[TR] Mount Terror- North Face 8/18/2006

[Kyle_Flick]

Climb: Mount Terror-North Face

 

Date of Climb: 8/18-20/2006

 

Trip Report:

On Friday, Paul Kelly and I hiked in from Goodell Creek and passed below East McMillan Spire enroute to camp on Stetattle Ridge. The Ridge is similarly narrow and exposed as the Torment-Forbidden Traverse with a couple of chavel moves tossed in for grins. The next morning we dropped into McMillan Cirque and headed for the Barricade in what looked like a couple of hours work. Several hours later having crossed numerous gullies and moving as quickly as possible with the seracs of the McMillan Glacier periously perched above us, we finally rapped into the deep cleft before the Barricade. Crossing the Barricade wasn't too bad at about 5200'. We reached the base of the snow of the north face of Terror around 2:30 p.m. and spent another hour and half climbing steep snow and up and around crevasses in the hope of getting on the rock at 6200'. But we hit water ice and without more substantial crampons and ice tools, we felt it was foolhardy to pursue the higher approach onto the rock. We then dropped down several hundred feet and crossed the moat near the toe of the buttress around 4:00 pm. Good quality rock was the rule as we made our way up the exposed and mostly unprotectable fourth and low fifth class. We bivied about 500 feet below the summit at a notch with a large snow patch available to melt water. The next morning, after discovering a snafflehound had eaten the strap of my ski pole, we headed up the steep section before the west ridge. We encountered two pitches of 5.7--5.8.

We topped out about 11:30 am and began descending the west ridge around noon. Rapping into the gully my partner knocked a rock loose onto his shin. After some first aid to stop the bleeding, we gingerly made our way down the loose gully. We made one more rap and were out into the Cresent Basin after 3:00 p.m. Crossing the Barrier was simple enough as was finding the Ridge down to Terror Creek, but the path was hard to find in places. Luckily in fading light we crossed the creek and located the old trail on the other side which took us back to our tennis shoes stowed at the road/trail turnoff for Terror Basin. Suffice it to say we were late getting home and to work the next day. But a finer tour of the Southern Pickets would be hard to find. I'll try and add pictures later.

 

Gear Notes:

Small alpine rack up to 3"

[dmarch]

Cool!

[Weekend_Climberz]

Snaffles strike again!

 

Nice trip, got any pictures to display

[Winter]

Nice work! Would love to see some pics.

[Juan]

Hurray -- you can finally take this off the list!

 

Way to go.

 

Sharp

[Der_Wanderer]

It's a great route. You guys smoked it.

[MountaingirlBC]

nice... very much looking forward to the pics!

[Kyle_Flick]

See pictures in alpine and climbing galleries (8/26/06).

[telemarker]

I want to hear about the true crux of your climb...posting pictures in gallery. Your actually integrating them into your TR will be like a 5.11 slab move.

 

Anyway, nice pics, though the summit shot....hmmmm...where are the nughugger shorts?