[TR] Mt. Maude - North Face 6/30/2007

[nattybumppo]

Trip: Mt. Maude - North Face

 

Date: 6/30/2007

 

Trip Report:

My best friend and I had a fantastic time on the north face of Maude yesterday.

 

We bivied at the Maude-Seven Finger Jack col on Friday night. A few showers on the way up, and even a snow flurry at the col, but nothing terrible. We woke with the sun but--embarassingly--didn't get our creaky bones going on the traverse until about 8:30 am. The traverse was tedious, but never really sketchy. It was about half and half snow and rock scrambling.

 

The face was in great shape. We could have stayed on snow the whole way, but we took a break on some rocks about a third of the way up. About half of the cornice was in place looming over climber's left. A real death-hanger. So we did our best to just punch it and minimize our exposure time. We didn't rope up, though we had the gear. Just single ice axes and crampons the whole way. We topped out at 12:30.

 

We descended the south side and then through the Leroy Creek basin. We didn't see a soul all of Friday and Saturday until we hit the trail. There'll be a bit of a queue on the route today if the number of ice tools we counted is any indication.

 

The Ixtapa mexican restaurant in Sultan gets two thumbs up!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Used: ice axe, crampons, helmet.

 

Didn't use (but would take again all the same): 30m rope, even # stoppers, pink tricam, #2 Friend, biners, and slings.

 

Approach Notes:

The Leroy Creek approach may be shorter than the Ice Lake side, but man, it's a hump. Way harder than up and over Longs Pass to Stuart in my opinion. Pretty though.

[rob]

nice

[PickleJuice]

Good work! Sounds like you guys had a wonderful time!

[alpineyeti]

Hey good job guys! I think I talked to you on your way out. I was in the low camp in Leroy basin, waiting on my partner to show up. At least 19 ppl summited Sunday, from various routes. At least half must have been up the NF route!

[catbirdseat]

I didn't know Sultan had an Ixtapa. I know Monroe does.

[nattybumppo]

I hope you had a good time on your climb.

 

Was the cornice still in place? I wish I had a picture to share because it's been giving me the shivers ever since. For all I know it ripped the second we turned our backs on the top. While I'm more of an unbeliever myself, my climbing partner is a pastor's son and a solid Christian. He would punch ten steps then send up a prayer. Ten steps-prayer-ten steps-prayer. It's not something I've felt inclined to laugh at, to be honest.

[diggydoc]

I was on this route on Sunday as well, and finally was getting around to putting up a posting regarding that cornice. We summitted late (around 2 p.m.) and the cornice was still there and scaring the out of us. We also had someone punch through a moat and get dinged up on the traverse from the Maude-Seven Fingered Jack col.

 

This was a great trip but I couldn't help thinking along the way that this route is about done for the year. There is almost nothing holding that cornice up there anymore.

[alpineyeti]

Cornice was still there monday morning. It felt pretty good to be out from under that cornice fo'sure, making that last little turn towards the top of the face!

My partner talked to someone that fell on the traverse over to the face on Sunday and busted out his two front teeth with his ice axe! Heard he carried on and summitted, HARD CORE! I did get a pic of the cornice, will post with my trip report.

Congrats on your climb as well diggydoc!

[lancegranite]

NF Maude sidebar:

Was sitting on the front porch the other day and a fella from the co-op stops by to look at the pears in the orchard.

We get to talking and somehow climbing comes up, we talk the talk, he says that he dosent climb much anymore, turns out he did the FA of the NF of Maude a long time ago.

Small world.

[alpineyeti]

Beckey, Don Gordon, John Rupley, & Herb Staley 1957