[TR] The Triad- East Ridge to Middle (Main) Summit 9/6/2004

[klenke]

Climb: The Triad-East Ridge to Middle (Main) Summit

 

Date of Climb: 9/6/2004

 

Trip Report:

And then there were two dicks*...

 

Sergio Verdina, Eric Hoffman, and I tried to thread Dorado Needle car-to-car in a day. Ha ha ha ha ha ha...[sigh].

 

Starting from the Sibley Pass Trailhead at 6:00AM, we were at the 6,060-ft pass in 1.5 hours. It was looking to be a nice day. We mounted the long ridge leading NE to The Triad (there's a nice trail along the ridge). Hidden Lake Peak is purty from this angle:

Dorado and Eldorado were visible at the head of Marble Creek just waiting for us. Fresh snow dusted their west faces--quite pretty. We were happy hoofers but that warm fuzzy feeling would soon be put on ice...

 

At the first major ridge tower (c. 6,800 ft) it is normally necessary to descend to the north side of the ridge to circumvent the difficulties. Well the north side was a literal sheet of ice. Our wimpy aluminum crampons were no match for that bulletproof stuff. I tried to climb around (above) the difficulties in the moat but it got real thin (narrow) at an exposed corner so I turned around. Falling on the ice would have meant slipping all the way back to the Cascade River, or at least it seemed that way. Almost in unison we agreed that Dorado Needle was out of the question. What was to be our extra credit climb if we had time on the way out now was our consolation prize, our honorable mention: The Triad (7,520+ ft):

Since a descent far below the steep ice on the north side seemed like a long way to go down and around, we took to descending the south side to skirt the ridge tower. A steep and heathery and grassy downclimb then traverse eastward got us over to a south-trending rib. A view of the tower after traversing past it:

We climbed high to a saddle thinking the other side would be a benign continuance to the summit. No way. Steep cliff with steep heathery ramps and drop-offs was the scene. However, farther down the rib to the right (south) I spied a possible route down into the next basin via steep timber. We all went and had a look. Since I was ahead of them I scouted a path while they waited above. Eventually after much head scratching I wended my way down a tortuous set of ledges, gullies, and evergreen monkey squeezes to make the talus below. I called out to Sergio and Hoffman to explain where they should go to get down.

 

As I waited, they decided to rappel it. Sergio called it the "jungle pitch." Since I had one half of our double 30m rope system it meant they'd have to do the 150-ft descent with one rope. It would wind up only being Sergio joining me as Eric claimed an injury to his psyche. So, while Sergio rapped three times to get to the talus Eric headed off back the way we'd come. He would wind up scaling Hidden Lake Peak before going back to the car for a long wait for our return. Here's the jungle pitch (pink line is our route on the way back):

With Sergio again with me, we soon arrived at the basin south of the Triad's trio of summits. Fresh snow covered two minor snowfields and made them easy to climb upon. Without the freshiez, the snowfields would have been icy, maybe even requiring crampons, certainly an ice axe. As it was, we didn't use our ice axes or crampons the whole day. Wasted weight.

 

We climbed up to the high saddle on the south side of the East Summit. From there an oblique climb leftward got us to a notch west of the East Summit. Our route:

A line of granitic teeth forced us temporarily onto a snow ramp on the north side:

This ramp led down to the notch on the other side. After a few more feet of Class 3 scrambling the ridge finally tipped up to Class 4. We stopped to belay this. (Sergio tried to pull the weather card but I would have none of it. He didn't want to have to traverse sketchy heather in the rain. True a weather system was rapidly moving in but I could tell it was weak. I even promised Sergio I'd pay him $100 if it rained before we got back to the car. It didn't rain except for an inconsequential sprinkle from virga, which did not count.) I led out around a corner on the left, setting one small cam on the way. The 30m rope ran out just about at the rap station there. Sergio then led up and over the next rise (Class 3) to the next notch where another bit of Class 4 presented itself. This time I led to the right (north) side and belayed Sergio up. The rest of the way along the ridge was Class 2.

 

A fresh smattering of pocketing snow gave character to the scene and climb. The last 50 feet is Class 3 but not hard.

Time up was 8 hours but we lost about 2 hours route finding back at the ice patch and the jungle pitch. It was laughable our aspirations to climb Dorado Needle from the Sibley Pass Trail in a day. It needled us from afar. Next time we're going in via the normal Eldorado Creek approach. Dorado from The Triad:

The summit is a sharp crest. A small PVC pipe held a register booklet. As soon as I unscrewed the pipe and began pulling out the little yellow book I knew it was a Fay Pullen special. Geez, that Fay has been EVERYWHERE! There was only one entry after her 7/29/03 entry, a twosome in late-August 2003. Sergio and I were the first party this year. The views from the summit are astonishing. Of particular interest are the peaks and valleys of the Ptarmigan Traverse, the Marble Creek Cirque, and the Backbone-Perdition-Early Morning Spire-Dorado-Eldorado palisade.

We left the summit shortly after 2:00PM. At the second Class 4 pitch we belayed each other down. Then at the rappel station we did a double-30m rope rappel back along the ridge. The rest we downclimbed back to our gear stash. The view east from the summit:

The jungle pitch was dispatched as a running belay. I could have slung a tree but just had to chock a crack so I could say I used one of the eight or nine nuts in our possession. Sergio topping out the jungle canopy (it's steeper than it looks):

The rest of the climb out was uneventful. We pulled our bones into the parking lot at 7:45PM. Hoffman had been there for three or four hours. That was more than enough time for him to run down the road to buy some post-climb beers. Slacker.

 

* Quoting Beckey's Green CAG: "The original climbing party, in 1949,...three of whom had identical first names, called the formation The Three Dicks, but in the interest of good taste, a similar name was derived, one which would meet society's approval."

 

Gear Notes:

30m rope x 2 ropes (can get away with one probably)

Runners

Very very small rack...a rack so small you can't even see it.

 

Approach Notes:

Sibley Pass Trail starts closer and higher but the terrain is rougher. In late season due to icy north slopes, the climbing might have to be done on the south side, which is cut by ribs and basins.

 

Consider making the approach from the standard Eldorado Creek route to Eldorado then cross the slabs westward below the long toe of the Eldorado Glacier.

[Chriznitch]

nice pictures--fall season in full effect up there. The jungle pitch belay looks like you wrapped the rope around a little stick!

[Stefan]

thanks for the report!

[Dru]

 

ok.... so in this pitch why did you go into the jungle instead of straight up the apparently 3rd class meadow above the snow patch? in other words, follow the edge of the shadow...

[JoshK]

Yeah, unless there is something the picture doesn't show real well, that looks a hellavu lot easier.

[Chriznitch]

cause if they went that way they'd be wasting the strong stick belay available at the top

[sverdina]

Gentlemen, the slope is obviously steeper than it appears in the photo. Furthermore, the tall grass was still quite slick/damp making for an interesting ride back down into the basin should one of us have lost our footing. Ascending the steeper, more confined "jungle pitch" with its ample green belays seemed like the safer thing to do at the time. Also, the "stick belay" is actually just an exposed section of a larger root system.

[MisterMo]

Nice fotos. That's an interesting approach to Dorado Needle this late in the season. Earlier on it's fairly trivial.

Were you perhaps intending a route on the Marble Creek side of Eldo Needle? If so there is a route down into Marble Creek Cirque from near the small lake at the head of the Northerly fork of Sibley Creek. I haven't been down it myself; people who have report it as unpleasant though direct. It may be the shortest route into Marble Creek.

As I recall it's fairly obvious when you're in Marble Creek looking over at it, a lot less so when your're near that little lake, looking down. Been a while since I've been to either spot tho.

[klenke]

I had never been the Sibley Pass way to the Eldorado Glacier so I didn't know what to expect. All I knew is it is ~2 miles longer than the Eldorado Creek approach. I am aware of the Marble Creek approach from the little lake you speak of, but again have not tread the terrain to know what's really there.

 

I would like to climb the interesting looking Ex Spire--the high point of the ridge between Marble Creek and N. Fork Sibley Creek--and would approach from that little lake. That would be the last time I'd need to go up to Sibley Pass, cuz I sure as hell aint gonna go that way again to knock off Dorado Needle.

[MisterMo]

Indirect indeed it is compared to Eldo Creek. That's a pretty little traverse though, going in Sibley Creek & coming out Bostin Basin or Cascade Pass

[Stefan]

Do you have pictures of Ex Spire?

[JoshK]

Gentlemen, the slope is obviously steeper than it appears in the photo. Furthermore, the tall grass was still quite slick/damp making for an interesting ride back down into the basin should one of us have lost our footing. Ascending the steeper, more confined "jungle pitch" with its ample green belays seemed like the safer thing to do at the time. Also, the "stick belay" is actually just an exposed section of a larger root system.

 

pfft...it's all about the crampons and heather axe

[klenke]

Josh: it might go in drier conditions--especially as an upclimb--but it was too sketchy in the condition we found it. Note the fresh snow patches. BTW, the shaded portion next to the rock fin was partially comprised of moss matting that was slicker than the snot from a toehead crybaby.

 

Stefan: I think I did take a photo of Ex Spire but it's still in my camera. I'll post the photo later if I have it. You and I need to go tag that interesting ridge, which was reminiscent of Mt. Higgins with its slanting ramps and steps.