North Star Peak, Mount Alpha Centauri, and Carmarthen Peak

July 21, 2013

Today was hard. We climbed three peaks, two of them over 10000 feet. Woke up at 04:30 and got ready under headlamp. We started out just as the light was showing the way and began the climb up towards the glacier. Cyril stopped to chat about various things and we practiced short roping up the steep snow slope to get onto the glacier. Our sights were set on North Star Peak, the most prominent peak in the area. We ascended a beautiful but steep serpentine snow ridge. The crossing of the bergshrund was sporty over a snow bridge which fortunately was solid. The final pitch was a great little technical scramble up to a tiny little summit cone that could only hold a few people. The views were astounding as the day was perfect (although very hot). Descending the snow was a little more difficult. I lost my footing at one point and had to arrest myself with the help of my two rope mates. This was humbling and gave me a bit of the jitters for the rest of the day. It seems that I am probably the weakest climber in this whole group. We descended the rest of the way without mishap and then started up the steep snow towards Alpha Centauri. The last pitch was steep enough that we belayed it, after which was an easy scramble to a wide open summit. Here we relaxed for a while, enjoyed the views, and posed for a modelling photo wearing our North Face jackets that were provided by the course sponsor. Another group from the camp arrived on the summit just before we turned back. We down climbed the steep snow on belay, Cyril demonstrating a neat method of see-sawing the rope to get lots of people down quickly. We then took a different route across the bergshrund which invloved a short down climb of a rocky ledge. We scooted over to the base of Carmarthen and then climbed up the snow and scrambled onto the rock. I was starting to get exhausted at this point as the elevation was starting to get to me. Cyril pushed us on (particularly me), and after a wonderful scramble along a knife edge ridge, we arrived on the summit. Yvon did a jig and I joined in despite my exhaustion. A bit of food helped add some energy to the store and then we made our descent. The way down was an easy scramble/hike. On the glacier we dide not rope up as Cyril was confident our route was free of creevasses. We rolled into camp just as the dinner bell was ringing. A 12.5 hour day of some of the highest peaks means that I must be acclimatized now. I was getting a headache at the end of the day, but this got better with the copiuous quantities of food served up at the supper table.

Approaching the toe of the North Star glacier across the snow slopes from camp.