Gaucho Argentino Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 (edited) Trip: Triumph - NE Ridge Date: 9/1/2013 Trip Report: What a 4 days weekend… After sitting my butt for most of the last year and a half going through nursing school at 40, I finally graduated about 10 days ago. Although last weekend (my first of freedom in a looong time) I went ice cragging in the Baker’s seracs (with the 7 miles each way of road walking due to rad closure), I was feeling pretty much “out of the couch” for an alpine climb. We had talked with Dan M. that “we have to go climbing” since before I started college, and finally this weekend we made happen our first alpine climb together. He climbed the whole NR of Stuart last weekend, and was on recovery mode... It so happened to be that he bought a bottle of beer at a Ballard’s brewery with the label of Mount Triumph like 6 months ago, and he wouldn’t crack it open until he would summit the peak… So we settle on Triumph, overall “an easy climb” for an out of the couch dude and another one on recovery from his longest ever alpine climb… yeah, right… We took off Thursday night, camped in front of the ranger’s station at Marblemount, got a permit on Friday morning, and soon got busy on the approach… … that was considerable delayed by the fact that right now that’s “Berry Paradise”. We ate like a pound each of the best blueberries and huckleberries and whatever other berry that was growing around there, simply fantastic… Dan picking up berries by the handful... We made it to the col with clouds still hanging in there, but no rain, the promise of better weather, and happy to see that skyline so close... However, when we took a look at the basin, we were not very happy with what we saw. The snow/glacier finger that should put us into the gully and the start of the climb was non-existent. From the distance we had the impression that we came way into late season, and the access to the gully would be not possible… Anyway, we settle camp, and recovered with some Argentinean mate… Night weather was stellar, with clear skies, the whole milky way on sight, and mild temps. Morning come, and we got through the basin walking mostly on solid snow, and occasionally sprinting under those sections where blocks of glacier are peeling off. Pretty beautiful, actually... View of the basin from the other side… After a few shenanigans that were clearly time consuming, we gained the ridge and started climbing. Having being away from climbing for so long, and the first time with Dan, we were pitching out most of the climb, what again was eating our daylight (in retrospective, kind of a mistake in terms of speed, perhaps balanced because we tried the best to be on the safe side)… About mid-ridge, two climbers from PDX (Renata and Nate – super sool people, BTW), reached us, took a pic of us (thanks!)… … and passed us… We continued simul-climbing some, and pitching most. Dan got to lead the awesome crack up high in great style… After that, we walk to the base of the gully that you’ll see on your right. Men, that thing is disgusting. It goes for about 200 feet (one rope length), is loose, steep, with minimal pro. At this time, the PDX climbers we rappelling down already, was like 4.20 pm, and we were starting to get concerned with time. But we didn’t make it so far to quit 200’ from the summit… … and at about 5p, we were there! Stoked of being on top of another North Cascades mountain after such a long time. Looking at the Southern Pickets in the background is an inspiration … However, the best part of the trip was just beginning. There are quite a number of rappels, they mostly finish a few feet from the next on the ridge proper (with the need for some sketchy free-soloing to them), and it started to get really late… We made it to the third to last rappel (the one that puts you in the first nice ledge just before the first pitch of the climb) at around 10p… complete darkness by this time... and sure enough the rope got stuck in a little tiny crack right next to the rap station… y la reconciencia de la lora!! (some Spanish kinda meaning we were not happy with that)... climbing with a headlamp the whole pitch at the end of a very long day wasn’t a lotta fun, honestly, but got the rope out, rappelled again, prayed to the rope-protecting gods, and this time it came down… Two raps later and we were on the ledges climbers right of the gully, picked up our crampons/ice axes, crossed the glacier with headlamps to the col, and made it back to camp at around midnight. We were very low on food, so dinner was some more mate and a quarter of a sandwich, actually all we ate until we were back to the cars next morning around noon, something we did pretty much running on more blueberries… Now, what do most people eat after a climb around there, specially beng so starved? Cheeseburgers in Marblemount? “No, senior”... Pulled the stove, the iron cast, and we got some sausages and beef, ... and proceeded to crack open that Triumph beer, all of which we actually got to share with Rebecca and Nate that were getting out right after us… We were pretty wasted by this time, but drove to the Blue Lake trailhead, and on Monday we bagged the Directismo route on the Concord tower (thanks to Larry, a guide that happened to be in the trail with a client, for being super cool on sharing tips on what would be a cool climb to tag). On the way down, we found one of the typical cragging friends around there… Altogether, what a great weekend. Many shenanigans are still out of the story, as the dead pica in Dan’s sleeping bag, but they will be part of bar meetings in the weeks to come. Cheers to friends and family when you read this in Argentina! And cheers to Dan for being such a great new climbing partner!! Is good to be back out there in the N Cascades!! Gear Notes: One set of BD cams to #3, one of 10 nuts (Metolius) Approach Notes: Trail is awesome, basin/glacier is in very late season. Gain the ridge following the ledges system climbers right... Edited September 6, 2013 by Gaucho Argentino Quote
DPS Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 Congratulations on finishing nursing school! And nice TR. Most TRs on Triumph make it sound more casual than I found it to be. It seems a full Cascades meal deal with the approach, climbing on good Skagit Gneiss, and decent. We met Larry the guide a couple of weekends ago on SW Buttress of SEWS. He is a great guy with amazing beta and is well deserving of a shout out. Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 Nice one Nelson! You should have brought a tin of SPAM, however ;-) Quote
Riley81 Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 Right On Nelson, That's a great climb for getting back on the horse, a little bit of everything. I remember that great crack pitch and a very intersting free hanging simul-rappel to get back off the summit. Quote
Nate Mullen Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 Great write up Nelson! Had a fantastic time sharing the mountain with you and Dan. And totally agree, much less casual than I was expecting. Thanks so much for sharing all of your post climb festivities!!! Quote
Gaucho Argentino Posted September 3, 2013 Author Posted September 3, 2013 @ Nate: Hei, Pal!! Will send you a PM if you and Renata want that pics... @ Riley: Buddy, how are you!? We have to go climbing the N Face of Bear soon!! You lead it ;-) @ KK: Dude, I'm fat, trying to lose weight!! :-) Quote
Gaucho Argentino Posted September 3, 2013 Author Posted September 3, 2013 @DPS: Yeap! Larry is the man, Dude. He gave us good beta in the most friendly way, he's clearly super cool. And as for the climb, I think that the only way to make it a more relaxed climb is to bivy at the base of the route or even mid-route on the first day. To make it in a day all the way up from the col, back to camp, and hike out, kinda overkiller. Next time :-) Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted September 3, 2013 Posted September 3, 2013 @DPS: Yeap! Larry is the man, Dude. He gave us good beta in the most friendly way, he's clearly super cool. And as for the climb, I think that the only way to make it a more relaxed climb is to bivy at the base of the route or even mid-route on the first day. To make it in a day all the way up from the col, back to camp, and hike out, kinda overkiller. Next time :-) When I climbed the route a few years ago we did it in 2 days and the 2nd day was a death march at the end. I recall the time breakdown being something like 12 hours camp to summit to camp, then 5 hours from camp to cars. Quote
OlegV Posted September 4, 2013 Posted September 4, 2013 nice work!! I like your protein-rich after snack. did you kill the goat? Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted September 4, 2013 Posted September 4, 2013 Undoubtedly Nelson slaughtered the goat with a multi-tool, drank the blood directly from it's carotid artery, then consumed the liver raw, before butchering the beast and grilling it in the traditional Argentinian manner... Quote
Gaucho Argentino Posted September 5, 2013 Author Posted September 5, 2013 @ Oleg: Nope, but if we would have been in Argentina, that guy would be in the asador for sure!! :-) @ Stephen: Yeap, need a better strategy to balance the two days. Still I think we could have been faster on the ridge, but starting from the col and going back to the cars, is not smart... Next year :-) Quote
DPS Posted September 5, 2013 Posted September 5, 2013 When I climbed the route a few years ago we did it in 2 days and the 2nd day was a death march at the end. I recall the time breakdown being something like 12 hours camp to summit to camp, then 5 hours from camp to cars. We had the same schedule. We left camp at the saddle at 4:30 AM and reached the car at 9:30PM. The hike out seemed to never end. Quote
Gaucho Argentino Posted September 5, 2013 Author Posted September 5, 2013 DPS/KK: Did you guys simul most of it? If we were to push for the cars, we would have been there only until like 5 am :-) We got a rope stuck, but still... Quote
DPS Posted September 5, 2013 Posted September 5, 2013 (edited) We pitched out the entire route, not really knowing any better, but down soloed much of the route. We had originally planned on biviing on the route but the saddle camp was so nice and we didn't think we'd find snow/water on route, so we elected to camp there. We decided if we were to climb the route again we would take three days and camp at the saddle again and hike out the next morning. And we would take two 50 meter ropes and bigger cams. Edited September 5, 2013 by DPS Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted September 5, 2013 Posted September 5, 2013 DPS/KK: Did you guys simul most of it? If we were to push for the cars, we would have been there only until like 5 am :-) We got a rope stuck, but still... My partner and I simul'd on all but the crux pitch using a 60 m skinny folded in half. Quote
n9643750 Posted September 8, 2013 Posted September 8, 2013 sounds like a great trip! is there any water available on the ridge? Quote
Gaucho Argentino Posted September 9, 2013 Author Posted September 9, 2013 is there any water available on the ridge? Nope, Pal... You could load up right before getting into it, on the glacier at the base of the gully. After that, no mas agua :-) Quote
G-spotter Posted September 9, 2013 Posted September 9, 2013 Many shenanigans are still out of the story, as the dead pica in Dan’s sleeping bag, No, no. Climber sleeps in the taun taun, not the other way around. Quote
n9643750 Posted September 14, 2013 Posted September 14, 2013 is there any water available on the ridge? Nope, Pal... You could load up right before getting into it, on the glacier at the base of the gully. After that, no mas agua :-) Thanks for the info! We climbed the route yesterday and hiked out this morning. The snow had melted considerably in the time since your photos. We tanked up right before heading up to the ridge and were happy that we had. Cheers! Quote
goatboy Posted September 14, 2013 Posted September 14, 2013 I climbed this route in two long days: Day 1: to the nunatak camp on the glacier (just below the col) Day 2: simul-solo all the way to the 5.7 crack, rope up, go to summit and rappel/simul-climb down the ridge, hike to car. Made it to cars before dark but felt like a long day. The ridge is long but features very positive edges and solid rock, mostly -- and a million rap anchors to clip as running protection for simuling. Quote
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