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Page Type:
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Trip Report |
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Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Aug 2, 2010 |
Activities:
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Trad Climbing |
Season:
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Summer |
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Overview
A great route. Feather in the cap.Getting There
There\'s plenty of beta about approaching Mt. Temple on this page. See the other Greenwood/Locke posting. In essence, park at Paradise Valley trailhead and wander up to Lake Annette.Route Description
Descriptions and photos are out there. I\'m just putting up some more beta from my own experience. August 2010. We hiked in to Lake Anette in the evening and bivi'd among the boulders. Start from Lake Annette at 02:15. Started up the Dolphin at 03:00. It was soft snow (no overnight freeze) and some easy scrambling up 4th class steps where the snow had melted out. Not much in the way of exposure, pretty mellow. There\'s a massive ledge system where the dolphin tail fins meet. Take a right. Some friends of mine climbed this part in the evening hours and bivi\'d on this ledge (well to the right, out of serac danger), and did the route from there the next day. Pretty good since it gets you 600 m up the face to start the route at dawn.Anyway, there's a corner with some tat in it you wander up. (5.5/5.6), exit out right and continue over lots of choss quartzite (4th and easy 5th terrain) up to the second ice field. 07:30 at this point. This was bare ice to start, then snow (easy kick stepping). Under bare ice conditions you\'d want some extra ice screws and some good crampons - not the aluminum kind). At the top of the ice field we roped up. Great sheltered belay beneath and overhang.
Next 3 pitches are the most dangerous part of the route - the gully exposed to rock fall from the shale band above. These 3 pitches get you to the start of the upper rib.
Pitch 1: A wet corner. Required some aid climbing with tools and crampons for us. 5.8 A0 (pulling on gear). See Josh Lavigne\'s video of the route here: http://vimeo.com/27267883. From August 2011. This pitch 1 for them was an ice wall on the left and foot jugs on the right. Great conditions compared to the wet chose we were climbing. Belay at the top on the left side of the big gully above, sheltered from rock fall.
Pitch 2: Run across the gully and climb the right hand side (relatively safe from rock fall). I belayed just below the shale band, but best to continue up to the shale band and belay off a single bolt (long sling attached). The bolt is now very high as the shale band continues to erode.
Pitch 3: Traverse the shale band. We found it not as bad as advertised. I put on crampons and used an ice tool. The easiest way I found was to stay right on the lip of the band as there was a flat traverse ledge, almost a side walk going all the way across left. Two piton stations exist on the traverse - you can grovel up the shale band and clip those stations for pro. There was rock fall from the higher face. Would have been nice to stay close to the main wall, but the lip of the shale band provided faster travel. Eventually you get to the foot of the upper rib, and you can build a belay about 10 m up.
Next pitches go up the rib. Great positions.
Pitch 4. 5.6. Ramble up the right side of the rib on low angle terrain. Where it steepens, you could continue, but we did as per Dougherty\'s book and traversed left, onto the crest of the rib. There's a big ledge, some pitons, and the obvious "pea pod" crack directly above.
Pitch 5. 5.8. Old school 5.8. Good rock. Some people don't use rock shoes, but I was glad I had them. Move off the deck into the pea pod, then head up and right. There is a pretty stiff move getting over a little bulge up into a groove above. I traversed further right to easier ground then back left into the groove, and up to the big obvious flake. Bomber belay in cracks in the back of the flake.
Ptich 6. 5.8. Either straight up the groove above, or head left to climb the right facing corner (left side of the groove) and back right at the top. Apparently this can be corniced (as per Dougherty's description in Selected Alpine Climbs). We found a bolt belay on the ledge above. Steve House's crampons and rope + a bunch of cams in the pitch above, were lying here from his fall in March 2010. 15:30 at the top of this pitch. At this point storms hit us so we had to hunker down until the rain stopped.
Pitch 7. 5.8. Rated 5.7 in the guidebook. Pretty hard for the grade I would say. Cool though. Traverse right from the belay and start up a super exposed hand crack right on the rib crest. The climbing above goes just left of the rib crest. The pro is very spaced and not great, and the rock a little friable. I can see how Steve House could have fallen on such a pitch. I belayed on a perch (2 feet by 4 feet) right on the ridge crest, just left of another groove heading up. You could link into the next pitch quite easily (as suggested in Dougherty's book). I thought our little perch was the "belay right on the rib crest" that Dougherty talks about. This belay is actually higher. The rib turns into a pedestal at the top of the next pitch - pedestal connected to the main upper wall.
Pitch 8: 5.7. Short pitch. Continue up the groove and belay on the pedestal. (pins in situ).
Pitch 9: Cross the little bridge connecting to the main wall. Options here are the corner/crack on the left or the slab on the right. We took the corner crack. Sustained 5.8 climbing up there. Great rock. Eventually you step right onto a ledge with a little roof covering it's right side. Gear belay. More rain storms. My partner led the next pitch in a full downpour.
Pitch 10: 5.8. Move up from the ledge and jog right a little bit into a groove. This looked like really good rock. It was a running waterfall in a full gale, so Brad aided most of it. Some pins in situ (and placed by us) were used. This gets you to the big choss ledge below the steep upper headwall. Pins necessary for a good belay.
Pitch 11: 5.5 Choss rambling up and right to a higher ledge. A fixed piton anchor exists here. Good photo ops looking back toward your belayer. I clipped it and continued right into the exit gully. Easy but loose climbing up the other side to the west flank of the mountain. Some cracks exist among the blocks for a belay. It was 10:30 pm at the this point. Major delays because of the rain storms.
We traversed the mountain's west flank on shale. Pretty tired and dark, so we found a flat spot at the base of a cliff band and bivi'd til 6 AM. Easy traversing around got us to the scrambler's trail and down to the lake at the bottom of Sentinel Pass by 9 AM. It was easy to hitch a ride from the Moraine Lake parking lot rather than march out down Paradise Valley.
Essential Gear
We had a single 70 m 9.2 mm rope. bailing would have been more expensive without double ropes but there you go. Single ice tool. (You could use two if conditions are more mixed and icy). Aluminum crampons - again, real crampons would be better if the ice fields and shale band are ice covered. Double rack of cams from blue metolius to No. 2 camalot. Single No. 3. set of nuts. A few pitons. I think we had 6; varied from knife blade to angles. The double rack was great. Despite the increased weight, it allowed the leader to climb fast, place gear with impunity, and still have lots left over at the belay so we were not wasting time trying to concoct some creative anchor with hardly any gear left.