[TR] Klawatti, Austera, Primus - Inspiration-McAllister-Klawatti Traverse 7/2014

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Klawatti, Austera, Primus - Inspiration-McAllister-Klawatti Traverse

 

Date: 7/4/2014 - 7/6/2014

 

Trip Report:

 

One thing I have learned in the past few years of climbing is not to let opportunities go by - both in terms of weather and motivated partners. Carpe diem, motherfucker! So I ate a lot and rehydrated after Little Tahoma on Wed and Thu morning, then packed my stuff and met one of my partners in Bellevue at 2 pm to head up to Marblemount and get a permit for the Klawatti zone. We knew other folks were headed up there and with it being 4th of July and all, wanted to ensure we could get out on our objective.

 

We camped at Mineral Creek and got up at 4 am, had breakfast, drove up to the Eldorado TH and were off at 5:45. We made quick work of the familiar trail up to the boulder field, and continued to the waterfall where snow was still lingering. From here the rest of the approach was mostly snow, save the gully down below the base of the Eldorado glacier.

 

We continued up to the E ridge of Eldorado, took a rest break, then roped up and traversed the Inspiration glacier to Klawatti col, arriving in camp just after 3 pm.

 

Approaching Klawatti col:

 

Klawatti:

 

We set up camp, and, noticing the weather was changing from perfect blue-bird to ominous-looking weather opted to scout for a route up Klawatti. Yes we were tired, but, as I said before, carpe diem, motherfucker! We had met a party on the way in that said the standard route was a no-go, so we followed some beta we had from a previous year looking for a short pitch above the moderate snow ramp (45 degree) near camp (around the corner on the south), and found something promising. My partner, SA, led up a mid-length pitch to a nice ledge and set up a fixed line. My other two partners and I prusiked up (last on belay). I then started up looking for a scramble route to the summit with my partners just below. I mostly stayed on the ridge line (SW?) sometimes crossing right, sometimes left. The rock was quite loose and fractured... and shitty. It was mostly class 3 with some exposure. Eventually I got to class 2 terrain and a tedious boulder hop ensued to the summit. No register was found, and it began to sprinkle so we high-fived and headed down. We retraced our steps and rappeled the initial pitch and downclimbed the moderate snow. We boiled dinners and started melting water when the rain really started to kick in, soaking us all. We set our alarms hoping the best, but it rained most of the night and past our wake up time of 4 am.

 

About an hour later the rain stopped and we crawled out and roped up. We left camp at 6:40 and headed for Austera. The skies looked significantly better and the weather improved as the morning went on. Carpe diem, motherfucker!

 

We got to Austera's ridge quickly with just one obstacle - a short, mildly exposed downclimb onto the Klawatti glacier over a small moat against the rock ridge separating the Klawatti from McAllister glaciers.

 

Notch downclimb from afar:

 

Notch downclimb close-up. I'm on the left:

 

We met two other parties at the summit ridge - so a total of 10 folks all hit Austera at the same time. However 3 folks opted to just hang out on the ridge, and the remainder of us tackled the final scramble/pitch via two routes. A party of 2 climbed the chock stone and let one of our team members prusik their line. I led up around the right side of the false summit (facing Primus), downclimbed 4-6 feet onto a snow ramp, crossed to the base of the summit block and made some easy moves to the summit. I set up a fixed line and my other two partners prusiked up alone with one party member from another team. We quickly cleared the summit doing one rappel down the chockstone pitch, with the party of 2 going first. 7 people got up and out of there pretty damn quickly - much quicker than I expected!

 

Me preparing to lead. My partner, SA, on the right. Yes I have an excessive rack - it was intended for Dorado Needle and I just had it in my pack:

 

Crowded Austera summit (photo courtesy CBarmon):

 

KK rappeling down the chockstone (photo courtesy DMotes):

 

At this point everyone but me wanted to continue on to Primus. I climbed it last year via the Borealis Glacier, so I bid adieu and solo'd the glacier and short scramble back to camp, where I drank water, baked in the sun and ate dinner. My party returned by about 5 pm and by then the weather had turned foul again. We melted water and prep'd for day 3 and it's objective: Dorado Needle. We crashed at about 8 and set alarms for 4. The rain never let up all night, and we slept in until 7 or 7:30. By this time precip was more of a mist and we were in a white-out. We hemmed and hawed about whether to make a go of it towards Dorado in case things improve en route, but in the end decided to count our blessings on getting three summits already (two for me), and headed back to the cars. The hike out was uneventful and quite easy.

 

Gear Notes:

Standard glacier travel gear; minimal alpine rack for the pitches on Klawatti and Austera.

 

Approach Notes:

Boulder field melted to the first waterfall.