Mt Redoubt: NE Face Trial 4

June 14, 2008
I guess the question truly is….when does a mountain become a project? Or is it more like; how do we become obsessed? I never truly thought about this question until this past weekend, when I stood on belay for Joe, some thousands of feet above “space” on Mt Redoubt…..making it my 4th official time attempting the mountain. The following is a tale certainly not of “doubt”, but more of Re-doubt….

A complete pic sets can be found at:

http://isc.astro.cornell.edu/~don/pictures/v/friends/joe/joe_climbing/joe_ty_redoubt08/

www.flickr.com/photos/tytyler37/

This story doesn’t begin on Friday, June 13 2008; it actually begins back in September of 2006 with a “climbing partner” connection on cc.com. This guy throws out this mountain, completely unknown to me; calls it Redoubt. Sends me these convoluted emails of various trip reports and sketchy directions on how to get there and what to do once your there. I think this should have been my first indicator that this mountain who hold either my interest or my frustration..or both for a long time. So we go. The short version of this tale: we hike up 3-4 miles on the wrong road, then turn around, find the right one and begin to hike again. Arriving at camp exhausted, then waking up to bad weather and zero visibility…..Attempt 1

Somehow that trip spurred the others. Something about the remoteness, the difficulty and the beauty make for an unforgettable package.

Attempt 2: I was able to convince Joe to give it a shot. No more of the confusion on the approach, simply put…Redoubt soaks up the bad weather. This time there was zero visibility and rain…what a combo for a hike out!!

Attempt 3: This one was just dumb!!! Lets try a mountain that I can’t get in the summer, in the winter!! Duh, of course the approach road is snow bound about 8 miles from the TH. This one turns into a car sleep, some time in Tim Hortons and off to Price Glacier…

Onto to Attempt 4: This one started with the first view of Redoubt’s North side. Besides Mt Shuksan, I have yet to find a more striking mountain to look at. I know there are, but not for me.

Once I got Joe up into Depot Creek Basin and he took a look at the NE Face Route all bets were off. It was obvious he wanted to climb it as much as I did. There was a decent weather window and a chance for taking a personal day from work….so we took it. Sure, it had snowed a fews days before and the weather had warmed a little, then cooled, then warmed, then cooled…maybe conditions would be OK.

We made the call on Thursday to leave the following day. We had a feeling it wouldn’t be perfect, but there was no REAL way of knowing until we actually were up there. Left Friday morning after a lazy morning of French Toast and slightly burnt bacon, we crossed the border with no problems, made the now traditional stop at Tim Hortons for some donuts and a quick snack. Then off to Chilliwack.

Now, the Chilliwack Rd is nothing to brush aside. It has to be the MOST potholed road in N. America that I have ever seen. I don’t think I ever got the Disco above 20 mph the whole 10 miles of dirt. What’s funny is, it doesn’t stop at the turn off for the TH, instead it turns into an abandoned logging road that stretches another 3 miles of off-roading…..the Disco ate it up!!!! Finally arriving at the TH around 1pm or so.

The trail continues on what used to be the continuation of this road for another 200yds or so, then takes a sharp left heading up hill, past an abandoned truck, then taking a right onto another logging road. This is followed for about 2 miles, completely overgrown with alder…so much so that there are points that its easier to simply get on your hands and knees, and pray.

Finally you reach the end of the road and Canada. The complete feel of the hike dramatically changes as soon as you hit the border. It goes from second growth timber harvested land to old growth North Cascades National Park life. Its breathtaking and a customary photo and rest stop.

Its now time for another type of fun; route finding. Not only is the Depot Creek trail not maintained, nor an official trail, but it hardly sees any traffic. There were about 4 entries in the log book since my last attempt in September 2007. Shortly after leaving the border and what I refer to as Border Boulder, we loose the trail in a mass of tree blow downs and snow, so we just head off. We both know the general direction and know that following on this side of the creek will eventually take us to the headwall. Hours pass, we find the trail, lose the trail, scramble over trees, posthole to our knees….so it goes in the Cascades. Finally we reach the headwall and take a moment to, yet again, absorb the beauty of it.

This being my third time up the headwall, I’m pretty familiar with what I’m about to experience, where my breaks will be and about how long it will take. To our surprise we FLY up this thing in a little over an hour with one significant break and arrive in Depot Creek Basin. This place is awe inspiring! Your first views are of an Alaskan like basin with Mt Spikard, the back of Mox Peaks and Redoubt encompassing the radius of your turning neck.

We have our plan and our idea for our bivy spot so its time to find a suitable stream crossing. This is as good as it gets!

The North Face of Redoubt and our bivy spot to the right of the moraine.

Oh, and did I mention that we saw a little black bear? We first saw his prints, then him….

Not too much else to say about the approach day. Standard sufferfest material, only not as bad your third time around.

Now to Saturday, when things get GOOD!

We awake at 2am to a cloudy, low visibility morning and I’m thinking “great, off of Redoubt again because of weather”. The question arises: “should we wait till Sunday?”. Nope, lets close our eyes for another hour and see what happens. Sure enough things start to look better and we’re on our way by 4:30am, not the ideal time.

We make good time and are at the base of the NE Face route in about 2 hrs. Looking up…not TOO scary!

and we’re all smiles at this point.

I give Joe the gear I have and he takes the first lead. I feel as though I do better after getting my self adjusted and rarely take the first lead of the day…… Hey, I’m a coward!

After placing a few pickets and a cam, Joe runs out of snow pro and its my turn to take over. Mid way up this portion of the route, the view isn’t all that bad.

I take us on up. Putting in some gear along the rocks on left hand side of the face. After running out of snow pro and seeing that the final portion of the face is a snow traverse under a cornice and build myself a fabulous anchor belay of a red alien, one of my ice tools and a shoddy nut placement, bring Joe up and let him take on the Alaska like snow flutes.

somehow this pic doesn’t truly capture the scaryness of the flutes or their steepness…but trust me, its there!

Of course as Joe climbs higher, the snow turns to Shmooo and is unprotectable. He buries a fluke about 3ft deep and I easily yank the thing out of the snow without even the slightest effort. At this point, things have gotten officially scary and getting more so!!!

The top of this face is a knife edge snow arete with, dare I say, dramatic drops in either direction. By dramatic, I mean 800′ of 60-70 degrees of what we just climbed on our right and to the left…well, I’d say almost 2000′ of 70-80 degree rotten snow & rock. Good times!

Whew, we finished that part but knew we were actually heading into the harder and lesser known part of the climb. Time to take the plunge! I took the rope and rack and was planning on taking us around a corner into the NE Couloir to see what we were in store for. First of all, every step I made toward the corner was followed by collapsing snow and deep breaths. It wasn’t advisable to look down, but how could you NOT!! So I placed a tri-cam, I think another nut, then came around the corner. I think the words out of my mouth…or just in the mouth of my mind, were “Oh Shit” or maybe “Fuck Me!” I can’t remember at this point. So I hammered in a piton and brought Joe up.

Here’s a shot of what I saw. To sum it up, we had to climb off to the right on the rock, then traverse to the left. The next 5 pitches weren’t appropriate for pics….or really climbing for that matter.

at this point, the smiles were gone and replaced with “uh, we’re screwed” looks. Note the slight drop-off behind Joe…not too bad right?

Joe took us up the next pitch of some scary loose mix climbing. We figured M4, maybe M5?? Whatever, it was scary. Pitch 3 was mine. Somehow I got a pretty decent one, actually somewhat fun climbing on fairly solid rock with occasional pro. Maybe 5.6/5.7?

Then Pitch 4!! Pitch 4 was probably the scariest for both of us; mostly for Joe as he was leading this scary traverse on marginal pro, super weak snow and too much exposure. He kicked off a few snow slides that we were just mesmerized to watch gather speed, snow and then disappear into the abyss below us. Some of you know that sound of snow falling in the distance….well imagine the distance 1000-2000′ below you.

I think somewhere along this pitch Joe decided that he didn’t want to go anywhere near the snow and being the rock hound he is, he thought taking on the rest of the couloir on the rock, head-on was the success strategy we needed. In other words, he wanted the sharp end of the rope again….uh, ok, no argument from me! Shortly after leaving this glorious belay spot, where I stood on my toes and my heals hung above the emptiness, he declares….”I think I’m going to just traverse and we can try the shrund/cornice”. Did I mention this? Probably not, cause it looked like this. You can just make out Joe at our next belay, just to the right of center in the pic.

Somehow I knew that this was up to me. I had to take us over the top and off this route. The top of this was the exit to the South side…salvation and a safe descent. Not only the descent, but the view I so longed for ever since first seeing this mountain. So HELL YEAH I WANTED IT!!!!!

GONNA MAKE IT!!!!!

It was probably scarier than it looks. Not too much keeping me up there. The snow was so soft, I had to traverse more than I had to climb. The little pro I put in the rock wasn’t great and the picket I placed in the snow wouldn’t have done a damn thing. Luckily Joe had the frame of mind to take a shot of path.

Once at the top, I could breath….I mean really breath. Took some time to build Joe a bomb proof anchor; figuring…we’re way too close to safety to let something happen here, and he asked for it. After taking 8 hrs to finish the 6 pitches of climbing, still being about 400′ from the summit, it being 5:15pm and the fact that we had to traverse the mountain all the way back to camp..I made the statement that we were done for the day. Joe looked at me and simply said “you know what that means?” Sure enough, I know, it means attempt #5 is in order!!

So we started the down climbing and mountain traverse. I won’t bore you with the details of the crust that bruised our shins or the good time we made regardless, or the totally random mtn goat tracks we saw.

Mt Redoubt never ceases to provide me with a “slap in the face”. Just when I’m feeling cocky in my climbing, my fitness, my mindset…..I come here and have it all taken away. So many people have come to Redoubt and have summited without even the slightest effort, have had the best climbs of their lives. Me on the other hand, have to try yet again. I’m not complaining, not at all; in fact, I look forward to my next encounter with Redoubt. The next time, it’ll be a different route, different conditions, and a different ass-kicking. The N Face is next!!!!

See you soon Redoubt!!!