[TR] Corteo - SW Ridge 9/7/2008

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Corteo - SW Ridge

 

Date: 9/7/2008

 

Trip Report:

 

This weekend I headed east of the crest with a few friends to get some last licks in before the weather turns bad.

 

We made the long drive up to Rainy Pass on Saturday and were on the trail by about 10:30. The approach started off easy enough up to Heather Pass, but became tedious and slower with the boulder hopping to Lewis Lake. there are still a few snow patches along the way, but not enough to travel on at all.

 

Looking back to Heather Pass:

 

Following a brief rest at Lewis lake we continued on towards Black Peak, and found a nice campsite on grass in a dried up tarn on the heather benches above the east moraine of the Lewis Glacier. Our site was about 250 feet below Wing Lake, and about a 5 minute walk to running water.

 

It was partly cloudy most of the day and chilly, but the weather was fine. Temps at night were no lower than the lower forties.

 

We got up just before 5 am and started down the moraine and onto the snow. It was bullet proof!

 

 

We put on the crampons and started up. It was a real pleasure moving on the snow - not quite styrofoam, but very firm and icy. Crunch, crunch. French technique came in very handy.

 

We were able to stay on the snow most of the way up to a ramp high to the SE which led to the notch in the ridge that we needed to attain.

 

 

In connecting the snow patches, we had to move higher than we otherwise would have on the snow, and it was steeper on these parts, but no more than 30 or so degrees. There was some spots with bad runout over rocks, and some sections of exposed glacier ice (which you could avoid). It would have been very hard to arrest!

 

From the top of the glacier to the col was a very unpleasant dirt ramp with moving rocks. Very slow moving. We attained the ridge at a col at about 7500 feet and then followed the ridge W for a bit to another col with an obvious moderate slope downwards. We wound our way down this slope which was mostly loose dirt and moving rocks - not much fun. After about 400 feet we moved into the cirque below the peak onto talus and made a rising traverse to a notch about 1/3 of the way up the SW ridge. There was some snow here, but it was very hard and icy, despite being in the sun, so we stayed on the talus. The last bit up to the notch was very loose and nasty.

 

Finally we began our scramble. Most of the ridge is class 3 or class 4, with quite a bit of exposure along the way.

 

 

You stay right on the ridge which at times is knife edge. We climbed unroped until one spicy bit which seemed like it was low class 5 over a cliff. We set up an anchor, and belayed one guy up, but it turned out to be super easy class 4, so he just clipped a biner on a rappel sling about 30 or so feet up then walked the ridge to a tree. Folks used the rope as a hand line with a prusik for security.

 

I ran ahead to check out the rest of the route while others went up the handline. It had a few spots where I paused for a second, but it all went just fine. There was only two other spots that were a bit spicy.

 

One stiffer section:

 

We summitted between 10:30 and 11.

 

Mountain porn from the summit:

 

 

KK posing:

 

After enjoying the summit, we headed down. We opted to rappel at the sling above the one exposed section I mentioned earlier and traversed some sandy benches back to the ridge before downclimbing the final bit to the notch.

 

As we reversed our path back, nothing really changed. What was unpleasant or tedious was the same going down. The Lewis Glacier was still bullet-proof and we were not able to plunge step at all - it was all flat-footing down the glacier. The worst part of the descent was by far the boulder hopping from Lewis Lake to Heather Pass.

 

Reattaining the ridge:

 

Tedious boulder hopping below camp - similar to what you encounter leaving Lewis Lake:

 

We got to the cars at dusk. A long day in a beautiful area with perfect weather, and few people - we saw one other party on the summit after we descended and a few hikers during the approach and descent, and that was it. The temps on Sunday were very warm and pleasant. Lots of sun. Good times!

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons, helmet, ice axe. You may want a rope and a few pieces of pro - or not.

 

Approach Notes:

Almost no snow until the Lewis Glacier.

Edited September 9, 2008 by KaskadskyjKozak

[John Frieh]

Being French technique came in very handy

 

Sorry... couldnt resist

 

Good on ya for getting out and posting a TR about it!

[Clarence]

Cool!

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Being French technique came in very handy

 

Sorry... couldnt resist

 

Good on ya for getting out and posting a TR about it!

 

Je ne suis pas francais, monsieur.

 

[Off_White]

Nice pics and story, I'd guess this route might be more palatable as an early season outing when snow covers much of that unenjoyable terrain?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Nice pics and story, I'd guess this route might be more palatable as an early season outing when snow covers much of that unenjoyable terrain?

 

Yes, I think so. But the hard snow on the "glacier" was very fun to climb.

 

[ivan]

looks like a klenke-klassic!

[rob]

Nice

 

looks fun