tazz Posted September 2, 2009 Posted September 2, 2009 (edited) Trip: Cutthroat - West Ridge Date: 9/1/2009 Trip Report: Carla, Yana, Tom Sjolseth, Colene and I Climbed Cutthroat west ridge on Sunday. Poor Tom, stuck with 4 female alpinist's !! This is a beautiful fun peak but man, it has some loose stuff, especially that gully! We headed up the gully to reach the base of the first pitch to gain the ridge. Yana and I took the more solid rock ridge scramble route and the other three headed up the loose nasty yuck. All five moved quick through the pitches to gain the ridge. The ridge is mainly a scramble but with lots of air on both sides! There is one section you have to step into air to traverse around a horn. The exposure is puckering! looking down on the west ridge. Then more scrambling to get to a belay ledge on the north face. We decided to head strait up the summit block from there. The next pitch was on kitty litter with friable holds. I had a hold crumble in my hand and fell down bellow on poor colleen's hand. The last pitch was on more solid fun rock. Both pitches were maybe 5.4 or so. Nice summit with great views. We topped out at noon and lounged about the summit for a while. I had a perfect view of our route up to the base of The Molar Tooth that I would be playing on Monday. Then time to get down. We did a 60m rappel off the west face. The first part is free hanging and FUN!!! pic of west face... This took us to a ledge we needed to climb up from to gain the W ridge again. We could have rapped from there, but our stuff that we left behind was in the other gully. Up we climbed an inventive hand line Tom rigged up with slings . Then we had to do the airy class 3-4 w ridge again. FUN! The scrambled down to another rap station. One more full 60m rap and we are reunited with our gear. As we arrived at the car, my partners for a climb of The Molar Tooth were there to greet us. That was cool! I said my good buys to the group and I headed to the campground to meet my partners. Tom, thanks for the leads dude! Thank to all for a fabulous and very entertaining day! Edited September 2, 2009 by tazz Quote
YocumRidge Posted September 2, 2009 Posted September 2, 2009 Looking good! I was always admiring your photos: what camera are you using? Quote
tazz Posted September 2, 2009 Author Posted September 2, 2009 thanks! i use a cannon power shot S3. Not the best for rock climbing as i can't protect it because it is so big. If i put it in a case then it is even bigger and takes too long to pull out for the good action and timing shots. May think about getting a smaller one at some point. Quote
toproper Posted September 2, 2009 Posted September 2, 2009 nice pics! I tried to do this climb last year but somehow managed to botch the approach. We failed to exit the trail early enough and wound up in the next drainage over. We felt like total gumbies and bailed to go cragging in mazama!! Kudos to ya'll! Quote
tazz Posted September 3, 2009 Author Posted September 3, 2009 what trail are you talking about? You park on the road right in front of the peak. Drop down into the trees (a stick with a flag is visible from the road for the entrance point. Even without the stick the path is EASY to find) on a path/trail that gets you across the creek. Then a perfect trail takes you all the way to the basin. From the basin follow the tracks up to the gully to the left. I am confused and curious as to what "drainage" you speak of. Are you saying you went to the wrong side of the mountain or the wrong gully? Hope you get the chance at it again! It is a fun peak. Quote
LostCamKenny Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Poor Tom, stuck with 4 female alpinist's Whatever... that's a dream come true for me! ... Quote
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