Gaucho Argentino

FYMF!!! Congrats on finishing those 100s, and to do it with your son in the trip, double happiness!! BTW, way to go, Stephan, and hope to meet Jorge some day. Awesome pics, Dude!

Fun times!! Epics are a nice way to learn.. When are you guys going for the N Ridge next??!! :-)

Damn! So complex terrain so close, really cool... nice job, Pals! How many feet of slings did you have at the begging and how much left in the packs at the end after all the raps?!

Great job Stephan! Less smoke than Seattle anyways, so great decision to go out there...

Looking at the first half of climbing in the first pic, on the slabs directly under the fall line of the glacier, do you think is there a way up much to the right against the wall? It seems that in there you could be out of the way of ice falling from above? Happy you guys made it to tell the story, rad big-balls sorta climbing...

Do you remember Captain Jack Sparrow: "Yeah, but why the rum is gone??!!"... I could forgive the car, but who took your beers!!!!!!!??????????? Hang em' all... and on a serious note, INSPIRING trip, Pal, thank you for sharing it in all detail, you have quite the story to tell for many years to come!! Kudos...

Off-W, why the pic makes you sad? Glacier used to be much bigger, I guess?

Hi Tom, sorry to bother after so many years, catching up with WA after being away for a while... so, the couloir is in the very left side of your pic, correct?

FYMF!!!!

Pic #6: Every second of your life that you get to spend standing on a couple metal spikes facing a frozen wall, that's MF life... awesome, Bros...

Dude!!! Duuuude!! So freaking jealous right now... can only dream on being up there... thanks for sharing the stoke!

Hi Pal. Thanks for the good intention. At least not mine (guy loading water drip by drip in the plastic bottle, on the TFT :-). Just in case for the future, I did forget somewhere along the N Cascades any amount of money that you say you found :-)...

Awesome, pal. Every weekend should be three days long and in the mountains...

Nope, Pal... You could load up right before getting into it, on the glacier at the base of the gully. After that, no mas agua :-)

Hi, Chad! I'm pretty sure is a great route, and can't be more difficult than the TFT, to mention one. I guess my opinion comes from my experience with mountain rescue, and now with having worked in an ICU during nursing. Form that I assure you I saw many times the definition of "accident": something you can't predict. IMHO, this accident you can't prevent even in an "easy" rock climb like the W Ridge of Stuart, can have a very different outcome roped than not. I can also think on my son reading your TR. I would be much happier him reading something like: "This is a serious alpine route for the solo climber. Make sure you understand what you are getting into, and if you have the experience to go solo for it, go climb it, enjoy it, but also be ready for some serious possibility of getting hurt or even dying". That would be a good encouragement from someone with very solid skills like you in a more balanced way to those younger climbers that may not still even have the appropriate developmental age to understand all the risks (is known that we have fully functional brain only until 23-24 years of age). Again, Chad, not saying anything against you, you are free to do and say what you want, and I can honestly only applaud your physical stamina and mind set up to go for it. I just wanted to make sure my son and any other kiddo that could end up in the ICU where I worked, had a different opinion to read in the same thread. In the end, after reading different opinions and having more information, we can all decide by ourselves. Cheers, my friend :-) Gaucho..

DPS/KK: Did you guys simul most of it? If we were to push for the cars, we would have been there only until like 5 am :-) We got a rope stuck, but still...

Hei, Pal. No kidding you are in good shape!! Given that you referred to all the solo climbers, I'd like to make a quick comment for the same "population": I know of a very good climber, very careful, solid climber, that took a fall in that route because a boulder just got loose, and could have very well died in that route. He's probably alive just because of being roped up and the big pelotas of the partner that down-climbed like 80% of the ridge. Not trying by any means to generate a discussion, just a friendly second opinion. In any case, awesome job, Dude!!

@ Oleg: Nope, but if we would have been in Argentina, that guy would be in the asador for sure!! :-) @ Stephen: Yeap, need a better strategy to balance the two days. Still I think we could have been faster on the ridge, but starting from the col and going back to the cars, is not smart... Next year :-)

Yeah, Pals!! And actually, even 2 #6 are not a bad thing. Glisading down that OW may not be pleasant...

@DPS: Yeap! Larry is the man, Dude. He gave us good beta in the most friendly way, he's clearly super cool. And as for the climb, I think that the only way to make it a more relaxed climb is to bivy at the base of the route or even mid-route on the first day. To make it in a day all the way up from the col, back to camp, and hike out, kinda overkiller. Next time :-)

@ Nate: Hei, Pal!! Will send you a PM if you and Renata want that pics... @ Riley: Buddy, how are you!? We have to go climbing the N Face of Bear soon!! You lead it ;-) @ KK: Dude, I'm fat, trying to lose weight!! :-)

Hei, KK! Good that you got out!! That thing looks loose, Dude... I guess it adds to the flavor :-) No team pics?!

Dudes, what a climb. Kudos. This is a stiff, sustained one... Rock seems to be solid all along?...

Trip: Triumph - NE Ridge Date: 9/1/2013 Trip Report: What a 4 days weekend… After sitting my butt for most of the last year and a half going through nursing school at 40, I finally graduated about 10 days ago. Although last weekend (my first of freedom in a looong time) I went ice cragging in the Baker’s seracs (with the 7 miles each way of road walking due to rad closure), I was feeling pretty much “out of the couch” for an alpine climb. We had talked with Dan M. that “we have to go climbing” since before I started college, and finally this weekend we made happen our first alpine climb together. He climbed the whole NR of Stuart last weekend, and was on recovery mode... It so happened to be that he bought a bottle of beer at a Ballard’s brewery with the label of Mount Triumph like 6 months ago, and he wouldn’t crack it open until he would summit the peak… So we settle on Triumph, overall “an easy climb” for an out of the couch dude and another one on recovery from his longest ever alpine climb… yeah, right… We took off Thursday night, camped in front of the ranger’s station at Marblemount, got a permit on Friday morning, and soon got busy on the approach… … that was considerable delayed by the fact that right now that’s “Berry Paradise”. We ate like a pound each of the best blueberries and huckleberries and whatever other berry that was growing around there, simply fantastic… Dan picking up berries by the handful... We made it to the col with clouds still hanging in there, but no rain, the promise of better weather, and happy to see that skyline so close... However, when we took a look at the basin, we were not very happy with what we saw. The snow/glacier finger that should put us into the gully and the start of the climb was non-existent. From the distance we had the impression that we came way into late season, and the access to the gully would be not possible… Anyway, we settle camp, and recovered with some Argentinean mate… Night weather was stellar, with clear skies, the whole milky way on sight, and mild temps. Morning come, and we got through the basin walking mostly on solid snow, and occasionally sprinting under those sections where blocks of glacier are peeling off. Pretty beautiful, actually... View of the basin from the other side… After a few shenanigans that were clearly time consuming, we gained the ridge and started climbing. Having being away from climbing for so long, and the first time with Dan, we were pitching out most of the climb, what again was eating our daylight (in retrospective, kind of a mistake in terms of speed, perhaps balanced because we tried the best to be on the safe side)… About mid-ridge, two climbers from PDX (Renata and Nate – super sool people, BTW), reached us, took a pic of us (thanks!)… … and passed us… We continued simul-climbing some, and pitching most. Dan got to lead the awesome crack up high in great style… After that, we walk to the base of the gully that you’ll see on your right. Men, that thing is disgusting. It goes for about 200 feet (one rope length), is loose, steep, with minimal pro. At this time, the PDX climbers we rappelling down already, was like 4.20 pm, and we were starting to get concerned with time. But we didn’t make it so far to quit 200’ from the summit… … and at about 5p, we were there! Stoked of being on top of another North Cascades mountain after such a long time. Looking at the Southern Pickets in the background is an inspiration … However, the best part of the trip was just beginning. There are quite a number of rappels, they mostly finish a few feet from the next on the ridge proper (with the need for some sketchy free-soloing to them), and it started to get really late… We made it to the third to last rappel (the one that puts you in the first nice ledge just before the first pitch of the climb) at around 10p… complete darkness by this time... and sure enough the rope got stuck in a little tiny crack right next to the rap station… y la reconciencia de la lora!! (some Spanish kinda meaning we were not happy with that)... climbing with a headlamp the whole pitch at the end of a very long day wasn’t a lotta fun, honestly, but got the rope out, rappelled again, prayed to the rope-protecting gods, and this time it came down… Two raps later and we were on the ledges climbers right of the gully, picked up our crampons/ice axes, crossed the glacier with headlamps to the col, and made it back to camp at around midnight. We were very low on food, so dinner was some more mate and a quarter of a sandwich, actually all we ate until we were back to the cars next morning around noon, something we did pretty much running on more blueberries… Now, what do most people eat after a climb around there, specially beng so starved? Cheeseburgers in Marblemount? “No, senior”... Pulled the stove, the iron cast, and we got some sausages and beef, ... and proceeded to crack open that Triumph beer, all of which we actually got to share with Rebecca and Nate that were getting out right after us… We were pretty wasted by this time, but drove to the Blue Lake trailhead, and on Monday we bagged the Directismo route on the Concord tower (thanks to Larry, a guide that happened to be in the trail with a client, for being super cool on sharing tips on what would be a cool climb to tag). On the way down, we found one of the typical cragging friends around there… Altogether, what a great weekend. Many shenanigans are still out of the story, as the dead pica in Dan’s sleeping bag, but they will be part of bar meetings in the weeks to come. Cheers to friends and family when you read this in Argentina! And cheers to Dan for being such a great new climbing partner!! Is good to be back out there in the N Cascades!! Gear Notes: One set of BD cams to #3, one of 10 nuts (Metolius) Approach Notes: Trail is awesome, basin/glacier is in very late season. Gain the ridge following the ledges system climbers right...

Who DIDN'T allow you to climb in bikini before!!??