KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 (edited) Trip: Sherpa - West Ridge Date: 6/28/2009 Trip Report: Friday night, 11 pm. Again I failed to pack anything in advance, and was looking at less than 5.5 hours sleep. As I finished stuffing my assembled gear into my pack, including a butt-load of group gear and a mid-size rack, I decided something needed to go - if not for weight, then for bulk. The rock shoes came to mind, so I pulled them. Not too heavy, but I should be fine with just my Triolets, which I used to lead Stuart last year, and this is just 5.4, right? The next day I met up with Bishop66 and JH at the Eastgate P&R at 5:30 and it was already light. We hit the Esmerelda trailhead at about 8 and were moving soon after. Temps were pretty cool which was welcome for this approach which always sticks in my mind as hot, dry, and dusty. Most of the snow I encountered a month earlier on my climb of Ingalls (E ridge) was gone. The only patches of any size were near Longs Pass. There is still a steep headwall of snow on the N face of the pass right up to the top and going down to just below the "tapeworm", but soon it melts out again. We avoided the steepest part which seemed to be pretty firm by scrambling down a moat, and then onto the snowfield. View back up to Long's Pass: Soon we were at the Turnpike/Beverly turnoff and headed uphill on the way trail I remember so well from my Stuart descent in the middle of the night a year ago. Spot where you start uphill: Now the pain begins! After an hour or two of unpleasant steep hiking through brush we hit the stream and the ravine before the ridge we needed to cross. Unfortunately we chose to cross a bit too high and did some exposed scrambling up and then back down on nastly loose crap. Once over the ridge we contoured at 6200 feet to hit the first snow patch below the waterfall/cliff band and our objective. The lower snow patch had a lot of foliage debris from avy's. We traversed left under the waterfall(s) and up some rocky heather benches. Eventually we regained snow. At this point we really wanted to finish the approach, and were slowing down. After interminable slogging and rock hopping we finally found the flat bivy rock at 7400 and set up camp. All together, including breaks, the approach took 7.5 hours. We had plenty of time to eat, boil water and relax with the late sunset. The temps started to drop with the sun and the winds picked up so we crashed before sunset. The forecast was for some gusting, and we had bailed on a Rainier climb due to related weather instabilities - Sherpa was the consolation prize. At around 10 pm the winds kicked up pretty fierce, probably gusting at 35 or 40 mph. This lasted most of the night, giving us little rest, and not the warmest-fuzzy feeling about climbing rock the next day. Nevertheless we had put in some sweat-equity, so we'd better earn the prize! We got up at 4:30 and were moving at 6. The snow up to the col was bullet-proof and we used crampons. We stuck with snow patches as much as possible, even on the thinning 35+ degree parts up high. We got to the col around 7 and it was damn windy and cold. My partners also seemed to have cold feet - literally and figuratively. There were hints floated about bailing. We could see Adams and Rainier, both had clear skies. Were we dumbasses for changing the venue? Maybe the winds were worse on the summit of Rainier? Didn't look like it. I started setting up the anchor and we roped up. I primarily used the route description from summitpost.org. The first "pitch" (class 4) went text book. I think, however, that I must have gotten off route somewhere in the 2nd pitch, when I moved right, because after the 3rd pitch, I was not seeing the "sandy benches" on the S side of the false summit I was expecting, but a single ledge that was still a pitch away from where I needed to be. There were rap stations just about everywhere which made things confusing. This "4th" pitch was short, but I had trouble getting up it, slipping in my climbing boots which just don't smear well enough. Damn! I should not have pulled out my shoes the night before! Fortunately Bishopp66 stepped up and led the short pitch which ended with some loose handholds. We encountered quite a bit more loose stuff than we had anticipated on this climb. At this point we were near where we needed to be to get to the crux pitch. Also, it was finally warm enough to take off a layer of clothing. JH had been wearing a puffy up until now. Despite being close to the crux pitch, I nevertheless burned another hour or so route-finding and getting confused by the route description while on belay. I finally got reoriented and got the party together. It was 12:50, we had taken 6 hours already to do a route that should take 4-6 to summit. Add 2+ hours more to top out, and 6-8 to get from the summit to the cars and we are back home between 1 and 3am... so? JH wanted to go for the summit and Bishopp66 wanted to bail, but said I could break the tie. Having bailed once earlier this year and feeling like crap from that trip I voted to go for it. I quickly started up the crux pitch. As I climbed I was looking for the infamous cave - where the hell is it? From the ground and the route description it seemed to be quite a bit up. I passed a flat sloping rock over a large gap, and Bishopp66 yelled "that's your cave". It didn't seem very hard, but I did go left around it, which then forced me to go back right higher with an awkward step across. Maybe that was the crux and I somehow skipped it but paid with a 5.4 or higher move above? I got to a nice belay alcove and brought in the other guys. It looked like we had one more hard move to get up a tight chimney above us and we'd be home free. I started up, but just could not get the footing or the nerve to make a move. It was just too damn awkward and I wanted to smear, damn it! We didn't have time to fart around at this point. I left in my bottom piece and switched tie-in's with Bishopp66 for a try. He grunted, cursed, and made it! Soon he was ready to belay. I started up. Again no luck and I'm on top-rope. Fuck it, it's late. I pulled on the cam he had set and french-freed it. Later we figured out that this was the "cave" and the crux move. It looked like there was a short scramble to finish off the climb, but I stayed tied-in anyways to check it out. On the way up there was one move that was a little stiff, so I put a piece in, topped out at a rappel station and tied off the rope to the anchor for my followers to prusik up if need be. Then I prusiked on the tail of the rope up to the left across a gap, an unprotected slab, and shit found myself looking at another step across. I presumed I was 2 feet from the summit at this point but I'm not going to stand up or step across to be sure (I didn't see the balanced rock, but probably would have). My follower had most of my pro, or I could have put in a piece. View across the slab I crossed towards the summit (I believe): It's 3:20. I'm done. I moved back to the anchor. My followers came up and we planned the descent. My second follower had dropped a chock pick and left one of my pieces down in the alcove below. So I downclimbed the final scramble: I then rappelled to the "cave" first, retrieved my piece, then continued to near the bottom of the crux pitch. I tied a runner off about 30 feet off the deck and clipped in to see how my followers felt about rapping to the end of the rope (which was knotted) and downclimbing 15 feet. JH was cool with it. Bishopp66 was not. So, we had to sacrifice a couple runners and do a short rappel. On the rope pull after this "off the beaten path" rappel I pulled down a rock the size of a small loaf of bread which fell about 8 feet to my right. We then scrambled up to the first short pitch that Bishopp66 had led. We didn't know where a rappel straight down would go, never mind possibly getting a rope hung up, so we retraced out climbing route, which meant a short rappel, a belay around a corner (exposed class 3 - again not everyone was comfortable unroped), another short rappel, and, finally a double-rope rappel back to the base of the climb. Too damn many rappels and belaying! It's now 6:15. We hauled ass down to camp, packed up and plunge-stepped mostly snow fields to about 6100 feet, hiked back over the ridge and ended up back in the stream below the ravine in a better (lower) place then we had entered the day before. We continued moving quickly to the bottom of the valley and up to the Longs Pass trail. Now it was starting to get dark, and we were getting tired. About 500 feet below the pass we had to put headlamps on. It was about 10 pm, dark, and the moon was up. A very pretty night. The snow was getting hard and icy, so two of us put on crampons and got our ice axes out. We went straight up the snow, finishing up at the pass on the steep headwall (45+ degrees), which was a fun way to finish. It wasn't quite front pointing, but even the third person up wasn't exactly walking up bucket-footholds. After a quick break we embraced the suck and moved down the trail as quickly as we could, arriving at the cars at 11:45. The drive home sucked, going to bed at 2:30 sucked more, and getting up for work sucked the most. Not wussing out and not going home empty-handed made the suckage worthwhile though! Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, set of nuts, a handful of cams, lots of double runners. Approach Notes: Mostly snow free to Longs Pass, 400 feet of snow on the N side of Longs Pass. Discontinuous snow from 6100 feet below Sherpa up to the Stuart-Sherpa col. No snow on the climbing route. Edited July 1, 2009 by KaskadskyjKozak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catbirdseat Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Way to stick it out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 I congratulate you on surviving, despite summitpost beta thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 30, 2009 Author Share Posted June 30, 2009 Way to stick it out! Thanks, man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted June 30, 2009 Share Posted June 30, 2009 Sherpa is a ways in there. Nice job. Now that you're an aid climber, you're gonna have to start hanging out with Ivan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted June 30, 2009 Author Share Posted June 30, 2009 Sherpa is a ways in there. Nice job. Now that you're an aid climber, you're gonna have to start hanging out with Ivan. I hear he brings whisky with him so that might work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belayerslayer Posted July 1, 2009 Share Posted July 1, 2009 wow what a great climbing trip! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairweather Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 Another great TR, Steven. Man, you're getting after it this year! Don't you just love racing the clock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 2, 2009 Author Share Posted July 2, 2009 Another great TR, Steven. Man, you're getting after it this year! Don't you just love racing the clock? Our goal was to be at the base of the snow below Long's Pass before it was pitch black. We made it. Yeah, it's fun to race the clock. The best part of the hike out was the 60-80 feet of 45+ degree snow right at the pass. Really fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klenke Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 I congratulate you on surviving, despite summitpost beta Regarding the summitpost description, well, nobody's perfect. I wrote that up five years ago so I can't tell you now how spot on it was. Maybe the mountain has rearranged itself since then. More likely Steven losing his way was a combination of me being a gumby route writer and him being a gumby climber. I'm also a gumby climber. But that's beside the point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaskadskyjKozak Posted July 2, 2009 Author Share Posted July 2, 2009 More likely Steven losing his way was a combination of me being a gumby route writer and him being a gumby climber. I'm also a gumby climber. But that's beside the point. If you consider not doing the route as described in 6 pitches, I'd say that judging the number of rappel slings and belay stations there's a lot of "gumbies" climbing this route. At least this "gumby" never got a rope stuck on a pull, or had to prusik up ropes after attempting a rappel in the wrong direction or off the end of a cliff. Although I did almost kill myself with rock fall pulling one rope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strumpett Posted July 2, 2009 Share Posted July 2, 2009 Nice pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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