High Altitude Adventures

The Sharkstooth: Northeast Ridge

After the weather for the past few weekends had been very uncooperative, acting like it would rain but not, or being forecast for clear sky’s then raining I decided that I would have to take the chance of a 20% showers and do some alpine climbing. And after talking it over with one of my climbing partners we decided that a Saturday attempt at the Sharkstooth via the Northeast ridge was necessary.

As I peeled myself out of bed at 1:30 in the morning and choked down some chocolate cake, a favorite breakfast item of mine on alpine starts, I dragged myself to the car for the drive to Glacier Gorge to meet my buddy coming down from Fort Collins. As I made my way out of Boulder I felt a little loony in my grogginess, as cars came towards me I felt like a bug being sucked into one of those bug zappers not having a choice but to continue driving towards the light.  But somewhere around Lyons I think I finally woke up and realized that there was not a cloud in the sky.

As I pulled into RMNP and made my way up to the parking lot I was extremely excited because there was a full moon lighting my way up the road, but naturally right as I pulled in and saw a shooting star go whizzing by out my window a group of clouds came over Flattop and Halletts and completely engulfed the moon, it got really dark really fast.

After sorting gear and ropes we were on the trail by 3:30. Winding our way down into the canyon towards the short cut we could see the lights of a group heading to The Spearhead and the Petit in front of us. But soon it just became the woods and us and the next 2.5 miles to the Loch was just one quite step after another of awesome morning mountain air. 

By the time we reached the turn off to Andrews Glacier we were both awake and charging at a pretty good pace.  But once we reached tree line up near the start of the gash we realized that we were completely in a cloud.  Instead of trying to find our way through the boulder field in the fog we decided that it would be best to take a break in the trees and see what the weather would do.

At around 5:15 or so just as we could see Zowie peak through the clouds a group of climbers passed by us not even noticing us in our warm tree camp. We decided that we did not want to give our spot in line up for this climb and we had hope that with the warming sun the clouds would be broken up and possibly give us a chance for a climb, or at the least we would be able to see Sharkstooth and a great sunrise.

We made our way up through the gash still in fog and clouds not actually being able to see any of the Spires until we were nearly on them. But then just like clock work the clouds lifted and we knew we were in for a great day of climbing.

After our slow approach we finally got on the 1^st pitch around 8:30. Route finding was relatively easy and the climbing was good 5.6 moves.  The second pitch went up a crack and over a small little roof; this was definitely my favorite move of the climb although each pitch had a fun spot or two.  From the second belay ledge we had to take a moment to orient ourselves and debated going right around the corner and then up or continuing straight up the slab.  We decided to continue straight up which was a good choice it allowed for easy moves and good gear placement. Pitch 3-4 were very similar slab climbing that took you to a large belay ledge at the base of an off-width.  Climbing the off-width was actually very easy and you other than the first few moves to get off the belay ledge you hardly had to climb in the crack, as there was great face holds. Above the crack you come to a really airy traverse that lets you get a sense of the exposure.  The last belay ledge was just above this and from here it was just a run out scramble to the true summit where the views were amazing of the entire Glacier Gorge area and Longs Peak as well as the Mummy’s and the Estes valley.

The rappel is off the South East of the top and is made of old pitons and new slings. Two ropes were necessary to make it completely from one anchor to the next and it is 3 raps to reach the gully between The Saber and Sharkstooth and from here just a small scramble back down to the start of the climb.

After gathering our stashed gear we made our way back down through the gash, which felt like it would never end. From here the trail back out to the Loch and then to the parking lot was a happy sight.

We got back to the parking lot at 6:15 making it a great 15-hour day of classic climbing. 

Overall this was a great alpine route with really fun mellow climbing and it allowed for spectacular views throughout all of it.  Also I would say that we could have easily knocked off an hour or two if we did not have to wait to see what the weather would do and I did not lead one of the pitches as slow as I did.

Cheers!

I think it should be called Batman Forever

I met a few friends last weekend to go fix and climb a route that they had found in the Big Thompson Canyon in the Glen Haven picnic area. It can be found under a variety of names, in some guidebooks it is referred to as Slip and Splash and on Mountain Project it is called Bosh Fire, rated a 5.12C. I think the variation that we did, or the Top Rope route should be called Batman Forever because you have to do this sweet Batman swing onto the rock across the river and quickly grab the rock, and the rappel is just as exciting.

When we arrived there were no hangers on the bolts, instead there were chains that had just been screwed onto bolts, finger tight bolts at that.  So a few people walked around to the top and rapped down onto the climb to put up some hangers and attach quick links to the chains.  Although this has been fixed the entire route cannot yet be led because at least one bolt on the traverse section is missing a hanger and the bolt may have even been chopped.  Also you will need to wait for the river to drop a lot, as a fall at this point would certainly be near death, but I would imagine that these bolts will be fixed by the fall.

For our route we backed up the belay onto a pickup truck bed in the parking lot and then the climber would swing off the bank onto the rock and then start to climb.  This was really good 12c climbing, it was more like 3 or 4 boulder problems stacked on top of each other and overhanging all the way to the top.  Our groups vote was that the crux off the climb was in the middle of the overhanging slab and that the best section of the climb was the initial first 3 moves once you swung in.

I would certainly suggest going to check out this route; it is very easy access and although it is next to the road it is still relatively quite from cars. Also be careful with the river, we had no problem swinging into it but if not done carefully it could be very dangerous and a concern with getting caught on the rope and drowning. But non-the-less it made for a fun afternoon.

Cheers!

Memorial Day weekend was a buys weekend so I thought I could share in two past.

TOMMY CALDWELL PRESENTATION

First I would like to start of by saying congratulations to the Mountain Shop in Fort Collins, Odell’s Brewery and Tommy Caldwell.  Together they were able to raised over $1000 for the Craig Leubben fund.

Tommy put on a really great presentation about his adventures climbing Mescalita; this is the free route that he has been working on for years on El Capitan’s southeast face and now with Kevin Jorgeson hopes to complete one day.  Once complete the 900-meter route which links sections of the Dawn Wall and Mescalito is said to be the hardest big wall free climb in the world. In his presentation Caldwell shared with us his experiences in attempting to put up such a hard route, and how he started alone on this project and would spend months on the wall alone.  He went into detail about the trying conditions the wall has made the team face, everything from climbing at night and bivying in the day to having to learn how to climb wet slab and cracks because it was impossible to do without.  He also shared some really cool videos, which can be found on Black Diamonds site here and here, along with a great article Tommy wrote. This event was such a great success that Odell’s was easily 50 people over capacity and to say the least it was standing room only.  Thanks Odell’s for donating the time, space and beer that helped bring in such a great event!

LUMPY RIDGE

Friday after Tommy’s speech I headed out to Lumpy Ridge in Estes Park to do a little multi-pitch trad climbing.  I was in need of a mellow fun climb so my climbing buddy suggested that we head over to the Pear wall and put up the fun Magical Chrome Plated Semi-Automatic Enema Syringe, and with a name like that I had to be interested in what this mellow 5.7 would put us through.

Although this was a bit further down the Lumpy Ridge trail than I usually go it was a very mellow approach, not nearly as much vertical hiking to reach as the Book Ends, or the Owls, and it was a beautiful day so hiking was not a complaint on my part.

This climb is a 5-pitch route that starts out on a fun hand crack and then moves over to easy slab climbing which takes you to the first belay.  Belay one is not very comfortable as it is an anchor built in a right-facing dihedral and it is a hanging belay with not great feet.  The second pitch takes you up some moderate and fun slab climbing it is a short pitch that takes you to a nice tree and a ledge where we could really enjoy the sun.  From here you can apparently walk off to the left and make it a short two pitch. The third pitch starts to become more vertical and introduces you to a fun fist crack that is almost unexpected after climbing such mellow slab, but it is still mellow fun crack.  The fourth pitch is certainly the crux of the climb and offers a handful of options.  We chose to go up to the right-facing dihedral.  This offered a really fun finger crack with good feet, but you had to search for them.  The crack is probably 60 feet tall and once on the top we traversed right to an open area where the then scrambled pitch 5 up to the huge top which is a big flat opening with a hot tub looking indent in it.  I would suggest also looking at the “butt-crack” line as I had it introduced to me for pitch 4.  This is directly above the belay ledge and offers a fun looking off-width if you have the gear with you.

At the top we assessed our sun burns realizing that the winter pale was starting to turn to a summer red no matter how much sun-block we used, and coiled the rope for a really fun rappel down a vertical wall into a canyon.  From here it is just a mellow scramble/walk back to the start, I would suggest bringing a pack with shoes in it for this but it could be down in climbing shoes.

Cheers!