[TR] The Tooth - South Face 8/24/2013

[jakedouglas]

Trip: The Tooth - South Face

 

Date: 8/24/2013

 

Trip Report:

My partner and I climbed The Tooth for the first time this past Saturday. It was our first “alpine climb”, if you can call it that, and our second multi-pitch trad climb, the first being R&D in Leavenworth.

 

We slept in the car at the trailhead on Friday night, knowing that we would have company on a Saturday so we needed to get started early-ish. Still, a party of 2 showed up around 5am and hit the trail just a few minutes before us at 5:30.

 

My partner had been sick with mono so I volunteered to carry the rope and the rack to make better time. It still took us around 3 hours to reach the base by taking the Snow Lake trail and traversing around the bowl before climbing up towards The Tooth. I am accustomed to taking the cat track in winter and I am not sure if there is a faster way than this with no snow cover, but it seemed very indirect.

 

After figuring out the best way to scramble up to the base we took a while to eat and started getting ready to climb. The party of 2 ahead of us was making quick progress with the leader cruising and not placing any gear. As we were getting ready another party of 3 scrambled up and introduced themselves. We ended up working with these nice guys a lot for the remainder of the ascent.

 

P1 from the base

 

My partner led up to the first puny tree on the route and belayed me from there. I thought I had seen the party ahead of us departing from here, and remarked that it wasn’t very far up, but we decided that maybe The Tooth was shorter than we expected. This early belay would cost me in rope drag on the next pitch.

 

Messing with the first tree. Don't bother with this, keep going.

 

At this point the party of 2 was already coming down, so we waited for them to do their business. As they arrived at our tree, their pull got stuck and the leader soloed back up and freed the rope. By the time they finished, the party behind us was climbing, so we offered to let them pass. I waited for the leader to get ahead and then it was my turn.

 

I climbed maybe 30-40 feet to find the leader belaying at a slung block. He asked why we had belayed from the tree and it was now obvious that this should have been our first belay. He let me squeak past and I continued.

 

Above this was a large ledge where it took me a few minutes to figure out the easiest route up the wall above. The other party suggested heading up the right-hand side where I placed a bomber nut, but after getting a feel for what the moves would be it was clear that this was not the easy route and was more than I wanted for my first time up here. I found an easy ramp on the left where things felt more exposed, and equalized a small nut and a red C3. I was skeptical that this setup would hold much, but it was probably 4th class and I didn’t see anything better.

 

I clipped a fixed pin and took the easy blocks and ramps up past the dead tree, feeling like I was doing squats as I heaved up the rope behind me. My belay here included a slung root. Ok, this is starting to feel pretty “alpine”. I could see the party of 3, but not my partner, and they were kind enough to relay our commands. Pulling up the rope was a full-body workout and I was happy to feel it get easier as my partner ascended.

 

Big belay ledge after terrible rope drag

 

By now it must have already been several hours, with our slow leading and waiting for the other parties pass us. The other leader arrived and we shared the belay area while we took a break to eat and drink again. His followers unroped as they arrived so they could scramble the next section, and we sat around for a while as they departed. My partner was feeling sick and talked about bailing, but I just agreed to lead the rest.

 

Denny, right?

 

We aren’t really into the unroped thing yet, so although the terrain was easy and without much possibility for falling completely off of the mountain, I stayed on belay and placed a piece or two on the way up. I arrived at the base of the final short pitch where several parties were either climbing or rappelling from the summit, and after going back and forth all over the place assessing the situation, I realized that I just needed to get out of the way again and let everyone finish. The rock in this area is very loose and it took me a long time to find somewhere out of the way to plug some cams in and bring up my partner.

 

Staying out of the way on easy terrain. Photo by cool dude aka Jason

 

Okay, almost there. I saw the obvious exposed “catwalk” which I had no interest in taking, and also what I have seen described as a 5.6 flake, with the tree station at the top. There was another guy climbing 10 feet left of the flake that I intended to take and he accommodated me crossing over his rope. I expected this to be the crux, but I found the flake to be very easy. The guy next to me said that it is 4th class. Maybe he was climbing the 5.6 part? I had read a lot of trip reports prior to the climb and I’m still confused about this.

 

Dude who climbed next to me and let me cross his rope. I believe the flake I took is just up and to the left of him in this picture.

 

A lot of the flake sounded hollow and the best gear on the way up is an old fixed cam. The last 10 feet or so got “protected” by a #1 that I could rip out with my hand unless it sat just right. I brought my partner up to the tree and there was a group hanging out on the summit. We weren’t sure what the summit was like but we knew our comfort level was well below theirs, so we agreed to belay each other to the summit and back.

 

Looking down the crumbly last pitch. Garbage #1 visible.

 

Looking up towards the summit, which is just out of view up and to the left

 

I belayed my partner up and the guys on top generously offered to belay me up as well so we can hang out on the summit together. I broke down the belay and one of the guys walked down to carry one of our backpacks to the top since my partner left his. At the top my partner is tied into a few cams with enough rope to walk around and I tied in too. This is obviously not necessary as the summit ledges are flat and large, but this was our first rock climb in the mountains and we were clearly a bit on edge being on the top.

 

Him

 

Me

 

Cool dude

 

We hung out for a long time on the summit talking to the other guys and eating until they left. We had left the car with 2L of water each and finished the last of it at this point. I checked out the slung block, which most parties had used to descend, but ultimately we decided that we wanted to go back the same way we came up. There was some loose gravel to get back to the tree, which is basically on the edge of the face, so we belayed each other back to it to begin the descent.

 

The first few rappels went fine, albeit slow. I was going first using a prusik backup and then providing a fireman’s to my partner. This was the first time I had used the prusik on a descent of any considerable length and found that I wasted a lot of time messing with it as it would catch frequently, even though I was tending it. Next time I will try fewer wraps or a klemheist.

 

I passed the next slung block and neared the tree that had been our first belay on the way up. It looked like a stretch but doable, and I recalled that the party of 2 descending earlier that morning had completed what I believed was a rappel between the same stations as I was currently doing. I walked off of the last ledge and soon realized that I had made a mistake.

 

I was about 10 feet above the tree and at the end of the rope. I know that the party earlier in the day had not ended up so high above the tree, so they must have had a rope with a little more stretch. I was getting tired now and wasn’t keen on climbing back up or downclimbing to the tree if I didn’t have to, and I knew that my partner wouldn’t want to either. He had some of the rack and I had already put a bunch of gear in my backpack on the summit, but I poked around until I could build an anchor with the handful of pieces on my harness and shouted to explain the situation.

 

He came down and did another rap off of the slung block above me. It looked like this one might have reached the base of the route, but to avoid more shenanigans we pulled and rethreaded the rope at the tree. From here we arrived at the base and had another quick bite to eat.

 

We had some minor hesitation about rappelling down Pineapple Pass since we didn’t know what we would find. I could see the second station and the talus field not far below it though, so we went for it in the interest of time and not dealing with scrambling back around. I went first and had to stop several times to sort the strands as they were conveniently turning into spaghetti every time I tossed them further down.

 

I arrived at the second station and found it to be the most “interesting” one of the day. The block was fairly solid but there seemed to be some potential for the slings to pop off if the rope were to whip around a lot while rappelling. There didn’t seem to be any solid rock in the area to leave nuts in even if we wanted to, so for now I gardened out a placement for a cam that would hold the slings more securely in place. I don’t imagine that this anchor would phase many experienced climbers, but it raised my eyebrow as a noob.

 

My partner came down to meet me and I kept my head low as a fair amount of loose rock was falling. I went first being heavier and carrying the heavier pack, and he went second, removing the cam. Touching down on the talus field felt good and we high-fived in congratulations of not fucking anything up too badly.

 

It started to get dark as we hiked down and head lamps came on after not too long. We had no trouble navigating back out into the bowl, but had to check GPS once before we got back on the Snow Lake trail as it was completely dark by now. We finally got back to the car at 10pm, completing what is likely the longest ever ascent of The Tooth at 16.5 hours C2C.

 

We had been very thirsty on the way down and exercised great restraint to keep from drinking potentially poopy stream water. We both downed 2 root beers and a large gatorade each, with a few croissants, and promptly passed out in the car for the second night in a row.

 

I realize that The Tooth is something of a joke to most people here, but I figured I could provide a view into the experience of us 2 dudes who are afraid of heights and figuring out climbing for ourselves. It seems like the majority of experienced climbers either had more of a knack for this to start than we do, or get started by having a teacher drag them up a handful of climbs. From each of our trips come a lot of lessons and I like it that way. Baby steps.

 

I imagine the next time we go will be a lot faster, with knowledge of the route and more experience finding placements. The rappels took a long time but we got our system fairly dialed towards the end, so this should be better next time too. We also spent a lot of time waiting for people to pass, but we were so slow that it would have been impolite not to insist.

 

Comparison with R&D:

• Easier climbing with big holds and no requirement to climb cracks
  
• Fewer solid protection opportunities. Probably bomber by Cascades alpine standards, but substantially less than a granite crag.
  
• Many rappels instead of walking off to the car
  
• Belay areas are smaller, making it more difficult to negotiate with other parties
  
• More loose rock. Required testing of holds and care not to knock it down. Funny enough though, it was R&D where I got nailed in the helmet with a rock.
  
• Easier to communicate, at least with low wind
  

I am not sure which one is a better beginner climb. I got more frazzled leading R&D but I don't necessarily think it is harder overall, given the infinite amount of bomber protection. Probably just because it was my first. They are both good and provide unique experiences to a new leader.

 

Big thanks to everyone who was patient and helpful on the route.

 

 

Someday...

 

 

Gear Notes:

The biggest rack The Tooth has ever seen

 

Approach Notes:

Snow Lake trail

Edited August 30, 2013 by jakedouglas

[genepires]

no appologies needed. I still have fond memories of my first alpine rock trip up to beckey route with my very good friend jeff. WHat a couple of clowns we were. I doubt that you brought more gear than us. at least no one was on route to witness our goober-ness, but a team on concord could hear the circus going.

 

those early climbing career climbs are the best. everything is fresh and new. savor them.

Edited August 30, 2013 by genepires

[G-spotter]

You should go climb Black Peak now

[jakedouglas]

You should go climb Black Peak now

 

har har

[DPS]

I think you summed up many of the important differences between alpine rock climbing and cragging very nicely.

[obwan]

Next one to do would be Ingalls Peak - a very good detailed TR, I'm sure most of us starting out have had those same issues. My old saying is " a good days climbing is when you go home with all of your toys and most of your hide"

[Whatcomboy]

Nice to read an honest tr from a noob about the reality of learning about alpine climbing. Way to go.

[JL1216]

Nice to read an honest tr from a noob about the reality of learning about alpine climbing. Way to go.

 

+1

[olyclimber]

Congrats on the climb guys! Love dat Toof.

 

Here is to the start of your alpine climbing life!

[alpinemorg]

Cool TR, thanks for sharing your stoke and learnings from one of my favorite valleys in the world. I wish some more climbers I know had their ego's as firmly in check as it sounds like you do in regards to learning and self-examination.

 

Cheers,

Morgan

Edited September 4, 2013 by alpinemorg

[dougd]

Thanks for posting this very refreshing TR.

 

d