disrupt the stargazing, but could be seen in the sunset and across the valleys. In the morning we didn’t start out until 7AM. The glacier is in good shape and we had no problems crossing it on crampons and getting on to the ledges on the other side. The right sloping gully was unnecessary in the current snow conditions. We walked in crampons up the left side of it on snow and continued our yard sale of gear by leaving crampons and ice axes. At the base of the climb we left our boots and one pack (yard sale part 3) and proceeded to rope up. The first lead was short and we hauled in the rope and scrambled much of the lower ridge placing gear in key places. Route finding was straightforward as you can read about in many of the other well written reports. I thoroughly enjoyed the climbing up to the final heathery ledges. About the final ledges… We started up in what was likely the wrong place (too soon) and my partner ended up dropping part way back down and moving much farther left onto the face. We put away the rope after one partial lead on the ledges viewing it as a hazard at this point and scrambled the rest of the way to the summit. The views from the top were fantastic and we reminisced about our climbs of the past few years together, most of which could be seen. At that point we began the discussing our next trip as is our tradition. So many options out in the distance… Southern Pickets Baker, Blum, and Shuksan The decent of the ledges was much less fun than the way up (insert explicative for loose rocks and dry crumbly heather). The ridge was a monotony of rappels. Has anyone tried descending the South shoulder and face back down to the glacier? It might be faster if it were set up with rap stations. The NE ridge decent was fine with a single 60m rope we found. We did miss one station, but did not have too much trouble setting up our own sling. On the way down we saw a party on the central north rib kick a rock and exchanged some words. Does anyone know how that trip turned out? They looked like they were ready to bivi for the night fairly low on the route. The route looks great from our vantage point, but the approach must be brutal. We gather gear from our various stashes and made it back to camp with plenty of time to cook dinner before dark and reread the route descriptions and over analyze our choices throughout the day. In the morning we dashed up to Thornton Peak (Old Damnation) from camp at the notch. It’s a nice scramble with a cool finish across a narrow ledge to an airy summit. I’m surprised this isn’t a standard follow up for NE Triumph route. The view of Triumph is fantastic. It only took two hours round trip from camp. Here’s the view of Triumph from Thornton Peak. We packed camp and headed home with a swim in lower Thornton on the way. Fall colors are on the way. Gear Notes: 5 cams and few chalks, 60m rope Approach Notes: Thornton Lakes Trail