Alpinfox Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Climb: The Tooth aka Das Toof aka Der Toofen-Northeast Slab Date of Climb: 3/2/2004 Trip Report: Being a climbing bum does not provide benefits such as dental coverage, so I decided that yesterday I should get some sharp implements and scrape some crud off of the northeast slab of The Tooth. This idea sprang upon me so suddenly, that I had no time to rustle up a partner and I liked the idea of doing a moderate winter alpine route solo anyway, so I headed up. It was a beautiful day in the Alpental Valley. The northeast slab route (sometimes called the "north face" route) is shown in the photo above. The route starts in the lower right of the corner (left facing corner with rock on right side) and then proceeds up and slightly left towards/through/past the trees and continues up the north ridge to the left (not visible) to the summit. The slope is actually a little steeper and longer than it appears in this photo (some camera tilt and maybe some perspective issues?) maxing out at about 70 degrees. The base of the route had the best ice. It was wonderful, alpine ice that allowed the whole pick to penetrate on the first swing. I was pretty excited at this point and was really looking forward to the climb. This picture was taken in that sweet stuff: Unfortunately, that sweet stuff soon turned to a thin coating of sugary crap covering about a quarter inch of verglas on top of rock. This stuff wouldn't hold any weight and I began to get a little concerned. I wasn't sure if I could make it the next little group of trees (a potential spot to bail) and my crampons & tools were slipping a bit. I was somewhat comforted by the knowledge that my friend AlpineDave had been through here a couple of days before and had summited ( his TR here) , but maybe things had changed since then? I traversed left a bit and tried to go up again. No dice. I downclimbed a bit and traversed left some more, and eventually reached some steep snow flutings that held body weight. I climbed up through the flutings, past some more thin "ice" and finally reached a little patch of yellow water ice and was able to get a sinker "thank god" stick in something I was pretty confident would hold a fall. (note: for those of you thinking of leading this route, I doubt you could get a great screw in here, maybe a stubby). A bit more rotten "ice" separated me from a tree just below the north ridge and safety. Some delicate climbing got me to the tree and then I excavated a buried heather bush and sort of snow/heather climbed up the remaining 70-degree slope to the ridge. There are no pictures through this section because I was a little busy . Once on the north ridge, a small rock step (about 15ft high) blocked my passage to the coveted summit of Der Toof. I even managed to get a nice hand jam in there, which I apparently thought was photo worthy at the time: After the rock step, I was quickly on the summit and soaking in the views and the sunshine. Stuart was lookin' pretty bad ass! While dining on a Subway Veggie Delite and some water, I started thinking about how to get down the south face. I brought a 50m rope and hoped that would work. 5 (SHORT!) rappels later I was at the base of the south face and hiked around the pineapple, past the big cornice in the photo below, and into the basin below Das Toofer. I hung out in the trees at the little pass looking over the west side of Denny Mountain and chatted breifly with some ski patrollers that came by and then started heading down. In the basin below Ein TOOOOOfen, I saw this cool snow drift on a rock and climbed it. It was like a piece of playground equipment; stairs on one side and a little slide on the other: Well, to all of you poor suckers stuck in your cubicles on the last nice day of weather we are going to have for a while, all I can say is: Gear Notes: Trusty old X-15s, crampons, 8.5mmX50m rope (a 60m would have been nicer for raps), ski poles for approach, no snowshoes, no partner (might bring one next time) Approach Notes: The Alpental backcountry return ski trail was wicked icy. I took a nice digger on it at one point and bent my wookie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cracked Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 on! Glad to see more people enjoying the weather! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klenke Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Pax, please keep your tongue in your pants, I mean mouth, from now on. Also, I see you've got a purple BD leash on your axe, just like me. You know your leashes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jja Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 cool I think chair peak is slowly being pushed aside as cc.com's favorite climb !! We'll have to find a new route that everyone can gang up on next winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chucK Posted March 3, 2004 Share Posted March 3, 2004 Great report! Is that face the same as the "Northeast Slab" climb, or is the NE Slab further left? Do you know? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpinfox Posted March 3, 2004 Author Share Posted March 3, 2004 ChucK. Yes, NE slab = NF. NE slab is a more accurate description actually... Maybe I'll change that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken4ord Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Yo Beotch, you didn't even mention getting out yesterday. You so suck . I was at work all day, not fair, get a job will you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squid Posted March 4, 2004 Share Posted March 4, 2004 Nice job, AF! Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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