[TR] Temple Crag - Venusian Blind Arete and Sun Ribbon Arete 8/8/2007

[Jeff Woodward]

Trip: Temple Crag - Venusian Blind Arete and Sun Ribbon Arete

 

Date: 8/8/2007

 

Trip Report:

[font:Comic Sans MS]We were worried at the start of this trip.

 

We're both good backcountry climbers. Robin, a climbing whiz since she was 13, climbed through youth competitions in California, then learned to trad and adventure climb. Me (Jeff), a bit of a late bloomer, dove into climbing in college and haven't come out since. We work exceptionally well together in the mountains and have climbed together on many trips, from the crags of New Hampshire to the wilderness of the Wind Rivers.

 

But sometime these things get harder. I've spent the last year pouring my heart and soul into political activism in Portland Oregon - great fun, but 75 hours a week doesn't lend one to climbing much. Robin, working outdoor education in Marin, California, had been beset by an upsetting number of injuries - pulled tendons, busted knees, killer poison oak; they make it hard to get in good climbing shape.

 

The routes we chose - big, long, committing. 13 and 19 pitches respectively. Rappels that were part of the climbing route. A tyrolean traverse. Altitude. Retreats that kept going up to the top before heading down. Great fun - stunning climbing, intense exposure, a full experience. But we worried that it might be a better experience for us when we were actually in shape.

 

Worrying hasn't ever gotten anyone up a mountain, however, so with a great weather forecast and a good warmup in Tuolumne we decided to head in.

 

Temple Crag is near the Palisades in the Sierras - one of the most alpine parts of the range. Its main feature is the big, hulking Northeast face. It dominates the view from the lakes in the valley, shooting up three thousand feet to a 12,999 ft. summit. Its long, sweeping aretes are home to a number of fantastic climbs, all long and commiting. The routes we climbed are shown below. Venusian Blind on the left, Sun Ribbon on the right.[/font]

 

 

[font:Comic Sans MS]The approach wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. The trail up the North Fork of Big Pine Creek smoothly cruises up 6 miles to Third Lake. We made a pleasant camp on an outcrop above the lake.

 

 

To warm up we climbed Venusian Blind (IV, 5.7, 13 pitches). It was a bit tricky to follow the guidebook instructions at the start - it's much easier to just head up and left towards the first tower. The rest of the climb was crazy fun - good climbing on decent rock along a sharp, exposed ridge. It was our first real ridge climb together, so we had fun with all the downclimbing and ridge walking. We simulclimbed the whole thing. Pictures will give a better sense of it.

 

 

Hitting the ridge crest.

 

 

Robin on a fun downclimby section.

 

 

 

 

Me at the top, reading the summit register.

 

After a rest day (and some great fishing), we headed up Sun Ribbon Arete. We were worried about its length. We'd never climbed climbs quite this long, or with lots of rappels and a tyrolean traverse. After sleeping through our alarm and waking up half an hour late, we stumbled up.

The route breaks down into three major sections - it starts with several pitches of easier climbing (up to 5.7) gaining the ridge and up the lower section of the ridge to a tower, then traverses along the ridge with a tyrolean traverse, several towers which you climb up and rappel down, and the 10a crux pitch. It finishes with many pitches of generally easier climbing up, over, around and down the towers on the upper ridge. The crux pitch was well protected and quite fun. I'll let pictures tell the story.

 

 

The first pitch to gain the ridge. In our nervous states, it felt a lot harder than 5.6.

 

 

Awesome climbing on the lower ridge. Much of the rock is like this!

 

 

The tyrolean traverse! AIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!

 

 

Phew...

 

 

Me, starting to enjoy myself.

 

 

One of the many towers. Climb up, rap down.

 

 

A party behind us on the ridge.

 

 

One of the last pitches... almost there!

 

 

Yay! We made it up (and we're really tired).

 

 

Robin on the descent. We made it back to camp by 8pm, half an hour before dark. These are both awesome climbs, and we were glad to be able to climb there. The ridge climbing is unlike any I've ever done before, and the tyrolean was waay cool. Combined with great Sierra weather, Temple Crag is definitely a great place to climb.[/font]

 

 

Gear Notes:

Medium light rack to #2. You don't need a #3 on the crux pitch on Sun Ribbon.

 

Approach Notes:

Not too bad.

 

On the descent: It's generally pretty easy. We downclimbed the rappel (5.4 chimneyish). When you drop down to the flat area below the pass, go far right for the final drop to the base of the climb. Any further left puts you on very unstable glacial moraine. Easy to scout from the start of the climb.

[catbirdseat]

That looks like a lot of fun and something I'd like to check out.

[Alpaholic]

Way to get on it! That is such a beautiful area. With Temple Crag's abounding of quality routes followed by the northern section of the palisades, one can spend weeks back there and every day climb a stellar route. Nice work.

[kevbone]

Great photo's.....thanks for sharing.

[chucK]

Looks great.

 

So how does Tyrolean work on lead? How does the rope get up there?

 

Is it fixed?

[Jeff Woodward]

No, the rope's not fixed. There's a fixed anchor on the close end and a horn on the far tower.

First, lasso the horn (it took us 3-4 tries - we paid out about 30 feet of slack from either side of a loop and threw it).

Once you've got the horn, you want to tie the rope into a really tight loop that goes through the fixed anchor on your end and around the horn on the other end. Leave the knot near the fixed anchor end.

You both traverse across on this loop, and then pull the loop around so the knot is not on the far end, where you are.

Untie the knot, pull the rope through, catch your breath, and keep going.

[ericb]

Jeff - my wife's from the Bay Area, and I make a lot of trips down there. How long a drive would it be from the East Bay to the Temple Crag trailhead +/-???

[Mark_Husbands]

6.5 hours according to Google. Seems about right to me.

[sparverius]

nice work Jeff. Let's get on some adventure once you're back in PDX.

[jmace]

WOW..thats something I have to do!! Nice job!!