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Base Camp
Up
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: January 12, 2008
- Miles Hiked: 2.0 (Estimate)
- Elevation Gain: 1,300' (Estimate)
- Hiking Partner(s): Brian
Kooienga
- Routes: WI3 (1 Pitch)
- Description:
- For our
final day of climbing near Cody, we opted for a route that is considered
to have one of the easiest approaches in the valley. I wanted to be on
the road at a reasonable time because we were planning on swinging
through Buffalo (WY) so I could visit a friend. “Stringer” was the name
of the route which is supposed to have three WI3 pitches with a walk off
and two sets of bolted anchors for the descent.
- The
approach took twice as long as indicated in the guidebook. We climbed
two easy short ice steps that Brian led to a tree belay that were not
mentioned in “Winter Dance”. We hiked up the creek a short distance to
what appeared to be the first pitch of “Stringer”. Brian stayed on the
sharp end and climbed 45 meters of moderate ice with adequate ledges for
resting. Approximately two-thirds of the way up there was great area
for a no hands rest. As Brian neared the top, I reminded him to keep an
eye out for the bolts. He never found them and brought me up on three
shallow screws in a narrow gully above the ice.
- I
scrambled up ahead because the second pitch basically turned into a snow
climb up the very narrow chute which deposited us in a flat spot in the
upper creek main drainage. We assumed the snow slog was the second
pitch of “Stringer”. The route description indicated there was a 20
minute hike to the final pitch. We hiked for approximately 20 minutes
before getting a view of any additional ice which was still another 20
minutes away and looked vertical. Neither one of us was confident we’d
be able to lead it, so we simply scrambled back down to the top of the
45 meter pitch climbed earlier.
- The
down-climbing in the creek was interesting. We rappelled a small
section we previously free-climbed up, we had to down-climb face in on
several short areas in the creek, and we still weren’t sure how we were
going to get down the long pitch Brian led since the anchor he built was
in thin ice. I remembered a log in the narrow gully that I thought
might have formed some nice white ice so I suggested we dig through the
snow for a location to build a V-thread. We also had about 10 meters of
rope to work with since we knew we could down climb the curtain at the
base of the flow. After getting back in the chute, I did find some
solid ice in the snow near the log with an existing V-thread. It looked
solid, but since this was our final long rappel of the weekend, we
backed it up with another V-thread. I guess we didn’t want to get
sloppy since things had gone fairly well over the last three days. We
got down easily and then also rappelled the initial two steps we
encountered on the approach.
- We
kept our crampons on almost all the way back to the road by staying in
the creek for the walk out. In hindsight, we should have put them on as
soon as we got to ice in the creek on the way in too. For some reason,
we were reluctant to gear up when in fact ice bouldering up the creek is
the easiest method for approaching many of the climbs. We grabbed some
fast food in Cody before making the drive over to Buffalo.
- On the
drive to Buffalo, I started to read some other route descriptions of
climbs on either side of the Slow Turning drainage where “Stringer” is
located. I then compared photos on Brian’s camera to a picture in
“Winter Dance” and figured out that we actually climbed the “Legg Creek”
route which is basically the one pitch approach to more difficult climbs
further up Legg Creek including “Ovisight” and “Who’s Yer Daddy?”.
Despite getting us successfully to our first two climbs, Brian couldn’t
pass up the opportunity to rip on me for my poor route finding and
navigation skills. I am a poser.
- We
stayed Saturday night with my high school friend and college roommate
Casey Freise. Casey actually took me on my first hike over 10 years ago
in northern Idaho when we both moved out there after graduating from
college. He and his wife Michelle treated us to a great elk steak
dinner with a salad, baked potato, and vegetables. Of course we each
(with the exception of Michele) drank about a sixer of beer while
watching some football and playing cards. Brian and I were on our way
back to Colorado by 7:00 the next morning after Casey made us a hot cup
of Joe.
- For
our first time there, we had a good trip and will likely return to clean
up all the WI3 ice we didn’t climb. : ) There are probably a handful
of routes at our skill level we could still climb. Cody has so much ice
in a concentrated area with much fewer climbers. In fact, we didn’t see
any other climbers all weekend with the exception of a couple leaving a
trailhead in a different direction than us one morning. The climbing is
definitely harder, and having a solid WI4 leader would certainly open up
significantly more options for different routes to climb. We gained a
lot of experience, had fun, remained friends, and got to visit some very
beautiful country in the South Fork.
- Maps:
- Photographs:
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