[TR] North Side of Yak Peak - Humbled Beginnings 02/14/2024

[AlexC192]

Trip: North Side of Yak Peak - Humbled Beginnings

Trip Date: 02/14/2024

Trip Report:

“Humbled Beginnings”

The North East Gulley of Yak Peak

We had gone up to the back side of Yak Peak the Friday before, camped and did 2 pitches of ice the Saturday before. Upon doing so we noticed a line that goes for about 1000 feet on the north east side of yak peak.

We had left Everett around 1130 pm Tuesday February 13th in Logan's 4runner after he got off work. Two minutes after getting on the road I realized I had forgotten my hardshell pants in my truck. We turned around grabbed them and officially started the drive. The plan was for me to drive up to the Falls Lake trail head while Logan slept in the back. I had managed 2 hours of sleep in the parking lot after work waiting for Logan. Thankfully had only worked 11-330 Tuesday because I had done a 19 hour shift that on Monday-tuesday morning 7am-2am. So I got to work a short day Tuesday but Logan got to do his long day the night before our climb. Clocking in 17 1/2 hours on Tuesday. Life in the emergency repairs world is like that. Most days are just 8's but if you have big plans count on a long work day right before hand because that's just how it goes haha. Anyways our first crux was an hour and a half into the drive at the border crossing. The Canadians made us park the car and come inside to tell them about our plan and then quizzed us on our insurance and whether or not it would cover an accident in Canada on a high risk activity. After some talking and telling them I had a Garmin high risk plan and showing them what that plan covered (a plan I do not actualIy have just happened to know about lol) they let us continue after a 15 minute delay. I drove for another hour and a half before I was almost falling asleep at the wheel and Logan finished out the last 30 minutes. We got to the trailhead at about 320 and both of us crashed in the back for an hour. We got up around 4 15 and double checked everything and got ready. Starting out an hour later than we had initially planned at 5 we started towards the north side of Yak Peak. We made good time and we were there in a hour. We stepped out of our skis and into crampons racked up and started out.

Now something to keep in mind is we are NEWBS! We both started ice climbing last year which was a day at Bryant's buttress on top rope, and then a few days in ouray on top rope as well. I had done my first lead on Jan 14 this year. Logan had yet to lead.

I started up the first pitch in much more brittle conditions than the weekend before. After the first pitch Logan did his first ice lead and took us up the second pitch. He kicked ass! After the second pitch we unroped and crossed the snowfield to the bottom of the gulley. At the base of our route we solo'd 50 meters of 60-70 degree snice before setting up a belay with a medium angle and a .75 cam behind a rock that protected the belayer (Logan) from spin drift and ice fall. I started up the first pitch with an m4-5 step protected by a #1 cam then traversed 15 feet up and left, placing a knife blade on the way to a 6 foot vertical rock with some ice bulges on the edge where I was able to get good sticks and pull up and over. Then 60 degree snice lead us towards the mouth of our gulley and just before our gulley I was able to get a #2 cam and then started up our gulley. The gulley began with a combo of 75 degree ice and since leading into WI3 ice just thick enough in most places to get a few 13s in. After placing a few ice screws I was about out of rope and made 2 19cm v threads one vertical and one horizontal backed up by a 13 cm screw. While building the belay a helicopter flew through the basin below us and must have seen us and circled around and came and looked at us for a few minutes. If anyone can get us info on how to get ahold of the helicopter that would be awesome because they have to have super cool pictures. After equalizing the v threads I brought Logan up. We were making terrible time and the first pitch of the gully took us almost 2 hours. The next pitch was the best of the route. 70 degree ice into some beautiful WI3. That went quick and I brought Logan up on a solid v thread and 22cm screw while getting heavily blasted by spindrift. Then Logan led a pitch of 75 degree snice then my lead up 65 degree snice then Logan finished out of the gully on 65 degree snice. With extreme winds blowing spindrift up into our faces.

"Holy shit dude we did it. We finished it. We did the route."

This was monumental for us. Logan and I have shot high and failed, a lot. This was our first full year of climbing. We had failed on Chair Peak last March after a fall and chest deep wallowing. We had both taken bad falls in the summer on rock. I fractured my L2 and L3. Logan fell 2 weeks later and had hurt a nerve in his back and cracked a helmet. We had attempted Early Winter Spires both of the last two weekends before the gate closed and bailed due to snow wallowing and running out of time, we had turned around two pitches up Triple Couloirs because we ran out of time, and those are just a few stories but we have been going for it repeatedly and just kept failing and we did it. We finished a route and the crazy and stupid thing is it wasn't even a known route.

Now we did the 15 minute hike to the summit of yak peak hugged, screamed, high fived, and maybe shed a tear. It was 530 pm at this point.

Then we started descending. Now if we were to do this again I'd climb with skis on my back and ski out down to the highway it would be an easy ski fast and relatively safe. This was Logan's first idea and I had shot it down because I was nervous about going into unknown terrain with skis on my back because I wanted to move unencumbered. We should have done it Logan's way. But we left our skis at the base so that was out. We talked about heading towards Nak Peak and descending the ridge that came off the sub peak between Yak and Nak, that may have been a better choice but we would be descending an unknown route in what was very soon to be darkness. So we ultimately decided to rap our route because it may suck but at least we know the evil.

The first rap was on a single nut and 35 meters. The second rap was another nut and another 35 meters. Third rap was a knife blade and another 35 meters. At the bottom of the third rappel somehow my headlamp came off my helmet and went tumbling down the mountain, thankfully I had a backup in my pack. For the fourth rap it was another nut and the wind wasn't as bad now that we were deeper into the gully so we decided to start doing double rope rappels at this point. Typing this is fast but doing it took forever. We were battling winds on all the 35 meter rappels really bad. We rapped and set up a v thread. Pull rope. Rope stuck. Now here is more newb stuff. We had ran the rope through the wire of the nut. It was a big nut with a big wire that didn't seem to be a threat to cutting the rope, why not save cordage. Well while trying to pull the rope and realizing it was stuck I realized that that loop on the wire isn't rigid and when we're trying to pull it it's making the wire clamp the rope. So we decided that I would rope solo the pitch again so we cloved the rope to the anchor and put a micro Trax on then pulled out the second micro Trax to back it up, and I fumbled the second micro Trax, gone. Down the mountain she goes. Okay well I guess the first one will have to do. I climb the 75 degree snice, anchor myself untie the rope, put cordage and rap ring in, retie rope, reblock rope, rappel again and back at the anchor. Logan was just kinda on standby waiting for me to fix the rope so he ended up falling asleep sitting in his harness. Things are getting pretty real. It's about 9: 30 pm and we still have four more raps and a skin out. I guess that four raps seems like nothing now but things just took forever in that environment. Anyways Logan is in tough shape, so at this point it was just a juggle keep moving but make sure Logan keeps it together too. For the fifth rap I pulled the rope, ran it through the v thread to set up for another double length rappel, and then blocked it and rappel. set up another v thread for the anchor and after Logan came down we ran the rope through the v thread pulled the rope to set the 6th rap, another double rope rappel. This got us down to the fixed piton from the first belay and got Logan down. Logan is borderline hypothermic at this point I'm in the headspace of I have to keep us moving. That's my responsibility now is get us out and to our skis once we're on skis it's easy. Logan will get warm, we'll be moving, everything will be okay once we get to our skis. So Logan gets to the piton and goes "dude I left your tools up there." He says while shivering, scared,and in borderline tears. That sucked. I got those from the Wrights they were Pritis tools that she had pictured in Classic Cascade Climbs on Triple Couloirs. The Wrights are my heros they're cooler than Colin Haley or Honnold in my book so those tools had more than monetary value. But my friend is in bad shape and we need to keep going and leading that pitch took forever and it's almost 11 so I accepted the reality that they're just objects and we kept going. If anyone finds them I would love to have them back. They're probably in the snowfield below buried in powder. They're orange Cassin kinda old-school style tools with green cordage tied to the bottom.

From the first belay station we did our seventh rap off the fixed piton which took us down the section we first solo'd and then walked across the snowfield down to the first two pitches of ice. Here we did our eighth rap which again was a double rope rap, off a tree. At the bottom of that rap we were back in good ice. I had forgotten to grab the 22 from Logan after the v thread above the fixed piton and so I put a couple 13s in and equalized them and then brought Logan down. Once Logan got to me I got the 22 and made a v thread which set us for our ninth and final rappel, again double rope,to our skis. Pulled my inreach out, texted my parents, we were back at our skis and then started skiing out. It was 12: 50 at this point. Skiing out was hellacious. The first mile wasn't so bad but the second mile was horrible. All of a sudden my heels hurt super bad from blisters so I sat down to adjust my boots. Fell asleep. Logan wakes me up after a minute and I realize I fell asleep. We keep skinning, on the lake Logan pukes. At the end of the lake we stopped to drink some water, we both fell asleep laying in the snow still in our skis in the fetal position. I wake up and realize what happened and wake Logan up and I kept skinning, we never drank water. I crashed hard on skis right onto my back. A few minutes later I hear Logan saying "Alex!" I woke up. I had crashed and I guess that was a comfortable enough place to sleep. He had turned around after waiting a few minutes for me so I guess I was out for 5-10 minutes. We finally got to the car at 2: 30 am making car to car 21 1/2 hours. Logan was a savage and drove us all the way back down to Everett to go to work. We got there at 5: 45 Where Logan slept for an hour and went in. I slept until 9 and was late. I think leading all the scarier bits and then leading and setting all the rappels in that head space of I just have to perform completely drained everything I had. Our boss noticed how bad of shape we were in and let Logan go out to the car and sleep around 10 and let me do the same around 12.

Was it stupid? Yes it was, we should have not gone on such little sleep.

I know I've been too eager to learn how to ice climb and while I'm definitely learning this was probably too much for us.

Was it worth it? I mean we lived and to the best of my knowledge did the First Ascent of a new route in a cool area in Canada so that's pretty cool and feels good but it could have waited and we should have.

Am I stoked? Yes but also humbled and my respect for the Wrights, Beckey, Wayne Wallace, Jim Nelson and numerous other alpinists, soared to new levels. They did such incredible things with much less and I have a deepened respect for all of them.

Gear notes: Ice screws, knife blade pitons, nuts, cams to .5-#3 (BD's and the one black Totem), some smaller cams would have been nice. Smallest we had was a black totem. We ran half ropes, one 60m one 70m both Edelrid 8.2 which we really like for alpine stuff.

Logan is making his own TR as well

-Alex Cunningham

 

Gear Notes:
Gear notes: Ice screws, knife blade pitons, nuts, cams to .5-#3 (BD's and the one black Totem), some smaller cams would have been nice. Smallest we had was a black totem. We ran half ropes, one 60m one 70m both Edelrid 8.2 which we really like for alpine stuff.

Approach Notes:
Park at the Falls Lake trailhead, skin up to the falls lake campsite and across the lake, down through the basin and to the backside of yak peak. When the trees get less dense your basically there. There's a few good campsites.

[JasonG]

Glad you guys made it out safe @AlexC192!  Sounded like quite an adventure, and very close to disaster.

A tip from an old guy- when in doubt, it is usually best to go with the walk off (you were right to not bring skis up a route at the edge of your ability).  Too many accidents happen on the descent when people are tired, mistakes compound, and darkness confuses things.

And having just "skied" down from Yak yesterday to the highway, you def. didn't want to do that after a long day and in the dark!  Lots of cliffs, brush, tight trees and mostly walking downhill after a few hundred feet of survival skiing at the top.  The snow conditions on the south side of Yak are even worse that what found on the North side (we came up that way to climber's left of your line).

Good luck on your alpine apprenticeship!  And, if you don't already back up/extend your rap setup, please do.  Lots of good tips at the parent site to that link too....

[AlexC192]

Thank you sir! We are pretty strict on ourselves about an extended rap with a third hand and knots at the end everytime. We will keep that advice handy on the next adventure!

[JasonG]

3 hours ago, AlexC192 said:

Thank you sir!

Hold on a sec.  I'm old, but not that old!

[Bronco]

Thanks for writing this up and sharing the stoke!

[bigeo]

You guys rock! I've heard this attributed to bush pilots in Alaska, but it has many applications: you start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. You hope you fill the latter before the luck runs out.

[HHinkkala]

This is quite the trip, and the epic! I thoroughly enjoyed reading the report. It is a very difficult balance trying to decide whether or not you have bitten off more then you can chew on a long winter route/new route. Looks like you made it out ok on this one, but boy did it sound like it tested you guys good. Glad you were both successful and made it down safely.

If I could make one comment/feedback (assuming I read the TR correctly) is regarding making rapps on multiple single point/anchors (referring to gear, not v thread). Doing rapps off single pieces is required at times but as you know this does place you at a significant greater risk of a failure/release. I realize it is difficult to comment on this in hindsight, and for many reasons why it was still likely better to descend the route, but I would argue if a route requires a descent of this nature it might not be worth the risk (granted everyone has a different risk tolerance.)

As an fyi I have found the DMM bulldog and/or even the large pecker pitons are indispensable on winter routes that need pro. When you can find nothing else for placements, you will find something for these.

I have seen my share of pieces coming loose when you least suspect it....It is my hope that you guys can continue this pursuit for years to come.

Edited February 21 by HHinkkala

[Nick Sweeney]

Speaking out of sincere concern and well wishes:

 

I am seriously worried about you and your friend living for very long. You are in your first year of climbing and mention multiple epics and serious injuries. On this climb, you used a bunch of single point rappel anchors.  There's other things you wrote that give me concern too, but I'll leave it at that for now.

 

You seem to be making decisions like you are running out of time to climb... which you might be, if you don't start making more conservative decisions. If you slow your roll a bit, dial in the fundamentals, and make more conservative choices, you'll have a long climbing career and live to tell the tale. It would be a shame for a stoked climber like you to have (another) serious injury that takes you out of the game, or worse.

[AlexC192]

11 hours ago, HHinkkala said:

This is quite the trip, and the epic! I thoroughly enjoyed reading the report. It is a very difficult balance trying to decide whether or not you have bitten off more then you can chew on a long winter route/new route. Looks like you made it out ok on this one, but boy did it sound like it tested you guys good. Glad you were both successful and made it down safely.

If I could make one comment/feedback (assuming I read the TR correctly) is regarding making rapps on multiple single point/anchors (referring to gear, not v thread). Doing rapps off single pieces is required at times but as you know this does place you at a significant greater risk of a failure/release. I realize it is difficult to comment on this in hindsight, and for many reasons why it was still likely better to descend the route, but I would argue if a route requires a descent of this nature it might not be worth the risk (granted everyone has a different risk tolerance.)

As an fyi I have found the DMM bulldog and/or even the large pecker pitons indispensable on winter routes that need pro. When you can find nothing else for placements, you will find something for these.

I have seen my share of pieces coming loose when you least suspect it....It is my hope that you guys can continue this pursuit for years to come.

 

9 hours ago, Nick Sweeney said:

Speaking out of sincere concern and well wishes:

 

I am seriously worried about you and your friend living for very long. You are in your first year of climbing and mention multiple epics and serious injuries. On this climb, you used a bunch of single point rappel anchors.  There's other things you wrote that give me concern too, but I'll leave it at that for now.

 

You seem to be making decisions like you are running out of time to climb... which you might be, if you don't start making more conservative decisions. If you slow your roll a bit, dial in the fundamentals, and make more conservative choices, you'll have a long climbing career and live to tell the tale. It would be a shame for a stoked climber like you to have (another) serious injury that takes you out of the game, or worse.

I appreciate the concern and the gear advice from both of you. I will definitely admit, and tried to make that known that we could have and should have waited to do this. I bit off more than I could chew and definitely acknowledge that. After talking to @JasonGa bit more it appears that there is a good walk off with maybe a few steeper tree rappels off the sub peak between Yak and Nak. I will definitely be looking more into descent options on future routes and planning to stay on established ones for a bit longer. We did back up most of those raps with a screw or picket while I went down as to not blindly trust it but I definitely can acknowledge that this is not ideal and not what we should do everytime. Also been reading "Down" this past week. It has been a great read for me and seeing how we can do better on rappels like this. Also went back into Marc Andres blog and was reading about his solo of Mt Robson (don't worry no desire to solo. I infact do not want to die and appreciate a belay) and noticed how he was tired at the top so dug a pit and crawled in his bivy bag for a bit. That was good insight for me that if you need rest figure out how to get it before going back into the rough terrain and environment. I appreciate your guys feedback.  Feedback from people that know a thing or two because they've done a thing or two is much appreciated and remembered when we're in situations trying to figure out what to do I remember words of wisdom from more experienced climbers than myself. I'll pick up a couple more peckers next time I'm at the climbing shop.

[Friedrich]

Great trip report, and thanks for writing it up in such an honest way! That's how you learn. We all did stupid stuff above our heads when we were younger, and those of us still posting made it out alive, but not everybody did. I advise you to do what I did. Take some of that money you are going to spend on new gear and invest it in getting some in-person instruction from a really well qualified guide. Get a little group together and the cost will be reasonable. or at least find an experienced ice climber who is also a good teacher, buy them a case of beer to take you out somewhere nearby and teach you as much as they can.

Congrats on the probable FA. So I actually want to congratulate you on the decision to rap the route. I don't know the mountain or the descent options, but just going from the TR info, it appears you didn't also. so in my opinion, that was your best decision of the day and just might have saved your life.

if you're not absolutely sure about alternative means of descent, it is ALWAYS better to go back the way you came. Well done. So many climbing accident reports begin with "they decided to seek an easier way down" or "they descended via _______, a route they were not familiar with." You can easily be cliffed out or find yourself in even more of an epic, and once hypothermia sets in, you start making stupid decisions without even realizing it.

Others have commented on your rappel techniques. Trying to save 10 bucks by threading your rope through a wire made my shudder. You were lucky to survive that as well. You DO need to spend more time learning and PRACTICING rappelling in a safe environment. You can read great techniques in books but you need to dial that shit in at home before you try it in the field. (it's by far the most dangerous part of climbing as you probably know intellectually). 

If you haven't read through any of the "American climbing accidents" annuals, I highly recommend it. You can learn a lot from the mistakes others make, and it's a guaranteed injury-free activity, as well as being a pretty compelling read.

One last complement- your willingness to keep learning is what will save you. Well done. Lots of people think they're invincible and aren't as self aware as you seem to be. It's great to see.

[AlexC192]

1 hour ago, Friedrich said:

Great trip report, and thanks for writing it up in such an honest way! That's how you learn. We all did stupid stuff above our heads when we were younger, and those of us still posting made it out alive, but not everybody did. I advise you to do what I did. Take some of that money you are going to spend on new gear and invest it in getting some in-person instruction from a really well qualified guide. Get a little group together and the cost will be reasonable. or at least find an experienced ice climber who is also a good teacher, buy them a case of beer to take you out somewhere nearby and teach you as much as they can.

Congrats on the probable FA. So I actually want to congratulate you on the decision to rap the route. I don't know the mountain or the descent options, but just going from the TR info, it appears you didn't also. so in my opinion, that was your best decision of the day and just might have saved your life.

if you're not absolutely sure about alternative means of descent, it is ALWAYS better to go back the way you came. Well done. So many climbing accident reports begin with "they decided to seek an easier way down" or "they descended via _______, a route they were not familiar with." You can easily be cliffed out or find yourself in even more of an epic, and once hypothermia sets in, you start making stupid decisions without even realizing it.

Others have commented on your rappel techniques. Trying to save 10 bucks by threading your rope through a wire made my shudder. You were lucky to survive that as well. You DO need to spend more time learning and PRACTICING rappelling in a safe environment. You can read great techniques in books but you need to dial that shit in at home before you try it in the field. (it's by far the most dangerous part of climbing as you probably know intellectually). 

If you haven't read through any of the "American climbing accidents" annuals, I highly recommend it. You can learn a lot from the mistakes others make, and it's a guaranteed injury-free activity, as well as being a pretty compelling read.

One last complement- your willingness to keep learning is what will save you. Well done. Lots of people think they're invincible and aren't as self aware as you seem to be. It's great to see.

I will look into a guided climb I've contemplated this option as well and this is probably the push that will make it happen. The rope through the wire makes me shudder looking back at it too because it's so obvious. I think it really came down to the feeling pressured on time and just how tired we were but as soon as the rope didn't pull I was like well that's why we haven't done that before and why we won't do it again. Every but before that had gotten cordage and a rap ring. Glad my bag of luck didn't run out at on that learning moment. I will look into those American Climbing Accidents. Thank you for the direction. 

[dberdinka]

That is an Awesome looking line!  Picture are beautiful.  You and your buddy are mighty!  You now have more experience than 99% of PNW climbers on technical alpine terrain in the winter.  

[Phil K]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:55 AM, bigeo said:

You guys rock! I've heard this attributed to bush pilots in Alaska, but it has many applications: you start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. You hope you fill the latter before the luck runs out.

There is another saying: "There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots."

I'm old, and was never especially bold, so take my advice FWIW; you kids be careful out there. 

[JasonG]

17 hours ago, Friedrich said:

Congrats on the probable FA. So I actually want to congratulate you on the decision to rap the route. I don't know the mountain or the descent options, but just going from the TR info, it appears you didn't also. so in my opinion, that was your best decision of the day and just might have saved your life.

If you're not absolutely sure about alternative means of descent, it is ALWAYS better to go back the way you came. Well done. So many climbing accident reports begin with "they decided to seek an easier way down" or "they descended via _______, a route they were not familiar with." 

This is just flat out wrong and I want to point this out since @AlexC192 is listening, responding, and trying to learn from their intense climb.  I don't take this lightly.  I feel very strongly that this is bad advice.

Especially in light of the raps these guys are making, off single pieces, in the dark, completely knackered.  A simple map/aerial review of the Yak Peak area would have identified a probable walk-off a short distance away (and everyone in this day and age really should be looking at and carrying these information sources in their pockets).  Getting to the top is only halfway, and figuring out your descent plan is just as important as figuring out your route up, maybe more so, since you are going to be tired and it will be late in the day.  Do your research.  Are there times when rapping the way you came is the best alternative?  Sure.  Are there times when it is a terrible idea?  Absolutely.  This was one of them.

I am glad that @AlexC192 is open and honest with how far strung-out they were- we owe it to him to give good advice, tailored to his situation, and not some general platitudes.

 

[olyclimber]

All I can do it echo what the folks above like Jason, Phil,  Nic, etc have said above.  Glad you have humility about the situation and are brave enough to share the experience so everyone can learn.   Nothing wrong with dialing it back a bit and building your climbing resume more slowly.   Also if can either do a guided trip or two, or climb with some folks with a lot more experience, and do so with a "learning mindset"....i.e. asking question and absorbing as much as possible, you can go from having a scary time to having a more enjoyable time in the mountains.   Its not a race, the mountains will probably be there tomorrow and even the next day too.

I'm really glad you and your buddy "lived to tell", and I wish you both more casual days in the hills.  You learned the hard way about a few things, and have some great advice above.

 

[manninjo]

Do you guys have the first photo without the overlay line draw in?

 

[AlexC192]

5 hours ago, manninjo said:

Do you guys have the first photo without the overlay line draw in?

 

This is not our picture. The best way to find pictures is look up zoa peak trip reports and scroll through the pictures. In a few pictures it looked like most years this line would be filled in with snow. Sometimes a terrible winter can yield different opportunities I guess.

[AlexC192]

12 hours ago, olyclimber said:

All I can do it echo what the folks above like Jason, Phil,  Nic, etc have said above.  Glad you have humility about the situation and are brave enough to share the experience so everyone can learn.   Nothing wrong with dialing it back a bit and building your climbing resume more slowly.   Also if can either do a guided trip or two, or climb with some folks with a lot more experience, and do so with a "learning mindset"....i.e. asking question and absorbing as much as possible, you can go from having a scary time to having a more enjoyable time in the mountains.   Its not a race, the mountains will probably be there tomorrow and even the next day too.

I'm really glad you and your buddy "lived to tell", and I wish you both more casual days in the hills.  You learned the hard way about a few things, and have some great advice above.

 

Thank you. There are many but one of the reasons why I'm trying to be so transparent but one of them is to help future me's. I'm sure someday some kid will be scrolling through CC in awe and learn a few things from people's trip reports. I surely have and hope to add to that in my blunders as well. It can be hard to remember the mountains will be there when your so stoked but I don't think this reality check will soon be forgotten. If it is I'm not really learning and might just be stupid. Lol. I promised some people known routes only the rest of the season. I feel like that's a pretty good place to start. 

Edited February 23 by AlexC192

[Lostbolt]

Interesting trip report and Climb.

The others that have commented are good climbers, some I know personally.  Its nice to see you guys hear the advice and respond positively. I have read Down and actually own a copy, some of the ways things are done in there are only good for certain situations. Learning from others I.E a guide, The Mountaineers, Washington Alpine Club are worth it. Don't be afraid to reach out and ask to gain good experience bumming a ride to Hyalite and tagging along to learn is very possible and being up front and honest money and skill wise is nothing to be ashamed of. 

Proper planning including, having Plan A,B,C, A detailed topo of previous routes and descents, pre trip and post weather information seem so boring but will make your trip that much better. Don't rely on one source like technology or mountain project.

Work or that hot dinner date ect are not worth compounding and increasing the risk of your life. If you made a bad call and showed up at noon or the next day, a good person would understand and be glad you are safe. I have been on longer than expected climbs 26hrs+/-. A mylar emergency bivy bag and a jet boil will keep you coming back the next day. I definitely understand tunnel vision planning to stop and eat drink at this time or this belay station and making it a must will help curb the crash.

The approach and grade are something to work into, its hard to ditch the go big mindset but its a must for a long life.  I have always been diligent about stair stepping. It never crossed my mind of attempting Trip Col. before I felt comfortable on chair peak NE Butt. ect. Take a few more years learning mixed and Ice in a controlled environment with less commitment, use these crags to hone your skills.  The rope and gear are there to protect us for the oh shit moments, not to allow us to climb above our grade and take whippers. There is no shame in bailing at the base because its more than you expected.

 

Good job making it out, seems like you all ready know this is a big learning experience.  I hope that your next one is less of a pucker factor and more fun even if its only 2 pitches. Don't be afraid to reach out. Climb safe and stay Humble.

 

Edited February 23 by Lostbolt
Grammer

[JasonG]

Right, a space blanket!  That saved @Trent and I from a potentially serious situation when we were caught out on the West Arete of Eldorado late season many years ago....great suggestion @Lostbolt.  Same with light stove in the winter, esp. on routes expected to take most of a day.

[cfire]

Happy you guys made it down in one piece. That was quite the epic. Good to see the old guys giving you some solid advice here and I hope you take it and maybe throttle down the objectives to more moderate terrain until you have a good base of knowledge and experience in the mountains. As an old guy, I remember Marc Andre on here many years ago doing moderate objectives around Vancouver, posting TR's and being completely stoked to get advice. You should try it. The harder stuff will come with time, or you'll run out of time with horrible results. I've been on here long enough to see too many people get in over their heads and never come back. Don't let that be you. Climbing those kind of routes in winter adds another level of complexity. Try some longer summer alpine routes to get "The Dance" worked out.

And a space blanket lives in every one of my packs without leaving. Even better, a lightweight bivy bag or tarp. Canadian Rockies guides don't climb without one. Found that out the hard way after our own epic up there, and I was seasoned even back then!

Cheers and good luck!