[TR] Surprise Basin- Mt Clark West Flank 7/30/2006

[sjwages]

Climb: Surprise Basin-Mt Clark West Flank

 

Date of Climb: 7/30/2006

 

Trip Report:

Took a long day trip w/ AstroV and Jessica out to Royal Basin. Our original plans were for Arrowhead but due to low clouds we shifted our plans to the lower walls on Clark's west side in Surprise Basin.

 

Clark and the west flank during a brief clearing.

 

Our route on the west flank (Low 5th, 3P)

 

Enjoying the exposure on the 2nd pitch.

 

Simul climbed some of the 3rd pitch which tops out in a small gully.

 

Topping out on the ridge.

 

We traversed the north side of the ridge instead of trying to find adequate rap anchors. Most of the rock we traversed was pretty solid aside from some scree.

 

After traversing under NF of Clark we found a notch to scree ski down and make our way back into Surprise Basin to retrieve our packs. We made it back to the parking lot around 0400--a very long walk out. I would suggest at least 2 days to explore this area.

 

Gear Notes:

Small rack up to 3", set of nuts. Should have brought bivy sacks and/or GPS.

 

Approach Notes:

The approach to Arrowhead is still filled w/ snow--FYI

[Norman_Clyde]

Nice pics. Royal Basin is an interesting part of the range.

[olyclimber]

sweet, eye'd clark on a hike a few years back (we camped on that big boulder next to the tarn). pic from that trip:

 

[olyclimber]

The original objective?

 

Some info about the Needles...

[bremerton_john]

Looks like a long, rewarding day in and out of the Basin. Mt. Clark has got several good routes on it.

 

Oly, yeah that's the Arrowhead in your pic. Thanks for that link also to the geology website. I hadn't seen that before. Nice picture there with someone on top of the Arrowhead.

Edited July 31, 2006 by bremerton_john

[sjwages]

Yep, there it is. I didn't expect there to be any snow in the chute. Heavy snow year I guess.

[nolanr]

I've been up to Royal/Surprise basins several times, always enjoyable. One of the coolest climbs I've ever done, although completely non-technical, was a moonlit ascent of Fricaba in early November one year. Everything about the experiene was enchanting. Particularly looking across at Mt. Mystery and the lake at it's base, it was gorgeous.