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kadyakerbob

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then its not us we never actually left the coulior simply climbed the headwall on its left side at wi3 and it looked like the right side would go at wi4 or 4+. Upon topping off the headwall we had to traverse right over a fluting to get back into the main coulior as the coulior narrow down. At no point was i thinking that we were bypassing the crux only that coodinition allowed us to climb an easier line than other folks reported.

 

And Avitripp this is sounding most excellent. Would you be a dear and bring the guidebook I won't want you to make fun my guidebook choice by bring a select guidebook or something

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And Avitripp this is sounding most excellent. Would you be a dear and bring the guidebook I won't want you to make fun my guidebook choice by bring a select guidebook or something

 

I won't make fun by bring your select guidebook.....but I might make fun your english....

 

 

Eric. Just so things are clear...turnabout is fair play, mate.

 

You guys did great on the mountain. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that. There is really no need to explain your route choice as its obvious that, regardless, you guys were having fun and putting it out there.

bigdrink.gif

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There is really no need to explain your route choice

 

I hope nobody got the impression I was asking him or anybody else to "explain their route choice" as in defend or justify it. I thought it interesting that there might be a two pitch variation at that point - but it appears Dru's guess that those "climbers" in the route photo are quite likely just trees is correct. The higher pair, which as noted appears to be linked by a rope, is right in the gully.

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haha like i said earlier the internet is funny, i was just trying to make what we did clear since i was not sure if what we did was the wi3 variation in some guidebooks or if that how the route was in the condition we found. The cornice sure felt like the crux anyway...

 

and besides we are seperated by this blasted thing called the internet which means i must have the last word

 

ps. did you climb the north face of index the other week? I thought i saw a post you made about conditions being good... perhaps since you like to spray you could enlighten us

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I would say that conditions on the face were less than prime. Much of the ice was the consistency of a slurpee and would have held screws about as well. When I howled at your party (alex?) descending it was 11:50, right before I led the crux. The crux was WI4+/5X and very frightening. I placed three screws in the only remotely decent patch of ice on the pitch about halfway up. None of them would have held any substantial fall. After finishing the vertical section I ran the rope out looking for a belay. It took me twenty minutes to lead, but an hour to excavate a crack that I could get a small angle into and set up a shaky belay. It really burned up a lot of time. We thought we might be able to take a variation that looked like a shortcut, but turned out to be a stupid choice. The view from up there is very foreshortened and the corniced ridge looks like it's two rope lengths away, when in reality it's very very far. We were lucky we tried this variation because I punched through some snow into a cave where we ended up spending the night.

 

Unfortunately I now have pretty bad frostbite on my big toes, I won't know how bad it really is for a couple days, but the doctor was convinced some of the tissue damage is reversible. We will see. I'd like to send a big shout out to all the SAR people and everyone who came to help out. You guys rule. Also, that pic of the face is totally sweet.

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looking at oly climbers photo zoom that is almost certainly us. With the fluting we traverse over visable as well. So maybe that is the variation. But from below it did not seem like it at the time as we stated right of the treed rib which i thought defined the "coulior" and was thinking that the wi3 circum navagation mention in wa ice was on the otherside of that

Edited by eric8
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It could be that I have mis-identified where I thought we found the crux bit, because it sounds remarkably like what you described: the gully itself went through a bulge in a steep slot, and there was an easier route maybe 50 feet left, which is what we took.

 

bcrux.jpg

 

There was an apparent detour farther left, but we didn't check it out.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It was deep last weekend. It's gonna be really DEEEEEP this weekend smile.gif but, hey, you never know. I didn't think that it would be any good last weekend.

 

BTW mike, do you know the answer to my question (which is the true summit)? I guess I could really care less, but I was curious...that way if I didn't summit the right one it would give me an excuse to go back smile.gif.

Edited by AllYouCanEat
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I believe the summit register is on the knuckle in the middle, at the west end of the flat area. But Jason, I told you I have a picture of a lower peak rising above that middle knuckle, taken from the 2nd knuckle from the left. So therefore, 2nd knuckle from the left must be higher.

 

****

edited to add, I think I have my knuckles mixed up. There is a sixth knuckle that isn't visible, between 1 and 2 from the left. And the summit register would be on knuckle 2 from the left, but the invisible knuckle would be higher.

Aw shit, I don't know....

Edited by philfort
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It was deep last weekend. It's gonna be really DEEEEEP this weekend smile.gif but, hey, you never know. I didn't think that it would be any good last weekend.

 

BTW mike, do you know the answer to my question (which is the true summit)? I guess I could really care less, but I was curious...that way if I didn't summit the right one it would give me an excuse to go back smile.gif.

 

No, I don't confused.gif

We should get a real long piece of wood and lay it across all four summits at once and see where it tips.

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