8/25/01

This past weekend my partner Carol and I finally made it up to North
Peak to climb one of the couloirs... we've both had knee problems on
and off all summer and are easing back into hiking and backcountry
stuff so this should be an easy approach / descent, as well as a
straightforward climb (neither of us had done a couloir before).

After a long drive and a lot of traffic (15N backed up at 2:30 pm on a
Friday... it seems to get worse every time I do the drive) we made it
to the trailhead at Saddlebag Lake around 11:30 and jumped in our bivy
sacks. It was a beautiful night, the temp was probably around 45 and
it was great to be out. After a little tossing and turning
(experimenting w/ a 3/4 ridgerest as the ultralightweight sleeping pad
- 9oz, not bad) we woke up at 4:30 and were hiking by 5:30 (oh yeah,
we get moving quick!). The approach was dead simple and we were at the
so called glacier and the couloirs soon enough. The left couloir has a
runnel of ice a few feet wide on the left, and a band all the way
across at the top, but is otherwise styrofoam snow. The right couloir
is all styrofoam but has a somewhat larger 'schrund.

So anyways, we're standing on the tallus at the edge of the ice, and
out of the pack comes our "light rack" of 1/2 dozen cams and a set of
nuts and about 6 runners, plus 6 screws plus 2 pickets "just in case".
Pretty soon two other climbers showed, we determined they were doing
the same couloir we were (the right hand one - we're somewhat wimps)
and noticed they hadn't nearly as much gear as we did - to be precise
they had two tools, one helmet and two crampons each. They were soon
off and well above us. We looked at each other and commented that we
"must look like a couple of assholes with all this gear"... "want to
do the left couloir after all?"... "nah, it'll still be there next
time".

In any case we were shortly at the 'schrund, I had determined that
bringing all the rock gear was a waste 'cause the rock was rotten, the
pickets were a waste because it was WAY to hard for them and the
screws were useless because it was still a bit too soft... so we stand
there at the 'schrund, the two dudes above us are now probably
clearing the top already as we put the ropes & gear away.

The excitement came in the fact that this meant that we'd be soloing
the bergschrund - about 15' of 75 or so degrees. Not too bad, there
were clear feet and tool holes from everybody else to pass this way,
but hey, we're still pretty new to ice, particularly the styrofoam
couloir stuff we were dealing with. In any case, I decided the best
way to not bail was to just walk up to the thing and get it over with
so that I did. Turned out to be no big deal and we were soon both
cruising up the chute. I looked down, recommended to Carol that she
not climb directly beneath me 'cause if I fell I'd hit her like a
homerun in the ninth inning and we'd land in a heap of bruises, picks,
crampons and talus at the bottom. So we climbed side by side and made
the top in under an hour. It was awesome and we gained a ton of
confidence and just plain got a lot smoother... we hit the peak for a
quick view and headed back down. Even taking it really slow (knees,
ugh, will they ever be the same?) we were back at the car at like 2 or
3.

Unfortunately I was still feeling crappy (dunno why, just low energy)
so we cancelled Dana for the next day, but when we do head back it'll
be with much, much less gear! We also have plans for the left hand
couloir of North Peak, that'll be awesome. Breakfast at Schatt's in
the morning and a drive home through the scorching (car said it was
120F outside) Mohave for a hell of weekend.