[TR] Dragontail - Backbone Ridge 6/30/2007

[bonathanjarrett]

Trip: Dragontail - Backbone Ridge

 

Date: 6/30/2007

 

Trip Report:

(Pictures forth-coming)

Craggin’ with ivan last week, I told him that I hadn’t climbed Backbone Ridge yet, and his immediate response was that I should make it a high priority. Plus with an up-coming trip to the Bugaboos, it was time to get "tuned up". So with the forecast for good weather this past weekend, my buddy Andrew and I decided to make a go of it.

We cruised 97 up to 11worth Friday night, to arrive at the trailhead around 11:15-30ish. Andrew slept almost the whole way, waking only to wipe drool from his chin. Alarms were set for a 3:15 alpine start, and just when I started to nod off, the first drop of rain struck my forehead. “Damn”, was my first reaction. Although there were still stars visible, a steady mist was developing. Too tired and apathetic to do anything about it, I just rolled over and let the rain come down. In retrospect, I probably slept better because of it figuring why worry about the climb all night; it seemed we were most likely gonna get rained out. However when 3:15 rolled around, things seemed to have cleared up, so we packed, shoved breakfast in our pockets, and headed up the trail at 3:30. Another party had left about fifteen before us, and Andrew had his “rabbit” to catch. Being a lifelong cross-country runner and aerobic fiend, he can’t resist reeling in and chasing down parties who have a head start. Soon enough, we passed them on the trail. Didn’t catch their names, but they were (I think) headed up to climb Colchuck something-er-rather. I dunno, I wasn’t really awake yet.

Crossing back over Mountaineer Creek, the battery compartment of my headlamp, popped open, and one of the AAA batteries jumped into the water. “Fuck!” But by the grace of god it had lodged in the crevice between two rocks, and I was able to fish it out. Shortly after 6 we reached the top of the moraine and suited up. Crampons were helpful crossing over to the buttress, although one might have been able to kick semi-secure steps across with a stiff boot.

Quick work was made of the fourth class wandering traverse, and soon we were up at the base of the off-width. Leaving my pack with Andrew to haul, I began thrutching my way up the crack. Although physical, it was never really hard. Plus it would be pretty difficult to fall out of it. I did manage to somehow tear up my left ankle pretty good. The first half was protected by my #5 C4 which I slid along keeping me on top rope. Above the chockstone, I left it behind and began to slide the #6 C4 up ahead of me. I don’t think you would be able to protect the whole pitch with just the #5 C4. In reality the pitch would be pretty easy to French free (Freedom Free?) with these two pieces. Andrew followed with his pack on and then we hauled mine afterwards. This worked pretty well although we did lose a bit of time futzing around with the transitions.

From here we stayed either on the ridge on slightly left of it, and climbed several more pitches until able to simul-climb to the base of the Fin reaching it around 11:30. All morning long the sun had just barely been peeking over the ridgeline, and we took about a half an hour here to take the rock shoes off and bask in the full on sunshine. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, and although you could see your breath, it was never really cold even in the shade. From the our perch I tried to plan out the route up the Fin, but the fact the sun was sitting right on the ridge crest made it all but impossible to see clearly the crack systems we would need to follow. Eventually I gave up, we just decided to feel things out as well went.

We climbed the easy but rotten ledge up to a belay on a large comfortable bench. From here, it seemed like going left kind of matched the Nelson route description, face climbing to “twin cracks”, but right also seemed tempting. Left it was and shortly later we were at another belay below the flake which was quickly dispatched as well. The next belay was on a nice ledge out left, below a bulge. A short right-trending finger crack led back out onto the face and the cool traverse with the gear placements at your feet. Not sure if I would make it all the way to the ridgeline, I stopped to set a semi-hanging belay just past the off-width crack that goes straight up the face. Another pitch put us on the backside of the ridge just over the end of the third couloir. Not exactly sure what was next, we pitched it out along that ledge sytem until we were back across the ridge in the sun. From here, quick simul-climbing put us on the summit about 3:30.

Some lazy cotton ball clouds were drifting to the north and west of us, but there wasn’t an ounce of wind and the temps were downright delightful. We spent a half hour relaxing in the sun, hydrating and fueling up. I was pretty spent, having led every single pitch we climbed, and it was excellent to finally be able to come down a little mentally.

The descent back down to the pass was easy. The snow had softened up to perfect boot-skiing conditions: no crampons necessary. The slog down the lake sucked, and by 7:30 we had arrived back at the car, jogging the last mile and a half.

 

A Couple of Observations:

Leading all of the pitches was mentally more exhausting than physically. There wasn’t really any time when I could relax and just follow the rope. However, there is something to be said about not having to transition from leader to follower; it was clear at every belay who was leading and there was no need to rock-paper-scissor for the next block.

The off-with was challenging in that it just kind of threw off the rhythm of the climbing. The leader could probably climb with their pack if they French-freed it.

The Fin was the biggest challenge for me, mostly because I couldn’t really see the route due to the position of the sun. I was a little worried about getting onto a discontinuous crack system and getting screwed over. Time was definitely lost here not knowing where to go or how far to try and stretch the rope.

With more knowledge of the terrain, we could have simul-climbed at least two if not three of the pitches particularly across the Fin ridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

60m rope

Set of Nuts

Set of Metolius Cams to #8

Pair of Link Cams

#5 and #6 C4 Cams

Lightweight mountain boots

Crampons (not necessary for the descent at least)

1 light weight ice ax (never needed)

 

Approach Notes:

Too bad its a stinking-long drive from Stump-town.

[ivan]

[rob]

nice work!

[curtveld]

Right on, guys!

 

Did the same trip 24 hours behind you, including the head scratching up on the Fin. Certainly a nice surprise to have the boot skiing off Aasgard to save a bit of knee pounding.

 

I don’t think you would be able to protect the whole pitch with just the #5 C4.

We confirmed this - the #5 only gets you about 2/3 of the way.

[goatboy]

So, the new C4's are appreciably smaller than the older Camalots, I take it...We took an older model #5 up there and it was adequate for the entire pitch...Though I think we used a 4.5 as well....

 

 

[dbb]

with old style camalots you can walk protection up the entire pitch with a #4 and a #5. Also, climbing the OW with a small pack isn't bad if you just loosen your left pack strap

[Telemack]

Could you do it in, say, approach shoes and crampons?

[jfs1978]

thos pics still coming? =)

[curtveld]

Could you do it in, say, approach shoes and crampons?

I'd sure think so, though I've never used that system. It's just moderately steep snow - light boots worked fine for us.