After a few days of storms and then one clear day to clear snow from the face we headed up for round two on Mt. Huntington. Our calves were shot after our first attempt but we cruised the couloir on our second ascent. It took about 4-5 hours fast than our first go. The weather was immaculate... but that wouldn't last.
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| Marcus climbing through the first constriction |
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| Above the first constriction |
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| Climbing into the second constriction |
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| Marcus strikes a "blue steel" |
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| Marcus on the second constriction |
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| Looking for "the" bivy ledge on day one |
The Colton-Leech is known for a paucity of bivy ledges. We found exactly two on our ascent. Our bivy ledge on day one was hacked into ice on the edge of a 2,000' cliff. It took about four hours to clear enough ice for our ledge. Thankfully the pro was good.
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| Room with a view |
Day two started calm but quickly spiraled into a maelstrom. We had a morning with just light clouds but once we had passed the point of no-return the clouds closed in and the snow started. Most of the day felt like we were in a blender and the temps were cold. We figured about -20F... thankfully there was no wind. I'm sure we would have bivied or bailed if that were an option however from 7am until 1am we found exactly one spot to bivy... and that was on the summit ridge itself. It was one of the colder days climbing I've ever had. I just barely warmed up while wearing all my clothes, belay parka and moving. The belays seemed endless and were bone-chillingly cold. At long last, we dug into the summit ridge crawled into the sleepings bags after 2am and tried to rally for the descent and hopefully better weather.
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| Marcus leads out early on day two |
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| Entering the upper snowfield with the WFC visible to the right |
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| Marcus climbing on the upper snowfield |
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| A quick break in the weather... |
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| Marcus discovers the exit from the upper snowfield |
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| Marcus shakes off the rust on day three |
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| Look Ma, No Lenticular!: Denali on day three |
When day three dawned clear we thought we had it in the bag. We knew we were a bit climbers' left of where we meant to be, but that could be reversed. Marcus had a great traversing lead over unconsolidated snow flutings that found a fixed rap anchor. At this point we were sure we had it in the bag. After all, Marcus had some solid experience on this peak... piece of cake, right? During Marcus' traversing pitch, Daniel had Paul from TAT buzz our route to check up on us and radio back. We were feeling pretty good at this time and gave him a thumbs up... but several hours later we still couldn't find the descent. We spent hours trying different ledges systems looking for the WFC. We felt pretty zapped after the previous cold day. At long last, we decided to rap down the unknown descent of the WF. We expected to leave the entire rack on the descent, but stumbled into the WFC after only 5-7 rappels. Once in the couloir proper, it was like sport climbing as we descended John's threads from March. After a full day descending we slumped into the snow in the upper basin and enjoyed the first warmth or sunlight we'd felt in several days.
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| 1000 yard stare mid descent on the WF |
1 comment:
Hey Nate,
I enjoyed your Colton/Leech post a lot! My partner Keith Stevens and I did the 2nd ascent of the route in 1983. Seeing your photos of the route brought back the memories! We skied into the range from the north side that year, crossing into the Ruth from the Traleika Glacier north of Mt. Dan Beard. We crossed over from the Ruth to the Tok by climbing the French Icefall. We spent two days on the ascent, and one of the descent, then recrossed the French Ridge to the Ruth. While soloing down to the Ruth I fell and broke my fibula. I also had frozen toes. Good Times! Thanks for the memories...
Jay Kerr
Portland, OR
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