8/31/01 - 9/3/01

We drove up uneventfully, had our now standard salads, grilled cheese
and fries at PJ's in Lone Pine Thursday night and bivied at the
trailhead. Got up and hit the trail by about 6 w/ packs totalling
probably 120lbs or so (camping stuff + twin ropes + screws + rack +
tools + crampons + boots + rock shoes + + +). We started early so we
didn't have to kill ourselves, and managed to follow a more direct
route this year than last, getting to Gayley camp by about 2 or so.
This gave us plenty of time to find the most primo spot up there (a
totally private, wind protected site w/ beautiful views and a 8'x10'
or so perfectly flat dirt pad on which to make camp - wonderful!),
filter water and sit in the tent through 1/2 hour of afternoon hail.

Got up at 4, ate some potatoes (hmmm, packages says 25
calories/serving, that won't last long) and headed out across the
moraine for the U-notch. We took 1/2 dozen cams, a set of nuts, 8
screws and twin ropes. The bergshrund is pretty big and complex this
year, we found a route through it (probably the best route or close to
it) that involved a short downclimb of styrofoam snow, then a bunch of
traversing and wandering on 50-60 degree ice, then a short (10 or so
feet) bit of vertical ice to clear it. Leading my first vertical ice
was fun, if only a long enough stretch to get one screw and about 5
tool placements in. I then ran it out and managed to hit the end of
the rope about 10' shy of a great rap station / belay. After some
trickery (clove hitch ropes to a screw, attach self to screw w/
cordalette, untie from ropes, head up to belay/rap station, attach
self, untie from cordalette, attach it to the station, untie and rap
the cordalette /downclimb to the screw, equalize the two, tie back
into the ropes, "on belay" shouted down - okay, bad planning and not
the greatest efficiency on my part but it worked out). I finally
brought Carol up. Hmmm, that took way long and we're moving slow. Kept
going but we weren't dialed in w/ twin ropes and screws yet so it took
a while to pick up the speed. Around 1:00 I was starting to wonder
about how damned long the U-notch was? Secor says 700'. Per my 60m
ropes we had climbed 4 pitches, one with 50' or so of simuling, so we
had gone about 850', and it looked like it was still well over a pitch
to the top. Oh well, we're tired, f*ck it and let's rap, it was clear
we'd never make North Pal at that rate anyways. Turns out we were
about a pitch from the top, damn should have at least finished the
notch. Oh well. About the time I've rapped the first double rope rap
down, a guy we had met yesterday shows up at the top of the ropes and
asks Carol "mind if I rap your lines" - he had a piolet as opposed to
a pair of tools and was planning on downclimbing the u-notch. "Guess
some balls are bigger than others" is the way a climber we passed on
the descent put it. Turns out he'd gone up Sill, over the v-notch to
Polemonium and didn't like the thought of reversing his route, didn't
have a rope but figured he could downclimb the u-notch. I guess he'd
eventually have managed by climbing the rock around the 'schrund at
the bottom, but it wouldn't have been fun. Anyways, our new friend
Jared in tow we started down. Just above the schrund we found 3 nice
cams, a nut, some slings and biners that people had clearly bailed
off. Must have been an emergency to bail off so much nice gear w/ all
the slung blocks for rap stations in the immediate vicinity. Well, the
"all booty" rack Carol is assembling is coming along quite nicely.
Made it back with plenty of light. Turned in early.

Given our spanking on the u-notch (time wise, technically easy) we
decided to can our plans of the Swiss Arete lest we epic and just do
the North Couloir on Sill. Last year w/ a fresh coating of powder,
black ice everywhere and temperatures of about 25F this 4th class
route had kicked our butts (it had also been my first time w/ crampons
on and I'd been climbing for all of a few months). This year it was
cake and we were soaking in the absolutely mind boggling summit views
of Sill (14,153 I think) by 9AM. Damn, should have done the Swiss
Arete after all, it looks killer. We had planned to meet some friends
who were backpacking in Palisade basin on top of Sill, but knowing
them they probably weren't even up yet. Headed back down, got some
water from the meltoff of the snowpatch and bagged Gayley (13,510?)
via the 3rd class (very straightforward) SW ridge aka "The Yellow
Brick Road" - lots of fun and very pretty rock. On the way up I was
feeling only so-so, energy crashing. On the way down I took about a
1/2 hour nap and decided I was running out of energy. Add up our daily
food (dehydrated potatoes, some crackes + m&m's, fruit leathers,
dehydrated dinners) and you get about 800 calories/day. Hmm, next time
we do a multi-day trip like this we need to bring more high fat/high
calorie foods. Anyways, back at camp plenty early, our friend Jared
had teamed up w/ another guy camped at Gayley and bagged Starlight. We
had seen him from Sill, turns out he stood on the milkbottle unroped
and thus fulfilled one of his long-term dreams/goals, good for him and
again I guess some balls are bigger :) (The milkbottle is the summit
block of Starlight - about 30' tall and it tapers to about 2'x2' on
top, you can stand on it in a Jesus Christ pose w/ 2000' drop offs on
either side as it's on a knifeblad ridge. It's about 5.4 but has
phenomenal exposure + lots of wind. Most people tie in to slings
around the top for pro).

We were thinking of doing the Swiss Arete the next day after all but I
woke up at 4AM to apathy, sore legs and thoughts up just scrambling up
to Temple Crag for the views then hiking out. Woke up again at 6:30
am, decided to forget Temple Crag and just hike out. Good call as
clouds were brewing and by midafternoon we had some of the best
thunderstorms I've seen in my life. In any case, I'm sure that next
year we'll have improved further... maybe we'll go earlier in the
season when the U-notch is styrofoam so that it's a comfortable solo
then we can readily bag North Pal and maybe Polemonium or Starlight as
well, and do Thunderbolt and the V-notch and and and... so many plans,
so many trips :)