Alpine Climbing

I had previously thought that I knew the main types of leading rock climbing. There is sport, and there is trad. Sport is what we like to do on vacation. There are predefined bolts on the wall that you clip into as you go. There is no route finding, and you do not need to worry about protection because it is there for you. Plus there is no sport climbing close to Ithaca. Then there is traditional, or trad, climbing. This is when you have all sorts of gear to put in cracks and other weaknesses in the rock, and you are responsible for making sure that you place protection well so that it will catch you if you fall. This is what we have to do when we climb at the Gunks. I enjoy them both for their own reasons. Sport is great because I can climb harder routes and enjoy it for the movement and difficulty. I am okay falling on bolts. Whereas trad climbing is scary, but I associate it with getting high up, which I also enjoy. Most multipitch routes that I have come across are trad, where sport is usually climb about 80-100' then come back down. I am yet to take a fall on my trad gear, mostly cause its really scary! and I don't climb as hard of routes if I am trad leading.

Sport climbing

Trad gear

Then on this trip for the first time I did an alpine climb. This was the Beckey Route in the North Cascades. I wrote about that in my Washington post. And it was awesome. I love getting to the highest point that I can, and getting to the top by needing to use technical skills is even more rewarding. Generally though... the approach sucks, since mountains are generally not next to roads, and so you need to hike all your climbing gear as well as other day gear up to the base of the climb, which can be many miles.

The next two places that we went to after Yellowstone both included some alpine climbing and it was sweet. In the Tetons we climbed the Guides Wall, and in the Wind River Range, we climbed Pingora. I would say that the Guides Wall was a warm up for what we were to do later, but we had no idea at the time. First off, the Tetons are a mountain range that rise up seemingly out of nowhere, and has a really meaningful profile for us. We had no idea until we got there, but it seemed to be destined:

The Tetons profile matches our rings

Anyway, after arriving at the park and getting information from the Jenny Lakes Ranger Station (which is specifically for climbers), we prepared for a full day. It was about a 3.5 mile hike up into the Cascade Canyon, where we took a turn off the trail to scramble up a scree field to the base of the climb.

The arete in the middle was our route

So since this was to be trad leading, we chose a climb that was not too hard. I feel like it allowed me to really enjoy where I was, which was a very cool place.

Looking up Cascade Canyon behind me

Amazingly Nico and I have really begun to get our systems down and are actually becoming quite efficient at climbing. This is very different from the pace that Andrew, James and I took on the way up Half Dome (granted that climbing was more difficult, there were 3 of us, and we were hauling...) For the first time ever, we passed a party that was moving slower than us. Then at the 5th pitch (of 6), we caught up to the first party that got on for the day, but unfortunately there was no good way to pass, so we just had to wait a while. The 5th and 6th pitches were some stellar climbing as well.

Top of the climb

Then it was 4 rappels to the base and another 3.75 mile hike out. It was a full and rewarding day. Although like I said before... just a warm up for what was to come. Our next destination was the Wind River Range. I had seen pictures of Cirque of the Towers before and really wanted to go there. This time it is a 10 mile hike in. Not even close to a day trip... and combining backpacking with climbing is a whole other beast. Having to pack in not only our climbing gear, but also all our backpacking gear plus 5 days of food. Heavy does not begin to describe the metal filled monster that was attached to my back...

If you cant tell, I am hunched over quite far to balance my load and stay upright.

That photo above is coming into the Cirque of the Towers; finally almost to camp for the day. Quite stellar and worth it though. After a decent pack in, we decided to not get up super early, and to climb the "K" cracks on the South Buttress route on Pingora.

Pingora is the big mountain straight ahead

It looked so close and simple to get to, although this turned out to be the crux of the day. The actual climb is only 4 pitches starting on top of the shoulder of the mountain (where it gets real steep on the left side). But in order to get to it, we needed to cross many boulder fields, then go around the backside of the shoulder where there are 3rd and 4th class scrambles to get on top of the shoulder of the mountain. It took us almost 4 hours just to get there...

Placing a tricam on pitch 2

Even though the climbing is easier on something like this (or at least we choose a route that is not beyond our abilities) it is still great. Again, this day, we came upon a party moving significantly slower than us (on the technical part at least), and we passed them by doing a different second pitch. It was exciting to look at the pitch, not know for sure, but think, "yea, I can lead that" and then go do it. Turned out to be some awesome climbing, and I would say more difficult than the normal pitch is rated.

Climbing the "K" cracks

Another interesting thing about alpine climbing that one needs to get used to is exposure.  It is one thing to scramble up some boulder when you are a couple feet off the ground, it is a whole other thing to do the exact same movement 2000' above the ground. Fortunately for me, I am able to kind of ignore that small fact and focus on what is in front of me. There were a couple places on this climb that you need to do something relatively safe, yet scary while unroped. The last pitch is only 3rd and 4th class (scrambling) and so I set up an anchor for Nico to be belayed up and rappel down. But when it was my turn, I just had to break down the anchor and walk... Same thing after the rappels:

Walking back to our bag with the ropes coiled around my neck. A wee bit of exposure.

But really, the main reason for me as to why I love to do this is to get on top and experience the amazing views and the satisfaction of using technical skills and hard work to get somewhere that would otherwise be impossible. The summit of Pingora was certainly no let down.

Summit view

Looking back at the rest of the Cirque

Fortunately the hike back was much easier, since we knew the way down the scrambles, and even found the climbers path back down into the valley. Being that neither of us had ever been to the area, one thing to know for next time is that it is probably a very good idea to scope out the climb beforehand. After this day, it would be so much easier to get to the base of the climb. Fortunately we had great weather this day, and so even at 7:00 when we were back at our bag, no thunderstorms had rolled in. This is definitely not always the case in this area.

Sun getting low while we are still on the mountain

We made it back to camp by 9 and fortunately it was still light. That slower group that we passed... we saw their headlights coming down the climbers trail while we were having dinner in camp.

The next day was Nico's birthday, and we had a way more relaxed day with some hiking and wandering around the area. Amazingly beautiful, and this is definitely a place that I would love to come back to.

View on the other side of Texas Pass (hiked here)

Hiking out. Packs still huge. Want this to remain beautiful for future generations --> yes that is a bag of shit on the outside of her pack :)