AMTL part II: June 17, 2007

There was a brief rain overnight, right at 3:15 am, but when I woke up the clouds didn't seem to be threatening. We hoped the overnight rain counted as the 30% that was forecasted. As Joseph told me "in other places a 30% chance of rain means there's a 70% chance it won't rain. Here it means there's a 100% chance it'll rain 30% of the time."

At 7 am we departed camp, crossing some streams and following marmot and climbers trails up to the snow patches beneath Forbidden Peak. Joseph stopped to consume some energy bars and let me lead upwards, kicking steps in the snow and making them extra large when the slope got steeper and the snow conditions icier. As we approached the snow gully we'd use to get on the west ridge I let Joseph take over the lead again. Soon we needed to stop and put on our crampons to tackle the steeper snow.

Across the gully was a wide moat, which one party declared "impassable" in the notes back at the ranger station. Joseph set out to prove that description a lie by climbing the rock on the right side of the moat. I belayed him as he stepped out on the rock, still wearing his crampons and traversed back toward the upper side of the moat. He backed off of a committing move a couple times, then balanced at a good stance while removing his crampons. He trusted the rubber on his boots on this smooth rock better than his crampons points. Once back on the snow, he strapped on the crampons again and moved up the gully.

Soon the rope came tight on me, and I front-pointed up a little snow then stepped across to the rock. I looked at the move Joseph had hesitated on, then concentrated on my crampon points as I stepped onto the rock. Once again my winter trip to climb ice and mixed conditions in Durango helped out and I made it across to the snow.

Mike soon followed up and I tried to help coach him through the moves. The way we were roped together, I also realized that if Mike were to fall, I'd get pulled off the snow and toward the rock walls lining the moat. I pounded in my ice ax as far as it would go and held on.

Thankfully, Mike made it across okay and we continued up the moat following Joseph. One other small moat did little to block our progress and we were soon scrambling up loose, but easy rock to the ridge crest. Once on the ridge crest, we could cache our ice axes, boots and crampons and proceed along the bare rock of the west ridge in our lighter climbing shoes.

Unfortunately, I discovered that I'd lost one half of my pack's belt buckle. With the light load we had today, it wouldn't bother me, but I dreaded the hike out with the weight of a full pack on my shoulders. I recalled my trip into the Wind Rivers when part of my belt buckle broke on the 3rd day of an eight day trip and while the buckle still held, I lived in mortal fear of further deterioration which would render the buckle useless. What happened to the promise I made then about always packing a spare 2 inch buckle?

We followed Joseph across the crest of the ridge which proved to be great, solid rock and fun scrambling with huge exposure down either side. No wonder this was considered a classic climb in North America. When not concentrating on my hand and foot holds, I took in the views around me of the Ptarmigan Traverse peaks, Eldorado Peak, Mount Baker and Shuksan, Buckner Mountain, Goode Mountain and Moraine Lake.

Much of the climb we used terrain or running belays, all of us moving while roped together with anchors somewhere between us on the rope, or the rope running over convenient terrain features. Most of the climbing was rated as 4th class (tough scrambling) but a few moves probably deserved the 5.6 rock climbing rating.

Within a hour we were enjoying the views and happy that we'd finally reached a summit on this trip. We didn't stay on top very long, and it would actually take us almost twice as long to descent back to the top of the gully as it took us to climb up. Moving up is often easier, and we had to rappel several sections of the route one at a time, places we all climbed simultaneously up.

I took one last look for my missing hip belt before we scrambled down the gully to where Joseph would lower us down the steeping rocks to the snow below. Once down, Mike and I replaced our crampons on our boots and then down climbed the snow with the aid of a belay from Joseph above.

Getting over the moat was a little easier on the way back down. We left on of the pickets buried in the snow as an anchor for our rappel. We had to first rappel into the moat, then swing through a hole in the downhill side wall to regain sane snow slopes. After that contortion we exited the moat and removed our crampons to boot ski and jog back down to camp.

It'd been a longer day than I expected, a little over 10 hours. Over dinner we discussed the Sharksfin tower climb and hoped that the weather would hold.