[TR] The Tooth - South Face and Southwest Face 6/2/2007

[suge]

Trip: The Tooth - South Face and Southwest Face

 

Date: 6/2/2007

 

Trip Report:

So, the South Face of the Tooth gets climbed alot and there isn't much need for a whole lot of information on it, I thought I'd share some pictures from yesterdays romp on it. We climbed it and then descended and climbed the Southwest face route as well, on which there isn't as much beta. Most of the pictures below were taken by Joel with our communal camera.

 

We left the Alpentel parking lot at 6:40 am hoping to be the first group on the route. Snow conditions are still ok on the direct approach up the Source Lake drainage, but holes are starting to appear and with the recent weather (if it continues) it will be fairly melted out within 2 weeks, meaning you'll want to take the trail approach instead.

 

 

We went hard up the valley and quickly reached the basin below the Tooth and Pineapple Pass, only to see about 10 climbers starting up toward the notch below the Tooth. Joel went into pursuit mode, managing to catch the tail end of the group by the time they reached the notch. I was carrying 20 gallons of winter beer around my waist and reached the notch a minute or two later.

 

 

There was a large group from the WAC and another from the Mountaineers, along with two independent climbers. A busy day on Das Toof, but everyone played nice and there were no quarrels. The Mountaineers sent us in front, just behind the first two WAC climbers, so there wasn't alot of waiting around. Thanks! I led up to the top in two pitches, passing a stuck green cam (BD #0.75?) near the top to the right of the catwalk and to the left of a stuck pink tricam, where lies the more normal direct route to the top. Fun climbing, especially as it was my first alpine leading experience. It took about 2 hours to the top, with about 30 minutes of waiting for routes to clear.

 

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Me at the start of the first pitch. Run the rope about 50 meters passing a rap station enroute.

 

 

 

Me working around a delicate flake near the top. I'm off the normal route, just past the stuck cam. The climbing isn't hard (about 5.6), but the line to my right is easier, about 5.4.

 

 

Joel and I on top for the first time of the day. The climber behind us was part of the duo that set off for a traverse over to Chair Peak. I'd like to hear about the experience, so if you're reading this, please put something up!

 

 

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After climbing, we rested for fifteen minutes then rapped down the route, carefully avoiding the other climbers, and reached the base where a hoard of packs were stashed. We picked up our gear and traversed down and around the mountain to the start of the south face route. The cold snow felt very refreshing to my rock-shoe clad feet.

 

The Southwest Face has a number of options at the start. There are three open books that you can climb at the start. We chose to climb the third one (furthest over). The remaining snow meant that we got to start quite a bit above the start of the climb. I led out heading toward a prominent tree that we could see was slung with several slings and rap rings.

 

 

I didn't do a great job of route finding on the pitch. Some chimney action (no chimney in sight), some face climbing, a body crack, a lot of vegetation. A ton of rope drag thanks to my bad route finding. Almost an hour later I reached the tree and set up a belay, despite a lot of remaining rope. Check out the awful rope drag that I built into the system by my bad route finding:

 

 

Instead of belaying here, I should have climbed higher up and set a belay so that Joel, on the next pitch, could have gotten to near the Catwalk, and I then I could have finished the climb with a third pitch. Anyhow, Joel led the second pitch which featured much nicer climbing (i.e, he did a good job route finding) and set up a hanging belay just to the left of another body crack (the other two open books come up through the crack as well). I cleaned the pitch and we swapped gear for another lead.

 

Some delicate traversing got me into the crack where I could finally put some pro in. More dirty work got me onto the face and a bit higher, where I could finally get a second piece in.

 

 

The climbing became much better after this, but I again didn't pay enough attention to preventing rope drag and I quickly found myself working hard against the friction in the system to gain elevation.

 

 

After some face climbing, I reached a plateau and slung a large tree, adding the rope drag. I wasn't exactly sure where I was and was rather tired, so I traversed right, battling rope drag, instead of heading higher up. I should have headed up, as my traverse just reached a belay station twenty meters below the summit on the South Face route. Heading up would have reached a belay tree just below the Catwalk. A WAC climber was here bringing up a climber. I was tired and didn't want to go backward, so I slung the tree and brought Joel up. We had to wait a bit for climbers and rappelers to clear out, then Joel rapidly ran up the correct direct route (i.e, stuck pink tricam route) to the top. We were back on top by about 4:45 pm. We linked up with Laura and Scott, two other independent climbers, for a double rope rap down the South Face, eventually reaching the bottom after another single rap. Joel and I traversed back around on the snow, in our rock shoes, sans ice-axes (which were with the packs!).

 

 

Tired and sweaty, we regeared and set out for the cars at 6 pm, reaching the Alpentel parking lot a little before 7. I was a bit tired out, but very happy, as the below picture indicates.

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

For the South Face route, just bring a few nuts and maybe a cam or two of medium size. On the Southwest Face route I found the smaller size TCUs to be invaluable. I put in a few nuts and some medium to large cams (#3 BD, #2 and #3 Friends). Protection isn't awesome, but it isn't too bad either.

 

Approach Notes:

Snow is still ok, but getting worse by the day. The snowy traverse over to the start of the Southwest Face route is a little thin where it transitions onto the rock. Be very careful when entering onto the rock!

 

The Becky Route on the SW Face is the first open book and runs a purported 5.5. The Third Open book route that we took maxes out around 5.7 or so and is consistently 5.5-5.6. There are a few loose rocks on the way up, but these are pretty easily spotted and if you grab one or step on one, you'll know it very quickly. Protection is not as good as on the South Face route, but perfectly acceptable.

 

[TomMMW]

Nice report there, Math-Man!

 

I like the photo of you with the shit-eating grin. Classic.

 

 

 

[rob]

 

That's not my lucky green snot rag wrapped around your head, is it?

[suge]

It sure is lucky.