OlegV Posted February 1, 2005 Posted February 1, 2005 Climb: The Tooth-The South Face Date of Climb: 1/30/2005 Trip Report: Being tired of the recent warm weather, which makes you feel like a global warming is on its way, Justin RR and I decided to do something more fun than just sitting in the box and staring at another box. Even though I’ve been ignoring alpine rock for quite a while, Justin convinced me to give it a shot and do something meaningful other than just waiting for Hood to freeze. That said, we headed up the North Cascades to attempt the South Face of the Tooth. The conditions were just right - low avi danger, clear sky, no wind. We got to the end of the well packed Snow Lake ski trail within one hour, took GPS reading (glad we did it!) and headed down a broad talus field vigorously postholing knee-deep wet snow. We got to the base of the cliff pretty quickly and decided that instead of going around the cliff, we will climb a narrow gully (normal descent route) leading straight up to the Pineapple Pass. Justin had climbed this gully before when it contained real snow. Now the gully looked pretty sketchy - class 4 muddy rock mixed with flocks of wet ice and snow. We climbed unropped and with no crampons on using ice axes to anchor to the dirt. When we got to base of the first pitch, the place looked like a zoo, or more precisely spoken, like a four-lane highway in LA - climbers crawling up and down, ropes flying in all directions, people screaming here and there. Fortunately, the weather got much worse producing wet mist and annoying sprinkle, and killing everyone’s motivation to climb any further. Most of people were leaving anyway. By the time we got to the second pitch, we were along on the mountain. Justin led... This was his third attempt of the Tooth and it was finally succeeding - prior attempts failed because of bad conditions. We especially enjoyed the very end of the last pitch with lots of exposure - just like a photo from the book. Quite relaxed and already thinking of a hot tea and spaghetti, we repelled down two pitches and ... with one more pitch to go, we couldn’t continue any further... To our big horror, the rope got stuck while I tried to pull it off the repel anchor. The darkness fell and we didn’t have our headlamps with us. Precisely speaking, the lamps were down below in our packs. What an idiotic situation, indeed! The good news was we had enough of a single line left to make it “safe” to the ground. Until yesterday, I didn’t even know one can repel down on a single line. Justin did... I heard a falling noise - Justin!!! - Silence!!! - My heart sunk - Justin!!! - I am OK!!! Fuuck!, you scared the shit out of me! Imagine what happens next - Justin prusiks up a line bringing light and uneasy decision to climb up the second pitch unprotected and untangle $130 rope. . What’s the price of your life? By the way, the man wears Koflac Degree doubles all the time. You know, those you wear hiking on the Moon. The faith was on our side, Justin got his rope back. Getting back home was interesting too. I thanked myself for taking a single GPS point at the end of the trail a few hours earlier. Even though, we followed footprints in the snow, they often multiplied in different directions. We simply trusted the slope, the sound of the creek and our GPS. Here is our favorite talus field! We made it! It was a reasonable price to pay for a fun ride... Gear Notes: small alpine rack Quote
Hayduke Posted February 1, 2005 Posted February 1, 2005 I love it! Adventure right in our own backyard! Quote
Bogen Posted February 1, 2005 Posted February 1, 2005 Nice TR Oleg! Glad to see you're getting out. Stuck ropes suck. Whats this tea and spaghetti nonsense? Shouldn't that be vodka and speck? Quote
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