[TR] Johannesburg - '57 NE Rib 7/4/2015

[ptownclimber]

Trip: Johannesburg - '57 NE Rib

 

Date: 7/4/2015

 

Trip Report:

Like many other people who've climbed in the Boston basin area, I've been wanting to climb this one for some time. I'm glad we got it done.

 

 

More photos and the full story:

 

http://www.mountainshop.net/johannesburg-trip-report-by-preston-corless/

 

 

 

Approach Notes:

Recommend boots over approach shoes

[JasonG]

Ha! Mr. Walker would laugh pretty hard if he heard you thought he was being serious about the directness of the route. It certainly is better than rolling the dice on the C-J though.

 

Way to gut it out, some great images in there!

[ptownclimber]

I'd love to hear the RIGHT way to go up and down Doug's Direct. I'm pretty sure we did it wrong.

[JasonG]

Was it over class 3? You basically traverse southeast until you can roll over the ridge north of mix-up at about 7300'. Easy scrambling takes you down a ramp to the toe of the Cache glacier and the climber's path back to Cascade Pass. Works really well I thought, if a bit long.

[ptownclimber]

I think we crossed at about 7,150. It was pretty good scrambling at first - 3rd class. Then we encountered a rap anchor (really old) and used it (+ backup). We ended up doing a second rappel to avoid loose, dirty 3rd-4th class. Then a third to get over the moat onto the snow.

 

Maybe we were too far north (and too low)...?

 

[JasonG]

Sounds like it. When I get some time I will post up a jpg of the best line.

[ivan]

love that route - doug's d ain't so tough, other than the awful grind way back up hill in the full heat of the afternoon - go up the heather tongue to the top of the ridge, then stay on the easiest rock you can find the whole way down

[JasonG]

Ivan's right, the key is to not do any scrambling until you cross to the other side of the ridge. It is just meadow hiking to that point.

 

I made this for my brother in law awhile ago:

 

Edited July 25, 2015 by JasonG

[ivan]

holy shit, it's the 10th anniversary of my ascent

http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=484182

 

 

my uber-helpful picture of doug's direct

[JasonG]

Beta overload! There is no excuse to miss it now.

[Juan Sharp]

I remember suggesting to Doug that IF his idea worked, and we could indeed cross the ridge above us, we would call it "Doug's Direct." I'm amazed that the July 2004 TR on our aborted J'Berg trip has led to so much beta on the crossing. Ironically, Doug recently pulled from several sources to add a section on the crossing in the upcoming, revised green CAG.

 

Re: the 1957 NE Rib Route, I have a standing reward ($47) for the empty can of grape soda that big Jim Nelson unceremoniously tossed over his shoulder after downing the drink on our July 1999 climb. It was in the steep heather section below the Ti pin. Hope it's found some day!

[JasonG]

I love the visual of the can arcing into space behind Jim, Eldorado in the background.

 

I should have remembered that the name had Sharp written all over it.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

A character-builder. Nice work.

 

"After a couple hours of tedious, hot, dry, 5th class bushwhacking, Chris peered over through a break in the trees: “hey look, it’s the start of the ’51 route.”"

 

I'm a bit confused how, after a couple of hours of climbing, you looked over and saw the start of the 1951 route. The two routes start in almost the same place - in fact, Beckey says the 1957 route actually starts higher up the C-J Couloir than the 1951 Rib. Is it possible you started way too low on the 1957, or am I misreading that?

 

I've always started the route at ~3900'. Beckey says to get on at 4400' for the 1951 Rib, and 1000' up the C-J Couloir (which would be 4500' - which doesn't make sense) for the 1957 Rib. I'm fairly positive both ribs can be fairly easily accessed from the same ramp at ~3900', about 400' up the CJ Couloir from the river crossing.

[ptownclimber]

@Ivan

 

We had almost that exact picture. In spite of it, we headed up too far right, then traversed way too far left, then worked back right along the ridge. We were gaining elevation the whole time, but it would have been faster had we followed this beta.

 

And I think we probably went over the ridge below this point (too far left/north).

 

 

Edited July 28, 2015 by ptownclimber

[ptownclimber]

A character-builder. Nice work.

 

"After a couple hours of tedious, hot, dry, 5th class bushwhacking, Chris peered over through a break in the trees: “hey look, it’s the start of the ’51 route.”"

 

I'm a bit confused how, after a couple of hours of climbing, you looked over and saw the start of the 1951 route. The two routes start in almost the same place - in fact, Beckey says the 1957 route actually starts higher up the C-J Couloir than the 1951 Rib. Is it possible you started way too low on the 1957, or am I misreading that?

 

I've always started the route at ~3900'. Beckey says to get on at 4400' for the 1951 Rib, and 1000' up the C-J Couloir (which would be 4500' - which doesn't make sense) for the 1957 Rib. I'm fairly positive both ribs can be fairly easily accessed from the same ramp at ~3900', about 400' up the CJ Couloir from the river crossing.

 

Tom, we were going off Steph Abegg's photos with the ~4,400 start for the '51 route and about 3,900 for the '57. We traversed the snow apron, we didn't really ascend any of the CJ Couloir. I think we started about as low as possible for the '57 route...pretty much at the bottom of the snow apron in this photo:

 

 

It was a bit of exaggeration to say we'd spent a couple of hours reaching the start of the '51 route, but from that vantage point it certainly looked like the '51 would have been a lot shorter.

 

[Tom_Sjolseth]

On that climb with Steph, we started too high and got into some funky terrain right from the start. On successive climbs, I have always started about 100' higher than you did (in this photo). At any rate, nice work on an interesting route.