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2004/08/23 Snowmass; West Face; TR
On Sunday, August 22, Nick Jonson and I took FR 315 from Marble to the Crystal TH. The road isn’t too bad, but we both agreed that a 4x4 is definitely necessary, especially if the road is wet. The road actually climbs to around 10,700 feet and then descends 9,700 feet to the TH, which is slightly discouraging.
We backpacked up to Geneva Lake in one hour and set up camp. From just above our campsite there was a great view of the “S” Ridge and the West Face. We were trying to decide which route to take. We thought the “S” Ridge looked more challenging, and likely more fun, but we postponed deciding which route to take until the next morning. Both routes looked pretty intimidating from our lookout.
The next morning the sky was overcast and the wind was blowing. We were a bit uneasy about the weather and decided that the West Face would be a better route in uncertain weather since there would at least be a clear escape route. From what we could see of the “S” Ridge it didn’t seem that there was any retreat, there was high exposure, and we would be very exposed to the bitter wind that had begun to blow.
We followed a good trail up the valley to Little Gem Lake and began looking for a turnoff to the right to proceed up the West Face. Eventually we came to a very clear turnoff where the trail split and there was an obvious cairn. We never saw a clear turnoff to the “S” Ridge and it would seem that it would involve some back-tracking from the same turnoff to the West Face since there was a small “canyon” that would prevent an earlier turnoff to the base of the ridge.
We kept trying to guess which gully the West Face Route went up. Roach’s book was unusually unhelpful for this route. Every possible route looked very difficult through the cliff band. We hoped that the trail would continue and we could just follow it to the correct gully. Our hope came true. The trail is difficult to follow through the base of an alluvial fan that has formed at the foot of the mountain, but above the fan it becomes clearer. It led us to an obvious gash in the cliff band with a dark water mark. Just to the left of this gash there is a vegetated area (I think the only vegetation anywhere near the cliff band). There are some ledges through the vegetation through the cliff band. There was a fair amount of drainage flowing through these ledges which made them very slick. Both Nick and I agreed that this section was the crux of the route (it was much harder on the descent). Ascending the ledges involved stepping on wet, off-camber rocks and grabbing a hold of as many delicate fern stems as possible for hand-holds.
Once above the vegetated ledges you climb steeply to the right up a rib. The trail virtually disappears at this point and only occasionally reappears farther up. We crossed over the rib to the right of the water gash through a class 4 section (which we discovered on the descent can easily be avoided). We continued up the rib for a ways and then entered into the gully to the right. We aren’t sure that this is the official route, but from our observations and experience seems to be a better route than continuing up the water gash gully all the way to the summit. The entire West Face route is nothing but steep, loose rock, which involved using great caution not to send rocks tumbling onto climbers below. Thankfully we were one of only two climbing parties on the mountain that day and the other pair was a good 1500 feet below us and pursued a different route, continuing up the water gash gully all the way; unfortunately, we don’t think they summited and had to turn around at a difficult spot just below the summit. The gully we were in does not look nearly as difficult below the summit.
Most of the ascent is tedious scrambling through loose rock all the way to the summit. Toward the summit the pitch increases and the size of the rocks increased and many were very loose increasing the fear of sending a 1 ton boulder crashing down. We arrived at the summit at 9:30 having left Geneva Lake at 6:00. This was one of the shortest and most unpleasant summit stays I have ever had. It was still overcast, the wind was howling and it was bitterly cold (colder than some of the winter summits I’ve experienced). I signed the register, snapped a couple of quick photos, waited for Nick to join me so we could exchange summit photos and I was out of there. After descending for about 20 minutes I found a more sheltered place where we stopped to refuel.
The descent was grueling. It was steep, loose talus all the way down. We each had several slips (thankfully none we serious). We had some issues with routefinding on the way down. I insisted that we needed to continue the same gully we were in all the way to the ledges and Nick insisted that it was the gully to our right. I pulled out my GPS, programmed my waypoints into a route and discovered that Nick was right. I didn’t realize on the way up that we had crossed into the next gully South of the water gash. I would not recommend descending this route if you ascend by a different way; it would be very easy to descend the wrong gully and get cliffed-out. We had enough trouble with routefinding even though we had ascended the route.
We eventually made it back to the vegetated ledges and gingerly, prayerfully, set our boots on wet rock and grabbed a hold of the tender little plants. Below the ledges we proceeded through the talus of the alluvial fan and over some very steep tundra mixed with loose rocks (again each of has had several slips). The remainder of the hike back to our camp was uneventful other than a rolled ankle on my part resulting in a face plant. I have sprained my ankles so many times and the ligaments are so stretched out I rarely resprain them. My ankle was a little sore, but I was able to hike out without any problem – I just went slower and was more careful with my foot placement.
Nick said he would not recommend this route; it is too much of a tedious climb over loose, cruddy rock. I would recommend it, however, because the approach is so much shorter than the East Slopes route and I think that outweighs the loose, cruddy rock. I guess it is a matter of personal preference. |
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