Route Stats and Prologue:
Mountains: Cathedral Wall second buttress
Route: Hiked to base past loch vale from the glacier gorge trailhead and climbed Tourist Tragedy (5.9) in 6 pitches combining p2/p3 and p4/p5 with a 70m. Climbed further up the gully from the top and over to the Andrews Creek trail and back to the car.
Stats:
Elevation Gain ~2700’ (approx) and ~1000’ on the buttress
Roundtrip Mileage ~12.5 miles
Crew: Joe and Prakash
Time – 11.5 hours car to car, 5:45 on the route
Joe and I discussed options for a longer alpine multi-pitch route to prep for the cirque over Labor Day weekend. After contemplating routes on Hallet we settled for easterly exposure and a nice sunny day on the rock. We talked about Blackstar (5.7+) briefly but decided to attempt Tourist tragedy for its extra ½ MP star rating and reportedly slightly less loose rock than Blackstar. After our original ascent day was washed out we took a day off of work Tuesday for a longer window of clear weather. On 8/23 we met up at Joe’s at 3:45AM and sped up the road trying to get in before 5AM from which time timed entry permits are required.
We decided to splurge on some rocky talkies to help with comms on the cirque and brought them along with us on this trip for a test drive.
The Approach:
We started hiking up the trail from glacier gorge trailhead at about 5:30AM. We got to the Loch after about an hour of leisurely conversation.
We stashed hiking poles at the bottom of the Andrews Glacier trail that we’d descend on the way down. We reached the base of the climb at about 7:15AM, ate some breakfast and began gearing up. The con of having the radio and spot on the pack strap on these more vertical routes is that it leaves each cheek vulnerable to being jabbed incessantly by their antennae while reaching for handholds. On the other hand, its easy to radio your partner mid-pitch. I did move my spot into the pack after p1.
The Climb:
It was a cool morning in the shade and we started up the route in long johns at 7:45AM shortly before sun-hit. Pitch 1 was probably the best of the lot. Joe had some solid pro in and took it all the way around the roof to the tree belay. I had to leave a nut in a crevice after hammering at it for quite a while.
The variation of pitch 2 we took did not start off feeling like 5.6. It appeared runout for a little while and then it turned draggy after surmounting the first narrow roof up from the deck.
We combined it with p3, which was a loose scramble. Pitch 4 started out real well and the second half felt the hardest of the lot to me despite the 5.8 rating. Joe did a splendid job of leading the nervy line especially that second headwall with a thin crack for awkward hands/fingers albeit nice feet. I took a fall on the rope here. A solid pitch no less, and I fell out of the crack purely out of fatness of ass.
We combined p4 with p5, the latter being just a scramble. We were extremely hot at the top of p5 and had to stop to pull off long johns to keep from sweating to death.
P6 started out well but got very awkward in the traverse under the roof past some nice flakes. Joe said he saw some large loose boulders there that I didn’t find (or didn’t pay attention to) on follow. That would be a sketchy spot for loose rock if you are following. There was some tough rope drag around the roof that possibly forced me to pull the roof at a different spot than Joe.
We finally arrived at p7 supposedly 5.10a with an unattractive 5.9 alternative that traversed off right on the face. The 5.10a option had nice feet and was a cleaner lead and follow than the 5.8 headwall on p6.
P8 started out feeling harder than the supposed 5.6 but it was very short and then turned into a scramble putting us on top at 1:30PM.
The Descent:
At this point we were both out of water looking at a nice little scramble up a gully and protracted type 2 talus / scree descent before water was a possibility.
We finally tunneled under some boulders to find the best snowmelt money can’t buy. Best drink we’d ever had.
At this point the thunder and hail began coming thick and heavy with rain and that action continued for the rest of the walk out. A fantastic day out with Joe and an excellent training run and gear test for the cirque. Certainly need some privacy codes on those radios to keep bejesus from being scared out of our thick skulls.
Our final route (pic credit Steph Abegg @ MP)
Lost in 'Merica... 