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Base Camp
Up
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: January 17, 2009
- Miles Hiked: 2.0 (Estimate)
- Elevation Gain: 1,000' (Estimate)
- Hiking Partner(s): Brian
Kooienga, Matt Linnemann, & Kevin Smith
- Routes: WI3
- Description:
- After a short stint in the ice park Friday afternoon, we were ready to
head back into the backcountry. Two years ago, Brian and I made an
attempt at the First Gully across from Stairway to Heaven which was
really more of a learning lesson for us. We got off route because
of snow conditions, and the weather was much colder. We climbed a
few pitches and then bailed after running out of ice. This year we
decided to give the Second Gully a shot.
- The four of us arrived at the trailhead shortly before 9:00 am to
zero degree temperatures. The hike to the base of the Second Gully
went quickly and warmed us up nicely. We started out climbing as
two separate teams of two. Brian and I simultaneously led the
first pitch and then brought Kevin and Matt up. Brian led the
second pitch, and Matt started leading the second pitch. Kevin
followed Brian, but Matt was having an off day and anchored in half way
up the pitch. He brought me up and then I finished leading the
second pitch behind Kevin. As I belayed Matt up the second half of
the second pitch, Kevin started out leading the third pitch. As
Kevin ran into snow, he and Brian simul-climbed for a while until Kevin
found some ice to set up an anchor. Since Matt wasn't feeling well, he
decided not to continue on.
- As a result, I led the third pitch until I ran out of rope and was
on safe ground then I had Matt take me off belay. I snow-climbed up to Kevin and Brian dragging the second rope
wanting to complete the climb as a
team of three as Matt waited for us below. I gave Brian the other
end of my rope, and he led the fourth pitch and brought Kevin and I up
on a tree anchor. We rappelled off a tree with
no incident. I then started digging through the snow near some
bushes to try to find our next rappel anchor. We could have walked
off had Matt finished the third pitch, but we had to get back down to
him for all of us to rap out together. I found a solid tree to
rappel down, but I wasn't sure if it would get us down to Matt. I
went first and sure enough, it didn't. Fortunately, I looked to my
right with about 20' feet of rope left and spotted another rappel
station within reach that I could swing over to.
- Brian and Kevin rappelled down next to me, although we kept as much
weight off the rappel station as possible as it appeared a little
suspect. I rappelled the third pitch back down to Matt as I
cleaned the gear I had placed on the way up before Matt took me off
belay. Kevin and Brian followed and we were all back down with
Matt who had started to get cold as we finished the climb above him.
There were existing V-threads at the top of pitch one and two that we used to
rappel off of. We knew the last one was going to be a rope
stretcher, but fortunately we were able to reach a snow ramp to the
right of the beginning of pitch one.
- Note: Each team was climbing on one double rope with the plan
to use both ropes for all four climbers to rappel the route at the same
time.
- I was jokingly criticized for leaving my partner on this climb. The reason I thought it was ok was due to the fact
that the climb was almost over, the weather was absolutely beautiful all
day long, there was plenty of time left in the day, and Matt didn't
object. When I made this decision, I didn't realize that getting
back down to Matt might prove somewhat difficult. There were two
options for the four of us if I had refused to leave Matt by himself
since each team was relying on the other teams rope to rappel. (1)
Brian could have followed Kevin up the third pitch with the other rope
and finished the climb and then rappelled back to us. However,
this simply would have required two people (Matt & James) to wait instead of one.
(2) Brian could have followed Kevin up the third pitch with the other
rope and then they could have immediately rappelled back to us from the
top of the third pitch (if they found an anchor) with all of us heading
back down at that point. However, this would have shortened the
climb for all four of us.
- Once Kevin got to the top of pitch 3 and I left Matt to join both
Kevin and Brian, he was concerned that we would be unable to get back to
Matt due to the lack of an available anchor at the top of pitch three.
(The top of pitch three had tracks for the walk off.) I stated
that I was willing to down climb pitch three (WI2) with a hip belay from
him and Brian if worst came to worst and place gear along the way for
them to down climb through. As another option, I was willing to
walk-off and re-climb pitches one and two back to Matt as a last resort.
I was fortunate to find the two rappel anchors above pitch three which
actually made our descent to Matt relatively painless given the
circumstances.
- Despite the short episode of drama, the Second Gully
is actually a really cool multi-pitch alpine ice climb. Pitch
one (WI3) was probably 75% ice and 25% snow but a real rope stretcher
with a short section of simul-climbing required if you don't want to
break it up into two pitches. The second pitch (WI3) was mostly ice. The third pitch (WI2) had a short
section of snow, a section of ice, and then more snow above to get to
the base of pitch four. Pitch three was another rope-stretcher for us
that required some simul-climbing. Pitch four (WI3) was similar to
pitch two with mostly ice the whole pitch. You can walk off the
top of the route to climbers left and then cross back over to climbers
right between pitches three and four. We just rapped the whole
thing.
- We hiked back to the trailhead, drove back to Ouray sucking down a
beer, and then hit the hot tub again. After cleaning up, it was
back to The Outlaw for some beef. Conversation was limited as we
were all tired from the day. We had a night cap at the Pub and
then retired for the evening.
- Maps:
- Photographs:
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