A Couple Pictures from Summer Adventures

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."  Doesn't bode real well for me.

I have had the best intentions to start posting regularly on the blog again.  I have failed miserably.  I have about 20 half-finished blog articles that have yet to be posted and I just haven't had time to finish any of them.  

Well, I have about 20 minutes tonight, so I thought I would simply post some pictures from some of my more recent adventures.  I am hoping that longer trip reports, gear reviews, etc. will follow, but I am not making any promises.

This was during our Grand Traverse in a day attempt in July.  I was not fit enough to complete the route in a day, but we were able to do the Cathedral Traverse in decent time.  Here I am on top of Teewinot with Owen and the Grand in the background.

Here I'm standing on top of Mt. Owen.  If I look a little fat in this picture that's because I am. 

Daniel, my climbing partner, is a much stronger climber than I am.  He quickly and effortlessly ran up Owen.  When I was at the final move to get to the summit, I got a little sketched by the exposure.  He dropped me a rope just in case.  I wouldn't have hesitated to pull the move in the past.  It's funny how a family changes one's perspectives.  I consider that a good thing.

Heading over to Gunsight Notch.  Daniel is in this picture.  Daniel is the director of the Weber State University Outdoor Program.  He runs an awesome program for students and the community.  About the nicest and most talented guy you'll ever meet, too.  It was fun to spend this time with him.

Daniel on top of the Grand.  We had intended to head up the Italian Cracks variation on the North Face of the Grand.  We ended up climbing the North Ridge.  The chimneys on the North Ridge were wet and tiring.  Daniel led and was psyched on the climbing even though we would have rather climbed the Italian Cracks.  I was less enthusiastic about the route and was wondering how it was ever considered a classic.  Now that I've forgotten how tired I was and how wet the chimneys were, I think I like the route.  Probably wouldn't intentionally climbing it again.  I'm excited to do the Italian Cracks though.

We headed down to the Lower Saddle and bivied for the night.  I was moving too slowly by that point to finish off the route in a day.  We decided to just run up the Middle Teton the next morning and head back home to family festivities.

Myself on top of the Middle Teton with the Grand in the background.

The next adventure worth sharing was a recent trip to the Cirque of the Towers with my family.  Because my wife was carrying our little boy, I got to carry my stuff, her stuff, Lincoln's stuff, and climbing gear.  I'm just not that tough of a person and this pack just about did me in.

70lbs is more than I've carried in a long time and more than I ever want to carry again.

Kelsey, Lincoln, and I on our way up over Jackass Pass.

The view of the Cirque of the Towers from Jackass Pass.  A few friends of mine just happened to be going to the Cirque the same days that I was going to be there with my family.  In spite of the fact that this was supposed to be a family backpacking trip, my wife gave me permission to climb with them for part of a day.  We headed up and did the East Ridge of Wolf's Head.

Heading up over Tiger's Tower between Pingora and Wolf's Head.  In the foreground is Joe Keeler and Ryan Thompson is in the background.

Myself, Wes, and Joe and we approach Wolf's Head.

Joe and I and the beginning of the Piton Pitch, enjoying the view of Bollinger Peak in the background.  Joe was really fun to climb with.  He has such a positive attitude and a lot of enthusiasm.  He's also a good climber.  The other two, Wes and Ryan, and great to climb with too, but Joe and I got to rope up together on this particular climb.

Wes, Joe, Ryan, and I enjoying the view on top of Wolf's Head.  It was an easy route to climb, but the beautiful views and great exposure made this a definite classic.

The view on the descent from Wolf's Head.

Kelsey and Lincoln going to sleep.  Lincoln is a great hiker.  He happily rides in the backpack all day.  Sleeping is another story.  We're still trying to figure that one out.  This picture was taken before Kelsey went to sleep.  She looks much less happy in the morning after a night with little sleep.

The Cirque of the Towers has to be one of the most beautiful places in the lower 48 states.  Every time I'm there I'm surprised by its beauty.  I will post a lot more pictures of this trip that were taken on my father-in-law's DSLR as soon as we exchange pictures.  They were absolutely spectacular.

A Fairly Successful Trip to the Cirque of the Towers

I just got back from a fairly successful trip to the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind Rivers, Wyoming.  The original plan was to climb a couple new ice and mixed lines that we had noticed a few years ago.  These lines have caused many a sleepless night.  One of them looked to be about 1000 ft of WI 4-5 M5 or so, the other looked significantly harder.  Unfortunately, after 15 miles of snowmobiling to the trailhead and 10 miles of skinning with heavy packs, we found that neither of the lines are in.  In fact, there was hardly any ice to be found in the cirque.

It took a few hours for the bad news to sink in before we were making alternative plans.  We decided to climb Pingora the next day via the South Buttress Route (left crack of k-crack variation; 4 pitches, 5.8, 500ft).  We only brought rigid boots, so the crux pitch that goes from a hand to finger crack was a little saucy.  It was a really fun route, though, and the weather was very nice.

On the way down from the climb, Phil noticed an ice line on a smaller mountain (not sure of the name; it's the lump of a peak just below overhanging tower in the picture below)

This ice line became our objective for the next day.  It didn't look too difficult or very big, but it was, as far as we could find, the only climbable ice in the whole cirque.

The next morning we woke up to very strong winds (approximately 60mph gusts) and cold temperatures. It was very difficult to want to get out of our sleeping bags.  When we finally got ready and skinned across the cirque to our new line, the wind had calmed a bit and the sun would occasionally peek out from the clouds.  We thought the ice section of the climb looked about 200ft tall, but when we got up to it, it was only about 115ft or so.  

Because Phil had led the majority of the rock pitches the previous day, I got the honors to lead this pitch.  The ice was pretty thin, only taking stubbies in most places.  The ice started out with about 20ft of lower-angle steps until it steepened up to about WI4 difficulty for about 100ft.  The climb narrowed near the top and required some exciting, slightly trickier footwork to climb up and around a final rock bulge to a decent belay.

The second pitch was a 200ft gully of 65-degree unconsolidated snow.  We decided to stay roped and protect it with rock gear just in case the snow slid.  The first 15 feet was 10 minutes of wallowing before I wisened up and decided to use the rock to make progress.  There were nice cracks in the rock all the way up the gully, allowing for rock gear placements every 40 feet or so.  I climbed about half on the rock and half on the snow.  Every time I would commit again to the snow, my progress stopped.  I finally reached the end of the gully and my rope and found a good rock to sit on for a hip belay.  Phil and I scrambled another 200 vertical feet to the summit and decided that was probably the only first ascent we would have in the cirque this year.  We then headed back to our skis and skied back to camp.

The trip was totally worth the effort (I say that now that I am home, rested, and have eaten a good meal), but there was a lot of effort involved.  To approach the trailhead involved two snowmobiles and about 15 miles of riding.  This wouldn't have been difficult but we had many problems with the sled we were pulling and we occasionally got one of the snowmobiles stuck (Neither Phil nor I have much experience with snowmobiles).

Upon reaching the trailhead, we put our skis on and started the 10-mile slog into the cirque.  My pack was about 60 pounds (I brought way too much food) and Phil's pack was about 20 pounds and was pulling a 50ish pound sled with most of the climbing and group gear.  It was a long, slow hike full of blisters and sled frustrations.

Good rock climbing and the discovery of this small ice line saved the trip for us.  We are still crossing our fingers that the other ice lines will form on another, wetter year, but it is a long way to go just to be disappointed.  Who knows, maybe next year.

I'll post pictures and videos of the trip soon.