2 Climbers, 1 Headlamp
Resigned to our fate, we watched the sun set over the Palisades from the summit of Mt Sill before heading down to the North Couloir traverse. There were large boulders that made the scrambling difficult, and it was difficult to follow the ducks. Finally we reached a spot that we thought was the turnoff, and with no real certainty, began picking our way down the cliffs toward the Palisade Glacier.
The climbing was very slow going. I would climb under the diffused lighting of the headlamp as best as I could, and whenever we reached a steeper part, I’d wait for Dirk to climb down and shine the light back up for me to follow. At one point we weren’t sure if we were heading the right way, or when to traverse the cliffs back to the east. The terrain was getting steeper, which was a concern, so Dirk climbed off to scout out a route while I sat alone in the dark.
After what seemed like an eternity sitting in the wind, Dirk reappeared. He had found a way out! It required some tricky down climbing with one headlamp, and some occasional verglass on some of the narrower traverses to spice things up. Finally we reached the notch between Mt Sill and its subpeak. All that we had left was to descend the straightforward North Couloir to Glacier Notch, and down to the Glacier, and we’d be home free!
WRONG! The chute was complete and utter crap. Every step resulted in a miniature landslide of talus, scree, sand, and climber. So much dust was kicked up that visibility with the headlamp became difficult. Progress was painfully slow, and after descending about halfway down the chute, we stopped for a break.
Here I decided to make use of the energy gel pack that I had found frozen in the Palisade Glacier. I had never had one before and wondered how it would taste - TERRIBLE! From then on I've stuck with Cliff Bars to avoid a repeat of the experience.
After a snack and finishing off my water, I was really sleepy and needed to lie down for a bit. Also, although I had learned from our last epic and brought more clothes, I didn’t have a windbreaker and the wind was blowing right through my clothing, whisking away any heat that they might have held. I found a 2-in-1 solution for this by climbing up into the rock on the side of the couloir. There was an angled slab, steep enough to slide off of, that made a nice bed and offered some protection from the wind. After wedging my thigh in a space between the slab and some other rock to hold me in place, I laid down for a nap.
All too soon Dirk had us rallied and we continued down the poop-chute. Finally we reached a point where we couldn’t help but walk on the icy neve. Luckily someone had placed some slings in the solid rock, providing us with a good anchor to rapp off. Dirk set up the rope and I was the first down, walking down the icy slope while hanging on the rope for control.
Yes! We were at the Glacier Notch! Now the rest of the way back was familiar and we’d certainly make it down!
WRONG! We looked over the cliffs that dropped down to the glacier, looking for the right chute. We had some idea as to which chute it might be, but there was still a LOT of uncertainty. Dirk wanted to just climb down one, and if it ended, rappel the rest if the way. I wasn’t keen on rappelling a route we didn’t know, in the dark, with one headlamp, so I kept trying to narrow down our options. By this time it was almost 2am, and we gave up. The sun would be rising in a few hours – I pointed out that we might as well bivouac for those few hours and descend once we could see where we were going.
Although we were cold, tired, and hungry, we were still enjoying the experience at some twisted level. High above us in the sky Mars was making the closest transit to Earth that it had for thousands of years, and with the thin night air, it looked like a giant glowing orb in the sky. The rugged silhouettes of Mt Gayley and Mt Sill towered above, framing a starry night sky. After watching a few shooting stars, we each climbed into whatever shelter we could find from the wind. I found a small cave in the interstices between the large talus blocks, and quickly climbed down and inside. Dirk was nice enough to let me borrow his wind breaker for a little while to regain some heat while he did pushups to keep warm. I was so exhausted from our climb that I couldn’t imagine doing something like that to ease my discomfort. I watched in disbelief and then we went to sleep. Glorious Alpenglow
A few hours later the sky lit up behind Mt Gayley - the night was over! Now we can get down! With the sun rising, we quickly found the right chute and began climbing down. On our way down we were treated to a wonderful alpenglow that illuminated North Palisade, changing it from a dark black to a fiery orange. It was one of the best alpenglow sunrises I have ever witnessed in the Sierras.
Down the chute, over the moraine, back to camp we go! We hurried as fast as we could, since Joel would be waking soon and would certainly notice our absence. As we reached the trail we came across a welcome site – Joel was huffing it up the trail, carrying a pack with food and water! He had noticed that we never came back and had woken early in order to head back up to Mt Sill to search for us. He had asked MSAR about us, and they reported watching our headlamp slowly make its way down Mt Sill throughout the night, so he knew that we were all right.
After refueling, we hiked back down the trail to pack up our tent and head back to civilization. On the hike out, we noticed the irony that we had camped at Sam Mack Meadows the night that we didn’t have a permit, and the night we did have a permit to camp in the backcountry, Dirk and I had to bivvy! Perhaps our little illegal camping had brought on some bad karma? Next time we’d have to make sure to get a permit for camping, just in case.
Mark N' Dirk's Bivouac Trilogy: Part 1: Mt Conness - Part 3: N Palisade & Polemonium
Palisades
