The Short Story

This story has a short version and a long version. The short version is that Blake and I were awarded the AAC’s McNeill-Nott Grant and a grant from the Mazamas. Additionally as the youngster, Blake received the Mountain Fellowship grant from the AAC to help him out.Collectively we were pitching the idea of climbing the North Ridge of Mt. Ambition which is a proud snow and rock ridge involving over a mile and 5,000 ft. of climbing to accomplish. We covered roughly a third to a half of this terrain on “sub Fisher Towers quality rock” before reaching a decision point. To continue would mean complete commitment with little or no opportunity to escape other than by finishing the route. Turning around here would be simple enough but we wanted that ridge. In the end we decided to bail. We very well may have been able to climb the ridge despite the bad rock as it didn’t appear that technically difficult. However didn’t break a hold and take a bad fall or trundle large blocks onto the belay we decided that we would essentially be soloing due to consistently horrible rock quality. Receiving funding for a climb always adds the element of potentially letting your supporters down by not finishing a climb. However having had to descend or short section of that ridge reinforced our decision. For Blake and me, given the conditions it wasn’t worth it.

Deciding against Mt. Ambition was not the end of the trip. Over the course of the remaining week we established two first ascents in the area on Mt. Endeavor and Doormouse Peak. We didn’t put up anything very technical but it was consistently an adventure. If I had to sum up the climbing and challenges we faced I would say that it cannot be defined by its technical grades but rather by the sum of its parts.

The route we didn't climb: Mt. Ambition's North Ridge. We reached the snowfield at the distinctive pyramid (on the right skyline), right where the climbing got committing.

The route we climbed instead: Mt. Endeavor roughly up the ridge on the left skyline.

Another route we climbed: the left skyline on Doormouse Peak.