Morning Ride

Climbing at G1 w/ Stefan

Lunch Ride

Morning Trail Run

Very fun day in near perfect weather. It was Dan's first time up Longs in winter and first 14ers in winter. It was the third winter in a row for Derek and I and the fifth winter in a row for me. It was Derek's 12th ascent of Longs and his 9th different route. My 81st ascent.

The climb went fine and we all enjoyed it, but the descent of the North Face was serious. We should have put on our crampons as soon as we hit the snow, but we didn't and I ended up descending with just Microspikes, mainly because I was lazy. But crampons for Derek and I weren't a full solution since we were in soft boots and the snow (under 8 inches of sugar snow) was rock hard and very difficult to kick into with a soft boot. In retrospect, we should have worn our technical boots. But we took things slow and stayed solid and made it down without a fall. A fall there, without being roped, would likely have been fatal, so nice we didn't fall.

At the top of the North Face pitch we found a couple ascending. The leader, the husband, looks up at me and asks, "Can you just pull me up?" That question took me back a bit. He didn't ask for us to throw him a rope or belay him up, but to "pull him up." I told him where he could place a piece and he got it in. After Dan got off the rappel line (and I had to push him a bit to hurry up, since I was a bit worried about this guy), I offered to drop him a line, but he was good now. He said, "I guess I just needed someone to talk me through it." He would later tell his wife when she got to the same spot, "I thought I was going to die." He was about thirty feet above the last eyebolt and it would have been a nasty, sliding fall, but he wasn't going to die. Plus, he was in a stable position. And we were there to rescue him. After Derek rapped down, I had him toss me up a couple of slings and then I lowered down a bit and got his lead line and clipped it into the belay, so he had toprope for the last ten feet.

Below the rappel the snow was really hard and nearly impossible to get any purchase with dull Microspikes on a soft boot, but I was able to balance myself and then securely move my axe down. It required a lot of concentration and patience. Derek wisely changed to his crampons, but it was still very difficult to kick them in. The saving grace was that the axe was bomber. Having two axes would have made it a lot less stressful. 

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Bill Wright

Northwest Couloir in Longs w/Derek and Dan

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