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Temple Crag Two'fer & the Labor Day Partay - MGA + VBA & friends on VBA, MGA & SRAOver Labor Day weekend I climbed Moon Goddess Arete (MGA) & Venusian Blind Arete (VBA) over two days with Chris Terry. The second day was "Labor Day Weekend" rush hour on Temple Crag, with 3 teams on VBA, 1 on MGA, & 3 teams on Sun Ribbon Arete (SRA). Since we could all see and hear each other between the aretes (in fact even better than we could see our rope mate on the ridge!), it was quite a social outing up these long alpine climbs.
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Note: I labeled "False VBA" & "False MGA" based on others' routefinding problems.
I was supposed to do a different long climbing weekend with my friend Mario, but the weekend before he took a fall on a 5.9R at Tuolumne Meadows, and the resulting stitches left him out of action for the weekend. Fortunately my friend Brian was re-planning his group trip at the last minute and invited me along to Temple Crag. With some last-minute hectic e-mailing, plans were made where Chris & I would head up early to get permits Friday and climb MGA Saturday while the others hiked in, then she & I would climb VBA Sunday while Brian & Peter climbed MBA and Howard & Dominique climbed VGA. Bryan and I planned on climbing SRA together for my third day out. By chance my friends Chris DeWitt & Bryan Bell were also in the area to climb SRA on Sunday.
__**Moon Goddess Arete (IV, 5.8, 14-15ish pitches)**__
**Friday Night Approach**
Chris and I hiked in Friday night and bivvied on some rock slabs a short ways off the trail above 2nd Lake. The only downside to this spot is the inaccessibility to water, but it was comfy for lounging & you couldn't beat the views!
Despite getting in late and the impending alpine start the next day, I stayed up to take some night photos. I took these from my bivy sack, and slept during the longer exposures.
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**Simul-Climbing**
Since my headlamp ran out of its freshly recharged batteries early the previous night (doh!), we waited until first light to head out from camp, and tried the approach from 3rd Lake. We made it to the base of the route just before 7am, but it took us a half hour to navigate the short snowfield, as it was too hard packed & icy to kick steps in with my boots, we both lacked crampons, and between us we only had one tool. I trailed a rope as I climbed the precarious snow slope, yarding up on the tool and resetting it carefully as I stood on thinly kicked in edges in the snow. Once at the top I set up a belay behind a boulder and slid the tool back down to Chris on the line, then belayed her up.
The beginning of the approach ledges was a pile of crud, but the rock quickly got better. After rounding a corner a short and exposed section of class 4 up and right soon gave way to milder class 3 ledges.
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Much of the lower terrain on MGA was pretty easy & clean, so we simul-climbed the first 6 pitches, starting at the ledges at about 7:30 and reaching the First Tower by 9:30.
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**The First Tower**
Once at the first tower I set up the first belay for the exposed 5.7 traverse pitch around the tower. It required some thinking to plan out the route, but once started it fell together naturally and was over quickly.
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Since I was climbing on 70m doubles, I went ahead and linked pitches 6 & 7 despite the potential rope drag problems of rounding the corner on the traverse, climbing high, and climbing into and out of the notch between the towers. This worked all right. The notch had a bit of loose rock but nothing too bad by alpine standards.
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**Soloist**
It was about this time that we saw a soloist climbing Sun Ribbon Arete. During the time it took Chris to climb over to me and for us to start the next pitch, the soloist had climbed past us on the next arete.
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**Ibrium Tower**
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With 70m ropes I linked Pitches 8 & 9 together into one long 230 ft pitch up the Ibrium Tower. The 5.7 'chimney' was more like a corner, and though the rock was a little loose and required a bit of care, it wasn't too bad.
Once at the 5.8 section I came across 4 fixed pieces, so I only needed to place one piece here. The crux was a fun wide off-hands corner that narrowed down to fists at the end.
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I had originally toyed with the idea of trying the 5.9 direct variation over the Ibrium Tower, as although one report said it had dangerously loose blocks, some other sources claimed that if you climbed a finger crack on the right of the tower, it was clean, fun & perhaps the best climbing on the route. I'm still intimidated by 5.9 in the backcountry, though, and was uncertain exactly where it went, so I stayed on the normal line, which seemed to cut over at the second major white band.
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As I rounded the corner and set up a belay, we heard some other climbers reach the First Tower. Though Chris & I couldn't see or hear each other, I had line of site to the First Tower and could easily talk with them. The first thing they shouted was:
"What route is this?!"
"This is Moon Goddess Arete!" I replied. I figured they were either so badass that they just picked a line to climb and were just asking as we were there (this has happened to me before), or they meant to be on Venusian Blind. Chris figured the former, and as we never saw them again, we assumed they did the 5.9 over the Ibrium and passed us while we got bogged down in loose rock hell on pitches 10 & 11.
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//It turns out they had meant to be on VBA but got confused on the ledges and took the wrong line. They rapped from the notch and found a series of rap stations that took them all the way down to the ledges to retreat. They had thought that what I titled "False Moon Goddess" in the route photo was actually MGA and that the next rib over was VBA.//
**Crappy Loose Traverse & Chute**
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The traverse from here looked pretty improbable for cl. 3, but I could see bail slings above us and some easier ledges a bit lower, which matched the route description.
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The next pitch began with a 20 ft 5th class downclimb to reach the ledges, followed by more cl. 3 downclimbing and traversing. The rock back here was cruddy so I had to climb carefully.
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I ran out a full 230 ft again, climbing partway up the 5.6 wide gully on P11. Looking at the topo, it looked like I could link pitches 11 & 12 as their length was 180 ft in total, I was partway up pitch 11, and I had a 230 ft range.
It turns out this wasn't the case. Maybe it was because I did a lot of wandering back & forth to avoid knocking down loose rocks onto myself or Chris belaying in the chute (beware where your belay for this pitch is set up!), but I ran out of rope at the ledge just below the "steep and sustained 5.7" in the topo. I didn't knock off any rocks myself, but apparently despite my efforts, my rope still dislodged some rocks towards Chris, but fortunately they sailed clear.
**Jenga Challenge**
Near the end of the pitch I had a good scare and perhaps quintessential Temple Crag experience. I was pulling up into a groove when I hit my head on a Frisbee-sized rock, knocking it off. I pinched it against the cliffside as it landed on my leg (ouch!).
As I struggled to get in a better jam to steady myself to deal with my latest catch, I almost pulled on a triangular flake the size of a microwave that was detached and leaning against the cliff ready to tip off on my head. I thrust my hand deeper in the corner crack and in the process knocked out a CD-sized rock, caught it in mid-air in my free lower hand, then thrust it back in the crack. It rolled into a deeper section and right back out a lower opening like stubborn quarters in a vending machine, bringing another CD-sized rock with it. This happened several times before I tried other stacking strategies. I piled these in my hand and realized that I was now holding 3 rocks from plummeting onto Chris while in a tenuous stance on a single jam, and my last piece of pro was perhaps 20 ft below.
After an unknown amount of strenuous time I finally got in a piece of pro at my stance, jammed the CD-sized rocks back into the hole from whence they came, and reinserted the largest Jenga piece back into the Temple Crag Puzzle as securely as I could. It still stuck out like a lever & wobbled, but at least I could let go.
Once the rope ran out, I belayed just below a very steep wall with a splitter crack and belayed Chris up. I warned her of the sketchy section and she managed to avoid the loose rock as she came up. Fortunately from here the rock got much better and the steep splitter crack turned out to be fairly easy, as the last two pitches had left me pretty tired :-)
**Upper Ridge**
The upper ridge had mostly solid rock and a lot of exposed class 4 moves along a knife-edge.
//Along this section we saw a team of 3 climbing on VBA, but far below the crest. As far as I could tell, they must have taken what I labeled "False VBA" in the route drawing, as this looked liked a good candidate from the cl. 3 ledges, they were just above where this sub-arete peters out and they seemed to be aiming for the VBA crest.//
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Chris has wanted to share leads earlier in the climb but had changed her mind as we reached the loose rock sections. However the final 2 pitches appeared to have better rock, so she led out, linking them into one long final pitch.
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**Summit Plateau Views**
Unfortunately the loose pitches and a mistake as to which gear of mine was fixed or not on Pitch 8-9 had slowed us up enough that it was near sunset as we topped out. The summit would have to wait for tomorrow!
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Chris and I finished the rappel into Contact Pass just before dark, and made it back down to our stashed gear by 9:30pm. By the time we found the other 4, ate, and were ready to sleep, it was near midnight and we were exhausted.
__**Venusian Blind Arete (IV, 5.7, 13-14ish pitches)**__
**Approach (Again)**
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Despite feeling like crud, my legs still worked the next morning, and even with carrying both double ropes and the full rack & slings, I still made it from 2nd Lake to the snowfield in 50 minutes. By then I only felt mildly beat, and I only felt better as I climbed higher this day.
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I had hurried ahead of the group because despite my warning that they should bring axes, they had chosen to ignore this advice, and I knew that the snowfield would not be safely passable without them. I planned to run ahead, rack up, and climb the snowfield as they were still approaching so that I could belay Chris up, & Chris could belay one of them up so that we could be free to run on for our own climb.
**1 Ice Axe for 6 People, and Fire in the Hole!**
Today looked to be a busy day on the Temple. As I was racking up I saw two climbers nearing the top of the snowfield on the SRA approach, with another two climbers in the moat trying to work their way up to SRA. As far as I could tell they were far enough to the right and the snow apron had enough convexity between our falls lines that I figured I was in a safe zone from rocks they might knock down.
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WRONG!
Just as Chris was nearing me and I was tying into the rope, I heard shouting from above
"Rock! Rock! Rock!"
I've learned from climbing in the Canadian Rockies that the best way to deal with rockfall when you are far below is to stand still and watch the rocks. Once they are almost at your level, you should then decide whether to stay put or run like hell to the left or right. This is because the rocks can ricochet at the last minute and if you run too soon you can't see what the rocks are doing and you might actually run into the line of fire.
So I stood and watched. The basketball-sized rock seemed to be falling to the right as expected, but I kept watching. Once it was within about 50 ft of me it started curving my way and then hit a bump, bouncing over to my side of the apron crest and towards the debris chute for the ledges access that I was standing in.
RUUUUN! I sprinted to my right and out of the way, then climbed the snow as quickly as I could to get out of the way of any more potential rockfall.
//I found out later that the culprit was my friend Chris D and Bryan B. :-P//
Today I climbed up the debris chute in the snow to the moat beside the ledges to gain them, and this turned out to be much easier and more secure than the direct line I took across the blank snow yesterday. Soon I was on top, I clipped the ax to the rope as before, and sent it down to Chris as in the following illustration before belaying her up.
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Once Chris was up the others had arrived, so she belayed contestant #2 up as I started up the ledge to get our ropes ready. She then sent down my ax and passed belay duties off to someone else in the other groups and joined me just as I was ready to go. It was nice to be able to help them past the snow, with Chris and I scarcely losing any time doing so!
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Although I was feeling better as we climbed higher, Chris was still dragging from our long day on MGA, so today we decided to simul only to the base of P2 of VBA and then pitch it out from there to the top. It turns out that the route, though technically easier than MGA, was much more exposed & sustained at a higher difficulty throughout, so we would have done very little simul-climbing higher on the route anyways.
As we got ready to belay the first pitch, two other climbers, Jon & Thomas, caught up to us and we offered to let them pass since Chris was uncertain of her speed today. We chatted as we all got ready, and it turned out these two guys were the ones on MGA yesterday! They filled us in on their epic, and now they were back for round 2. For the most part we were able to climb the route slightly offset from them or just behind them, so we had a nice day with more company on the route but no fusterclucks.
**Pitch 4**
As we climbed higher, Brian & Peter made their way up MGA. We had nice clear views of them and could easily hear each other, so we did a lot of talking and picture taking between the aretes as we climbed.
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**Pitch 6**
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It was atop Pitch 6 that two simul-climbers caught up to us, and we let them pass. We eventually caught up to them on pitches 9 & 10 where they chose to pitch it out behind Jon & Tom for the route crux.
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**Pitch 7**
I couldn't have planned this better. It just so happened that the two teams on SRA had combined forces for the Tyrolean and were just setting it up as I was belaying atop Pitch 6. It also just happened to be that I had an excellent view of them over MGA framed by the Ibrium tower to the left and First Tower to the right. I snapped away as Chris arrived and we enjoyed the show of their crossing.
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The Tyrolean started off looking elegant until the first climber tried to get off the line. This was fun to watch. Chris D & Bryan B said that they had a much easier time following here after they learned from the poor Guinea Pig. We whooped & hollered back & forth as the show went on.
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Pitch 7 had wild exposure, and though 'only' 5.6, it required confidence in traversing far out from your pro above big exposure into unknown terrain. I stemmed across a chimney, traversed across a face, climbed a large hollow flake and rounded the corner to bypass a roof. Around the corner the rock turned blank, so I turned up and right and followed some of the best crack climbing on the route. There were a couple of loose rocks here & there, but nothing too bad. With 70m doubles I was able to link pitches 7 & 8 into another stellar 230 ft long climb'fest.
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//Our friends Dominique & Howard apparently traversed too far left on Pitch 7 and ended up in 'unpleasant' terrain. Don't go too far left!//
**Pitch 9 & Pitch 10**
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I photographed the simul-climbers as they climbed pitches 9 & 10, which were the unmistakable route crux 5.7 pitches.
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This section was pretty cool to climb on, but never too hard or sustained. Sadly the sweet looking cracks were much harder than 5.7 to climb purely, and were used in combination with blocks, ledges & faceholds to keep it a chill 5.7. Still, it was fun climbing and the rock here was great.
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I kept an eye out for the "Diving Board" but I never saw it. I guess it finally dove off?
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**Pitch 11 & Pitch 12**
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From here the climbing got a bit easier, but the ridge also became more knife-edged and crenelated, making for interesting routefinding & protection strategies. Fun fun!
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Brian & Peter had been on the Ibrium Tower a long time and looked kind of lost, so Chris shouted out climbing directions to them as I led on for pitch 11. :-)
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**Lucky Pitch 13 & Some Bailing Insights**
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While VBA had excellent rock throughout (loose for crag-standards, but very clean for alpine standards), I admit that the last few pitches require some care. Chris & I reached pitch 13, we heard Jon & Thomas shouting "Rock! Rock! Rock!"
We watched as a watermelon-sized rock bounced off the arete and sailed through the air. And it kept sailing . . . and sailing . . . and sailing . . . and finally landed with a boom in the couloir below, ricocheting off the walls and sending down a whole cascade of rocks, sweeping down the garbage chute.
This really added some salience to just how steep, exposed, and high the aretes were from the neighboring gullies!
//It also added some good insights. I thought it strange that the SuperTopo guide, when discussing bailing, talked about rapping into these gullies and then climbing them all the way up to the summit plateau. Since they looked like a house of cards, and still pretty sustained 4th to low 5th class, climbing to the top seemed like a strange way to bail rather than downclimbing & rappelling the gullies. //
//Now I think that not only is it more dangerous to descend the gullies due to risk of knocking rocks down on each other as one downclimbs & rappels, but since the aretes often have other climbers on them, if anyone knocks a rock down into the chute, you are screwed - and the lower you are in the chute, the more likely you are to be in the way of falling rock. Your exposure to this hazard is decreased by climbing up, and increased by going down.//
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It was about this time that Brian & Peter were on the loose pitches of MGR. We heard them and the climbers on SRA shouting as they also knocked a rock down, with similar results. Brian later recounted his fun on these pitches bypassing the Ibrium Tower me, where in one case he casually slung a refrigerator-sized block, thinking it was solid, and then it started wobbling.
//My maxim in the mountains, BTW, is that when assessing loose rocks, size does NOT equal stability. Size equals SQUASH potential.//
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**Pitch 14? . 15? . . Final Pitch? Whatever. I lose track, and so does the topo**
Climbing gets easier and more convoluted as you climb higher, so pitches are usually determined by rope drag rather than rope length, and you have many options for belaying and climbing, so the topo for the tops of MGA & VBA are pretty vague. There is still a ways to go here, so don't underestimate these pitches!
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**The Summit**
The summit is farther away from the routes than a lot of people think. I had been there before via soloing Contact Crack (5.2 OW) from Contact Pass on a day of the Sierra Challenge, so I knew exactly where to go.
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Ascend the summit plateau and cut across the mid-height of a rock rib near the top for the easiest line. Don't head up & right too soon as what looks like the top is NOT. Aim to reach the left (south) shoulder of the apparent summit/highpoint after you cross the rib. Cross the shoulder and traverse north (left) & down on a thin class 3 ledge to a corner, and then scramble/squat around a narrow ledge that wraps around the south (left) side of the ridge to a notch in the ridge. Cross the notch and climb a combination of the north (right) side of the crest and on the crest. The exposure is pretty high here, so even though it is only cl. 2-3, you still might want a rope for this part if you don't like exposed soloing. Natural pro suffices to protect this stretch.
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The block in the foreground makes for a great stand for summit shots. The ridge to Gayley (foreground) is a loose 5.7. You can see Mt Sill (left), and to the right you can see N Palisade, Starlight Pk, Thunderbolt Pk, & Mt Winchell.
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The others topped out pretty late, and since Chris and I weren't that far ahead of them, we reconvened near the scramble to the rappels to help show them the way down. Another long descent in the dark followed.
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By the time we got back to camp (11:30pm. Doh!), I still felt surprisingly good and ready for SRA for Day 3. Brian, however, felt that he had had enough for the weekend on MGA, so alas SRA will have to wait for another day (combined with a traverse to Galey & maybe Palisade Traverse? Anyone? :-D). With an easy hike out waiting for us the following day, we enjoyed the remaining bottled beer I packed in, and I set up shop on the shore of 2nd Lake with my camera, book, and flask of Jameson for some nighttime fun.
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**Final Thoughts, Strategies, etc.**
__//The Approach//__
2nd Lake has much more scenic views than 3rd Lake. Camping on the far side can make the approach times similar, though it is hard to reach water.
From 2nd Lake, stay high and to the left when ascending (easier to climb up on the larger blocks), but when descending drop into the middle of the chute (easier to descend by scree skiing scree & sand).
For the 3rd Lake approach, the final bouldery bit between the slopes & trail SUCKS and I have yet to find a nice way to go over it after 3 times through it, even when staying with cairns. There are many large boulders to clamber over, trees & bushes to negotiate, and lots of little crests & valleys to skirt around or go up & down in. This is annoying with a heavy pack at the end of the day, and much harder to navigate in the dark than the 2nd Lake approach. It does keep sand out of your shoes, though.
__//The Snowfield//__
This freezes good & hard at night and didn't really have any suncups to help with climbing. An ice ax and crampons would be a good idea. Even though it adds weight, it might save you 20 minutes. At least for me, I doubt I'd be 20 minutes slower on the route having them with me.
The lower ledge w/ the 5.6 might be a good way to minimize snow, but the time it takes to rope up and then get through the easier terrain above probably voids any time savings.
When climbing to the upper ledge, go left and up the debris chute & climb the moat if you only have an ax. This is much easier to climb without crampons than taking a straight line across the snow.
__//Moon Goddess Arete//__
It is very reasonable to simul-climb the first 5.75 pitches to a belay just before the 5.7 traverse. With the rack listed in SuperTopo and keeping 2 pieces between us with all 70m out, I easily covered this terrain without needing to get gear back from my second.
With 70m doubles, if you include the simul-climbing as one pitch, we did the route in 6 long pitches & one 15' rappel.
I disagree with the distances for pitches 10-12 and especially 11-12. You might not want to attempt to link Pitch 11 & 12 with a 60m rope unless you are already a good ways up the 20' wide 5.6 gully after the traverse.
A #3 & #4 4CU were handy for the route.
A leader fatality w/ belayer injury has occurred on the pitches bypassing the Ibrium Tower. Take care on this section!
Overall the route was great, with a striking line and commanding position. However, I felt that the loose rock on Pitches 10-12 greatly reduced the fun & quality of the route. Perhaps if the 5.9 crack variation is taken, it is better? Because of this I'd say the route is 3-4 stars and should not be attempted until you have gained 'alpine sense' for climbing with dangerously loose rock.
__//Venusian Blind Arete//__
Rack listed in SuperTopo was fine. The rock was very solid for the most part and the climbing very fun! I don't buy the complaint that the rock on this route is loose. For an alpine climb it is solid and easily climbed on/around. A 5-star route! This route & Corrugation Corner are by far my favorite 5.7 climbs so far.
With 70m doubles and considering our simul-climb to the top of Pitch 2 as one pitch, we did the route in 7-8 pitches.
__//VBA vs. MGA//__
MGA is technically harder and takes a more dramatic line. However, I liked it less. Pitches 10-12 were pretty unpleasant, and much of the climbing & belays are on the side of the ridge & in the shade. It is still very worth doing, but if I had to chose, I'd choose VBA.
The route on VBA stayed on the crest a lot more and most of the route & belays were in the sun. Although it is rated easier, I'd say the climbing was more sustained and made for a overall harder route technically, though not as serious as MGA. It had a lot of interesting pitches and belay spots and the rock was never all that loose.
__//General//__
If you were to bail, it is likely safer to climb up the chutes beside the aretes than to descend them. However, for now there is a nice series of new rappel slings & anchors from the base of Ibrium Tower on MGA all the way down to the ledges if you choose to bail that way.
Don't underestimate how long the descent takes. The rappel anchors are a ways down off the edge of the summit plateau and would be a little tricky to find in the dark, so make sure you do this part in daylight if at all possible.
Descending below Contact Pass, after descending the first headwall, skirt to the far right (east) to find a good snowfield to boot-glissade down. This snow was not high angle and was soft for us on the descent. It basically took us back to the comfy blocks & bivy below the three aretes. This is much better than the talus to descend!Liberty Cap Beating #1: Liberty RidgeMt Rainier - Liberty Ridge (III-IV, 55 degree snow/ice, AI2/WI2)
July 15-18, 2011
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This July I climbed Liberty Ridge on Mt Rainier with Eric, a local Washington climber that I had met on CascadeClimbers.com. Despite having great weather in late June, the Pacific Northwest was suffering from lingering winter weather in mid-July, and winter conditions persisted on many routes in the Cascades. Since I was only in town for two weeks, I was willing to put up with a mediocre forecast in order to get up on the route and hopefully catch a weather window. Though we had originally planned to do the climb Thursday-Saturday, the NOAA point forecast got us to shift the climb to Friday-Sunday so that we'd have the best weather on Sunday. Friday morning the forecast called for a good chance of rain & snow the first two days, and "Mostly Sunny" for Sunday and beyond. Two days of putting up with rain & snow until weather cleared or we popped above the clouds seemed an all right price to pay to catch the weather window Sunday.
To be safe, we would also carry enough food & fuel for 5 days for the 3 day climb in case weather delayed us on the climb. We also brought a GPS with pre-recorded waypoints for the approach, climb, and descent. This proved valuable on the climb.
**Friday - The Weather Ain't That Bad!**
Despite the 'bad' forecast, it was actually pretty clear on Mt Rainier.
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We had nice views of the lower mountain on the approach to lower Curtis Camp, and visibility was not a problem on the Winthrop Glacier.
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Little Tahoma Pk
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The only source of moisture on our gear was from perspiration this day as it felt hot & humid.
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We made camp at about 7,400' on lower Curtis Ridge and enjoyed some rock slabs that were perfect for lounging and taking in the views. Since we expected it to be cloudy that night, I decided to make use of the weight of the DSLR I hauled in and took artsy photos of the Carbon Glacier.
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As the evening wore on the clouds parted and we were fortunate enough to get a clear view of the north side of Mt Rainier. Considering the forecast, I had been prepared to miss out on this, so it was a great surprise!
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Thar She Blows!
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**Saturday - Should We Keep Climbing?**
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We woke to the soft pitter-patter of rain on the tent walls. Time to get wet.
We started climbing under a light rain, but fortunately I never needed to use the waypoints I had put into my GPS. Clouds were either below us or above us the entire time, so visibility was fine on the Carbon Glacier.
Rain turned to snow as we neared the toe. We had hoped to take the direct variation to Thumb Rock on the west side, but we couldn't find a way through the crevasses and were forced to endure about a pitch of unprotectable skice and slush mixed into a vertical gravel slurry to gain the toe from the east.
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Fortunately as we wrapped around the sketch factor decreased, though for about half of the ascent we had shallow snow mixed in with the loose rock. As we neared Thumb Rock I came across one chute that was dribbling out rocks every minute or so. I made sure to sprint across this section!
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We made it to Thumb Rock a little later than hoped, but still plenty early in the day. We napped and managed to get our clothes dried during the sunny intervals as the tide of clouds washed in over Mt Rainier, and then receded, over and over again.
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The WI3 Center Variation Above Thumb Rock Camp.
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Willi't Kill You' Wall Provided Good Background Noise for Our Camp
The plan for the next day was to start climbing by 3am to get us over the Cap and down to the TH at a respectable hour, but when Eric checked the updated forecast on his phone, he saw that our "Mostly Sunny" weather window had changed to "80% chance of snow, 1-3" @ 13k'".
Yikes!
We were tempted to pack up camp then and there and just keep climbing while it was still clear and sunny, but we were tired, relaxed, and decided that since the weather was forecast to move in later in the morning, we'd wake at midnight and be climbing shortly after 1am to beat the weather.
**Sunday - We Should Have Kept Climbing**
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Climbing was great under a bright moon, and although we climbed in darkness, we had nice views of Seattle and the north side of Mt Rainier as we ascended.
As we got higher we encountered more early-season conditions as the hard neve/ice often had a layer of fresh snow on top. Sometimes we could crampon, but often we were kicking steps calf deep and sometimes knee deep in the snow to make steps or reach purchase in the ice beneath. This was hard work and slowed our ascent more than expected. We took turns breaking trail, swinging leads about 6 times on the route.
The weather was still clear as the sun rose shortly after we rounded the Black Pyramid to ascend the slopes above Willis Wall. I took my sole climbing picture of the day then, as by the time we reached the top of the Black Pyramid, the storm had already broken.
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Eric Nearing the Top of the Black Pyramid
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Me following below the top of the Black Pyramid at sunrise. Storm arrival t-minus 1 hour.
We moved at a snail's pace as we tired from the elevation and soft snow, but the snow kept getting softer and deeper. As I traversed over to the bergschrund crux, I was often digging through waist deep snow, right up to the ice pitch. By this time it was snowing hard and the wind was blowing around 30-40 mph. The ice pitch had a continual dumping of windblown snow that was sluffing off the slopes above. I got thoroughly drenched from these pervasive ice crystals as I climbed 1 pitch of ice through the whiteout, stopping every time snow poured down on me to brace myself and cinch up my hood. This pitch normally would have been pretty easy but conditions definitely added to the stress factor!
Eric took the next trailbreaking lead and found another nice pitch of sustained 40 degree ice. Though exhausted at this point, I welcomed the ice for the break it provided from the soft snow. Plus it was fun! I finished another pitch of ice to the top of the route.
Unfortunately here the wind gusts picked up and visibility dropped to near zero. We had difficulty reaching the top of the Cap as a large bergschrund stopped us less than 100 ft from the top. Going left, it grew larger, so we backtracked to the right and end-ran it and were shortly on top of Liberty Cap.
The problem at this point was that we could barely see the snow 1 or 2 steps in front of us. Despite having our waypoints for descent set in the GPS, that only helped us for the larger scale routefinding. We realized that we could easily walk off a cliff or into a crevasse with the visibility as bad as it was. We were both thoroughly soaked and becoming mildly hypothermic. I was covered in rime ice, already had the "umbles" and was beginning to get the "stumbles" and both Eric and I had been shivering non-stop for the past 3 or 4 hours.
The last forecast we had seen showed the weather to dissipate Monday, so we decided it was best to set up shelter on the Cap to get warm & rested, and attempt to descend once visibility improved a bit more.
We dug a platform into the bergschrund wall that we had end-run and I built up some hardy wind walls. Despite the howling wind, the BD First Light we were using was pretty calm, and our biggest complaint was being buried from snow drifting over our tent. Eric took initiative and shoveled snow off the tent a couple of times throughout the night.
Everything in our packs was saturated, including our sleeping bags. Luckily neither of us was using down loft! We melted more water and spent the night gradually rewarming as we slept in our soggy bags and clothes.
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**Monday - The Sorry Soggy Slog**
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The First Light survived the storm!
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Rime covered snow pole.
Hooray! We could now see about 20-50 feet! We were up early, packed up camp, and began navigating to our waypoints to bypass the Columbia Crest and GET DOWN. It felt like we were going pretty slow, but we actually made pretty decent time through the 50 mph gusts and whiteout as we found the right way off the Cap and around the Crest.
There was still tension in the air as we climbed, as all of the fresh windblown snow hid the crevasses pretty well. I punched into two as we descended the Cap. The first one was large enough that I stopped my fall by hooking the far side with my tool and stemming my legs. I ratcheted back up, rolled onto the near edge, then jumped across to keep up the pace. Barely a setback at this point.
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Still covered in rime and annoyed as I climbed out of my second and smaller punch-in. I got much more thorough with my pole probing after this.
We did get held up briefly in the seracs atop the Winthrop Glacier, as apparently you can't traverse straight over to the Emmons from the height of the saddle connecting the Cap & Crest (oops). For future reference, you still need to ascend a couple hundred feet up the Crest to bypass the seracs & 'schrund before dropping back town towards the Emmons Glacier.
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Gradually the skies cleared and we found the Emmons Glacier wands. I put away the GPS, put my brain into autopilot mode (with the crevasse-search feature still engaged), and at last began a relaxed descent. I finally stopped shivering as we got more sunshine through the blowing clouds. Sadly the Inter-Glacier was too slushy for any real glissading, but we made good time rushing down the trail as thoughts of Doritos and beer in the car kept me at a steady 3mph clip.
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Despite being thoroughly trashed, I headed back to Mt Rainier the following weekend to climb Ptarmigan Ridge, a longer, harder, and arguably more classic route than Liberty Ridge. The weather forecast was much better for this climb, but Liberty Cap wasn't done with me yet ([url="http://www.supertopo.com/tripreport/tripreport.php?articleid=11122"]Liberty Cap Beating #2: Ptarmigan Ridge[/url])
**Gear Notes:**
We brought 4 screws & 2 pickets between us. This was more than sufficient.
**Approach Notes:**
The Carbon Glacier was getting more broken up when we crossed it. We had to do a large end run to the far west side of the glacier at the beginning, and we couldn't find a route around the toe of Liberty Ridge.
The rock on Liberty Ridge's toe was very melted out and best avoided if possible. It was some of the most dangerously loose rock I have ever climbed. Rocks were also falling off the ridge crest regularly just below Thumb Rock.
Just in case I didn't put in enough photos in this TR, you can see more of them [url="https://picasaweb.google.com/markums/20110715to18LibertyRidge02?authuser=0&feat=directlink"]here[/url]. :-P
Liberty Cap Beating #2: Ptarmigan RidgeMt Rainier - Ptarmigan Ridge (IV, 55 degree snow/ice, AI2/WI2, 5.6/M3)
July 22-25, 2011
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Though not as popular and well known as neighboring Liberty Ridge, many climbers who have done both consider Ptarmigan Ridge a better climb, and possibly the best route on Mt. Rainier. The path of Ptarmigan Ridge is less direct and the position less striking, and sadly the real climbing ends at a much lower altitude than Liberty Ridge (ca. 12,200’ rather than at Liberty Cap’s lofty 14,112’.) However, Ptarmigan Ridge offers more technical climbing, with steeper slopes, more ice, and a choice of two finishes: A less popular variation that climbs through an icefall to the left, and the standard right variation that ascends a chimney system through a rock band and requires some technical rock climbing on perhaps the only good rock on the mountain.
**Friday – “Mostly Sunny” Approach to Observation Camp**
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Vital gear for an alpine climb
Although it seems that most climbers these days climb the ridge after a long traverse across the Winthrop and Carbon Glaciers from the White River Trailhead, we opted for the original & more scenic approach from Mowich Lake. I wasn’t a fan of the 2 hour drive required to set up the car shuttle (or the 2 hour drive back after the climb), but this approach was so much more scenic than the White River one and totally worth the effort.
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Rainforest hiking to the big mountain.
The forecast for the weekend and all of next week was “Mostly Sunny” with a high pressure system that settled in. The clouds at the Mowich trailhead apparently didn’t get the message, as we had to navigate in whiteout by GPS through Spray Park. Normally a nice meadow of wildflowers this time of year, we were still climbing on snow.
I was getting worried that we wouldn’t be able to observe the mountain from our camp at Observation Rock, but fortunately as we got higher and the day dragged on the clouds lowered and we were treated with a spectacular view of the north side of Mt. Rainier.
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Clouds parting as we near the Flett Glacier and Observation Rock Camp
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Echo Rock
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Worms in the Flett Glacier
We crossed the Flett Glacier at set up camp at a nice spot with running water and two large boulders that made for some interesting bouldering problems – especially in our mountaineering boots.
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Observation Rock Camp
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Tarn Lake Below the Flett Glacier
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Looking down the Flett Glacier
Just watch out for the sharp rocks if you fall – Anastasia drew first blood from her rump after slipping off one of the boulders :-)
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Bouldering on the Boulder in My Nepal Evos
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Anastasia Doing the Best Problem that I Found on the Boulders
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Perfect Photo Op
Anastasia chose to spend the rest of the day relaxing at camp while I spazzed out and ran further up the ridge, camera in tow.
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Views as I Wandered Above Camp
I was hoping to get some nice shots of the Mowich Face since I’m interested in doing some future ice climbs there, and after ascending another 1,000 ft I found a nice overlook to the Mowich Face and North Mowich Glacier
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North Mowich Glacier
I woke up from my nap and tagged Observation Pk on my way back to camp. I recommend this side trip as it is pretty easy and you get great views of the entire north side of Mt. Rainier.
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N Side of Mt Rainier Seen From Observation Rock. Mowich Face is on the Right.
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Sunset at Observation Camp
After dinner, I got out my camera and tripod and spent the night taking long exposure shots between sleeping breaks. The weather was mild, so I just moved my sleeping bag around with my camera as I took different shots, sleeping during the hour it took to get some of the shots.
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**Saturday – ‘Dogturdite’ Ridge and Approaching High Camp**
This day was a short, chill day up to High Camp. The Russell Glacier was chill enough that like on the Flett Glacier there was no need to rope up.
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Moat on the North Mowich Glacier
Most of the approach is pretty easy by staying on the Russell Glacier to the east of the ridge crest for most of the approach.
Next step was crossing what Anastasia called “Dogturdite Ridge”, which is the final knife-edge ridge leading to the Ptarmigan Ridge high camp ("dogturdite" is a definition by Kyle Flick, a local WA climber, who gave Anastasia beta on its bypass last year). If it were composed of dog turd it may not have been so bad, but since it was actually composed of Cascade volcanic graham cracker, this made for some interesting class 2 scrambling with a heavy pack on. Though Anastasia was native to Portland and led WI4, somehow she has thus far avoided much of the loose rock in the Cascades, as she was scared stiff on this section. I just kicked down rocks and dug into the gravel until I got some small toe prints that would hold, and delicately moved across the terrain, telling her which rocks you can lean on, and reminding her to try to stay balanced on her feet and not lean in to pull on rocks.
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Beginning the Downclimb to Bypass the Rock Step on 'Dogturd' Ridge
We were stopped by an overhanging rock step, but bypassed it by down climbing 40 degree snow slopes to the east for about 200 ft and traversing the rest of the ridge on the lower snow slopes.
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Anastasia on the Bypass of the Rock Step on 'Dogturd' Ridge
Since we had another early day at camp, but I couldn’t easily venture higher on the mountain this day, I used my energy to make some productive additions to the high camp.
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Alien Visitors to the High Camp
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Our New Climbing Partner Was Rock Solid
We had another clear night so I spent another night doing night photography. (In case you were wondering, yes, ice avalanches come off of the Ptarmigan Ice Cliff pretty frequently, but the camp is just high enough from the connecting saddle and the ridge shear enough that the camp is protected from the debris).
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Happy Night Photos
**Sunday – Ptarmigan Ridge!**
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Crossing Fresh Avalanche Debris On Our Alpine Start
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Alpenglow on the Route Above. Can You See the Climbers Ahead?
There was one other party on the route that day, and they were about 1 hour and 1,000 ft ahead of us. As the sun cast brilliant alpenglow on the rocks above little bits of ice trickled down the slope as we simul-soloed up slopes of continuous slopes of 40 degree neve with occasional short bits of ice. At first I thought the ice trickles were knocked down by the other climbers, but eventually the trickles grew larger and some rocks started coming down with them – the sun was reaching the plastered rime on the cliffs above!
Anastasia seemed used to this and climbed on. Coming from the more solid ranges of the Sierra and the Wasatch, I’m not used to projectiles flying at me, so now it was my turn to be the shaky-legged one. Eventually I got used to it and learned to keep my eyes & ears open to the sound of falling debris, and then tuck in my tools and keep my head down when the little barrage arrived.
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Rounding the Corner, About to Start the Steep Traverse
Although the climbing was still easy, we did start placing screws at this point as we were more worried about a fall caused by getting hit than by lack of technique. I got my opportunity to lead just before the steep traverse. We were encountering more ice now, and the traverse was quite a thrilling surprise – 300 ft of continuous traversing on 55 degree ice, with a lot of exposure below. I front-pointed and swung tools the entire way, but fortunately the ice was easy enough if you tested placements, so I only placed one stubby every 100 ft – just enough to keep one piece between us as we simul-climbed.
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First Pitch of Sustained Ice After the Steep Traverse
Now it was getting fun as the slopes got icier and stayed in the 45-55 degree range. After the traverse Anastasia took off in the lead. She led the remaining pitches as we agreed that I’d get the rock pitch if she could have the ice pitches.
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Another Traversing Ice Pitch
The route ascended a series of short icy headwalls connected by sections of steep traversing as we threaded the cliff bands. The climbing was great! Ice everywhere, but none of it was too hard so we made decent time.
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One Stubby Anchor Backed Up with Tools. Luckily the Ice Climbing was Easy and Secure!
The only way things could have been better was if we had brought more screws. We only had 4, and with continuous ice and a 30m rope, we had to stop every 300 ft to recover screws, and all anchors were built out of a single stubby equalized with two tools. We would have been faster and more secure with 8 screws in these conditions.
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Final Traverse to the Chimney
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Final Ice Pitch Before the Chimney
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Ready to Lead the Chimney!
At last we reached the rock chimney, and I eagerly charged up into the rocks.
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Some Class 4 & Loose Blocks
I clambered through some class 4 rock mixed with snow and ice, climbed up a short section of ice, and reached the crux rock step.
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Happy Chimney Climbing
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Climbing the First Half of the 5.6 Crux Step.
The step is about 15 ft of 5.6 climbing, but doing this section in crampons with a heavy pack made it a lot more interesting! I placed a cam to backup the hidden piton at the crux (we brought them so I might as well use them), and after a bit of stemming & mantling I was above the rock band.
We encountered one more pitch of ice above the rock and then the climb was over. It was only about noon and now we had a little under 2,000 ft of slogging up snow slopes to reach Liberty Cap, with only 1 bergschrund crossing to keep us entertained.
**Liberty Cap Strikes Again**
My first hint that we were in trouble was when we stopped to eat a snack after the last technical pitch. I had been concerned about moving fast earlier in the day, and as we put our packs down Anastasia said
"See Mark, we weren't that slow. The team ahead of us is right there."
The climbers ahead of us had pulled away during the first half of the route, and I doubted that we had caught up to them.
"Where?" I asked.
"Right by the seracs over there," she replied.
I saw the seracs about 100 ft away, but there was no one there. Only footprints.
"Anastasia, there is no one there."
"Yes there is. I can see them moving!"
Uh oh. Anastasia was hallucinating. I asked her how she was feeling and she admitted to feeling a bit tired and sick. I suspected that she had AMS and that we needed to get down ASAP. However, the route is not one that is descended, so our only option was to climb another 2,000 ft higher to Liberty Cap and make the mile traverse above 13,500 ft to the Columbia Crest before we could even being descending again.
To make matters worse, our sunny day had deteriorated into a mostly cloudy day, and the cloud level was at about 12,500 ft. It looked like I was in for another white-out traverse of the Cap.
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Anastasia Nearing the Bergschrund Crossing After We Finished the Technical Climbing. The whiteout awaits ahead . . .
Anastasia led out as I told her my suspicions and that we needed to get up and over the mountain fast. She got noticeably slower at this point, and by the time we reached 13,000 ft she plopped down and asked me to lead on.
The higher we got the worse she got. At about 13,500 ft Anastasia started demanding that we stop and make camp and descend the next day on account of the whiteout and her feeling sick and exhausted. Although I was willing to stop with [url="http://www.supertopo.com/tripreport/tripreport.php?articleid=11118"]Eric on Liberty Cap[/url], in that circumstance I knew that we could recover and be stronger for a continued descent. In Anastasia's case, I knew that if her problem was AMS, if we stopped up high we would be in even worse condition to descend the next day.
Anastasia was too tired to care much about my concern, but I got her to keep going by giving her the rest of my food and water. By the time we got to Liberty Cap we were engaged in an tough case of tug of war, and every few minutes she stopped and tried to talk me into making camp.
"We are not making camp until we at least reach 12,000 ft on the Emmons Glacier," I said. That would at least put us just below the elevation where Anastasia started having problems, and it would have us on one of the major trade routes where it would be easy to get assistance for descent if her AMS got worse. I also secretly hoped that if I got her that far we could finish the final relatively straightforward 2,000 ft descent to Camp Schurman.
For a while Anastasia agreed to go along with my demand, but as she got more tired and sick, our pace slowed, and it became increasingly difficult to keep her moving. I felt bad about being so cruel in that respect, but I felt that we would be in serious trouble if we made camp, and that if she had enough energy to complain and argue, she had enough energy to keep moving.
"Anastasia, we can rest all you need to keep moving, but we cannot stop and make camp." This worked for a while, and we spent about half the time resting as she tried to eat and drink. Eventually she stopped caring about getting down and became resistant to continuing on again. I (half bluffingly) said I would only be willing to make camp sooner than the Emmons Glacier if I called for rescue with my SPOT device and cell phone. This worked for a while longer as she was not willing to call for rescue yet and the terrain had flattened. Unfortunately it only got us to the saddle between Liberty Cap & Columbia Crest, when we had to gain another 200' to bypass the seracs that I knew were waiting for us above the Winthrop Glacier.
Anastasia was getting disoriented enough at this point that she was getting lost, despite being tied into me! The clouds were so thick she couldn't see me at the end of the rope and couldn't make sense of the rope tension. She also fell into a small crevasse as she was no longer really looking out for herself. I brought in coils, increasing the danger of one of us pulling the other into a crevasse in hopes that she could better follow me and I could better point out crevasses I found probing. I knew that if I fell into one I would be on my own, so I moved very carefully. Visibility was as bad as when I had crossed the Cap with Eric the [url="http://www.supertopo.com/tripreport/tripreport.php?articleid=11118"]weekend prior[/url], and although I had our GPS track, it was still very difficult to stay on course with all of these other curve balls thrown into the scene.
After an interminable amount of time and bickering as she continued to resist pushing on, we finally reached the Emmons Glacier. For a while she improved as we descended. As I had hoped, we came across a climbing party, and although we seemed to be moving OK by this time, I asked them to tell the rangers at Camp Schurman about our situation, and that we might need assistance in the morning to finish descending.
We barely made it to 12,000 ft by sunset. By this point Anastasia was deteriorating again as she began throwing up the food she was trying to eat, and was falling down uncontrollably. After hopping across one crevasse on a slope, she fell down and almost slid into the next crevasse downhill before self-arresting. I //REALLY// needed a second climber to help short-rope her! I didn't want to stop with her due to her condition, but between her begging to stop again, the fall and approaching darkness, I relented and chopped out a ledge with my ice tool and set up the tent.
Fortunately, despite Anastasia being so uncooperative and me being so unsympathetic to her pleas, we made amends and Anastasia admitted that as much as I was being a jerk, she was being stubborn and it was good that we had pressed on to get to where we were. I had my first bit of food & drink since topping out on Ptarmigan Ridge 9 hours earlier (it normally takes 3 hrs to cover the same terrain) and went to sleep.
**Monday – The Joys of Bottled Oxygen and Rescuers**
"Mark! I'm feeling a lot worse. We have to go down now!"
I woke to Anastasia's call for help at 1am. As I had feared, 12,000 ft was not low enough for her to improve, and although the initial rest had helped, now she was feeling a lot worse. At this point I knew that we were in an easy location for calling for assistance, that daylight wasn't too long away, and it would probably be safer at this point to hold tight until daylight and send for help instead of descending.
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Anastasia on Oxygen During Our Assisted Descent
Fortunately within an hour climbing ranger Nick Hall and 3 volunteers had arrived. My message to the descending climbers had reached Nick and he had decided to head up and check on us. They also brought bottled oxygen and after checking Anastastia's A&O level she was put on the oxygen. This helped her feel better and she was finally able to eat food again without puking it back up. We helped one of the rescuers into our tent while the others bivied outside and waited for daylight.
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Anastasia & the Rescue Team
2 hours later Anastasia was short-roped down the Emmons on oxygen while one of the volunteers and I carried her gear and the camp down. We made it to the ranger shelter without incident and spent the rest of the day eating and hydrating. Anastasia's dizziness and nausea dissipated and by the afternoon we were released and descended to the White River trail head.
**Reflections**
I had been worried about whether I had taken the best action given our circumstances, as obviously I was pushing Anastasia very hard to keep moving, and we were at high risk for having an accident by doing so. It was relieving to hear from the rescuers that our decision to push forward up and over the Cap and to make it to where we did was probably the best one in a situation where there was no ideal solution. It was really good that we didn't stop higher as well because the sunny forecast for that week had changed again to a stormy one and it rained and snowed for the next several days on the mountain.
Anastasia had ascended Mt Rainier at least 4 times prior and had been above 14,000 ft on a few peaks in California, all without incident. Between her history at altitude and a moderately acclimatized ascent (one night at 8,000 ft & one at 10,300 ft), Anastasia's sudden development of AMS was a huge surprise to everyone including her.
Fortunately, we were as reasonably prepared as one could be for such an epic, we had made good decisions with what was available to us. Although she will be more wary of ascending to high altitude as fast again and may start using some Diamox preemptively, Anastasia wasn't at all deterred from her alpine passions. Two weeks later she climbed the Price Glacier on Mt Shuksan (IV, AI3 cl.4-5).
**Gear Notes:**
We brought 4 stubby ice screws, 2 screamers, and 2 pickets. In icy conditions like we had, 8 screws would be better for longer simul-climbing pitches and better anchors. Bring 1-3 cams of 0.5”-1” for the rock pitch (optional - fixed piton may suffice for many).
**Approach Notes:**
White River Approach is preferred by many since you can do a round trip from the same trailhead. However, you have a LONG traverse crossing the Winthrop and Carbon Glaciers, requiring roped glacier travel and navigating crevasses. This approach becomes harder in later season and might be impassable as the glaciers open up.
The Mowich Approach requires leaving a car at White River TH and then driving 2 hrs to the Mowich TH. However, this approach is more scenic, the lower camp has running water, and you don’t need to get out the rope until you start climbing above high camp.
Both approaches merge just before the final loose knife edge section of ridge before the high camp. This section is better earlier in the season when it still has snow cover. In later season you can drop down to the east on snow to bypass loose rock & a rock step, but by late season this might be melted out. Take care as the rock is steep & loose and a fall with a large pack could be fatal.
Just in case I didn't put in enough photos in this TR, you can see more of them [url="https://picasaweb.google.com/markums/20110722to25PtarmiganRidge?authuser=0&feat=directlink"]here[/url]. :-P
And other reports:
[url="http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1028983"]Anastasia's TR on CascadeClimbers[/url]
[url="http://www.supertopo.com/tripreport/tripreport.php?articleid=11118"]Liberty Cap Beating #1: Liberty Ridge[/url] Images
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