[TR] Vesper - North Face 6/24/2009

[cbcbd]

Trip: Vesper - North Face

 

Date: 6/24/2009

 

Trip Report:

Warning: This TR is disappointingly without pictures... yeah, I'm disappointed too.

 

So... no one told us Rt 2 would be closed from Sundays to Fridays from 7:30pm - 6am starting June 1st. (Note: closures are not in effect anymore)

 

A quick change of plans and we 3 (Kevin H and Dustin) headed for Vesper with minimal beta and a vague idea of what the route looked like - something about an "open book" kept coming up.

 

We made pretty quick time to what we thought was Headlee pass and then after that proceeded to get very confused as to where this peak was. After some tooling around in the Lake Elan basin trying to figure out which was Vesper, which way was North, and where was Headlee pass (for some time we thought we hadn't passed Headlee yet)... we decided to just head uphill for the hell of it - the exercise - and see what we found. We stumbled upon the drop to the glacier and had a view of Vesper... excellent!

 

Moats were fun and committing. Required a leap of faith. We looked around for signs of travel and picked the route up the buttress, which then would snake in/out of mossy wet gullies. Interesting, protectable, mildly sketchy, and never boring.

 

Then the rain started. Then the fog rolled in. We got wet. The rock got wet.

 

We got up on the slabs and had 200' visibility. Raining, foggy, slabby. You could drink right off the rock face.

 

In all it wasn't that bad, but it just wasn't great during that time, especially since we didn't really know which way to go... but up.

 

Then the clouds went away, we rejoiced, we picked a route, we saw this "open book" thing and headed that way. Got to the top of the book, fertilized the surrounding soil, and went up to tag the summit.

 

The descent was a blast and snow conditions were perfect for safe executions of my tele-boot-glissade. We made awesome time down and on the way back used the real Headlee pass.

 

In all, great locale, fun route, cool looking peak, very easy to do in a short day.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Nuts and cams up to 3", slings.

 

Crampons would've been nice, but we made do with approach shoes and axes.

 

Approach Notes:

Trail in good condition. Stream crossings fine. We went to the wrong Headlee pass... don't do it like us... to get to the real one just go all the way to the back of Wirtz basin (the first basin) and take the last gully to the right. The col and drop into Vesper glacier is snow right now but the snow is pulling away slowly from the edge. We did a quick rap off a bollard just to take the edge off the edge. The glacier was filled in and the moats at the base of the wall were hungry.

Edited June 27, 2009 by cbcbd

[genepires]

good job! I would not want to be on that slab if it was all wet. I remember thinking that the slabs were runout but that the slab climbing (while dry) was easy enough.

[cbcbd]

Ya know Gene, it actually wasn't too bad. The slabs were runout, but even when wet they were never slimy. The granite was very featured and felt secure even when wet... plus yeah, the climbing was 5.easy on the slabs. I'm sure I'd be singing a different song had we been on 5.hard wet slabs!

[LostCamKenny]

climbing on wet slabs = ballsy ... even if it is 5.easy!

[Sol]

the nightime closures are done on hwy 2 and when they were on, it was 20-25 minutes more to travel to ltown through plain.

 

nice job on vesper, one of my favorites easy's in the range.

[cbcbd]

Thanks Sol, I talked to a buddy yesterday and he told me of this detour that we could've done. The signs didn't seem to point out a detour, we didn't know of one, and didn't want to drive all the way to MP 89 just to get turned back. Anyway, it all worked out in the end!