BrettS

Trip: Aguja Guillaumet (Chalten Massif, Patagonia) - Comesana-Fonrouge Date: 2/2/2015 Trip Report: Trip: Aguja Guillaumet via Comesana-Fonrouge (Patagonia) Date: 2/2/2015 Trip Report: My wife and I recently returned from a 3 week trip to the Chalten massif in Southern Patagonia. It was an amazing trip, and we were lucky enough to have good weather for the majority of our trip. The area is amazing, and is definitely worthy of all the hype! We successfully summited our main climbing objective, Aguja Guillaumet (The northernmost peak of the Fitzroy skyline) via the Comesana-Fonrouge, our intended route of ascent. It was an amazing experience including beautiful scenery, perfect granite, interesting company, lucky weather, a few mistakes, and a very long summit day! Our first attempt at the climb came a few days earlier, and can only be described as a complete and utter failure. We frantically tried to catch a weather window that was developing as soon as we arrived in El Chalten, and managed to forget a good chunk of necessary gear in our jet lagged state. Fortunately a few days later, things were looking good again. We packed up in a much more civilized fashion, made sure that we had all, and not more than we needed, and caught a ride in the morning to begin the approach to basecamp. The hike begins just before a bridge that crosses Rio Electrico, so named due to booming sound that emanates from the valley from the strong winds, reminiscent of thunder. The first four miles of the trail follow the river valley in a gentle and pleasant path through beach forests and green grass. The river, with its blueish green hue from glacial sediment, is never far away, and provides scenic views. After four miles, the work begins. a steep trail ascends straight up alongside a cascading creek. We were happy to take the packs off and set up camp when we finally arrived at our destination, Piedra Negra. The basecamp at Piedra Negra (named after the black rock in the vicinity) was very nice with a clean source of water, flat terrain, and some nice tent spots to choose from. It sits right below Giullaumet, and we were able to check out our climbing route and strategize for the coming day. We chose our home for the next few days, and set up shop. We had a friendly Argentinean neighbor (Santiago or "Santi" for short) who had climbed our route before and readily gave us his thoughts and advice. We ate copious amounts of freeze-dried food, and went to bed early for the long day to come. The alarm went off bright and early at 2:30 am, but I was already awake, anxious for the day to come. I opened the tent door, tense with what I would see outside. Relief and excitement came as I saw Guillaumet in front of me bathed in moonlight, only thin high clouds, and very little wind. It was go time! The climb starts with a relatively short traverse on a low angle glacier with only a few easily avoided crevasses. We made short work of the glacier, and then began the next and less enjoyable challenge of ascending a steep, long and loose scree field. I am fairly confident that we found the most challenging way up the scree prior to encountering the final obstacle prior to the roped rock climbing, a long and steep snow field that cut across the north face of the mountain. We strapped on our crampons, pulled out our ice axes, and started traversing the lower snow slopes. Approximately halfway across, we decided that we were tired of traversing, and started climbing straight up the middle of the steep snow, front pointing with our crampons, and swinging our ice axes. The snow was in great condition for cramponing, and we climbed relatively quickly, but we were a bit surprised as the angle continued to increase. The snow reached about 45-50 degrees, and we were approximately 3/4 of the way up when the sun began to rise. I can say without a doubt that it was the most spectacular sunrise I have ever seen. The sky was a cool turquoise, and the circling lower clouds were vibrant pink. The east horizon was fiery red and orange, and the snow we clung to glowed in a reflection of the sky above. It was truly amazing, and something that will never be forgotten. We reached the top of the snow slope, and realized that we would have to descend to the start of the roped climbing route. We made a single rappel to a nice ledge, changed into rock climbing gear, and began up the route. At this point, there were several other climbing parties below us, and we wanted to stay ahead of them, so we climbed as quickly and efficiently as possible. The initial rock pitches were easy (in the 5.6 range) and we moved upwards rapidly. Soon the lower parties were out of sight and earshot. The Chalten massif is known for it's golden granite, and the rock is truly amazing. Clean cracks split the rock that made for very enjoyable climbing. After about 5 pitches we made it to the crux of the climbing route, an incredible (5.10b/c) crack that begins the harder portion of the rock climb. I started off well, climbing free but quickly found that my heavy pack was going to make this pitch a challenge. After taking a short fall, I decided that it was time to go to aid mode. The pitch didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked, but Soraya made quick work of it, and we got past the crux able to continue our climb. The next two pitches were our favorite of the entire route. A traverse cut across the exposed west face of the mountain with impressive exposure below, and then a beautiful crack slanted back right. They were fun, exposed and had magnificent rock quality. This is why you climb in Patagonia! Another short pitch led to the Amy Col, where our route met several others. We managed to stay well ahead of other parties on our route, but here we reached a traffic jam with other parties coming up from the Brenner Route. This cost us some time as we were stuck behind several other climbers, but we had some good company with climbers from Oregon, California, Argentina, and Chile. The climbing continued to be interesting and fun, the weather was beautiful, and the temperatures began to rise as the sun hit the rock. About 15-16 pitches into the climb we got to the final push to the summit, a relatively low angle (30 degree) snow slope to the summit block. By this point it was quite hot, and the sun hitting the snow intensified the heat. The snow was soft due to the temperatures, but the going remained easy as we climbed the last bit near the top. There it was, the tippy top! All we had to do was one more easy pitch. Soraya put me on belay and I made my way the last few meters up the wind-carved granite. I flopped over the summit rock, in a moment of sheer joy and exhaustion. Once I had the energy to look up, the view was stupendous. To the west were the fangs of the Torre range, smattered with wind-driven rime ice. Beyond was the immense ice sheet and the other countless glaciated peaks of southern Patagonia. To the east was the vast Argentinean steppe dotted by turquoise lakes of all shapes and sizes. The constant crash of falling seracs from the surrounding alpine glaciers punctuated the silence usually filled by the roaring wind. It was a moment of complete satisfaction, and immense beauty. But we only had a moment. The delays from the crux pitch and the traffic jam had put us a bit behind schedule, and we wanted to be off the rock before dark. We were only half way, as we had a long way to go down. We scurried down the snow, organized our gear for the descend and began rappelling. And there were a lot of rappels! We chose to descend our climbing route, and it was a long route meaning many rappels. Many of them were double rope rappels, and we had to back up many of the rappel stations that were in dangerous disrepair. Some of the rappels were impressively exposed. Each time we pulled the rope we prayed that the rope would come down smoothly and not get stuck. Luckily, we had few rappelling problems and we descended relatively quickly all things considered. Regardless, I would definitely recommend descending the Amy Route instead of the Comesana-fonrouge as we did. We reached the snow slope, and found other parties who had not made it to the summit starting a rappel down the snow. We realized that they were rappelling the correct climbing route, and that we had ascended a much harder snow slope in the morning than was necessary. We made four double rope rappels down the snow in the dark, but unfortunately the rope got stuck on one of them and I had to prussic up the snow and build a new anchor. We were relatively safe at this point, so it wasn't a big deal, but it was certainly exhausting! We descended the scree slope and glacier much more easily than we climbed them thanks to some keen route finding from Soraya, and we made it back to the tent by 1:30 in the morning. We were too exhausted to make dinner, so we just high-fived for an awesome and successful climb, climbed in our sleeping bags and fell asleep. We slept in a bit in the morning. Soraya made me coffee and oatmeal in bed (what a wife)! We lazily packed up and headed down the steep trail to the river. The last four miles should have been easy, but somehow felt exhausting. We finally reached the end of the trail threw, our packs on the ground, and waited for someone to drive by and give us a ride back to El Chalten. We quickly got a ride into town. We took a shower, limped into town, and ate the saltiest, fattiest, and sugariest food we could find before hobbling back to bed. We also got to take our heavy bags for a walk up the Torre Valley. We intended to climb something, but it didn’t work out. I have a bunch of cool photos though. Enjoy! Gear Notes: Doubles to #3 was good for me. Approach Notes: Find a trail on climbers left side of the scree field above the glacier, and stay to the far climbers right on the snow slope. Otherwise straightforward. Ask me about the Torre approach if you like, but it changes annually.

Nice work buddy! Glad the conditions were mostly as good as you hoped, and that you got to climb it in such style!

Thank you guys for the suggestions. I will take them to heart, and hopefully everything will come together. Looking forward to spending some time up there!

Hey There, I have been thinking about doing the Ensawkwatch Enchainment, and maybe including the Illusions and South Peak of Rexford as well for a long bit of traversing as these guys did (http://kobus.ca/adventures/rexford_howay/index.html). It looks like we would likely be starting and finishing on the east side of the ridge via Centre Creek. I thought there might be some insight on some aspects of the climb that someone might want to share. Here are a few of my current questions: Any thoughts on water accessability near the ridge anywhere this time of year? Does it look like there are acceptable places to bivy on the climb (maybe below N Nesakwatch Spire/Rexford)? I called the hatchery about road access and they say that the gate is open due to logging in the area. Anyone know haw far up the road is open? I am considering doing this over 2-3 days over Labor Day if the weather works out. It sounds like a fun bit of climbing in an area that I have yet to explore. Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for your help!

I found a nice cam on Dreamer that looks like it was used to bail. I was up there on Sunday (6/30/2013). Let me know the cam and the marking on it and we can work on getting it back to you. Otherwise....YARRR!

Trip: Washington Pass - Spontaneity Arête and Rapple Grapple Date: 5/10/2013 Trip Report: My wife and I headed over to Washington Pass this weekend to get on a few moderate routes during this great early year where the routes are accessible/descendable by snow and the rock is clean and dry for the most part. We started out on Spontaneity Arête on Le Petit Cheval. The approach, while probably the most challenging part of the climb, was moderated by the three fixed ropes. We managed to find a marginally sketchy log crossing over Early Winters Creek after a brief detour upstream. On the route itself we encountered fun, easy and straightforward climbing in short spurts between sections of scrambling and simul-climbing. The descent went very quickly thanks to the ability to do a single rap to the snow filled gully in stable snow. We carried our boots up the route so that we could take advantage of this easier descent option, and were glad we did. We got back to the car in the early afternoon and had time to get a tasty ice cream treat down in Winthrop while lounging in the 90 degree heat. The following day we headed up to do Rapple Grapple on Liberty Bell. The snow at the pass made for a pleasant and speedy ski up to the col. It was nice to have the route to ourselves, with only a few other parties going up the Beckey Route. We found Rapple Grapple to be a fun alternative to the Beckey Route, with only one move that seemed to approach 5.8 where there is a bit of a reachy finger crack near the beginning of the second pitch (we used the standard Beckey Route start as the first pitch). The whole route up was snow free and dry. The ski descent from the col was way more fun than the typical boot ski down loose rock and pebbles, and made for a speedy return to the car. There were plenty of other skiers enjoying the conditions on the Birthday Tour and surrounds. Watch out for that monster cornice! That night, we decided to enjoy the comforts of North Cascades Basecamp, one of our favorite little bed and breakfast lodges right below Goat Wall in Mazama. The owner/operators are very friendly, and the atmosphere is comfy and laidback. We had some delicious food at Wesola Polana down the road (good beer and tapas) that night. The following day we devoured some delicious waffles at Basecamp, walked around our favorite town of Mazama, and ate some awesome sandwiches at the Mazama Store (is this becoming a food post?), prior to heading home. Anyway, the skiing is fun right now, and most of the rock routes that get some sun look to be in. Get out there while the snow lasts! Gear Notes: Singles to #3 C4 Approach Notes: Take advantage of the snow while it lasts

We did see a bunch of hyraxes (african marmot equivalent) up at Shipton's, but we must have forgotten to take a picture. They certainly didn't seem very shy. Thanks for the warm welcome to Cascade Climbers. I promise to document some of my more local trips here, and to capture more images of my usually disheveled self.

Trip: Mount Kenya - North Face Standard Route Date: 9/7/2012 Trip Report: After poaching this site for several years without contributing, I will write my first TR regarding a climb as far from the Cascades as possible in which we didn’t summit. However, I spent so much time gathering information on this route that it would be a shame not to share it. My newly married wife and I decided to attempt the North Face Standard Route on Batian as part of our honeymoon. At 17, 057 feet, Batian is the highest summit of the Mt. Kenya massif located very near the equator in Kenya. It is the tallest mountain in Kenya, and the second tallest in Africa after Mount Kilimanjaro. The North Face Standard Route is the easiest and most commonly climbed route up Batian during North America’s summer. It goes at 5.9 or around 5.7 if you take a variation around the crux, Firmin’s Tower. There are several approach options, but the quickest and one of the most scenic routes to the north side of the mountain is the Sirimon route. The Mount Kenya National Park gate at the start of the route is about 3 hours from Nairobi. At the gate we met our non-technical guide, cook and porters for the trip. I had never hired a guide/porters for a trip before, and I initially had my reservations, but as soon as we met Hiram (our guide; munuhe@mail.com) and his team of porters/cooks I was very happy with our decision. Hiram is awesome, and I highly recommend hiring him if you would like to climb Mount Kenya. He is not a technical rock climbing guide, but he has climbed several of the routes on the mountain and can provide a lot of information about most of the standard routes. He has been guiding for 20 years, he is very responsive to inquiries prior to arriving, he arranges all the porters/cooks/food for the trip, and the food is AMAZING! It is worth every penny to hire him, and it feels good to support the local people and encourage conservation by giving the park economic value. Plus Hiram is just a fun guy to hang out with. Anyway, we arrived at the park gate (~8,000 feet) around noon and hiked on a dirt road up to Old Moses Camp (~10,000 feet) for the night. There are bunk houses here, but we opted to bring and sleep in our tent for comfort and a bit more solitude. The bunk houses looked quite comfortable however, and there were only a few other people camping there for the night. At the Park Gate The next morning we began our slow and steady romp up to Shipton’s Camp (~14,000 feet). On the way we enjoyed the variety of lobelias that occupy the African alpine. As with the previous day, it was beautiful in the morning, but the weather came in around 11:00am bringing rain and hail. We met a couple of Brits who had attempted the route that day but were snowed off the mountain. They portrayed a dubious outlook for our attempt with tales of extremely loose rock, rope snatching rappels and terrible weather. Shipton’s Camp also has a good looking bunk house, but we slept in our tent again. Lobelias on the way to Shipton's Lobelia More Lobelias Mackinder Valley Cooking dinner at Shipton's The following morning we decided to climb a portion of the route to acclimatize and familiarize ourselves with the terrain so that we would be more efficient during our next day’s legitimate attempt. Again, we woke up to beautiful, if not particularly warm, weather and began our hike through a scree field to the start of the route. Our goal was to make it to the large amphitheater approximately a third of the way up the route. Morning at Shipton's As we were only planning on a trial run of the first portion of the climb, we started climbing around 8:00 so that the temperature would be a bit more comfortable. Our plan was to simul as much of the route as possible and pitch out anything over around 5.6. We climbed in approach shoes, and the climbing went well if not a little slow due to some rope management issues. Route finding was fairly straightforward given that we stayed in a well defined gully. On the other hand, rock fall hazard was a significant issue with large piles of loose rocks perched wherever there was a ledge or break in slope. This led to slow progress as I tried to lead carefully without sending rocks down on my new wife’s head. Remnant of an equatorial glacier Cross at the start of the route On the route (Pitch 6 per Cosley & Houston) It looks goofy but it's warm Shipton's far below We reached the base of the amphitheater just as it started snowing around 11:00, and we began our rappels in the deteriorating weather. During our conversation with the Brits that day before, they had mentioned that it appeared possible to use single rope rappels rather than doubles as stated in all the route descriptions to descend from the amphitheater. We gave it a go since single rope rappels would significantly reduce the risk of rockfall and the rope snagging. This worked out perfectly and required only minimal class III scrambling in a couple places. We were happy to be descending quickly as the snow began to fall quite hard and the temperatures plummeted. Instead of descending to Shipton’s Camp, we decided previously to move the camp a little higher to Kami Tarn for the night. There is no hut at Kami Tarn anymore, but several descriptions stated that camping at Kami Tarn would significantly reduce approach times. We weren’t convinced as we traversed a long boulder scree field to the new base camp in the driving snow. However, Kami Tarn is in a beautiful location right under the mountain with stunning views and great solitude which certainly warrants a visit. We reached our tent at around 2:00 and were welcomed with warm towels for our hands and another delicious meal! Camp at Kami Tarn Nice views from the tent Resting in the tent with the snow falling outside, Soraya and I discussed our options. Even with an early start and efficient climbing since we knew the route, there was no way we would reach the summit by 11:00am when the weather seemed to be moving in, let alone descend by that time. This would force a bivy in bad weather for a very long time with minimal bivy gear. We would also likely have to descend in the bad weather regardless of a bivy. Due to the high likelihood of bad weather and an only slightly less likely possibility of kicking a rock down on my wife, we decided to bag our attempt on Batian and opted to climb/hike the third tallest summit on Mt. Kenya, non-technical Point Lenana (16,355 feet). In order to reach the summit by sunrise we woke up at around 3:00am and started hiking in the dark accompanied by Hiram and one of our porter buddies. We reached the summit a bit before sunrise and were rewarded with beautiful views of Nelion (the second tallest peak), the remaining equatorial glaciers, and the beautiful valleys that surround the mountain. On the summit of Point Lenana Sunrise with Nelion behind Nelion Point Lenana behind On the descent back to Kami Tarn, the weather was beautiful and I couldn’t help but start second guessing our decision to forgo our Batian summit attempt. We were planning to descend all the way back down the mountain that day so we quickly packed up camp and began the long trudge downwards. At around 11:00, you guessed it, the clouds rolled in. Then came the rain, hail, thunder and lightning all day long. At first the rain made me feel vindicated for having turned around; after a while it didn’t feel so comforting. The trail turned to a stream and Hiram kept holding up his metal umbrella as the lightning strikes got closer and closer. Hiram told us that no one had been struck by lightning on the mountain to his knowledge. Not wanting to tempt fate, I made sure to keep a healthy distance. Descending with Nelion and Batian behind Traversing the boulder field back to Kami Tarn Heading down Heading down Our clan at Kami Tarn Here comes the weather It's hailing! After the long, wet and cold descent to Camp Moses, we boarded an old land cruiser that Hiram had set up to take us back to the park gate. After all the rain, I was interested to see how the ride down would go on the slick, rutted, muddy road. There were a few exciting moments, but we made it out in one piece due to some very skilled driving. Our stout vehicle All in all it was a very fun outing in a unique setting regardless of the fact we didn’t make the summit of Batian. If I were to try again, I think I would come in the northern hemisphere’s winter and try the standard route on Nelion which supposedly has better rock, more predictable weather, and the added benefit of a shelter at the summit to allow a more reasonable bivy if required. From the summit of Nelion you can traverse the Gate of Mists to the Summit of Batian. If I were to try the North Face Standard Route again, I would probably try climbing with a doubled over half rope up to the amphitheater to reduce the potential for rock fall. However, I would bring double ropes for potential rappels above. Having only climbed the lower portion of the route, I am not sure what is required for the upper section. We climbed in approach shoes, and I think that worked out well. I would probably try to climb the route as shown below on the topo (This was my favorite topo that I found posted by a Hungarian guy. Note that it shows the easier variation around Firmin’s Tower): Additional Resources: • Kilimanjaro & East Africa: A Climbing and Trekking Guide (Cameron Burns) • Mount Kenya Map and Guide 1:50,000 (A.L. Wielochowski) • The Mountain Club of Kenya Guide to Muont Kenya and Kilimanjaro (edited by Iain Allan) • http://www.summitpost.org/normal-route-of-the-ne-side-of-the-batian/258417 o Note: variation around Firmin’s Tower • http://www.ewpnet.com/mkclimb.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kenya • http://cosleyhouston.com/kenya-route-description.htm o Note: Standard Route up Firmin’s Tower • http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=496185 • http://www.mck.or.ke/ • No Picnic on Mount Kenya (Felice Benuzzi) • Hiram Munuhe (munuhe@mail.com) Other non-related photos from our honeymoon: Gear Notes: • Approach shoes (I would bring rock shoes if doing Firmin’s Tower) • Double ropes • Double C4s from .5-2 & a #3 • A few smaller master cams • Set of nuts • A few larger hexes • Extra cord/webbing for backing up rappel anchors • Warm Clothes and a stout helmet! Approach Notes: Marry a climber who speaks Swahili, has family in Nairobi, and has travel advisers for parents. Also, Hire Hiram!