[TR] Mount Triumph - NE Ridge 8/20/2011

[CamelJockey]

Trip: Mount Triumph - NE Ridge

 

Date: 8/20/2011

 

Trip Report:

Here is another report from your friendly BOEALPS'ers. Justin, John, Brian, and I climbed the NE Ridge of Mount Triumph from Fri-Sun. We had initially planned on a 2 day push, but wisely changed it to 3 days.

 

Timeline

Fri: left th @ 4PM, camp just below col @ 9PM (5 hours)

Sat: left camp @ 5AM, summit @ 3:30PM, back to camp @ 3AM (22 hours)

Sun: left camp @ 10:45AM, back to car at 3PM (4h 15 min)

48 hours car-to-car w/31+ hours being climbing.

 

As you see, Sat turned out to be super long day. No epic -- just some routefinding issues followed by a very long descent. Details below.

 

We met in Everett @ noon on Fri and drove to Marblemount, making some stops for food on the way. We got permits and drove to the th. We left the th @ 4PM. The hike to saddle that drops you to Thornton Lake was straightforward, with several stream crossings, all with easy logs and rocks to hop. From this vantage, you get your first view of Mount Triumph.

 

First view of Mount Triumph + NE Ridge (obvious ridge on right)

 

Once you get down to the larger, Lower Thornton Lake, you cross some logs. Effectively, the trail dumps you out at the log crossing at 6:00 and you need to go clockwise to the next lake @ 12:00. There is a trail that we were losing here and there due to brush and some snow cover, but all in all it went ok. There was one section near 11:00 that required some downclimbing.

 

Lower Thornton Lake w/gully in the background that you will need to eventually climb to get to the col (the snow covered one in the distance)

 

You eventually get to the base of Upper Thornton Lake (as it turns out, there is yet an "Upper Upper Thornton Lake," but you don't end up going to that one).

 

Upper Thornton Lake

 

You effectively exit at 6:00 once again, but this time you go counterclockwise to 12:00 to get to the gully that takes you to the col. This required a combination of boulder hopping, following a series of trails, and eventually kicking steps for the last few hundred feet to the col.

 

Deer On A Cliff -- better than Snakes On A Plane

 

Does a bear poop in the woods?

 

Just before you get to the true col, there are some camp spots on the left behind some trees. But there are no views here. This was also the last place we were able to find flowing water with the exception of some on the glacier that was hard to get to. We decided to drop down from the col about 200 feet to the big rock band that has some awesome bivy spots, a view of the glacier, ridge, and The Pickets --- freaking gorgeous. We arrived there at 9PM and set up camp. A couple of us got the stove going while a couple of us went up to get water from the col (20 min up, 10 min down).

 

View from camp

 

We got up at 4AM the next morning and were moving on the glacier by 5AM. There was 4" of soft snow on top of a hard/icy underside so crampons were nice. The first bit was a bit steep requiring careful footwork, but there were plenty of nice suncups to help. Still tons on snow on the glacier. We only had one rockband to cross and although there are crevasses, we had no issues avoiding them.

 

Glacier crossing in the morning

 

We made it to the gully that leads to the notch, crossed a moat which had some sketch-factor but not bad, changed into rock shoes, and started climbing. Right away, we realized the route was taking us away from the notch and we were face climbing. Offroute already --- reset. We found a rap station so clearly were not the first people to get off route. We rappeled down back to the snow, kicked steps in our rock shoes for 200 feet or so (didn't feel like changing back into boots), crossed a moat, and got on route. The key here is to gain the notch by getting on the RIGHT side of the couloir. The notch is pretty obvious to find. We could not climb directly up the couloir because the snow was getting really broken up/moated in it. I bet folks reading this who climb it in a "regular" season don't usually even see snow in that couloir. Anyhow, finally on route and at the notch, we decided to leave our boots, axes, and crampons behind and get to the gettin'. Justin and I paired together and John and Brian paired together. Justin led out, making quick work of the terrain. Right from the notch, there is a gendarme that can probably be climbed directly over, but we opted to go around to the right. It’s kind of interesting - so much of the climb is blurred together in my mind because most of the terrain is 4th and low 5th. Klenke's Summitpost report does a really good job of describing the route --- better than I will, for sure. I suppose you could break it out into 4 sections:

 

1. Notch->the knife edge (1/2 the climb distance)

2. Knife edge->crux (1/8 of the climb distance)

3. Crux->notch (1/8 the climb distance)

4. Notch->summit (1/4 the climb distance)

 

1. Notch->the knife edge: We pitched out the first few pitches before switching to simulclimbing. There was a pitch early on in which you could either do a mid-5th lieback on the right, or take an easier gully on the left, which is what we did. It pretty much all goes, which was the case for the majority of the climb. The nice thing about a ridge climb versus a face climb is that it’s hard to get REALLY off route. A couple pitches up, we got to the flat bivy spot that could accommodate 4 people….maybe more. There was a small mound of snow here, but likely all gone now so if you do decide to camp here, get snow/water i) at the col ii) on the glacier or iii) near the notch.

 

Justin on lead

 

Looking down the ridge

 

Justin approaching the knife edge

 

2. Knife-edge to the crux: Once we got to the knife edge, Justin took the lead as I belayed him. He chevaled it (saddled up on the knife edge like it were a horse) and scooted across. There was a 1000’ drop on either side. I was able to climb most of it by clinging onto the knife edge and hanging off the right side, finding footholds. Choose you own adventure, I suppose.

 

Justin “cheval’ing” the knife edge

 

After the knife edge, there was a bit more 5th class. I belayed Justin the full 60 meters and he got almost to the base of the crux and to a rap station. He belayed me up.

 

Scary thing now. I had tied my rewoven figure-8 with a sport/yosemite finish. I looked down and not only had the sport tie off come out, but the last weave of my removen figure-8 had come undone. In other words, I was unprotected and at times, so was my partner. I don't know when this happened -- maybe on the knife-edge, maybe before, maybe just after. I am used to not leaving a long tail on my sport tie off because i. it gets in the way ii. my ropes are supple so they usually cinch up better than a stiffer rope and iii. I often climb with thinner ropes that don't seem to have knot slide as much, but with Justin's stiffer and thicker rope, the sport tie-off simply came undone and worse, compromised the integrity of the rewoven figure-8 because it left a gap in it to allow the tail to come out one segment. Scary. I will still use a sport tie-off, but I will be leaving a longer tail from now on and making sure it is cinched up extra tight.

 

Looking down towards Brian

 

3. Crux to the notch: I was about to lead out on the crux but didn’t like the fact that we were still about 40 feet away from the base of it on low-grade, almost flat, terrain. This would mean that either a. Justin would either have to keep my rope super tight or b. if I were to fall, the rope would straighten out and I’d be going for a ride. So, we moved up closer to the base of the crux and slung a horn --- issue resolved.

 

It’s worth noting that you are able to start seeing the 5.7 offwidth crux well before the knife edge. It looks ridiculous from afar – “wait, we got to climb THAT!?” It looks pretty overhung and improbable. Reports say that like many rock cruxes, once you start getting closer, it looks easier. This was not the case, though. Until we were almost climbing the crux, it looked improbable.

 

The crux

 

The crux at the base of it

 

I led up the crux. It's broken out into 2 somewhat separate portions. The first portion is easier - an off width crack that some some good hand/foot holds on both sides of the crack. The second portion is the steeper and 'cruxier' section. Save your #3 for this one. You can find some other gear placements if you look hard enough. I know some folks bring a #4 for this route --- personally I'd say leave it at home. Sure, it would help on the second portion/crack, but it's really not necessary. The exit from the crack was maybe the most challenging part. Dare I say though that I didn't think the crux was that bad? I expected a uniform off-width with no other holds, but there were holds and the sides of the crack. You do want to be careful and look for your holds, but contrary to how it looked from afar, it was very doable and it was also really freaking fun! I climbed a short bit higher to a rap station and set a belay. Justin followed up. John led out for he and Brian and they got up to our belay station as we were continuing up. Justin led up towards the notch going to the right of a gendarme.

 

4. Notch to the summit: From the notch, there is a trail for a short while. It ends after a short bit, then you climb up a short gully (15 feet), and gain another trail which ends again. You then start climbing up the heathery face on easy rock (albeit loose), some more trail, pass a couple rap stations, and then finally on the summit!

 

Me on the summit

 

Justin on the summit

 

Team shot

 

There is a summit register up there now -- seems like since 2009. People must have a tough time finding it, though, because we were only the third entry.

 

Summit register

 

We had hoped to be on the summit by 3PM at the latest. Justin and I arrived at 3:15 and John and Brian, taking a more "challenging" route, arrived at 3:45. We left the summit at 4:10PM. We had budgeted 6 hours for the descent to the notch, hoping to get down most of the way by dark. Although we were fairly close on all our other time estimations, we were off on this one. It took a lot longer than we had expected to get down. We did a bunch of double rope raps (most of them), one or two single rope raps, and some simulclimbing. We ultimately didn't get back to the notch until around 12:30AM -- about 8 hours after leaving the summit. This was due in part to the following reasons:

 

i. Rope-nests from low angle double-rope raps requiring first on rappel to re-toss several times

ii. Constant switching from rappeling to simulclimbing

iii. 2 times of double-ropes getting stuck – one was able to be pulled loose from below with Herculean efforts and the other requiring prussiking about halfway up to jar loose

iv. Being incredibly cautious once we lost daylight to ensure no slip-up occurred; after all, we already lost the race against the sun so might as well take the time to be extra cautious now

 

Looking towards the col and camp

 

Sunset

 

Mount Despair

 

Rappeling in the dark

 

We got to the notch, changed back into our boots, and did a double rope rap down to skiers left. This did not get us down to the snow, but there was a sort-of trail that was class 3 that was easy enough. We got back onto the glacier, cramponed up, and headed back to camp. Throughout the entire climb, parts of the glacier were galling apart. We heard a loud sound behind us and it turned out to be the couloir below the notch that was breaking apart. We eventually made it back to camp at 3AM. We were all out of water and super thirsty, so a couple of us went back up to the col to grab water for the team.

 

The next morning was uneventful. We broke camp, started hiking out at 10:45AM, and back to the car at 3PM.

 

View of the glacier + route from camp the next morning

0020

 

We stopped in Marblemount for some BBQ from that caboose on the side of the road and it was stellar. We stopped back at the Marblemount Ranger Station for a bio break and to report on the conditions. This was an interesting entry just put in by a ranger.

 

Naughty marmots!

 

For those of you that have a full 3 days, I'd recommend that you approach on day 1 all the way to the bivy spots a couple pitches up on the ridge because you can be more comfortable with time on summit day. And if you get back down to camp with time to spare after summiting, you can break camp and hike out to the col to make the last day a shorter hike out. The biggest logistical challenge will be water, but even if you have to haul several liters in a platypus from the col, it's not really any elevation gain so no huge deal.

 

In summary, this is an amazing climb on a long ridge, a sweet peak, awesome remoteness, inspiring views, and with wild exposure. Definitely one of my favorite climbs to date - simply spectacular. Do it!

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ropes: Two ropes are nice. Established rap stations are for double-rope raps. There are intermediary rap stations for single rope raps, but not everywhere so you may need to improvise.

Rack: Standard alpine rack to 3". Cams seemed to work better than nuts on this route.

Picket: Brought one but didn't need it

Edited September 1, 2011 by CamelJockey

[Tony_Bentley]

I never found the register when I climbed it. I was able to rappel with a 30 meter glacier rope all the way down the ridge. 2 ropes is overkill.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

We were too busy to sign the book last year - wanted to take pics, eat and leave. You guys had a ton more snow than even we did in mid-August!

 

 

[Rafe1234]

3rd picture from the bottom is awesome

[Pete_H]

That's a fun climb. That doesn't look like bear poo though, probly goat or deer.

[ryanl]

Nice one Rick- that's a classic for sure. Way to get after it this year! Seems like you've been everywhere....

[kevbone]

Awesome. We did it car to car in 23 hours. I was wrecked beyond belief.