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N Pickets/Fury NE Face


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  • 2 weeks later...

Just up on Fury and Luna. The NE Face (left of the N. Butt.) looks to have at least two large sections of alpine ice, and it could be interesting glacier travel to get to it. It looks like it would go, but it also looks quite serious. The SE Glacier route is really fun if you are looking for an easier route to the top. Nelson's description is right on the money, though the times are conservative. Took us 4.5 hours to the top of Fury from the Luna/Fury col; he says 5-8. Five parties have signed the register this year, including us. Go get it!

 

John Sharp

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Picketer, we went in there in mid aug. Used some of your beta on the approach, worked good staying on the north side of access creek for the bushwack. [big Drink] We took the middle couloir to the ridge, some step snow near the top, but not to bad. On the way out we hit the couloir in the morning and it was still icy, so we ended up being able to wallow in the moats all the way down the snowfields. It was muddy but easier that downclimbing the icy couloir.

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Picketeer:

 

If I understand your question correctly, you are wondering which gully we took to the ridge notch from the Access Creek Basin camp. We used the middle one of three, I believe. The right one was much steeper looking and had hard snow with shrunds. The middle one is all talus and dirt, with a small snow patch that you climb around. The left one looked lower angle but is farther from the objective basin on the other side. There is a small trail from the notch where we topped out to the entry to the big basin that ultimately takes you to the Luna/Fury col. Does this answer your question? It took us 9 hrs. from the dock to the Access Creek Basin camp (saved time with Dave Parker's beta and trail marker), and 3.5 to from the basin camp to the Luna/Fury col camp. Then a total of 8 hrs. from the col back to the dock on Sunday going out in one push, in pea soup fog and rain down to Access Creek camp (O.K. weather beyond that point). The unexpected storm Sat. night was no fun, but by then we had climbed Luna and Fury so it was just a matter of getting wet and getting no sleep.

 

Cheers,

 

John

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No, totally planned this time. We spent two nights at the coolest bivi site I can remember (the Luna/Fury col). It was the STORM that was unplanned, and I gather it caught more parties than ours with their pants down. But at least it had the decency to wait until we were back from climbing Fury and had eaten dinner, drank the rest of our whiskey, had cigarettes, bud, and tea. Then the shit started! Oh well.

 

Juan

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Thanks Juan and Whiplash! The middle couloir is the one we took as well. I also recall it being a bit steep and icy at the top.

 

Sounds like you got hit by the same storm that lashed us on our way into the Buckindy Crags on Saturday night, weekend before last. First time I can recall seeing a lightning flash immediately followed by smoke (actually three separate columns of smoke). Totally brillant branching bolts struck in the Downey creek basin near the Bachelor creek confluence (seen from our bivi on the ridge heading from Green Mt. to Buckindyville, killer views of Dome)-decent old overgrown trail along the ridge (like Beckey sez, once about 1/2 mile out from Green Mt) Hopefully the storm that followed tamped it out. Never saw the basin the next morning, cuz we were in the soup from then on. (So much for our visions of Lord of the Rings summits-at least, 'til next time). And yeah, the vicious black flies were out and biting!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have images of the NE Face of Fury from our climb last week. We climbed from Luna Lake to a camp high on the SE Glacier route in 13 hours camp to camp, through the Fury Icefall and rock bands onto the ice shield, joining the snow arete of the upper N Buttress near the summit ridge.

 

Outstanding route, great snow/ice conditions and a very narrow window of weather in otherwise crappy weather. Encountered whiteout on the glacier the next morning, made for an "interesting " descent.

 

PM me for more info if anyone is interested. I would post images here but don't know how to do so without having a URL for them -- I just have them on my hard drive.

 

Steve

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quote:

Originally posted by goatboy:

I have images of the NE Face of Fury from our climb last week. We climbed from Luna Lake to a camp high on the SE Glacier route in 13 hours camp to camp, through the Fury Icefall and rock bands onto the ice shield, joining the snow arete of the upper N Buttress near the summit ridge.

 

Outstanding route, great snow/ice conditions and a very narrow window of weather in otherwise crappy weather. Encountered whiteout on the glacier the next morning, made for an "interesting " descent.

 

PM me for more info if anyone is interested. I would post images here but don't know how to do so without having a URL for them -- I just have them on my hard drive.

 

Steve

Steve, try Shutterfly.com for posting photos. It's a FREE service and pretty easy. See my post on "GO GET GOODE" for an example.

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Okay, here's my attempt at posting some images of the NE Face of Fury:

 

Fury photos

 

Please note, I'm using this shutterfly link in order to share my images with other climbers, not to encourage anyone to buy any prints or anything else from shutterfly.

 

The route was among the best I've ever done -- it was the entire package deal: Bushwhacking, cramponing across steep wet heather, icefall, steep snow and ice, bad weather, good weather, incredible views of the Pickets North and South, glacier travel, whiteout, lightning, high bivies and heavy loads, and a glorious summit day.

 

We took a week to do it. I was worked when we were done, and was glad to have had a week to do it all in.

 

Day 1 -- take boat from Ross Lake Dam to Big Beaver and camp at 39 mile camp

Day 2 -- Schwack up Access Creek and camp

Day 3 -- Over two passes and drop down to Luna Lake (via Luna/Fury Col)

Day 4 -- Climb Fury Glacier icefall, traverse onto NE Face and finish via North Buttress snow arete and short rock section; descend to 8000 feet and make camp on SE Glacier

Day 5 -- Descend SE Glacier in whiteout, camp on ridge above Access Creek

Day 6 -- Drop into Access creek and schwack down to 39 mile

Day 7 -- Boat picks us up at noon, steak and a beer

 

This did involve a carry over from Luna Lake to the SE Glacier, so we tried to go as light as possible -- took a 30 meter rope, 6 screws (used em in the icefall), 2 pickets each, about 6 stoppers and a larger tri cam, 6 slings -- it was a perfect rack for the conditions we found.

 

I can't recommend the route highly enough. Sorry it took me awhile to get these pictures up.

 

Steve

 

[ 09-18-2002, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: goatboy ]

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Thanks, y'all! It was a great trip, and the photos don't start to do it justice.

 

Juan gives himself a hard time saying that he did "the easy route" -- seems like there's no such thing as an easy route in the Pickets! Good work Juan! We descended the SE Glacier in a whiteout and I would not call it an "easy route" by any means.

 

Alan Kearney's new book says that more people have expressed a desire to climb Fury than any other wall in the range. All I can say is, I'm glad I've done it because I'm not inclined to rush back for round two too soon!

 

Hope some of you cascadeclimber folks get a chance to have a go at it next year, cuz it's good! [big Drink]

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