[TR] Vesper - North Face 8/21/2010

[ptownclimber]

Trip: Vesper - North Face

 

Date: 8/21/2010

 

Trip Report:

With barely any ripe tomatoes and a forecast calling for 'partly cloudy' skies on Saturday, we headed up Friday night for a climb on Vesper. We wondered if 'partly cloudy' was a more pessimistic forecast than 'partly sunny'. We weren't expecting precipitation until Sunday, so it would come down to a matter of visibility. Soon enough, we were approaching Headlee pass in the diffuse, early morning light of low clouds. Led astray by the mystery of this pass, we missed the rather obvious trail - instead scrambling up scree, heather and cascading creek beds. When the mist lifted enough to reveal nothing but ridge above us, no pass at 4,600 or 4,800 feet, we descended right. Duh! Here's the trail...

 

 

The sun was beginning to break through and we could see a lot more. The sign at the trailhead had said two miles to the pass. The book says three. I believe the book. The sign at the pass reads 4,600 feet. My altimeter read closer to 4,800, but I hadn't calibrated it. We made good time past the lake to the notch, where we had probably the best views of the day. I calibrated here to 5,500 feet. We descended from the NE end of the notch, farthest from Vesper. We crossed the moat low, around 5,000 feet. Here it was more of a horizontal moat, with a short step down the snow, then an easy step down to rock - no big deal. I think we started far to the right at the base - the '?' line in the Beckey photo.

 

 

 

 

Here we had another couple false starts. We began traversing right to the bright white rock - blocked. Backing up a little, we started up and right. Blocked again, just below some rap slings. After downclimbing some of this, a more obvious line lead straight up. This offered fun climbing with relatively little pro and few fifth class moves. We simul-climbed to the heather benches, had a little lunch, and started in on the really fun slab and open book work. By this time the clouds were rising. For the final rope length we moved right, on to the face and into the clouds. We enjoyed a cloudy summit moment and had just enough visibility for the straightforward descent.

 

 

 

Back at the pass, the altimeter read 4,800 feet.

 

 

We concluded that partly cloudy was indeed indicative of less sun. We drove to Leavenworth and caught a great, sunny morning of climbing on Castle Rock - Midway and Saber.

 

 

Thanks all for another great climb.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Tri cams, one TCU, nuts

 

could have used more long slings

 

Approach Notes:

Follow the trail