Big Four Trip/Conditions Report

[Juan]

My nephew Terry Ahern and I went to Big Four yesterday (Wed. 4/24). This was my third attempt on a N. Face route in two years. Terry had never seen the mountain, and said "shit" when it first came into view from the road.

 

You still have to walk the road from Deer Creek, so the approach is about three easy miles. We left Bellevue at 4:00 and left the car at 6:00. We found that you can still get up the far right cliff band without much trouble (using avalanche debris part of the way, then rock and tree climbing). Once in the N. Face bowl, the conditions were much, much better than I have found them before. At the most, we were sinking to mid-calf. We used crampons and ski poles to get to the start of the N. Rib.

 

For anyone interested in the Sprindrift Couloir, it still looks very in, not much different than when it was climbed by several strong parties earlier this spring. But we saw enough big wet slides yesterday for us not to want to be in any gully on the face for any length of time. However, if you move fast and get lucky with objective hazards, the Sprindrift would still have lots of good ice to climb. Didn't see any of Bart's infamous dry-tooling terrain; must still be snow covered.

 

From the base of the N. Rib, we took a line that was up to 60-degree snow and ice. Very enjoyable. Comparable to the first pitch of Chair N. Face, but more of it. We had a short rope and only one picket; should have had more pickets. Didn't need the ice screws or rock pro where we were, but slung trees when we could. We ran it out more than we should have, but still got to the base of the headwall that must be turned on the left by dropping into the gully (4,800 ft.). This is 1,300' below the summit. We weren't anxious to get into the gully as the sun had warmed the mountain considerably, and big wet slides were coming down regularly. Plus, the gully is very hard snow and undoubtedly some ice, and our lack of pickets was weighing on us. This was just before 12:00. Terry was feeling a little under the weather with a cold, so all things considered, we started rapping on two 37m ropes tied together. We used trees when we could, and did some belayed downclimbing with a T anchor when we didn't have trees. Got back to the car at 6:00.

 

Our advice if you go before conditions change too much:

 

Take 3-4 pickets right now for any N. Face route. Ice screws too depending on your line. Be prepared for steep snow and lots of it once you get out of the bowl. I recommend twin 60- meter ropes, or at least two 50s, as rappelling with short ropes was tedious. And it's no fun to downclimb snow that steep when you're tired. Don't know about rock pro, but we had three pitons and three cams. Take 6-8 over-the-shoulder slings. Most importantly, watch for slides. I've been on the face three times in the last two years, and been lucky. It's a hell of a mountain.

 

John Sharp

[erik]

[Dru]

John did you ever think of getting better snow conditions by climbing at night via headlamp and/or moonlight?

[Juan]

I do that quite often, particularly on volcanoes, but wouldn't do it on Big Four N. Face. Others might, but I wouldn't.

 

John

[Bronco]

nice tr Juan.

 

[mikeadam]