Contraserius: Part II

Part II

We established a base camp on the Scud Glacier within striking distance of any of the nearby peaks. The first order of business was figuring out how I would be able to climb steep ice with tennis shoes and newmatic crampons. The lid of Blake’s CiloGear pack had been destroyed in the airdrop. Using the fabric from that lid, two bottles of seam grip and duct tape we tried to make the shoes more water proof. From the plastic back pad of Blake’s pack I cut two rigid insoles to help stiffen up the shoes. The addition of a strap across the midsection of the crampon helped shore up their stability. Thus the Omnishoes were created. As if crafted by Prometheus himself they actually did okay. I led an icefall with some short steep bulges and several sections of front pointing without any difficulties other than serious calf strain.

After drying our shoes out for a day we attempted the North Ridge of Mt. Ambition. We left at 2:30 a.m. and quickly climbed through an icefall to a col between Mt. Ambition’s North Ridge and Mt. Endeavor’s South Ridge. The rock in the col was solid and apparently granitic. The “rock” on the ridge was loose and sand-like. Blake led through two pitches up to a grade of probably 5.8 or 5.9. I don’t think I pulled on a single hold or even took a breath while following those pitches. The experience has redefined all the “choss-aineering” that I’ve previously done.This rock put it all to shame. Blake described it as “sub Fisher Towers quality.”

We continued to climb on the ridge until the base of a snowfield below a distinct pyramid. We had remained optimistic that perhaps the rock would get better. We knew that once we got on the pyramid retreat would be hard or impossible. We judged that the climb would probably go, but it would get harder not easier. Neither one of us wanted to take the risks that the climb would entail.

Deciding to turn around is never easy, but it is always harder when you’ve been given money and support to attempt a climb. That is an unfortunate aspect of getting a grant. In the end we decided that we would honor the organizations more by making what we deemed to be the “right” choice (for us given our experience, perceptions, the conditions etc.) than to climb in a style not our own because we had been shown so much support. For myself I know it was the right decision and I am not second-guessing it.

Since we got such an early start on our climb we were able to reverse the route back to the col and continue on to climb the South Ridge of Mt. Endeavor. The comparison of rock between Mt. Endeavor and Mt. Ambition was night and day. Though we didn’t find splitter rock, we found rock that protected okay and that we could pull on. The route though not technically difficult was aesthetic and engaging. From the Scud Glacier the route was about 5,000 ft. long and seemed like climbing Mt. Stuart’s North Ridge stacked on the Nisqually Icefall… pretty cool.

On the summit we found the original summit register, unsigned since 1967. We had logged the second ascent of Mt. Endeavor. We’re calling the route Arete sans Chaussures (Bootless Arete) D 5.6 5000’ (still need to confirm this with GPS waypoints).

The summit was truly only half-way done on this climb. We ended up descending the SE Ridge (the line of the first ascent) in hopes that it would be easy and avoid the objective hazards of an icefall baking in the afternoon sun. Initially the ridge was pretty straightforward mostly fourth class with generally good rock. Farther from the summit the glacier slopped further and further away from the ridge crest, the rock became looser and more difficult. I convinced Blake that we should abandon the ridge and get on the snow. In retrospect this might have been a poor decision because the ridge might have been easy enough to down climb but that’s water under the bridge at this point. We had a tough descent which involved about a half-dozen double rope rappels with v-threads and poor rock with plenty of down climbing mixed in. Once we hit the snow, we still had a few thousand feet to drop before we stumbled into camp 20 hours after we started.