Trip: Mesahchie - Icefall Couloir to East Ridge
Date: 9/3/2010
Trip Report:
Cool route despite the choss factor.
Lots of transitions between different kinds of climbing. Some easy glacier, moderate ice, steep snow, chossy rock . . .
Not many signs of life up there - saw exactly two cairns, four pieces of tat and one summit register. It was great to be on such an infrequently traveled peak.
Finding suitable anchors was the biggest challenge. Most belayed pitches ended with simply dropping to the other side of the ridge to get a terrain belay. Took 15 mins to find a good anchor for our single rap.
We descended the route to pick up our ice gear stashed at the top of the couloir.
Racking up
The couloir starts at the upper left corner of the glacier. N ridge on the right skyline looks worthy and offers more rock and less steep snow.
Gaining the ridge from the couloir
A not really necessary but fun pitch of 5th to gain the summit crest . . .
6th team this summer . . .
Sidehill stoke . . .
Gear Notes:
Used two tools, steel crampons, and a few screws, but could get by with way less with good route selection through the icefall.
50m rope ideal. Small rock rack to #1 C4 if you rope up at all . . .
Approach Notes:
We did this as an overnight, but it could be done in a day from Easy Pass TH.
3 hrs TH to 6800' bivy - 6 to 9 hrs on route and descent - 2.5 hrs back to TH. Seems like a reasonable itinerary for a day trip.
The sidehilling gets old after a while but never goes on long enough to be truly tedious . . .
