Sharkstooth

We found good weather (sunny, cool summer day) through the day following a mild cold front that came through Saturday afternoon. The previous ~2 weeks had been extremely smokey in the Front range. Smoke was from big fires in Oregon and Washington (consider there was a ~0 snow pack in much of the pacific coast this past winter). The smoke was reduced by the cold front, but definitely still a 'feature' of our climb Sunday.

Several previous trip reports i had seen warned about marmots chewing up items left at the campsite. I can believe it, because my climbing helmet was destroyed (straps chewed overnight) this season at the Glacier Gorge campground. It's unfortunate, but it comes from gobs of tourists feeding the animals during their visits - marmots accustomed to that can get pretty aggressive. To prevent any badness, we hung our extra stuff off of a nearby rock face overnight and while we were climbing (see pictures, including use of extra cam to make a hang line). Probably RMNP does not appreciate it (being unsightly and not endemic of a pristine wilderness), but unless they provide a storage box (or similar) we couldn't think of a better solution.  

Sharkstooth is a long day. I consider our effort an average Colorado speed (i stop to take pictures hiking, climbing at about 1-1.5 hours/pitch). The NE route is 4 nearly full length pitches (60m rope), followed by 2 short pitches, and a walk across the top to the rappel station (we unroped for this). The times are provided to give an idea...

Departed Glacier Gorge TH: 6pm

Arrived bivy camp: ~8:45 pm

Woke up for climb: 5:30 am

Departed camp: 7:15 am

Base of Sharkstooth: 8:15 am

Start 1st pitch: 8:30 am

Top 1st pitch: 9:30 am

Start 2nd pitch: 9:40 am

Top 4th pitch: 1 pm

Start 5th pitch: 1:07 pm

Top 5th pitch: 2 pm

Top 6th pitch: 2:50 pm

Start 1st rappel: ~3:45 pm

Start 2nd rappel: ~4:20 pm

Start 3rd rappel: ~4:35 pm

Left base of Sharkstooth: 5:20 pm

Arrive bivy camp: ~6:30 pm

Left bivy camp: 6:55 pm

Arrive Glacier Gorge lot: 9:30 pm

Key waypoints are provided in the maps for reference. We followed the winter shortcut (starting waypoint marked on map) on the way in. Realistically this saves about 1/2 mile and is easy to follow during the day; i would not advise at night. Don't forget to turn off onto the Andrews Glacier trail between Loch Vale and Glass lake (at WP1 on the map). If you are not making an alpine start from the Glacier Gorge lot, options include to bivy camp (we did this) or camp at the Andrews Glacier campsite (location marked on map). The approach to the bivy camp and the base of Sharkstooth require a good amount of scrambling, mostly on large rocks and boulders. 

Other trip reports give a good description of the gear (pro) to use. While Michael did the lead climbing, i can say we used the one -big- cam part way up the off-width crack at the start of the 5th pitch. The chock stones stuck in the bottom of the pitch helped a lot!

Link to photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19047247@N04/albums/72157656035546093