[TR] Leavenworth - Hubba Hubba 1/24/2007

[Fromage]

Trip: Leavenworth - Hubba Hubba

 

Date: 1/24/2007

 

Trip Report:

Drove over to L-town Wednesday morning with my fiancee for some midweek ice, figuring the only other people we would run into would be snowmobilers. Thirty seconds into the approach we came across a couple of poor fools in climbing clothing who had high-centered their shiny Jeep Cherokee by trying to drive through a snowbank that was acting as a pseudo-roadblock. This maneuver was puzzling, since they only would have reduced their approach hike by 100m as the road was gated at the bridge. I had my trusty old 4x4 in the parking lot and could have towed them out, but since they were in no danger themselves, were not creating a hazard, and I didn't want to waste valuable daylight on dragging a couple of morons out of the snow, I chose to let them learn from the experience. I chatted with a snowmobiler who observed that this was the third climber in a couple weeks who had tried to drive through the snow bank with the same results.

 

In the intervening two days since I had last climbed Hubba2 on Sunday, much had changed. The approach path was obliterated by avy debris from three different slides. Two were small point releases, and one was a big pile of snow that had clearly poured over the main flow of the climb. This had probably happened on Tuesday when it was warm and sunny. There was also a glide crack creeping right to left across the curtain at the start of the main flow.

 

We climbed the right side in one long and and one short pitch. The first pitch had good plastic ice that took 17cm screws in a few places. I chose to head up and left on the second pitch since the right side looked like a snow wallow in the gully. The ice was thin, hollow, detached, and sun baked in spots, but the climbing was not hard so I reached the tree without much problem. The upper part of the main flow looked thinner than it was a few days ago. Since we were at the anchor we rapped off to save a little time.

 

We hiked out in the daylight, and upon returning to the parking lot we saw the silver Cherokee had been extracted and parked next to my car. As we changed into our jeans and the light began to fade, I noticed the dome light in the Jeep was dimly lit. Ouch. One dumb move begets another.

 

Gear Notes:

17cm screws were fine, a 13 and a 10 would not be bad additions. No rock pro needed.

 

Approach Notes:

You may want to take an approach line that does not switchback up the avy path.