[TR] Black Peak - North East Ridge 9/12/2009

[Wild_Bill]

Trip: Black Peak - North East Ridge

 

Date: 9/12/2009

 

Trip Report:

Route Conditions/info:

Lower route:

Almost entirely snow free... almost. While the Nelson guide suggest the climb free of any cravasse/moat issues, the snow on the "permanent snowfield" has all but melted away, leaving behind a good section of ice complete with a minor cravasse or two to watch out for (go around to the left as a thin snow bridge exists covering a large section to the right). In late season such as this, crampons (even aluminum) would definitely been worth their weight (we chopped steps).

Gaining the ridge:

As described in the Nelson/Potterfield guide, gain the 30 degree ramp on the climber's left, and ascend to the notch on the ridge. It looks much worse from afar than it actually is... which isn't to say it's great.

The first third of the ridge is really quite loose and chossy (that sounds redundant, but be assured it was both). We stayed on the climber's left side for the beginning, wandering upwardsish until it we were sure it would be less bad to go up than to continue along the upper portion of the face (per guide book).

Once actually on the ridge crest: Surprisingly, it got much better. After gaining the ridge, the rock quality drastically improved, and we were able to comfortably simul climb the remaining two thirds of the ridge.

 

Time: It took us a little over 5 hours from Wing Lake to the Summit. Could easily take off a half an hour if we had crampons and didn't have to chop steps.

 

Descent: Straight forward. Glad we had trekking poles for the scree-skiing.

 

Special thanks to the party of three that we met up with at the lake the night before, who brought up that box of wine.

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Singles from Green C3 to Blue C4, plus a few nuts and tri-cams. We used all of it as we simul-climbed until we ran out of gear, then repeated.

 

Approach Notes:

Pretty straight forward.

[andyrew]

Hi guys! It's Andrew from Camp Wino. We stayed to climbers' right of the black ice and managed to stay on the snow all the way. We climbed straight up some loose 3rd class, that led to a right-trending ramp, which sounds like the one you described--loose and a little unpleasant. The rest of the climb was really fun though! Except for the descent from the S ridge into the scree bowl above the lake. That sucked big time, in my opinion. Like 35 degree dirt over slabs. Yuck.

 

Thanks for the fuel! It made breakfast considerably more edible Sunday morning.