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Base Camp
Up
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: February 2, 2007
- Miles Hiked: 2.0 (Estimate)
- Elevation Gain: 800' (Estimate)
- Hiking Partner(s): Brian Kooeinga
- Routes: WI3 (3 Pitches)
- Description:
- Brian and I had actually planned an alpine climb in Rocky Mountain
National Park on Thursday, but the forecast was bad so we went to Ouray a
day early. In an attempt to make up for the missed climb, we went to
Silverton Friday morning and see what conditions were like. We hiked
past Stairway to Heaven and knew that it was likely too stiff for our
abilities, so we decided to attempt the First Gully which is located
across the valley from Stairway. Real climbers consider First Gully
an easy and fun climb, so we thought it would be perfect for us.
- After scrambling to the first pitch of ice, Brian set up an anchor and
I flaked out the doubles. We only had 10 screws and two screamers so
we assumed the pitches might be short since I had planned on sewing my
leads up pretty tight. In the excitement of leading a multi-pitch on
ice, I overlooked a perfect tree belay at the top of the first pitch and
built a three screw anchor to bring Brian up on. Brian free climbed
the second pitch with was primarily a snow climb and then belayed me up to
a second tree belay station. Since P2 wasn't too exciting, Brian led
the third pitch and set up another three screw anchor. At this point
we ran into some deep sugary snow.
- If you can believe it, we took a wrong turn in the gully went right
from the top of P3 instead of going left. On this lead, I got three
screws in on thin ice. After running out half of the ropes, I
encountered more sugary snow and simply ran out of ice. With nowhere
to place pro, I had to retreat. This was an extremely unnerving down
climb and I had pretty much conceded to the fact that I was going to take
a fall at some point. I fortunately made it back down to the belay
station with all the screws I had placed. In the mean time, Brian
had gotten fairly cold belaying me.
- At this point, we still thought we were on route and the ice simply
wasn't in because we saw bolted anchors only 20 feet away from us.
Since I was sketched out from the down climb and both of us were cold, we
decided to bail and return another day. We rapped on the doubles
from the bolted anchors back to the second tree. From this tree, I
rapped first and spotted the first tree I should have used on the way up.
We rapped off this tree and were at the base of the climb in no time.
At least we didn't have to waste time building a V-Thread for the last
rap.
- On the hike out, we reviewed the route and saw where we made our
mistake. The left turn we should have made was full of snow and
covered the underlying ice. We simply gravitated towards the ice
that was visible and had that decision supported by the anchors we saw.
Oh well, now we have a reason to go back. Although we didn't finish
the route, we certainly got some good experience and the overall climbing,
leading, and rope management went well for a couple of newbies. I
didn't take many photos, and they didn't turn out well either.
- Miller Time!!! We
drove back to Ouray and had dinner at the Mexican restaurant where I met a
friend of Brian's, Brad Bull, who has climbed the Seven Summits and was a
member of Erik Weihemneyer's Everest team. I hope you had your
climbing helmet on, because that name dropped hard.
- Maps:
- Photographs:
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