[TR] Lexington Tower- East Face 5/1/2004

[Uncle_Tricky]

Climb: Lexington Tower-East Face

 

Date of Climb: 5/1/2004

 

Trip Report:

After a teetotaling night at the Spring Ski In where no beer, Jack Daniels or smoke was consumed by anyone, Chuck, Jeff and I awoke early, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

 

Ok, that's a lie.

 

Anyway, despite Mattp's warnings that the East Face of Lexington would be nothing more than a "gaping oozing slimy pusshole" at this time of year, we decided to go check it out for ourselves.

 

The approach was easy, with only minor postholing--until we reached the steep approach gully.

 

Lexington East face:

 

None of us had climbed the route before, so we weren't sure exactly where to get onto the rock. We ended up climbing too far up the gulley in steep, deep, unconsolidated snow and shaped little snow ledges for ourselves with our axes.

 

Looking at the Becky book now, (we didn't have his topo) its clear we climbed too far up the gulley and got on the rock at the place he describes as an "alternate start--avoid."

 

It quickly became clear to us why. It was too steep and awkward to change into our rock shoes, and there was no place in the gulley to build a decent anchor. Jeff soloed up onto the rock and established a beley. Chuck saddled up and took the first lead over wet loose rock and snow in his approach boots. Jeff followed while I remained in the snow gulley, tied off to a single cam stuck in rotten rock. As Jeff was following, a loud rumbling began and the first big avy of the day ripped down the gulley.

 

When the roar ended, chuck (who was still leading) yelled down "Hey Tricky, are you still down there?!"

 

Fortunately I was--cowering in a little rock cove, as the slide passed by in the main gulley maybe 20 feet to my left. The slide sent up a big cloud of snow dust, which blew over and settled on us.

 

After Jeff led a traversing pitch across some wet rock, we got back on route.

 

We ended up taking our packs along for the first three pitches before stashing them on a snowy ledge. We didn't want to leave them in the avalanche chute because we hope to descend a different way. Here's me leading the third pitch:

 

And Jeff following:

 

By this time, it was warming up an increasingly large avys were ripping down the gully to our left. Big slides that sounded like trains and bounding ice blocks obliterated the last couple hundred yards of our approach tracks.

 

Chuck led the next pich up to under the first big roof system, and I got the next pitch which begins with an easier-than-it-looks chimney/traverse to finger and hand crack behind a flake. Really fun climbing in a great position:

 

 

Plugging in gear after the traverse. The climb goes straight up the steep flake.

 

Jeff:

 

The pitch ends up at the base of the 5-6 inch offwidth which widens to a snow-filled chimney maybe 2 feet wide.

 

Here's the belay. Jeff is tied into a section of wooden 2x4 that someone wedged into the wide crack.

 

Here's Jeff, demonstrating creative footwork on the offwidth. (Note the tongue sticking out):

 

 

While previous snow and icefall was limited to the gulley to our left, while Jeff was on the pitch, a bunch of snow and ice chunks sloughed off the top of Lexington and bounded down to our left, directly over the first three pitches--kinda exciting.

 

It was Chuck's turn for the next pitch, which follows a burley offwidth that was dripping water. The grunting, wheezing and cursing was enough to put the fright of god into small children. Fortunately there were no small children 800 feet up on Lexington tower and chuck sent it in style.

 

As we got higher on the face, we became increasingly concerned about the descent. Descending the avy gully--the recommended way down--was not an option. Slides were pouing down the chute and we'd stashed our packs back on the third pitch. We'd heard you could rap the route, but several of the stations we'd passed were little trees buried in ice and snow which concealed any webbing or rap anchors.

 

It appeared we were going to be leaving some gear.

 

After Jeff lead the last pitch, we consulted the Smoot topo and decided to rap Tooth and Claw in hopes it would be better than descending the route we'd climbed. It appeared the two routes converged where we left our packs.

 

I rapped down over a huge roof and after much effort, pendulumed over to the top of the 6th pitch of Tooth. Committed at that point, I clipped into one of the most awkward, sketchy and uncomfortable anchors I've seen in a while.

 

There I hung off this little half dead tree that was sticking horizontally out of a big pillow of ice and snow. Only a couple little sections of webbing peeked out from under the snow, so it was impossible to assess the quality of the anchor.

 

While we couldn't see 90% of the anchor including the webbing and thr tree, someone had left two nuts in a rotten crack 10 feet above. An aged cord ran from the nuts down to under the big snow mound--presumably attached to the anchor. I wasn't sure if this was a good sign because the anchor was (apparently) backed up; or if it was a bad sign, meaning that someone who would actually see the anchor last summer had decided it was sketch enough that they decided to rig this funky backup system.

 

Chuck and Jeff came down. In order to make the pendulum, I had to pull them over with the free ends of the rap rope. While I hung from the little tree below the mound of snow covering the belay ledge, water dripping down my legs, chuck clipped in and stood in an awkward stance on the face. The only place for Jeff was a little snow filled cave (where there's probably usually a comfortable belay) 10 feet the anchor.

 

As I was rigging the next rap, my feet slipped off the slimy rock and I swung into the tree I was hanging from, breaking off several dead branches with a loud crack. We all got a dose of heart thumping adrenaline, because the noise of the breaking branches sounded like the tree itself we were hanging off was breaking.

 

The next couple raps were less worrisome, although we did leave some gear to back up a couple of the stations. None of us were willing--if we could help it--to rap off an anchor where you can only see a couple inches of webbing peeking out from a mound of snow.

 

Thankfully, we were able to reach our packs, and the rest of the descent was uneventful.

 

We were rewarded with a beautiful evening view on the walk out:

 

Overall, the climbs was great fun and the rock is great above the first pitches. Though between the avys, icefall, funky snowy belays and descent uncertainties, once we were down we admitted to eachother that we were filled with a certain sense of dread the whole day.

 

After nearly creaming a deer driving back, we arrived to a bonfire and beerverages for all. Thanks for a fun climb guys! Tho next time let's wait til June...

 

Gear Notes:

A pictoral representation of the recomended rack for E. Face Lexi:

 

NOTE: all pictures taken by Chuck.

Edited March 8, 2006 by chucK

[Dru]

[specialed]

Whoa Whoa Whoa!!! What's with all the big crack gear? Hansl doesn't need that shit to send. Clip the 2x and go for it.

[chucK]

He needed 'em for the belay. He has very sensitive eardrums and can't stand whining.

[carolyn]

What a suprise to see Jeff climbing an OW

 

Sounds like a great time, filled with a bit of luck!

 

Nice photos.

 

[Otto]

Wow, way to go chucK. The descent sounds horrifying. Did you look down the normal descent on the other side? It might have saved some wear and tear on the sphincters. Anyway, good show, lads.