 |
Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
The Tooth - South Face |
| March 20th, 2010 |
After a horrible introduction to alpine climbing on Pirate (A Brian Special :) ), I wanted to "make things right" by taking Dave up a route that I knew would be a bit more fun. Dave was eager to go, and I figured since the weather was supposed to be super nice on Saturday we had better get an early start or face waiting in line behind the crowds. So, I picked Dave up at 5AM and we were off on I-90 headed for the pass.
We arrived at the parking lot around 6AM to find only one other car. Sweet, looks like we might get to be the first on the route since I figured people would be out trying to get chair while it is still in shape as well. Dave and I had planned to ski, so we donned our AT boots and crampons from the parking lot and set out towards source lake.
Dave ready to go from the lot
We made good time walking along the trail to source lake where we found two tents (we figured they were the car we saw), which made us the the first to the parking lot, weird. We continued to boot up a ways from source lake until we started post holing a bit and decided to put on our skis and skin (almost) the rest of the way. We skinned up past the dry tooling area where I noticed the wire under the overhang that Evan and I had spotted many moons ago when we first did the Tooth. We had to briefly take off our skis when we crossed the big gulley as the wall was pretty steep and there wasn't much chance of us making it with out skis on. Dave continued to boot up a bit while I continued to skin until we made it up to the valley of the Tooth.
Sunrise on the way to source lake
Dave skinning up
Dave excited to see the Tooth
After we got to the valley, we decided to skin up to just below Pineapple pass and drop our skis so we wouldn't have to come too far back up after rapping the final couloir. On the way up, I noticed some good looking ice on the left of the valley and wished that we had brought our tools along. After we dropped our skis, I kicked steps up to pineapple pass which had a little bit of spicy steep snow at the top, but with a runout that would only make you angry that you had to climb back up. At this point, we hadn't seen anyone else coming up the valley and it was starting to look like we would be the only ones on the tooth (we were).
After topping out at the pass, we downclimbed some hard snow out and around to the start of the south face. At the base of the route, we changed into rock shoes and geared up in the cold wind. I started off the first pitch and quickly made it into the sun which was nice as my hands were pretty numb which makes for some interesting climbing. I made quick work of the first pitch and brought Dave up into the sun.
Ice on the left hand side of the valley
Dave topping out the first pitch
I started up the second pitch and about half way up found two equalized pins that looked to be in really good shape. I wish I had a hammer to liberate them, but alas I just clipped them and kept going. A ways after that I found a large field of steeper snow with no rock in site, sick. So, I kicked steps in my rock shoes up to a tree with some tat around it and brought Dave up to meet me. From there I was able to get back onto some rock for a very short pitch until I found a good spot to set up for the final belay.
Dave follows up the snow
At this point, I think the catwalk pitch was basically directly above us, but I decided to traverse across to the more direct finish. After placing a cam to protect the traverse, I turned the corner to find a stuck yellow C3. I tried to remove it for a bit until I clipped it and moved on. About 10 ft later I ran into a stuck .5 camalot which I tried even less to remove before clipping it and moving on. Another 10 ft later I found a stuck .3 Camalot and once again didn't try much but clipped it and finished climbing up to the rap anchors and then on towards some rock up top where I built and anchor. Dave said he wanted to have a go at the stuck gear and I told him I didn't have anywhere to go so have at it. I brought Dave up to the first stuck piece and about a minute later I heard a holler of triumph as he told me he got it. Onwards to the next piece where 30 seconds later another triumphant yell. I brought him up to the last stuck piece where Dave completed the trifecta and unstuck the final cam. After that dave cruised up to join me at the final belay. There was a bit more unprotectable steep snow to the "real" top, which we opted to skip. I then put Dave on belay and he downclimbed to the first rap anchor and began setting up the first of our three double rope raps (but not the only raps of the day).
Dave and I on the summit
Dave and the climbing Hawk
Dave went first and I follwed to the tree anchor below where we set up the second rap. About half way through, Dave was concerned that the second rap wouldn't get us to the base, so he anchored in to belay at the top of the first pitch and I came down. When we threw the ropes, they had gone off climbers right and had snagged, so I had to rap of and free them then traverse over to the correct rap route where I made it down and let Dave know he could continue the rap. We started pulling the ropes and made it over half way down when the orange rope stopped moving ... Shit. We whipped the rope around and pulled but no luck. So, with the green half rope at our feet already I tied in (gotta love half ropes) did the bonus first pitch with a little extra at the top to free the orange rope. I then did a single rap down the first pitch and the rope came down smoothly. One more double rope rap over a large cornice brought us back down to the skis.
Dave on the first rap
Dave enjoying the exposure
Me leading the bonus pitch
Once back at the skis, we were treated to a couple inches of soft powdery snow on the way down the valley where we both managed to carve some pretty sweet turns. After leaving the valley, it was a bit more chewed up from numerous other skiers, but still enjoyable. We then cruised down the bobsled track from source lake to the car around 2:15PM. It was a great day out with a great partner and fantastic weather. It was pretty weird having the Tooth all to ourselves on such a nice day, but it made for a more remote feel and I think Dave likes alpine climbing again.