Ingalls Peak/South Ridge

This climb took place on Sat, Jul 26, 2014.

Met at TH and were hiking at 6am sharp. Strong, motivated team. Perfect weather. Warm but breezy. Chilly in the morning, warmer later in the day. Clear skies and amazing views.

The approach trail was largely free of snow except for a few soft, patchy areas. We did not bring nor need crampons. We brought but did not need ice axes as we simply avoided the areas where they might have been required. We were 2nd on the route with a very fast team in front of us who were on the last pitch as we were roping up. They were gone well before we started so we were essentially first on the route. The climbing went well but by the time we headed for the rappel anchors a steady stream of climbers were working their way up the route. We had to wait for the route to clear before we rappelled which added almost 4 hours to the trip. We offered to share rappel lines with the other parties who accepted in good spirits. We rigged a double-rope rappel from the summit, another from P2 and a final single rope rappel to the gully to avoid the down climbing the gully.

I was pretty convinced the double rope rappel from the summit was a mistake. The top pitch has a different angle than the pitch below it and has many cracks the rope could jam in when pulled. Still, the rappel at P3 would clearly be a bottleneck with so many climbers. Also, I have double rope rappelled from here before when climbing Ingalls/E Ridge and didn't have a problem. As expected, however, the rope got stuck on the pull but fortunately we were able to free it without excessive risk of rockfall. Basically we got lucky as a rope retrieval effort would have consumed a lot of time we were running very short of. The rappels went without incident. Overall there was good cooperation amongst all climbers and as a result I believe everyone had a better day for it.

We saw few goats and campers on the way to the climb. However, on return we saw many campers and even more goats with their babies. They were intermixed with the campers and while the babies seemed freaked out by people (us) the parents seemed as if they could care less. We still gave them their space.

The area was buggy on the hike out. A little bug dope might have been a good idea but as long as we kept moving it wasn't so bad. A couple of climbers ran out of water and we stopped to fill up and treat water.

Ran out of daylight on the hike out. 16H RT largely due to the traffic jam at the rappel anchor. A busy day on a great climb! The key to making this an enjoyable day was recognizing that we had to share the route and working together to make the experience great and safe for everyone.