The Black Fang

July 28, 2013

Today Andy, Tana, and I decided to climb the Black Fang. We left camp shortly after the other two guided parties and made our way up to the glacier. We short roped up the toe which is now beginning to get more challenging that the snow is disapearing. Switched to glacier travel mode and traversed over to the bare ice where we spent some time fiddling with Tana's crampons. Climbed the snow scoop to Gendoline col and tried to do a radio check-in with base camp, but this was unsuccessful. We seemed to be able to receive the other parties transmissions, but could not transmit. When we got down onto the snow we saw Matt leading up the ridgeline towards Gwendoline, so with a bit of shouting, communicated our radio problems, and he relayed back to base. We carefully made our way around the snow bowl, our crampons biting firmly into the frozen snow. Finally we reached the ridge of the Fang and completed the snow traverses and rock scrambles easily. We came to the rock step on the ridge and Tana led this in fantastic style. At the Fang itself, I led the first pitch while Andy did the summit pitch. We arrived on top and made ourselves as comfortable as three people can on a tiny little pinnacle. We saw the Gwendoline team descending the snow slope so we yodelled and waved. The rappel down was fairly complicated as it was a twisting traverse, so I saddled the rope rather than throwing it down. The rope did not quite reach the bottom so I finished at a ledge and simply down climbed the last 5 meters. Andy and Tana followed while I booted ahead to set an anchor to rappel the last pitch. We debated down climbing the route so as not to leave any gear behind, but a storm rolling in convinced us to get moving so we abandonned a long sling and rapell ring. A bit of snow started flying during the scramble, but it stopped and the sun came out again. The remainder of the day was pretty much just a walk. We ran into the snow school group as we came down the glacier and said hi. Andy was lost to the rock school, and Tana and I descended the toe of the glacier together. There is still a tiny bit of snow but it is getting very sketchy. We managed to walk down with no mishap and then the easy hike back to camp finishing a fantastic nine hour day.

Ascending the glacier in the morning.