Taluscat Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 (edited) Trip: Sloan Peak - West Face Date: 12/10/2011 Trip Report: I have posted asking Q's regarding this awesome face though in the meantime I will summarize our accent that occured Saturday and will have Braden follow up with the photos.. So on the lunar eclipse,Braden Downey,Will Hinkley and myself made an accent of a long snow and ice route on the Northeren aspect of the west face and IS the line of weakness to our eyes (well provide an overlay shortly) the route begins at the lowest part of the face and follows a steep ice flow aprx 950' up to grade 4 climbing and provided 5 full length pitches,We found fair quality ice though at times a bit runout and very insecure and coined pitch 4 "The Window" due to a hollow hole in the middle that I gingerly passed "puckered up" high above gear, the flow gave way to an additional 1000' of steep snow and ice to 50' mostly good neve'and solid ice that we climbed ropeless.This deposited us at a prominent notch in the north ridge, we soloed out the notch maybe 40'of easy 4th class with snow before ropeing up for a rock pitch that had a fixed yellow alien, the lead carried upward then went hard left through a very insecure series of off balance moves on really poor feet and worthless tool placements,felt 5.8/. one more lead of easy mixed and steep snice over a short but steep wind blown ridge crest saw us on the west side of the N.ridge, ropes away and the long and sometimes very exposed ridge required an additional 1000' of route finding, down climbing into a deep notch and false summits that were non the less exausting, we finally topped out just pass 3:00pm after 12 hrs on the go A brief snack,high fives and we were now racing the fading light and tempetures down the corkscrew route which none of us were familiar with, incoming clouds made rt.finding issues not so trivial and were further made difficult by nightfall and fading headlamps, the traverse over two passes and basins went supisingly well given the w/x lack of knowledged and whiteout conditions..we were relived to finally make it back to our poles were we could put ourselves in autopilot mode and make the slog back to the car and well deserved beer. I want to thank Braden and Will for an amazing time to a cool place on a fun adventure climb..This was the first time I had met Will and the first time any of had climbed together-it was the beginning of some fun things to come! photos to come soon..thanks for reading.. "Full moon Fever"- New route? IV,AI4R,50',5.8,3000' West Face of Sloan Peak 7835' Braden downey,Will hinkley,Kevin hogan 12/10/2011-lunar eclipse Gear Notes: 3 pins set of stoppers .00,green alien,orange tcu,.75,1,2,3 8 screws 7 draws-3 alpine,3normal,1dbl lentgh Approach Notes: Mt.loop Hwy> FR 4906> Bedal basin trail to bottom of face rd 4906= packed snow and ice,4x4 with some balls or chains reccomended Bedal basin trail= broken trail inn now No flotation needed Edited December 13, 2011 by Taluscat 1 Quote
bwwakaranai Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 Great job guys! It must be an amazing place to be this time of year. Quote
Dannible Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 Hell yeah. There's a place that many talk about but would rather avoid. Lets see those pictures! 1 Quote
rat Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 fine work. far left side of face leading to long right trending snow slope to major notch? the easiest looking line on any of scurlock's photos? if so, unsubstantiated rumor is andreas schmidt and co. climbed it---i could be wrong. Quote
Choada_Boy Posted December 13, 2011 Posted December 13, 2011 Sweetness!! I seem to remember Schmidt only climbing part of the route, if he posted a TR here. Quote
downey Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 (edited) I hope these pics give you a feel for the good time we had last Saturday. Also, I'd like to recognize Kevin and his regular climbing partner Doug (who couldn't make it due to work) as the masterminds of this climb, and that I was just a lucky dude who happened to have an obligation-free Saturday. Will leading insecure 'shampoo ice' on pitch one - *camera tilt unintentional. "it's been a while since i've climbed ice" "thumbs up" for bomber rock anchors!! *Sorry no summit pic for ya, Wijavascript:void(0)ll! - Stoked to be back at the 'bivy boulder' after a disorienting descent in a whiteout Edited December 20, 2011 by downey 1 1 Quote
Pete_H Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Nice job kids!! Looks awesome. Not to be a rug pisser, but in my limited experience, the R grade seems to be redundant for winter climbs in the Cascades. 1 Quote
Tyson.g Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Right on gentlemen, way to rock it! WOOT! Quote
NoahT Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Someone get these guys a scurlock photo, so we can see just how this party went down. Nice job!...one of the few remaining un-plucked winter "GREATS." Noah Quote
NoahT Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Ok, here's a start... At first glance, I know most drool over the thought of the lines to the right side of the face, lookers left of the shaded spur/lower ridge-thingy. The "obvious weakness," though, might be the far left of this pic? Either of these arrows close to your line? Arm-chair mtn-eers, unlike yourselves (!), want to know. Cheers, N (Scurlock, but you already knew that) Quote
Taluscat Posted December 14, 2011 Author Posted December 14, 2011 (edited) Thanks for all the positive feedback-to clarify the accent- Noah T> your overline is not far off, the first arrow should go up the steep even runnel to the left- the second and third arrow should funnel through the snow ribbon/field that wishbones Rt. of the rock in the middle and the up to the big U shaped notch.from there we were on the south side of the peak for two rope lenghths bringing us to the N.Ridge were we made the traverse mostly on the W. Side to the summit.. For the descent- down the corkscrew to the gendarme, downclimbed the couloir to the first bench, then a similar gully to the second bench angleing down and right on to a snowfield A long Westward traverse to a pass,name? then n/n.w traverse to the pass above bedal basin a glissade into the basin and out...wheeew dose this help?All of this was onsight,mapless in a whiteout... Edited December 14, 2011 by Taluscat Quote
Rad Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Been waiting for someone to pull of a winter ascent - I guess yours counts as fall, but who cares. Nice work! Lots more lines to be had out there... Quote
Jaredvg Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Awesome guys! Good to see you getting after it Kevin! Quote
G-spotter Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Been waiting for someone to pull of a winter ascent - I guess yours counts as fall*, but who cares. Nice work! Lots more lines to be had out there... * depends on if you define winter as calendar, seasonal, or conditions-based Calendar winter starts on the solstice (Dec 21) Seasonal/traditonal winter starts in early November (Nov 10 or 15) Meteorological winter starts Dec 1st Conditions-based, seems like "winter conditions" to me from the pics although the Scots might quibble about that bare un-hoarfrosted rock. Quote
cbcbd Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Nice job Kev-O, Braden, and Will That line looked like it would be pure fun and looks like it delivered! Hard to rest in peace during a weather window. Its that w**k thing that gets in the way at times Quote
Jason_Martin Posted December 14, 2011 Posted December 14, 2011 Right on guys! Way to make it happen! Jason Quote
John_Scurlock Posted December 15, 2011 Posted December 15, 2011 OK, as I had mentioned to Kevin I thought I had recently photographed it and sure enough I did on November 28. You would think I'd have automatically remembered.... Here it is, click 'original' below the image to see the largest uploaded size, it's big, somebody can grab that 'original' version and put the lines on it: http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/140342851 I don't think I can do any better than that. Quote
Stefan Posted December 15, 2011 Posted December 15, 2011 Here is a picture taken 2 days before your ascent. Taken by Matt B. http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/download.php?id=24e4d1627781ea96f5e260248255326c&p=766315 Quote
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