[TR] Big Snagtooth, Big Kangaroo - South Face 7/1/2007

[tvashtarkatena]

Trip: Big Snagtooth, Big Kangaroo - South Face

 

Date: 7/1-3/2007

 

Trip Report:

 

Should we or should we not rappel into the abyss?

 

That was the question of the hour, that hour being near midnight, as James, Brian, and I stood atop Kangaroo ridge looking down at a snow patch anywhere from 30 to 300 feet below us. We could have simply down climbed the steep couloir next the South Face of Big Kangaroo, the route we had just completed a few hours before, but creativity got the best of us, so here we were.

 

We didn’t rappel, of course, but picked our way down the scree slope we had just climbed before stopping to wait for the moon to rise. Four hours later I crawled out of my clammy, ripped emergency bivvy bag and continued the trip down to the car, Winthrop, and a very large breakfast with my compatriots. Trouble was, our overnight gear was still at 6000 feet in the Willow Creek basin. We’d have to come back for it.

 

So that was how we REALLY got to know the Willow Creek approach REALLY well; we did it 4 times.

 

Day one included the schwak into Willow Creek and a scramble of the much coveted Big Snagtooth. Not a bad jaunt, but earlier season snow might cover up the vertical bowling alley that leads to the summit ridge.

 

 

Conquerer and conquered. James and Big Snagtooth.

 

 

Unbearable lightness of being. Brian descending Big Snagtooth.

 

The following day our objective was the South Face of Big Kangaroo via the 7 pitch, 5.8 Beckey route.

 

 

South Face of Big Kangaroo. The Beckey route follows the right slanting chimney just right of center face.

 

 

Face shot

 

 

900 feet of sheer fun

 

 

The Big Squeeze, pitch 6.

 

 

The interpretive dance section, pitch 6.

 

A pretty fun route, particularly the top uppermost 3 pitches. Only one suck ass pitch on it; a crumbly flaring offwidth. Brian enjoyed the lead on that one.

 

We had to circumnavigate ¾ of the summit pyramid before finding a reasonable way up the final needle. If you prefer climbing unprotectable cookie crumbs, take the S side. The N side, however, is more recommended.

 

 

Cinquefoil

 

 

Weird orange slime and snow

 

Long story short, we screwed the pooch by trying to climb Kangaroo Ridge to a reach the snowy slopes we remembered were somewhere on the Willow Creek side.

 

After our bivvy, we headed straight for the hairpin and then humped it down the highway to our car. We then spent the morning eating and sleeping in the park in Winthrop as a whole lot of wife beater clad men and their supremely fat mates milled about our prone corpses.

 

 

The morning after

 

That afternoon, we headed back up Willow Creek where we were reunited with our overnight gear. We spent the night before returning home.

 

 

I got nothing here

 

 

Final evening

 

Gear Notes:

Gear to 3.5", axe, poons.

 

Approach Notes:

Willow Creek: Park car at Burgundy Col TH. Follow old trail up creek, turn up Willow creek. Bypass waterfall and cliffs to climber's left. Stay several hundred feet above creek until a large talus slope on its S side comes into view. Ascend this slope and camp in basin at about 6000 feet.

Edited July 20, 2007 by tvashtarkatena