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It took about 3 days to recover from last weekend’s climbs and I still didn’t feel as strong as I wanted so I planned shorter climbs for this weekend. My originally planned climbs were canceled on Monday so I started to think about some decent snow climbs. Maybe the Bell Cord Couloir? I could find partners for Sunday in the form of a CMC group lead by Kevin Craig. I felt as lucky as the week before with fine, experienced partners.
I figured I didn’t want to waste myself on Saturday, just before the big day, so I thought about a shorter route for that day. Pyramid Peak, right? Wrong. But I didn’t know it at that time.
I drove my car to Maroon Lake Friday evening and backpacked to Crater Lake. It went faster than I thought and although I got up once to listen to the rain drumming on my tent after midnight I still got an exceptionally good sleep of 6 hours before the alarm went off at 4:20.
I started hiking at 4:50 and looked for a strong climber’s trail described in Roach’s guide but just couldn’t find it in the weak early morning lights. So I started up on a strong avalanche path instead. I found thick snow, broken trees at the bottom of the mountain, rolling rocks and steep slope higher up. It was very tiring but later I was rewarded by really maroon and really “belly” views of the Bells! I realized I’m on the wrong side of a tower (Crater Lake side instead of Maroon Lake side) but the whole slope looked climbable ending in a little snow so I didn’t traverse to the other side. According to my map I should be able to reach the bowl below Pyramid’s north face from this side of the tower too. It took forever but I finally reached the saddle on the ridge, which was actually the NW ridge of Pyramid.
Surprise. Serious downclimb on snow and elevation loss would wait me if I wanted to reach the bowl. I rather climbed a little bit higher up the tower to get a better view of the area for any other possible solution. I could spot a ledge that looked like taking me above the bowl without elevation loss. I couldn’t see if it takes me all way long or ends in a drop-off at some point later on. I gave it try. As I entered the 3-6 ft wide ledge I found some mountain goat tracks so I thought I might have found their hiking trail. Well, the goats turned out to be good guides. They were surely familiar with the terrain! I skirted around the steep mountainside with no problem on this perfect ledge. Then, still following mountain goat tracks I traversed two snowfields.
By this time I decided I don’t want to drop into the bowl but rather climb the NW ridge route. This is just “slightly harder” than the standard route and I may be able to take the standard route down to make a loop. The snow was surprisingly soft at about 12,000 ft, I even sinked into it up to my hips near some rocks where it was even softer. It was not a pleasant snow climb but at least I was on snow what I wanted for the weekend.
I managed to reach the NW ridge again after skirting around those towers and found my first cairn of the day. The peak looked to be very close and I was optimistic. I started to follow the trail and it went easy for quite a while. Then I spotted a cairn beyond a scary snow bulge. Oops. Looks like snow doesn’t always make travel easier. Not that I didn’t know that from my winter adventures but it was still a little too much. I climbed it with sky-high adrenaline levels.
Then the terrain became more and more complicated. I had to climb a narrow snow gully with just enough snow to hold my weight. Walls and drop-offs became the standard feature in the nearby with no easy pass. I should have climbed a Class 4 wall somewhere here but I just didn’t find anything like that. Nevertheless, the snow gully was scary enough and icy at some point so I had to use my ice ax as a real ICE ax. I don’t remember doing this thing before during my climbs but at least the ice felt like I concreted my ice ax. Very good and stable hold for a change of scary rotten snow. I also climbed half on snow half on rock in this gully: one hand and leg on the snow the other pair on the rock.
I climbed out of the gully and took a photo of it so that I can impress myself later. Gorgeous views of the Bells were my continuous partner during this climb, and by this time the weather also cleared up considerably. Reading the route description I understood I was over the technical crux (without noticing) but some tricky route finding was left for me. Cairns helped a lot except once. That was when I had to traverse a steep snowfield to get to the next cairn. Now this was the third time I freaked out! This must be an easy level hike in late summer but right now… I need my crampons.
As I was above 13500 ft by this time, and the slope faced west, at least the snow was good. I faced to the snow and sidestepped. I also used my ice axe to make handholds. Finally I finished the traverse in something that felt like a lot of time.
I was very close to the summit and followed the cairns for a short while on dry terrain. To my great surprise the cairns led to the south ridge of Pyramid. The rock I climbed was the most miserable I’ve ever experienced. I was pretty OK with the standard route on N Maroon two years ago, and just felt a little worse on Maroon Peak, but this route on Pyramid certainly qualified for the worst rock so far. Testing each piece of rock and removing them became my second nature. Even large rocks in the wall moved quite often.
As I reached the south ridge I turned sharply left to north towards the summit following the cairns. As I looked up, my jaws dropped. That’s what I call a wall! Class 4 or not, I don’t know, but can I climb it? And then can I downclimb it? Because by this time I decided I wouldn’t go for an unknown route on this mountain for a descent. The standard route is rather east facing and if I find a traverse with melting snow… no. Better escape back the route I already knew.
So I was facing the wall and tried to avoid it. Drop-off to the right drop-off to the left. I have to climb it. Maybe 20 or 30 feet? There was a chimney like direct route but it looked too hard. I tried another route but stopped when my backpack nearly pulled me back to the base of the wall. Traversed a little bit and finally found a better way to finish it out. I made it to the top and thought maybe I just throw down my backpack on my way down. But then it wouldn’t stop but would bounce and disappear in the void somewhere after a few bounces. Scary mountain.
But the summit was near. After 100 yards of walk I found myself there. I signed the register. Some entries from 9/18/04, and then one 6/17/05 and then mine. I had an impression I would be the first this year but another guy with his dog made it a week before me. I just had to agree with him that this was not a cakewalk…
It took me 5:57 to reach the summit from my camp. The weather was calm and sunny so I enjoyed about 25 minutes on the peak. I was concerned of the weather all morning based on the forecast but when I was on the summit the weather didn’t even look threatening. Although some thunderheads started to build up in the distance.
On my way back I had to face the crux pretty soon. I gave the chimney a try and it went quite well. I climbed slowly and cautiously, never panicked. It wasn’t that hard after all. Soon after I had to traverse back the snowfield now on softening snow and that was nerve wrecking again. Then I was lost several times in the maze of drop-offs. For some reason route finding went much harder than on my way up. I wasted a lot of time but just didn’t want to downclimb anything exposed on the incredibly crumbling rock. I realized again it’s easier up, when you can clean the terrain with your hands. But if you are heading down and your feet slip on all the moving rock it’s just terrifying.
After a long time I finally found my lost snow gully. Of course it was melting more and holding less. Now I really climbed like a snail, and still once dropped two or three feet as the snow collapsed. I yelled unintentionally as if I was going to die.
I followed the cairns further down and miraculously I found the crux! I found another wall to downclimb, ending in a narrow snow gully that led to a larger snowfield and then probably to a drop off. Very scary. I downclimbed it somehow. Again, even the big rocks were moving but I tried not to put my whole weight on those moving rocks. But I had no chance to find all stable handholds and footholds. I started to getting used to climbing on unstable rock. Roach tells the truth here in his description. The rock is loose and the climb dangerous.
As I downclimbed the gully in deep soft snow (releasing a second unintentional death scream in the meanwhile) somewhat below me I found the snow bulge I climbed up in the morning. So that bulge helped me to avoid the crux. Not that it was less scary… It took me about 3.5 hours to get through all these downclimbing difficulties. Enough time to find myself in a developing thunderstorm.
I walked quickly down to a saddle and called Kevin on radio but they were not at the campsite yet so they didn’t answer my call. After downclimbing some rock I glissaded down to the bowl, finally to the standard route. The glissade was great, but it was snowing, the sky was dark and the air was cold. Fortunately, there were not many flashes in the nearby.
Then I walked on hard snow in the bowl. It felt like winter, still a lot of snow and snowing. As I exited the bowl I found myself once again on the steep first section of the climb. I couldn’t find the climbers trail again so I just descended as I could. Everything was wet and slippery. Kevin called me on the radio and I told I was fine and would be back in an hour.
By the time I reached the valley floor sun was shining again and rocks dried in a few minutes. I reached our camp after 11:49 hours so my descent time was just slightly better than my ascent time. This explains a lot.
This was the hardest 14er to me so far, and another lesson on conditions. I rate second Longs Peak that I climbed also late June in pretty much the same, less than optimal conditions…
Here is my album. |
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