Trip Report
Acid Baby - Aasgard Sentinel
6-7 pitch 5.10+ climb in the Enchantments with fun jamming and a spectacular ridge finish
Rio Hoshi
- Sun, Aug 15, 2021
- The Enchantments
- Climbing
- Successful
-
- Road suitable for all vehicles
-
- Water at the base of the climb
- The start of the climb is near the clump of trees around 80% of the way up Aasgard Pass
- The 5.9 pitch after the physical crux was said to have loose rock but we didn't find any but we were careful
- We took the leisurely descent which involved walking around the back. There's a more direct way with good beta on mountainproject
- The entire climb besides the top is in the shade for most of the day, making it a perfect climb to do when weather is warmer.
- Gear brought, 0.2, doubles 0.3-3, nuts, 10 single and 2 double alpine draws. 60m rope.
Worried about the smoke and the heat, my friend Kenji and I switch objectives from the North Ridge of Stuart to Acid Baby. A fun rock climb on Aasgard Sentinel, a peak right across Dragontail as you ascent Aasgard Pass. With a early morning start 4 AM to beat the heat and the crowds, the only people we ran into in the morning were another party going for the Scoop on Colchuck Balanced Rock.
We got to the base around and started climbing around 8. Right off the bat, there was fun hand jamming. From there is the physical crux, a 30 ft 5.10+ steep fist crack, which Kenji tackled. Nice thing was that it protected fairly well with gear and was relatively short.
From there, some 5.9 climbing to a 5.5 traverse which I led. The following pitch is the technical crux from 5.8 fist jamming into thin stemming and thin fingers. I was glad to have my black totems which helped me confidently climb without any delay.
By now another party had caught up to us but luckily they were waiting for their friends behind them and were fun to talk to. They were talking about good the climbing was here and how we don't have to worry about afternoon thunderstorms.
Another 5.10 corner system followed by some 5.10- climbing to the final ridge. There aren't that many places to put gear but the ridge goes around 5.6 with tremendous exposure. If was definitely the topping on the cake. Just be careful with rope drag as my partner had severe issues and had to retract to build an anchor where the drag wasn't as bad.
From there we scrambled to the top of the plateau connecting to Enchantments Peak and back to the base. 2L of water was just enough as we were always in the shade and also had some breeze. By this time of year all the mosquitoes were gone as well.
Nice thing about climbing sunday is the most of the Colchuck lake crowds were gone. We ran into less than 15 people on the way down and the drive back was also very pleasant.
Stats: 15 hrs, 4600 ft gain, ~10 miles
- Car to base: 3:45 hrs. 8am
- Base to Base: 8 hrs, 4:30pm
- Base to Car: 3.5 hrs, 8pm