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Colonial and Big 4 conditions update


layton

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Matt:

 

I think you need to lay off the stuff. It's affecting your memory!

 

Jason and Bronco: Your points are well taken on all counts, except that I don't consider myself any kind of authority on the peak. I'm just a guy who keeps going up there in the wrong conditions!

 

Jason: I am impressed by the depth of your research. You and Jim are obviously the true authorities on this one.

 

I'm thinking that doing the NW Ridge might be an easier and safer route for the winter. Tell me about the ridge, those of you who have down climbed/rapped it (or climbed up it, for that matter).

 

Thanks much,

 

John

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Dan-wasn't there a boulder there, near and perhaps just above that snag? Maybe I'm imagining the whole thing just like I imagined the topo to match what we saw in the couloir.

 

There may have been a small boulder, the biggest presence in the area was certainly that monstrous cornice that we wriggled under just before topping out. There was nothing that said to me "place #1 camalot here", because I would have done that to back up my anchor (even though that tree was going nowhere). There were some exposed rocks back from the ridge where the wind had scoured off the snow, but I don't think any of them were that big.

 

It kinda makes me want to go back there & take another look... cantfocus.gif

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I remember an issue of Off Belay...I saved it just because of the article about Big 4. As i remember it, the author soloed Big 4. But maybe it wasn't Off Belay but Mountain (UK). What was the mag where only a number appeared on the cover? My wife threw it out along with all my other climbing mags. I don't miss the Climbing and R&I's being gone, but wish I still had the Off Belay or whatever mag that article was in. As memory serves, he doesn't really come out and say Big 4 but refers to it as a 4,000 ft face only 1 hour drive from Seattle. Had to be it. It was agreat story and was definitely an "epic".

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Wasn't that author Robert Cordery-Cotter aka "Little Bobby Onsight" recently voted worst writer ever to have an article appear in the Canadian Alpine Journal, and butt of many route names in the Canadian Rockies, and writer of a 15 page chest beating epic in the Canmore Clubhouse climbing logbook in which he bravely proclaimed Sea Of Vapours in WI5+ shape to be "a bold and difficult 7"?????????? pitty.gifpitty.gifpitty.gif

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  • 2 weeks later...
When is colin and or layton's ass going to climb it. wazzup.gif

 

It's been a bad season for me on alpine-ice routes. I've been 2nd-guessing myself on a few routes now and have bailed w/o trying. I could've done two awesome climbs this year already if I haven't been such a big pussy. Haven't TR'd them due to shame issues, being NY gully, and colonial. If the weather holds for next weekend, something will be sent damnit! I appologize to myself for being such a fuckwad. cry.gif

Expect good news soon from David Parker and Wayne1112 (I hope). Congrats to Colin and Forrest for Inspiration peak. wave.gif

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Including yesterday's non-start on Colonial, I am currently 0 for 7 on alpine climbs since September. I concluded over breakfest this morning, while I wallowed in my gloom, that up until yesterday, my "non-successes" stemmed from routes being out of condition. It's tough to do a climb if the climb is not there.

 

Having said that, my gut instinct about Colonial yesterday was that the upper portion would be a nightmare wallow of shallow, loose snow over rock, and bailing didn't look fun. The second-guessing, though, is brutal. Could I have climbed it, even if it was in tough shape? Should I have started up anyways, and pushed it as far as I could? Should I put all my gear in a big pile, soak it with the last of my white gas, and set it ablaze?

 

Having said that, we succeeded in getting down through the woods at night without getting too mangled.

 

Good luck to Wayne and David, they should be near the top of the face as I write this, they were figuring eight to ten hours from their low bivy to the summit. I'm looking forward to the TR.

 

 

 

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