[TR] Cutthroat Peak - Boobies but no crack 8/20/2011

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Cutthroat Peak - Boobies but no crack

 

Date: 8/20/2011

 

Trip Report:

 

Yesterday a few friends and I made a run at the South Buttress. To sum up the climb, Nelson and Potterfield put it the best: "the climb as a whole can be viewed as worthwhile but frankly flawed".

 

Expecting some route-finding challenges and a potential for a long, possibly epic day, we determined to a) start early and b) stick to a turnaround time of 3 pm. We car camped at Lone Fir campground on Friday night, and headed up to the turnout early Saturday, moving on the trail at 5:45 am.

 

Even at this ungodly hour the mosquitoes were in full-effect. The swarms of these creatures were biblical in scope and fury, and they gave us no relief, encouraging a fast pace with no rest stops. Soon we were in the upper basin, and looking up towards our two gully choices.

 

 

We could see a snow patch in the northernmost one, but decided to give it a look anyways. Upon closer inspection it looked to be a "go" but an unsavory one at that, with just 2-3 snow patches to move around, and one steep step to overcome.

 

As we emerged slowly from the belly of the gully, we moved right to avoid a steep section and I noted a path down and away to the south (which we descended later). Next we moved back into the gully and chose a line left rather than the rightmost line to the notch proper.

 

 

Here I noted terrain that I saw in a TR on summitpost.org. SS and EP just headed up this unroped and it looked sketchy. KL and I opted to rope up and were glad for it as I placed a few pieces on lead up this full-length pitch.

 

SS and EP continued on unroped, whereas I block-led about 4 pitches over the chossy terrain above. It was mostly class 3-4 with a few short sections that felt like real climbing.

 

View up the buttress:

 

View down:

 

At the top of this section I almost caught up to SS and EP. SS was about 40 feet above me, and they were finally pitching out the route. They were gone by the time my partner, KL, caught up. We then swapped the rack and I advised him to try for "cracks and steps" to the right as per Nelson and Potterfield.

 

 

My partner did not get far before he encountered a move which he found unsavory. I rechecked my route description and saw "or move approximately 100 feet to the left until you are able to climb up a gully corner system to easier climbing". I informed KL of this option, he retraced his steps, and led out there. We found a pitch that looked just like we saw on summitpost.org:

 

Don't go here:

 

KL led out and just as he got up a couple of moves, BOOM, a rock came out of nowhere and exploded in our immediate vicinity, spraying me with fine-grain shrapnel as the rock vaporized. This unfortuitous incident did not seem to unnerve KL, however, as he proceeded up the increasingly less appealing pitch to a sandy bench. I followed.

 

What we saw next did not look encouraging. There was a steep blocky roof a few feet up, and, gulp, we could only find a small tree with a bail sling should we decided to bail. It was now 1:30. KL started up and found a difficult little crack, which appeared to be about 5.9. KL did not see an easy way up and with time running short set a cam, tied a double to it, and stepped up. A stem against a wonderfully-placed chicken-head and a little balancing act allowed him to step above this. I followed. I also aided the move, but then had the cam under tension from the sling, and very awkwardly, and tediously squatted down and got it out after several minutes. During this time a stream of profanities were spoken and copious sweat was shed upon the rock.

 

Now we were at the famous "Tarzan Jump" pitch.

 

 

Right then we heard voices and a party of two caught up to us. Rather than slow things by swapping the rack now, as we had discussed, KL led again up this pitch. I followed and we scrambled up between the twin humps.

 

Here we met our other team members coming down. SS immediately informed us that the next moves down into the notch and up were "the most scary thing he has ever done rock-climbing" and that we then needed to go down into and up out of another notch and then climb a hard, full pitch with an off-width, and it would take 1.5 hours. I looked at my watch: 3:30. Fuck. Looks like boobies and no crack today.

 

We ate and rested for a bit, while the party of two looked at the moves into and out of the notch. After quite a bit of cogitation and analysis, they proceeded to dispatch this bit and move on. We began our descent.

 

With the exception of my climb of Triumph, this descent had the longest string of rappels I've ever done.

 

One of many rappels:

 

We finally arrived at the ascent gully, went down half-way, then took the previously-noted traverse trail between gullies to the more moderate, southerly one, and reentered the land of swarming insect hell. Another 1.5 hours brought us to our cars, then camp, burgers and beer. I am unsure if I will return for the crack.

 

Gear Notes:

Small rack with cams. One or two larger pieces for the final crack.

 

Approach Notes:

Mosquito Hell.

[ivan]

a fine title - them thar mozzies are unfuckingbelievable currently - i don't understand why they're 500 feet off the deck?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

a fine title - them thar mozzies are unfuckingbelievable currently - i don't understand why they're 500 feet off the deck?

 

I didn't even touch the crack and I am itching like f-ing crazy! ;-)

[Ed_Hobbick]

Keep up the good work

Edited August 23, 2011 by Ed_Hobbick

[YocumRidge]

Nice run and good beta, Steopa!

 

Routefinding? Ha, did you see me waving you from here: