daylward Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 Trip: Johannesburg - NE Buttress Date: 7/2/2012 Trip Report: Chad came back from 8 months of climbing expeditions to Nepal and South America psyched to do some more climbing. For some people, the appetite is insatiable. For me, I don’t know… I’ve never actually attempted to climb enough to satiate my desire. I like the desire. Why would I want it satiated? It’s worked out well for me so far. Chad and I are working on a construction project together, which gives ample opportunity for objectives to surface, and thus the idea of climbing the NE Buttress of Johannesburg was conjured. It was Chad’s idea, but it definitely was something I’d wanted to do for a long time. Looking at previous trip reports, I found none this early in the season. I thought having more snow would make the route easier (hopefully burying some of the infamous vertical bushes). Monday appeared in the NOAA forecast to be a relative weather window (less crappy), and we were able to fit it into the construction schedule. Here’s how it went down: Chad came to my place at 1:00am and my alarm had just gone off. I somehow was thinking he’d show up at 1:30. Guess he had trouble sleeping in. Or maybe I just had it wrong. It was ok though, I was all packed, so I just got dressed and piled all the stuff in my car. We stopped at the Arlington Safeway to get gas and food. We took an inexcusably long time to decide on an undiluted 2-liter mix of Naked Mango and Naked Blue Machine for each of our hydration systems, ~1600 calories each. By the time we got to the Cascade Pass parking lot, it was almost 5:00, and plenty light enough to see, below the dense cloud layer, that there was not that much snow low down on the route. I was feeling that familiar sense of hesitation before we even left the car. I voiced my concerns as an exercise in caution – part of the process one must go through in order to have the correct perspective. Chad was determined and didn’t let that nonsense persist. I left them at the car at 5:34. Getting to the base of the buttress was straightforward, but we found some new concerns there. There were a lot of waterfalls, and some interesting looking chunks of icy snow that appeared to be waiting to pounce on us from above. We went back and forth a bit, and decided a ramp off to the left of the toe looked doable. We scrambled up it a ways, but it started to get sketchy – loose rock, negative handholds, slippery moss, steepness… all those things that make one want to turn around. We did so. Back on the snow, we went around closer to the toe of the buttress to climb the slabbier but wetter rock there. We put on our crampons just to get more traction on the wet rock and moss, and soloed up a couple hundred feet. Finally, with me in the lead, we got to a point that I didn’t want to solo that direction anymore. Chad suggested we get out the rope, and I resisted, thinking that perhaps a quicker solution would be to downclimb again and find an easier way. But after thoroughly scanning the surrounding terrain, I became convinced that such an easier way was not obvious, so Chad got the rope out and we tied in. I started climbing again with increased confidence, but that confidence slowly dissipated the more run out I got. Finally, after hemming and hawing a number of times, I found a little crack I could get two lobes of a green alien into, and everything was biscuits and gravy after that. Once on the buttress, the going got a little faster. We went into the bushes and followed waterfalls up some very steep terrain. I’m a big Atlas Vinylove fan, and while I know there are skeptics out there, no one can argue that there is a better glove for terrain and conditions like this. Cascades springtime (though technically summer) at its finest! After a few hundred feet of vertical bushwhacking, we achieved a snowpatch that turned (after a small bergschrund) into a shallow snowy gully that brought us a trouble-free ascent another few hundred feet to a heather bench. We exited excited. Crampons were of great value on the wet heather. It was here that we started seeing some hints of blue sky through the cloud cover… [img:left]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-tRggy2krwzo/T_PZ2WVM1-I/AAAAAAAADnI/Oc4ssSAE-uo/s288/IMG_2793.JPG[/img][img:left]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Josya4eaW8s/T_PZ2-4PnwI/AAAAAAAADnQ/pkEoB5u0L9k/s288/IMG_2794.JPG[/img][img:left]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4vIqxb9GZvc/T_PZ3dGn2DI/AAAAAAAADnc/kR4l8KI5pb0/s288/IMG_2795.JPG[/img] We found more snow patches that led to some rocky scrambling and then more snow patches. We stayed right, roughly on the 1957 line. Finally, a snowpatch turned into a spectacular rocky ridge crest that ended in a rappel station (a single Ushba titanium knifeblade with two good slings and a biner). The single-rope rap brought us down to narrow snow finger in a gully that led to a ridge crest, and we topped out on the snow-capped upper ridgeline. From there, it was a spectacular trudge to the summit. Chad kicked the steps and I drafted, taking pictures. I was going to offer to take my turn breaking trail, but then I thought “Hey, when am I going to be here again?” and didn’t. We got to the summit at 11:45. Chad wrote an ascent time of 7:10 in the summit register. When we were headed down, he finally actually did the math, and realized it was 6:10. Oops! Yeah, I was no help, I didn’t even think about it. The ridge scrambling toward the C-J col was a bit nerve-racking, due to the exposure and the amount of loose rock. No snow on the ridge crest. We reached the shoulder above the col and found snow gullies that connected all the way down to the basin. Instead of following them to their end, however, we opted to traverse skier’s left and do a little scramble across to the col, to avoid having to climb back up to the col from the bottom of the couloir. The C-J couloir was soft snow, easy plunge-stepping and foot-glissading most of the way down. It took about 45 minutes to drop 3000 ft. Love those early season conditions! Gear Notes: We had steel crampons, light ice climbing boots, two tools each. We brought a small rack but only used 2 pieces; we roped for only a short pitch at the bottom, and rappelled once on the route and none on the descent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genepires Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 great photos and story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 C2C? Strong! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmeyers Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 wow. nice going gents! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonG Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) That is very, very fast, but considering the team, I'm not too surprised. Those pictures bring back some memories! I like the insulated rubber gloves, I will have to give that a try for spring climbs. Edited July 4, 2012 by JasonG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rad Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 (edited) Impressive! This is one of those routes that looks inspiring from the parking lot, Boston Basin, and other spots in the area, but accounts and pictures of the lower half make it look just plain nasty. No wonder Ivan loves it so much. Edited July 4, 2012 by Rad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Verticolorful Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Yeah guys!! This route is amazing You inspired Jens and I to go car to car on this baby on Friday. After our own false start. We begun the route to the right of the waterfalls and did one section of simu-climbing and then one short pitch that brought us to an easy terrain. If your into steep snow, tree climbing, and scrambling rock this is for you! I lOVED IT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daylward Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 Aha, nice! It always feels good to be the source of inspiration! You guys had better weather than we did - was the snow in the couloir getting slidey? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JensHolsten Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Thanks for the inspiration guys! Had a great time up there...We had stellar weather, but it was also really warm. As a result, lot's of rock and ice fall was noted in the CJ. We also saw some impressive sloughs up higher on the mountain. As a result we walked the long way home, which really wasn't so bad and seemed like the safest option for the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshK Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Such a great climb. Those gloves you had are probably the prefect choice for that mixed assortment of terrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Sharp Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 Jim Nelson pounded the single Ushba titanium pin on Monday, July 19, 1999. Can't believe it's still there. So glad to see pictures in the narrow snow gully following the rappel. Such a cool place and so often passed up for the "5.3" rock that is really 5.8ish. Way to go with such a fast ascent -- we THOUGHT it was a day climb; you made it one. Hell, it's practically a trade route now. Maybe the Mounties will choose this route as a new beginner-class graduation climb. Better bring the walkie-talkies, bro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivan Posted July 19, 2012 Share Posted July 19, 2012 indeed, c2c is mega-beast, but holy-shiite muslims, it's so tits up there below the glacier you just HAVE to bivy w/ a sandwich and a big beverage! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.