Date: 9/8/2007

Jared took some pics.

This was a great trip. Jared and I got shut down two times before this due to weather issues and it was about time. I didn’t feel bad when I asked Fred Beckey how many tries it took him to climb it. He replied with a number that is greater than the total number of alpine climbs I’ve been on. Yeah.

get 'er done

Here’s a pic I took when I first got a look at this classic. Little did I know, we’d run away with our tails between our legs the following morning due to ridiculous snowfall.

damn you, forbidden! It SNOWED on us this night! WTF!?

We slept off the hangovers from the Green Cans of Death we consumed after failing. Then we vowed to return. September is a good month for us and climbing.

We bivied at the trailhead that morning. We were off really early. Like most mountains around here, it starts off with talus climbing. We got great view all morning every time we turned around.

Once we topped out at the notch on the bottom of the ridge, antics ensued.

we even had enough time to fight eachother to the death

that’s it!

The ridge is basically rad from the start to the finish. I believe this is just to fool you into thinking you have a great day ahead of you. That’s bullshit though. Well, at least if you plan on taking the NE ledges descent.

me on the start of the ridge

The whole ridge is a series of distinct towers. You can climb around all of them withouth doing anything harder than 5.8.

And of course, you need to know how to summit a mountain. Pay close attention to the facial expressions here and always clench that fist – just in case someone pops over the ridge and you have to punch them.

You see, it’s more than just climbing. It’s about summit fever. That’s right. You have to go to REI and buy all this crap you aren’t trained to use, then use it to somehow claw your way up a large mountainside. Once on top, make every effort to believe that summiting is enough and that you’re done. The summit pose is a critical part of this style of mountaineering.

Once we figured out that we could in fact kill ourselves getting down, we proceeded to take the most dangerous route down. The fabled East Ledges descent.

Before getting on with that, we had to finish up with more summit shots and snacks.

The East Ledges descent route offers wonderful advantages to any aspiring climber, including (but not limited to):

• rappelling off the end of the rope just to drop 3 feet to the ledge you need to get to
• low-angle rope pulls on blocky rope-eating terrain
• 70-meter rap stations all over, when all you need is a 60
• walking un-anchored on low-angle choss above an icy abyss
• using teeth, knees, elbows, and other body parts for CLIMBING

I'm a whiner, it was low-angle scary-ness

Seriously though, this was a bitchin’ climb. Let’s go down the West ridge next time, OK?