Basic Rock Climb - The Tooth/South Face

This trip was a great introduction to alpine rock climbing for the basic students.  It was the second experience for one student and the first time for the other two.  The weather was lovely; the route was uncrowded and the group dynamic fantastic.

Most of us carpooled and all arrived on time for a briefing and distribution of ropes. Thus, everyone was ready to hike a few minutes before our scheduled 7am departure.  The morning was crisp and clear (a little lingering smoke) as we hiked toward our objective.  Soon after leaving the Source Lake Overlook trail, we saw a bear heading down to Source Lake and then swimming across the lake.  We all enjoyed the hike other than a short detour when part of our group tested an unpleasant alternate route.  The fall colors were slightly muted by the haze but still lovely.

Fall colors and climb leader taking photo of bear.

We mostly circumvented the boulder field and then scrambled around to the base of the climb. The wind was blowing and we were in the shade, so everyone other than the first team put on their warm layers.  It was cold!  After a review of climbing commands and rope management skills, the first team started climbing at around 10:30am.   Everyone elected to wear rock shoes for the climbing.  The climbing route was in the sun, providing welcome warmth. The climbing was solid with many good hand and foot holds.  In a couple spots it took a little time for the new climbers to find the holds, but everyone made it to the summit by 2p.  

After summit treats and photos, it was time for rappelling! The climb leader rigged a single strand rappel on a 70 meter rope that reached from the top to the rappel station at the top of P2.  Due to the large number of ledges, it took a bit of effort to get the rope neatly down. After everyone except the climb leader rappelled the single strand, he converted it to a normal rappel, rapped to the scramble pitch, pulled the rope and scrambled to the top of P2.  Note that a normal rappel with a 70m rope doesn’t quite reach easy scramble terrain so the leader used advanced techniques (see comment below) to reach the scramble.  Meanwhile at the top of P2, the assistant leaders set up a double rope rappel with the other two 70 meter ropes. This rappel reached the base of the climb.  I used saddlebags to improve rope management while setting it up, though still had a few tangles to unwind.  Students found the two long rappels to be exhilarating, and we were all at the base by around 4:30pm.

From there we packed up and scrambled back around to the boulder field. The group worked together to guide the less experienced scramblers through this section. We went one at time through the final loose gully bit to the boulder field.  After the boulder field descent, we stuck close together as sunlight began to fade.  Lesson learned from morning detour!  We reached the trail just before sunset.  Then we hiked out in twilight and darkness, reaching the cars around 7:30p.

7 hours car to summit

5.5 hours summit to car