Emphatic Traverse

July 30, 2022

Guides: Lilla, Alex
Participants: Katharina, Mike, Margaret, Tony
Time: 10 hours

Last day of the camp yielded favourable weather again. Lilla guided Kat and I, while Alex, guiding Margaret and Tony also came along on the same route. Today we climbed the west side of camp, past the toprope slabs and then made a long slog up a very steep heather slope until we gained the ridge. One section of this was steep enough that Lilla set up a quick belay as we yarded our way up this mess. The bugs were horrendous, swarming us as we tromped on through their habitat.

Climbing the heather slope above camp

Once on the ridge though, things mellowed and we walked among the wild flowers as we slowly gained altitude. Finally the vegetation gave way to rock and we had a beautiful section of 3rd class scrambling up to a false summit. From here we rappelled into a notch and then had some very unique pitched climbing up an exposed grassy side hill, utilizing the granite wall for excellent protection. About four or five pitches of this bizarre climbing ensued, and then we were into 4th class scrambling mode along a very narrow ridgeline which included the sharpest au-cheval move I have ever experienced (painful!). The scrambling though was very fun and exposed over several sub- peaks of the mountain, which continued until we reached the summit at about 14:00, sitting down here for a long lunch.

Tony and Margaret

3rd class scrambling

Rapelling into the notch

Lilla leading the grass climb

Good rock up higher

Summit!

The downclimbing and glacier walk was an identical route to the first day, however the snow melt from the week has caused a lot of new crevasses to open up, and even a few short sections of dry glacier to crucnch across. The hike down the morraine must have become too familiar and we let down our guard. All three of us took a minor tumble at one point or another.

Descending back to the glacier

New cracks appearing in the glacier col between the icefalls

Short rope descending the steeper snow

As usual, the day ended with a fabulous feast prepared by Nick, which was followed by an art show hosted by Greg and Janet where they displayed many of the paintings they had completed during the week. Tomorrow we fly out of here after a very successful week.

Typical scene in the dining tent

[Home] [Main] [Prev] [Next]