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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Alpental - Practice Gully |
| December 13th 2009 |
I wanted to get out and do some ice climbing before the temps warmed up and snow covered the easier ice. I checked with Brian to see if he was free on Sunday, and then we added Dave to the mix. We decided to meet up at my house at 6:30AM to drive up to the pass and check out some Alpental ice. Brian called to say he was going to be a little late due to a picket snafu, so Dave and I passed the quick wait by watching spaceballs (I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes). After a brief stop by Brian's office, we were off on the way to Alpental and made it to the parking lot by 8ish.
We geared up in the parking lot and chatted with another group who was there for the ice as well. From the lot, the practice gully looked pretty fat, and since I had been there before I decided that we should head up that way. Dave had never done any ice climbing before (or multi-pitch), and Brian's ice experince is pretty limited. So, my 5 times on ice made me the senior member of our ice crew and designated rope gun for the day. This was actually my first lead outside since my accident, so I was a little bit nervous for the first pitch. We made the brief hike up to the start of the gully and donned crampons and tools then flaked out the ropes at the base.
Start of the ice
Pitch one was an easy section of grade 2ish ice and was the perfect start to my leading. I made quick work of it and built a belay in a tree and brought the others up. Dave was pretty much all smiles by the time he got to the top declaring that ice climbing was awesome. When we were all at the first anchor, Brian and I explained what we had done to build the anchor and how to construct one. We also explained how to set up a belay for a follower on an autoblocking belay device.
Brian coming up the second step
After the brief lesson, I was off on my way leading the second pitch. The pitch was short on ice with quite a bit of snow walking and then another step of ice before I built a 3 screw anchor and brought the others up. Pitch 3 was a bit better with more ice, but I ran out of rope and has to traverse over quite a bit to get to a tree anchor. I stupidly didn't place a screw before the traverse (mostly because I didn't see any good ice to put it in and had to go back after spotting a patch to make a directional for the followers. After they reached the directional, I took them off belay (on a snow ramp) and then followed them to the base of the next pitch
Dave nearing the top of one of the steps
Dave didn't have fun at all
The next pitch was probably the best of the day with the most sustained steeper ice and only a short break in the steps. Another belay in the trees brought Brian and Dave up to me, and I was off on the fifth pitch of the day which was a rope stretcher. They had to abandon the belay for the last 5-10 feet or so, but the terrain was easy for all of us so it wasn't a big deal. After bringing them up, we stopped to have some lunch and discuss our plans. This was the spot where I had left before, but we decided to keep going since there was some interesting looking ice above. Another party caught up to us, and we said hello before we took off on the next short step.
At the top, I was able to build a marginal belay out of two nuts, and brought the other two up to me. The last section was a short but steep section of ice, and after leading all day I didn't really want to give the more difficult ice a go. So, I was able to sneak around the side on some easier ice and make only a coulple difficult moves to set up a toprope.
Brian Following the last pitch of the day before top roping
Brian and I after setting up the toprope
After setting up the toprope, we all took a lap on the ice and then Brian cleaned and rapped down to us so we could head towards the walk off. We followed the rapidly filling in trail to an open snow field where we put away the crampons and introduced Dave to the fine mountaineering tradition of glissading. We made it back to the car and allowed Dave to call the day a success (Something he tried to do earlier in the day while we were still climbing). It had been snowing all day, so after a little bit of pass traffic it was smooth sailing back to my house.
Dave topping the WI3 step
Brian topping the WI3 section
Me topping the WI4 section
All in all, it was a great day out on ice. It was nice to get back to leading again, and fun to bring along two great partners!