tazz Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Trip: Ingalls 'Up and Over' - East ridge Date: 8/19/2009 Trip Report: I am still high from this trip. I can’t stop smiling! All giddy, I am. This is the song I have been singing in my head from the minute I climbed into the gully and started to scramble. Enjoy the tune as you read through or look at the pics or whatever you do when you click the TR…. [video:youtube] It seems that I am on a mission to clean up some unfinished peaks this season. 2006 was a funky year for me and I had several peaks I bailed on. This year I am cleaning up many of those, hopefully by more fun and more difficult routes. I scrambled Ingalls south peak about 9 yrs ago. I bailed on the SF 3 yrs ago. I was sick (from sheer stupidity the night before) and to tell the truth I was a chikenshit. Yeah I know who bails on 2 easy pitches of 5.4 on the SF? I DID! After that attempt I told myself I would not do that route again. It just seems a bit boring and crowded for me now. I wanted something more fun with some mystery to it and a bit more challenging. I e-mail birddog and put the bug in his ear about Ingalls East Ridge. The bug must have gotten to him because he was up for it. I thought it would be fun to camp over night and then we could be fresh and have all day to play on the ridge if we needed. Sunset was nice. Lots of smoke in the valleys that cleared by morning. A couple of fun goats hung around camp in the morning. I thought they might eat my bivy sac during the day but they left it alone. We scrambled up the C3-C4 gully to the chock stone. Go left folks!!! Easy scramble up. Don’t go into the gully proper (right spotly! ) The first pitch from the chock stone is kinda funky. It zigs then zags up low C5 and then around the north side to a 10’ down climb. There are 3 small down climbs on the entire ridge. The first one is the most airy one, or it seemed that way for me. I was a bit puckered. On this first pitch I reached up for a hand hold and felt the rock come off in my hand. WTF!!!! YIKES!!! So, after a bit of cleaning and sending some rock down the gully I was able to continue on. This was the only real loose rock I had any trouble with. shot looking back at the 1st pitch... The ridge is great fun!! I would say more fun than the crowded SF route IMO. The ridge zigzags quite a bit. It has class 4 and low class 5 for most of the climb. There is a 5.7 crux that was FUN! It has small cool traverses. Just a great mix of everything. SOOOO much fun! There is quite a bit of rope drag due to the zigs and the zags. 5 pitches later we could not climb anymore. I wanted to keep going and going and going. I didn’t want the fun to stop! pics of 2nd pitch 3rd pitch 5.7(?) crux peeeerrrrty... There is a colony of biting flying ants on the summit. We rappelled the SF. Despite what some folks say the down climb from the second rap is NOT bad at all!!! EASY! Just one 60m rope will do ya. Two is just a waist of your effort to carry. No other parties on the peak on Tuesday. We had it all to ourselves. Monday there were at least 3-4 climb parties, including a friend and his partner who just finished the SF. I ran into them on their way out. Good seeing ya Doug! I want to thank Geoff (birddog) for the lead, laughs and just plain ol great time!!! Thank you for a great climb again!! Gear Notes: 60m rope will do for the raps if you are comfy down climbing an easy 10 foot section. Small rack of nuts/hexes. We used a couple of small cams here and there. A #3 cam will get you through the crux. Approach Notes: EASY!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottgg Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Great report, thanks. I'll have to head back up there sometime for this route! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.