Wolf's Head

Pablo and I have been relaxing and getting town stuff done since we arrived in Jackson, Wyoming this past Sunday night. We hiked out from the Cirque of the Towers in one push on Sunday morning and were exhausted after a productive trip into the area. We'll write more as time allows, but for now, we'd like to share our experiences from the East Ridge of Wolf's Head, one of the 50 classic climbs in North America.

After getting into the Cirque and climbing the South Buttress of Pingora on July 4th, we took a rest day in preparation for climbing the E. Ridge on Wolf's Head the following day. We awoke to auspicious-looking skies but decided to at least get to the bottom of the approach and see how things looked from there. Hiking out of camp for an hour put us under the base of the "grassy ledges" approach, which looked wet but doable. Most parties just scramble up here to the saddle between the Tiger Tooth and Wolf's Head, but because things looked wet and greasy, Paul and I opted to rope up. Turned out to be a good call. We sketched our way up wet rock, through water pouring over our heads, and finally crested into the sun and within view of the start of the route. We were psyched to be in the sun and on dry rock! Unfortunately, that would be short-lived.

I led up the first pitch, which included the "Sidewalk," a 24-inch wide fin of rock with 600+ feet of air on either side. Paul took the next pitch with sunny skies above, but as I started to follow, the clouds were building and the nearby summits were beginning to be shrouded in heavy clouds. Knowing we had to keep moving, Paul and I swapped leads along the ridge, figuring out which way to go around every tower that was thrown at us.

Before long, the valleys below were obscured by fog and mist, and we started hearing the first few pieces of hail landing on our helmets. Bailing and rapping weren't much of an option, so we continued on through the varying types of precipitation. We found refuge at belay stations below big roofs and in caves on the route while waiting for the party in front of us that was doing the lions share of the route finding. They, like us, found little comfort in the deteriorating weather.

Just before I reached the top of the crux pitch the skies opened. Heavy, wet slush poured down and soaked the rock and all of those on it. As I straddled on a small rock perch Paul followed with our pack. The rock was soaked and the climbing was awkward. We attempted to lower a loop to haul the pack through the top of the pitch to no avail. Finally, Paul grunted his way through the tight overhang, straddled the perch behind me, stripped me of my gear, and cruised through the next pitch.

My next lead was a tricky one, especially in the rain. It was a very exposed hand traverse on some very greasy rock. Some small chicken heads lead my feet down to a tiny belay. Once Paul arrived he built an anchor above me, racked up, and pulled his way up through a short pitch, and disappeared. A few minutes later I found myself squeezing my way through a tunnel. I emerged out onto a large, sunny ledge. I felt as though I had been shoved through a birth canal and landed in a tanning booth. The sun was bright on the northwest side of Wolf's Head and we were now a couple easy pitches away from the summit.

After some high fives, pictures, water, and food the four of us began our journey down. Five repels and a few hours of scrambling led us back to our campsite. We were "home" and feeling pretty good about how we handled a very difficult fourteen-hour day.  
- B.T