Well we were all a bit ambitious today with a great goal set. A fairly early start got us to the TH at about 6:30-7:00 am. One member in our group got it right and went up the pacific creek drainage, the other 4 of us followed me blindly up the ridge to the west. We rode the SE aspect of that ridge into the pacific creek drainage wasting time and energy. When we caught up to our other member he was a bit frustrated and rightly so. There was another party closing in on us and for some strange reason we had a feeling they were there to tackle the same line.
It seemed like a race for a while up the southern flank of the peak to reach the west ridge. Mean while a friend of mine and another member of our crew was trying to document the decent so they raced for the saddle between crystal and pacific. At one point in time we noticed the group that was gaining on us had dropped something and had to go back down so we stopped racing as hard.
the ridge was somewhat technical about 2/3 or a little further up, as there was a snow covered "step" of rock that had to be passed either directly which was up some steep snow and rock, or by skirting the rock and climbing a steep snow face, or by traversing way out to a scree field. our leader went up the steep snow and rock and advised not following, but to instead skirt the rock to a ramp and climb the ramp to a steep snow face topped by a mini cornice type roll. This for me was the most exposed part of the climb as it was really steep snow climbing on a fairly exposed face (although fairly clean run out)
After this crux I continued up the ridge line pretty eventlessly topping out the mini summit to find a horrid sight.
the line:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rthcouloir.jpg
What a sick line! I just found it this year and was already pumped to get it done.
But the snowpack was not exactly cooperating.
unless you feel like strait lining the crux through a 10 foot long 1 foot wide choke only 5 feet in. I wanted it so bad I was determined to find a way, or atleast that is what I first though. Can I downclimb through the choke and strap in on that 50+ degree madness? fat chance the snow climb on the ridge was scary enough with out a bunch of shallow rocks and rock walls to deal with.
The first member of out group standing on top:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rthcloseup.jpg
you can probly tell it isn't happening from that pic alone.
Me determined scoping the line instead of bagging the summit like the other members in the group (im in the notch and one of the other members adam is on the summit)
:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...yonpacific.jpg
Just contemplating insanity...... (I will add another post after I finish the story describing what I was thinking might work)
the trio in the notch right before departing due to bad weather and lack of ideal coverage:
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...oonpacific.jpg
So as hard as it can be we all decided it was best to bail. The footage would have sucked because of a small hail storm moving in plus the only way to possibly do it would look bad (gaping sideslip not clean style through the crux) and be catastrophic if even a minor problem were to arise.
I promptly skied the chute exiting the notch to the south (due to thunder getting closer) which was pretty good in hindsight but at the time in no way was cool. It sucked mostly because of thin coverage and peppery conditions. The snow was like glue comming down pacific creek drainage and it was post hole a riffic even with snowshoes on the way out.
I guess not this year.......
now I know how ISKIBC felt the first 2 times he attempted it.:rolleyes2
I will just keep it on the list untill a good snow year I guess.
