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
- B.T
