Gwendoline Mountain

July 30, 2013

Today Katharina and I signed up to climb Gwendoline. We awoke to a beautiful day. The camp had dropped 100 feet overnight according to the barometric altimeter, so we knew we were in for some good weather. Anyway, with two guides and two amateur leaders, a group of forteen total climbed up the glacier and traversed fairly quickly to the Gwendoline col. We started scrambling up the ridge until it became 4th class and then one of the guides, Jeff, roped up with Katja, Tana, and I, to shortrope the ridge. This being the second time I have done this climb, I felt way more confident today and thoroughly enjoyed the route. At about 11:00 we reached the summit and had a relaxed lunch. Finally we descended off the ridge down to the snow. It was still fairly firm so we cramponned up and started making the traverse around the bowl. Five of the group decided to split off and climb the Black Fang. The rest of us descended, splitting into two groups. Katharina, Adam (guide), and I sped ahead of the others. As it was only about 14:00, Adam asked if we were interested in playing around on the rocks. We were, so he set up a couple of top ropes and we spent the next couple of hours climbing four different routes. Grade was probably only about 5.6, but with boots on it felt more like 5.9. No one else joined us so we basically had a private skills session with Adam giving us some tips on technique. Finally we decided to leave and set up an anchor on the icy toe to lower off. Matt and his group who had just come off of Alpha Centauri arrived, and we combined ropes allowing lowers to be accomplished over the full length of the ice sheet. Arrived back at camp with some time to spare for scotch drinking and relaxing before supper.

Climbing the snow scoop towards Gwendoline col.

Begin scrambling the ridge.

Shortroping along.

Katja on summit.

Me on summit.

Tana at the top of the snow bowl to return.

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