Dow Williams - Mar 17, 2008 9:32 pm - Voted 10/10
was...the pencil in guys? did you climb it?
AJones - Mar 17, 2008 11:35 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: was...I'm just in the middle of posting the trip report. The pencil was touching down but was only about a foot across at the bottom. We took your route description with us and it was very helpful - thanks.
The only issue we had was not being able to match up some of the descent information, but I'm sure that's because some of the stations were under avalanche debris, and I think we found a few rap anchors that you didn't (they're so friggin hard to see, you almost need to run into them). Have a look at my trip report - you may won't to make a few minor changes to the descent description (e.g. no need to build an ice station between the top of the first tier and the bottom of the first teir - there's chain anchors on climber's right).
Oh yea, we had to reverse (i.e. downclimb) the pencil traverse - pretty spicy!!
Dow Williams - Mar 18, 2008 10:32 am - Voted 10/10
Re: was...You couldn't rap over the pencil? there is an anchor up there...hard to find and precariously close to the edge though...particulary in the dark. Would love to climb it some day, guess it has been in only once that anyone I know has ever seen. Cheers
AJones - Mar 18, 2008 11:51 am - Hasn't voted
Re: was...I guess that was our issue - we didn't go right down to the very edge (although I was about 10 metres away and could see anyting, including footprints). I'm sure if I had of gotten right down to it, I would have seen them. We just didn't believe that they would be so exposed, and therefore were looking for them slightly further up.
AJones - Mar 18, 2008 8:10 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: was...I made a small change to the trip report indicating that the anchors are likely there, just further down then I went (can't imagine down-climbing that in the dark - yikes)
pvalchev - Mar 24, 2008 7:56 pm - Voted 10/10
Re: was...When I did it, I did one small (10 meter) rap to get down the proper Pencil rap station.
It was two pitons on the climber's right at the top, but they were very hard to see and I had to dig them otu of the snow (only tip of the sling was visible). No downclimbing was necessary but it wasn't dark either :)
AJones - Mar 24, 2008 10:47 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: was...There was no downclimbing, but you did a short rappel to get to the anchors? Is that what you were saying; I'm not sure I understand. Or are you saying, it was a 10 metre rap from the Pencil station (that can't be it, because it's a lot longer than that to get to the bottom of the Pencil) or you did a 10 metre rap to get to the Pencil station? If so, what did you rap from?
pvalchev - Mar 25, 2008 11:58 am - Voted 10/10
Re: was...Sorry, two raps to be clear: One 10 meter rap to get over a small cliff band (to top of pencil) and then a full rap over the Pencil. The first rap is 2 pitons on climber's right that were hard to find (I saw the tip of a sling and had to dig). The next rap is a nest of 5 or so pitons that take you over the pencil.
AJones - Mar 26, 2008 1:05 am - Hasn't voted
Re: was...OK thanks - that makes sense to me now. I'm kind of thinking the anchors were buried as there was a ton of avalanche debris, and I think I would have at least seen the top anchors as I went down the gully quite a ways.
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