keenwesh Posted August 10, 2011 Posted August 10, 2011 Trip: Inspiration Peak - East Ridge Date: 8/7/2011 Trip Report: Mark called me up last week to see if I wanted to do a trip before we both left for college, I flipped through the nelson/potterfield guide and landed on the pickets, a quick check of the weather and it was decided. I headed out early sunday morning, picking up mark in everett and making it to the trailhead by 10.30 or so. Bummer that they're turning goodell creek into a campground. We received a warning from a local woman about rocky mountain spotted fever and that "the trail is washed out about 2 miles up, you might have to turn around" I politely thanked her for the heads up, snapped a quick before shot, and headed up the trail. watch out for those shifty eyes... The cairn didn't take all that long to get to. damn that trail is steep There's good trail all the way up, I was surprised at how easy it was to follow. View from the saddle at 6,200 takin' a break before descending to camp. There was a group of 3 we shared the basin with, they had climbed west and east macmillan in the preceeding days. We got up the next day around 7 or 8 and headed out. (should have started earlier) traversing to terror glacier Thaaarrrr it issss!!! Heading up the direct and very steep snow finger below seracs and above a gaping schrund provided excitement, parts of that fucker are at least 60 degrees, at least when you reach the top it puts you right below the base of the route. We simuled to the ridge in 2 pitches, theres a fucking vertical garden of heather right off that bat that I nearly shit myself on. I hate that stuff. I stopped next to a giant loose block and brought mark up as I didn't want the rope to dislodge it as I climbed past. when we were above it I touched it with my foot and the whole thing went. trundling is a blast. smoke and dust fly everywhere. Mark headed up to the ridge and we took a quick break below the 5.8 lieback. I headed up building a belay below the splitter 5.9 crux. Mark came up and took the rack, he spent a while on the crux pitch, a combination of fatigue, exposure, and cold, as we had gone into the shade. Me following. one of the best and most sustained pitches I've seen in the alpine. A quick rerack at the belay, plus a longing look over towards fury and where I was almost exactly a year ago, and I was off Mongo ridge is fuckin huge, wanye I can't believe you put that up solo The next couple pitches along the ridgecrest were good and exposed. I simuled up to the summit, which we reached at 4.15. I was getting a bit nervous about the descent. hydrating on top summit yea mark took his shirt off for good measure The descent was hellish, the fist two raps wouldn't pull, so one of up had to reclimb the pitch and re set them, a couple more double rope raps and we hit the notch. I saw new looking slings heading down the south face so I rigged that and sent mark down 50 feet before looking around the corner and seeing slings that headed into the gully. I had mark come back up as I had never read anything about descending the south face. this ate up even more time and we were getting seriously worried about getting down before dark. 2 raps down and we hit the gully, with a super sketch traverse across the snow finger. when we pulled the ropes one got stuck, leaving us with no real option other than cutting one of our ropes (I'll let raindawg save his breath when I say that the most likely result of leaving a stuck rope on the mountain is the clearcutting and total devastation of the entire goodell creek valley...) we made three 25 meter raps and a sketchy steep snow downclimb for good measure before hitting the top of the schrund perfectly with about a foot of rope to spare just as the sun set. I quickly tied us about 100 feet apart and headed down in the fading light. We just made it through the seracs and other shit as it went completely dark. a long traverse to the bootpack and we followed that all the way back to camp. getting in at 10.40. A 15 or so hour day. No pics of the descent cause I was scared shitless and mentally half preparing to spend the night spooning on a ledge freezing my ass off. We woke up in the morning to the peaks socked in and cooler temps. the party of three had left while we were still asleep. Thankfully they put a good bootpack in up to the saddle at 6,200 so we didn't need to wear our 'pons, speeding things up. the trail was long and knee grinding somewhere in the forest Made it back to the car at 1.30 and sipped a cold beverage at goodell creek before driving home absolutely beat down. after shot, too tired for shifty eyes Gear Notes: double rack to 2, a single 3 you could probably get by with just 2 #2s and a 3, singles in the smaller sizes, but why not carry more when you can? Approach Notes: straight up Quote
SmilingWhiteKnuckles Posted August 10, 2011 Posted August 10, 2011 Great report! A memorable outing and achievement before setting out on new adventures. Cool stuff. Quote
DRep Posted August 10, 2011 Posted August 10, 2011 That's something you'll remember forever! Don't have too much fun in college... Quote
skykilo Posted August 11, 2011 Posted August 11, 2011 Good show. Gaudeamus igitur iuvenes dum sumus! Quote
keenwesh Posted August 11, 2011 Author Posted August 11, 2011 Thanks guys! does anyone know the word on the descent that goes down the south face? I'm wondering if things might have went smoother had we gone that way. We could see one rap station down about 75 feet from the notch to the skiiers right, but nothing below that, just steep grey rock. Do the raps keep heading right around the corner? please people, this is the shit that keeps me awake at night! Quote
lunger Posted August 11, 2011 Posted August 11, 2011 Nice work, love that area. Scuttlebutt is that the W or SW ridge is the best descent--perhaps go with single-rope raps to limit hassles? I've gone down the S face 'successfully' (ended up soloing a full rope length of the SF chimney to unstick a rap--young and dumber) and don't really recommend it. Quote
keenwesh Posted August 11, 2011 Author Posted August 11, 2011 when I say s face I mean rapping directly south from the notch, on the skiers right side of the south face. Like I said there were 2 anchors with new tat on them visible from the notch but we couldn't see anything below that and it got steep and kinda blank looking. it's not near the south face route, farther off to the side. The actual south face is incredibly sheer, I couldn't believe it when we trundled a huge block off and it didn't impact until just above the glacier, quite a bit of airtime off that thing. someone should wingsuit it. Quote
TrogdortheBurninator Posted August 11, 2011 Posted August 11, 2011 I doubt either the w. ridge or the s. face is really trivial. We rapped the s. face. The anchors are all there, but it still keeps you on your toes and you'll be excited when you finally reach the glacier. Hard to get up, hard to get down = good mountain Quote
tablesaw Posted August 31, 2011 Posted August 31, 2011 Hey, good to see the report! I was one of the three others camped in the basin. We were wondering if you would make it back to camp that night, and figured you would end up spooning on a ledge somewhere. Sounds like you had a epic climb! Quote
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