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Base Camp
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: March 21, 2009
- Miles Hiked: 8.0 (Estimate)
- Elevation Gain: 2,200' (Estimate)
- Hiking Partner(s): Jeff
Shafer
- Routes: WI2-4 (2 Pitches)
- Description:
- Jeff and I left the Ranch at 3:45 am heading back to Rocky Mountain
National Park and Glacier Gorge. We had just been in this area a
month ago for our hike of Longs Peak via the Trough. Recent beta
on the West Gully from a couple of friends indicated that the ice was
crummy, the rock was wet, and the avalanche potential was high.
Sounds promising. The forecast for the day made it seem as though
it was May 21st instead of March 21st. I wanted to get at least
one more ice climb in before hanging up the tools for the season and
moving on to snow/rock climbing and hiking season. Despite the
questionable conditions, Jeff agreed to go with.
- We made it to Black Lake in 1 hour and 50 minutes for our first
glimpse of the route. As expected, the first easy WI2 section of
the first pitch was snow covered and the middle pitch looked thin and
manky. Oh well, let's take a closer look. We geared up on
the snow slope leading to the route eyeing enough ice to complete the
climb. The sun hit us just before I started up the pitch and I
fortunately decided to shed a layer before beginning up. The ice
conditions weren't perfect, but they certainly weren't terrible either.
I got to the base of the short steeper section of the climb where the
second pitch usually starts and Jeff indicated that I still had a fair
amount of rope left. I cleared the short crux and worked my way up
some easy mixed climbing below the base of the enduro slab upper pitch.
I didn't have enough rope to reach the ice at the slab, so I built an
anchor and brought Jeff up.
- Jeff moved the anchor to the base of the final slab pitch as I
peeled another layer, changed sun glasses, and applied sun screen.
After joining Jeff, we swapped gear for the final pitch and I headed up.
After about 30 feet on the slab, my calves were burning and I was more
tired than on the first more difficult pitch. (If I ever do the
route again, I'll probably do it in the Fall and walk-off after the
first two pitches to avoid the rappel and enduro pitch.) About two-thirds up
the pitch, I clipped into a sixteen cm screw that someone forgot or
bailed on (booty time) and took another short rest. I was running
out of ice and rope and built a quick anchor to bring Jeff up on.
After reaching me, he climbed the remaining 20-25 feet of ice and gave
me a hip belay in the snow to the top of the route.
- We quickly found the rappel station and were back on the snow slope
to the right of the enduro slab. There was a short section of
steep snow down-climbing before we started traversing climbers right.
Before long, we were back at Black Lake soaking up the sun. We
enjoyed the sun and packed our gear while eating and hydrating for the
hike out. Despite the beautiful weather, we saw only one person
heading up the Black Lake Slab Gully toward the Trough until we got back
to Mills Lake. The hike out went quickly as we each listened to
our iPods and said hello to the tourists on the trail. Our car to
car time was 7 hours and 45 minutes.
- Maps:
- Click here
to view a
map of the area where this hike is located. I used the map from my
hike of Longs Peak via the Trough and simply added the West Gully route
in blue.
- Photographs:
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www.
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