[TR] Wind River Range - Cirque of the Towers - Pingora, Shark's Nose, Wolf's Head 9/9/2009

[davidk]

Trip: Wind River Range - Cirque of the Towers - Pingora, Shark's Nose, Wolf's Head

 

Date: 9/9/2009

 

Trip Report:

Wind River Range, Wyoming

"Cirque of the Towers"

 

After a whole summer of "we should do some weeklong trip in September" conversations with Kevin, a trip finally materialized. And for me, this adventure came right on the heels of my trip with Steph to the Valhallas, so I was extra stoked to round out my summer with some time in the Winds.

(photos by David Kiehl and Kevin Oberholser)

 

Itinerary:

9/4 - drive from Ellensburg to Big Sandy Trailhead

9/5 - hike in to Cirque, climb South Buttress of Pingora (III, 5.8, 3p)

9/6-9/7 - climb Southwest Face of Shark's Nose + epic descent (our variation: III, 5.9, 10p)

9/7 - rest day

9/8 - climb East Ridge of Wolf's Head (III, 5.6)

9/9 - hike out, drive back to Ellensburg

 

The Approach:

takes you through some of America's finest land

The dirt road to Big Sandy Trailhead is well signed (with one exception... I suggest a left turn here)

The trail is pretty painless too

 

The Scenery:

 

The Wildlife:

Really people? I don't think a ledge at 11,000' on a windy afternoon is a responsible place to leave your dog while you take a couple hours to go up and down a climb. And yes, it was quite wild!

One of many pikas we saw, which is encouraging considering most of their habitat is getting the axe from global warming.

This young moose paid a visit to our camp, unannounced, in the middle of dinnertime, and made a scene about it. Rude!

 

The Climbing:

Kevin on Pingora

West side of Shark's Nose (second from left). This turned into quite the adventure for us. After screwing up the approach, getting off route right off the bat, climbing a difficult but fun super-stretch face traverse (my 77 inch wingspan sure helped on the lead) to cruiser handcrack dihedral pitch, and then traversing ledges back to the left, we regained the route.

David following the "parallel cracks" pitch, back on the published route.

Kevin following up the crack system.

David straddling the Continental Divide on the summit ridge of Shark's Nose.

Kevin beginning the raps from the summit at dusk. Impending doom on the horizon.

Back on the ground, we proceeded to try to do the correct descent back to the Cirque, in the dark. This involves traversing some ledges on Overhanging Tower to get back to Overhanging-Tower - Wolf's Head col. We failed to start up the correct ramp/ledge system, and ended up scrambling up and down 3rd/4th class terrain on Overhanging Tower's west side. Eventually we were too cliffed-out and tired to proceed, and decided to get some rest.

Moon over Shark's Nose.

After a couple hours of sleep and shivering, we decided to get moving again. That is, after performing the obligatory "damn it's cold!" dance on the ledge.

Kevin all tucked in to our "alpine double bed" at our bivy. Shown with optional hard-plastic pillows.

On to Wolf's Head. The classic East Ridge...

Sweet belay ledges on the whole route.

Airy hand traverse around the towers is the name of the game.

 

 

A great trip, and hopefully just a preview for future trips back to the Cirque. It truly is a classic destination, with so many stellar moderate routes. Put it on the list!

 

Special thanks to my sponsor, Redmond Park Operations Dept., for providing me with a steady paycheck and fulfilling my copious leave requests during the past month.

[powdherb]

Killer. How was the s. butt of pingora? I'm going in there on Wednesday to do that and Wolf's head. Might head up north and get Gannett. Winds are just beyond quality.

[davidk]

How was the s. butt of pingora?

 

Stellar, and it goes pretty quick. On the approach, head up the trail as if going towards the East Ridge of Wolf's Head until you look back to your right and see an obvious diagonal black dike/ramp. Take that to get onto the slabs below the buttress. And if you have a little more time, word has it the East Face Left route is fantastic as well. Good luck!

[Dirtyleaf]

Super cool. Looks outstanding!

[cbcbd]

That looks outstanding! Thanks for the pics!

[denalidave]

NICE! Man, I really miss the Winds.

[Steph_Abegg]

Great photos David. I especially like the Pika photo! More pikas there than in the Cascades?

[davidk]

More pikas there than in the Cascades?

 

I would guess that there are more, and the high-elevation Continental Divide ranges will probably be some of their last hold-out habitats. There are many thousands of acres of talus at the optimal high-elevation for them to live in, whereas in the Cascades, most of the talus is too low to maintain the <85 degrees F temperature threshold (I think that's the right temp) in the coming decades so that the pikas can survive.

 

They were certainly more visible than in the Cascades!

[wfinley]

Awesome! I love the bivy photo!

[Buckaroo]

On to Wolf's Head. The classic East Ridge...

Airy hand traverse around the towers is the name of the game.

these are my faves, awesome shots. It's nice to see stuff like this in the lower 48

 

So there were other parties there while you were there? Notice the other climber in the background of one of the shots.

 

so the dog was just tied up in the middle of no where? Well he probably would rather be waiting 2 hrs there than waiting a week back at home

[davidk]

So there were other parties there while you were there?

 

so the dog was just tied up in the middle of no where?

 

Just a couple other parties. Our first two days were Labor Day weekend, so there were half a dozen parties camped in the cirque, but that's when we headed to Shark's Nose. Almost everyone cleared out on Monday though. Pretty quiet really.

 

The dog wasn't tied up. It was free to jump on us, run over our gear while we racked up, and free to jump off the ledge (which it almost did).

[pup_on_the_mountain]

Nice trip David and Kevin! Looks like you guys had a great summer.