Exocet Solo

For the third year in a row, I arrived in Patagonia just at the end of an excellent and long weather window. I immediately hiked up to the Torre Glacier, but alas, I was too late and it closed down. C'est la vie. Fortunately, a two-day window of good weather arrived not too long after, this past Friday and Saturday (Nov. 26-27). I used it to make a solo of Cerro Standhardt, one that I had been planning since last February here in El Chalten.

I left the Niponino bivouac very early Saturday morning, and at four am arrived at the Standhardt-Bifida col, where the Exocet route (500m, WI5, 5.9) begins. In the dark I self-belayed the slabby mixed terrain of the first pitch, and then in the morning sunlight soloed across the large ramp system that rises across Standhardt's east face.

After traversing the ramps, the defining feature of Exocet rises straight above: the vertical and largely-blank granite wall is split by a deep chimney, choked with ice in the back. The chimney is four pitches long, with difficulties of about WI4, WI5, WI5, and WI4. The first two pitches of the chimney I free-soloed, hauling my pack up behind me. I climbed quite slowly, making sure that every tool placement was absolutely bomber. Although the third pitch is no harder than the second (and in fact a bit easier I think), I chose to self-belay it, as I could feel my arms getting tired. The fourth pitch I free-soloed except for a ten-meter step that I self-belayed with a back-loop.

Above the chimney is another slabby mixed pitch which I self-belayed, and I then continued up to summit mushroom, which goes with an easy and straightforward pitch of AI3. I reached the summit at 4pm, twelve hours after beginning, and began my descent. The descent of Exocet is one of the easiest and most straightforward in Patagonia because it is almost entirely on ice and clean slabs, so there is very little for the rappel ropes to catch on. I stumbled back to my tent at Niponino, arriving very tired shortly after dark, and the weather window broke down as I slept through the night. On Sunday the rain didn't let up for a single minute on the long hike from Niponino back to town.

This was the first solo ascent of Cerro Standhardt. In 1994, Tommy Bonapace soloed most of the Exocet route, but was forced to turn back at the top of the ice chimney because of a bad storm.

I had originally planned to take my helmet cam on this solo, but the night beforehand I decided that for free-soloing of this difficulty I didn't want the extra hassle of the equipment, so a few snapshots will have to suffice:

Cerro Torre, Torre Egger, Punta Herron and Cerro Standhardt from the Torre Glacier, with Exocet marked on Standhardt.


Self-belaying the first pitch in the dark.


Looking up while traversing the big ramp system.


Looking up from the base of the ice chimney.


Looking up the third pitch of the ice chimney.


At the base of the third chimney pitch, the self-belay system I used on it. I "invented" this technique specifically for this route, which allowed me to climb a full 60m pitch self-belayed, but then continue up afterwards without having to first rappel and prussik the pitch (but I had to leave the ice screws and pick them up on my descent).


Self portrait at the top of the ice chimney.


Looking to the north, towards Cerro Piergiorgio, while traversing to the summit mushroom.


The view from the summit of Standhardt, of the tops of Cerro Torre, Torre Egger and Punta Herron.


Self portrait on the summit, with Fitz Roy and Poincenot behind.

Yosemite, Skiing and Joe Puryear

With the exception of Devil's Thumb, I've had generally bad luck with the weather during the past year. September, which is normally a wonderful month in the Cascades, was horrible. I went down to Yosemite for most of October, and the weather was actually better back home in the Cascades! Ah well, I nonetheless got some good climbing in, and worked on my fist jams, offwidths and chimneys, which are definitely weak points for me. A highlight was climbing the Astroman-Rostrum linkup with my friend, Sam Piper, and I was pleased to just barely manage it all free.

There is a meter of new snow at 5,000 ft. in the Cascades, and so on Wednesday I had my first day skiing of the 2010-2011 winter. Dan Aylward and I skinned up to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier. The ski down, with lots of wind-affected snow, was less-than-ideal, but not too bad for pre-Halloween!

Unfortunately, on our way out skiing we learned of the death of yet another friend and local climber, Joe Puryear. Joe was climbing in Nepal with Dave Gottlieb and broke through a cornice while unroped.

Joe's skill as a climber is apparent to anyone who knew his climbing accomplishments. Joe was also a very kind and unique individual. His quirkiness caught me off guard the first time I met him, but I soon realized that he simply enjoyed a hobby that is a favorite of mine as well: acting weird and watching people's reactions!

Joe was one of very few North American climbers currently practicing old-school alpine-style climbing in the Himalaya. He and Dave Gottlieb have been quietly racking up a slew of first ascents during the past few years, usually in remote, relatively unexplored areas. By old-school I mean that they were tackling big, snowy peaks with lots of difficult corniced-ridges and snow climbing - a type of climbing that doesn't garner a lot of attention these days, but in actuality is often more difficult than WI6 or M6.

During the winter break of my last year of high school, I spent a week climbing waterfalls in the Canadian Rockies with Joe and Mark Westman. Joe was undeniably the rope-gun. In recent years I sometimes crashed at Joe's house in Leavenworth before a winter alpine-start in the Enchantments, enjoying the company of Joe and his wife Michelle. He will be missed by many.

Joe leading the last pitch of The Sorceror, Feb. 2003:


Joe leading the last pitch of Murchison Falls, Feb. 2003:

Early Winter Spire, Slesse, and Upcoming Slideshows

During the second half of the summer I managed to spend pathetically little time up in the alpine, and pathetically little time climbing in general. This was largely because I spent a few weeks remodeling the SHWOP (small house without plumbing) in my dad's backyard that is my home. I did, however, manage to climb South Early Winter Spire via the Direct East Buttress with my brother, Booth, and our Bulgarian friend, Boris Lukanov. And on a separate occasion, I went and climbed the classic Northeast Buttress of Slesse with Alex Honnold.

Booth following the first 5.11 pitch on the East Buttress of SEWS. I thought this lower-angle slabbier pitch was harder than the steeper, but more featured 5.11 pitch above.


Alex in the Pocket Glacier cirque below the East Face of Mt. Slesse, about to put on crampons for his second time ever!


Alex escaping the chaos of the Pocket Glacier:


Mr. Honnold putting on his most extreme face high on the Northeast Buttress. We simul-soloed most of the route, but I asked for the rope on the 5.10 direct variation. I'm quite glad I did, because we accidently climbed a 5.11/A0 variation to it.


Later this week I'm giving slideshows in Seattle, Portland and Eugene on the new route I climbed on Mt. Foraker in June with Bjørn-Eivind Årtun.

Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7pm, at Feathered Friends in Seattle. Free admission.


Thursday, Sept. 30, 7pm, at the Mazama Mountaineering Center in Portland. Admission is $10, but proceeds go to fund the Mazama grant program.


Friday, Oct. 1, 7:30pm, at Backcountry Gear in Eugene. Admission is $5.

Devil's Thumb, The Diablo Traverse

Devil's Thumb, The Diablo Traverse

Mikey Schaefer (mikeylikesrocks.com) and I have just come back to Seattle from a quick, fantastic trip to the Stikine Icecap region, on the BC-Alaska border, near Petersburg, Alaska. I have been planning to visit Devil's Thumb for years, but until now never made it to this beautiful mountain range. Our objective was a complete traverse of the Devil's Thumb massif, climbing over the summits of the Witches Tits, Cat's Ears Spires, and finally Devil's Thumb itself. Like the Torres Traverse to Ermanno Salvaterra, this traverse is originally the dream of Dieter Klose, the Stikine's most dedicated disciple.

The traverse was attempted in 2004 by Jon Walsh and Andre Ike, who became the first to traverse all four spires of the Witches Tits and Cat's Ears (making the first ascent of the East Witches Tit in the process), but were stopped at the base of The Thumb by a chopped rope. In 2006 Jed Brown and I applied for a Fellowship Fund Grant to try the traverse. The rejection of our grant application was actually a blessing in disguise, because we switched plans to a less expensive trip, and ended up climbing The Entropy Wall on Mt. Moffit, still one of my best climbs ever.

Inspired by our friends Dave Burdick and John Frieh's execution of such a plan last summer on Burkett Needle, Mikey and I planned our trip in the "smash and grab" style: Rather than sit on a glacier in the rain for weeks, watch the weather forecast from Seattle, and when it looks good buy a last-minute ticket to Petersburg, "smash" into the range (with the assistance of a helicopter), and "grab" a summit (or five) before the weather gods realize they've let you slip by...

So, on the evening of Tuesday, August 10th, we bought tickets for Petersburg departing Seattle the following morning, August 11th. We spent the remainder of Wednesday organizing ourselves in Petersburg with the generous help of Dieter Klose, and buying food and fuel (be warned: isobutane canisters in Petersburg cost twelve dollars apiece!) On Thursday we flew with Temsco Helicopters from Petersburg to a little basecamp below Devil's Thumb's southeast face.

On Friday morning (August 13) we departed our basecamp at the leisurely hour of 8am, and made a descending, traversing approach to the base of the Witches Tits. We climbed to the notch between the two Witches Tits by the Edwards-Millar route, with the Walsh-Ike "Witches Cleavage" variation. The climbing on the upper headwall was absolutely outstanding, and certainly some of the highest-quality alpine rock I've ever touched. The unrepeated Edwards-Millar route looks amazing, as does the unrepeated Belcourt-Rackliffe route. We left our packs in the notch between the Tits, and quickly tagged the summit of the West Witches Tit. We then picked our packs back up, climbed up to the summit of the East Witches Tit for it's second ascent, and rappelled the east ridge of the East Tit to a tight bivy in the Tits-Ears col. This col had the last snow or ice we encountered before the summit of Devil's Thumb, so we had to leave with the weight of 8 liters of water in our packs.

On Saturday morning we again left our bivy at a leisurely hour, and made one rappel to the north side of the ridge, to gain the Elias-McMullen route on the Cat's Ears. We climbed the Elias-McMullen route to the Cat's Brow (the notch between the ears), and then tagged each of the spectacular Cat's Ears summits in single pitches from the Cat's Brow. We knew that Walsh and Ike had rappelled to the south from the Cat's Brow, and chopped their rope regaining the ridgecrest in the extremely-chossy Ears-Thumb gully. Hoping to avoid a similar fate, we decided to instead rappel the east face of the East Cat's Ear, directly into the Ears-Thumb notch. Our plan worked to avoid the chossy gully, although it was very intimidating to rappel the dead-vertical to slightly overhanging east face of the East Ear. From the Ears-Thumb notch we climbed two pitches up Devil's Thumb's West Buttress to a five-star bivy ledge.

On Sunday we finally got an earlier start, and continued up the West Buttress of The Thumb. There was one tricky roof that Mikey surmounted with a mix of free and aid climbing, but the majority of the West Buttress was moderate climbing, in the 5.6-5.9 range, on fantastic rock. I think it is a route worthy of classic status. The West Buttress had been almost climbed in 1990 by Jim Haberl, Mike Down, and Alastair Foreman, who retreated one pitch below the summit ridge in a storm. We found their rappel anchors all the way up, and their last anchor indeed looked like it had been made in haste: a sketchy-looking block, backed up with a friend.

We continued up the summit ridge, tagged the summit, and kept traversing to the descent of the southeast face. The descent, down a variation of the Beckey Route, was long and tedious (particularly because it was so melted out, and there were lots and lots of loose blocks), but we eventually made it into our camp at 10:30pm.

It was a fantastic climb, in a beautiful area. It was higher in quality than difficulty, and is certainly a traverse that I'd recommend to others. We're calling it the "Diablo Traverse," and the grade we climbed it at is I think 5.10, A2. Thanks to Jon Walsh and Andre Ike for laying the groundwork, and thanks a ton to Dieter Klose for the original inspiration and logistical help in Petersburg.


The Fitz Roy of North America: Devil's Thumb from Dieter's house.


Getting closer to Devil's Thumb on the helicopter ride in. To the left is Mt. Burkett and Burkett Needle.


Mikey on the approach to the Witches Tits.


Colin on the lower buttress of the Edwards-Millar route, on the West Witches Tit.


Mikey on a fantastic pitch of "Witches Cleavage," the Walsh-Ike variation to the Edwards-Millar route.


Mikey on the East Witches Tit.


Colin climbing to the summit of the East Witches Tit.


Mikey climbing the Elias-McMullen route on the north face of Cat's Ears Spires.


Mikey higher on the Elias-McMullen route, dealing with some slightly chossy rock.


Mikey on the north face of Cat's Ears Spires.


Colin coming up to the Cat's Brow on the Elias-McMullen route.


View to the west from the summit of the West Cat's Ear. Forest fires in BC made for some smoky skies.


Mikey on the last few meters of the West Cat's Ear.


Mikey on the East Cat's Ear, with the West Ear behind.


Mikey on the East Cat's Ear.


Mikey rappelling the very steep east face of the East Cat's Ear, with the West Buttress of Devil's Thumb sunlit above.


Mikey working up the crux roof on the West Buttress of Devil's Thumb.


Colin jugging the roof.


Mikey enjoying fantastic climbing on the West Buttress of The Thumb.


Colin high up on the West Buttress.


Colin on the summit ridge of Devil's Thumb, with Mt. Burkett and Burkett Needle behind.


We generally divided the lead blocks to our relative strengths - Mikey leading the steep, clean rock pitches, and Colin leading the more fucked-up "alpine stuff." Leading the raps through the large bergschrund on the Beckey Route was Colin's turf.


Back at our camp below the southeast face.


Mikey waiting for the helicopter ride out, as the high pressure began to slowly break down.


The west-to-east line of The Diablo Traverse.

Tahoma Ski Descent and North Rib of Slesse

After Alaska I had to nurse my frostbitten toes for a couple weeks before climbing on them. Since then I have been mostly just rock climbing, at Index, Squamish and Skaha, but have made it up into the alpine a couple times - for a ski descent of Tahoma's (aka Mt. Rainier) Edmunds Headwall, and a climb of the North Rib of Slesse.

I hiked in to the northwest side of Tahoma on Bastille Day, July 14, with my brother, Booth, and our Spanish-British friend, Eduardo Blanchard Wrigglesworth. We planned to climb and ski the Edmunds Headwall, marked in red, on the right side of the Mowich Face:


We slept on the lower slopes of Ptarmigan Ridge, and crossed the Mowich Glacier in the morning on a semi-early schedule. Los hermanos Haley descansan en la pared:


Eduardo climbing up the Edmunds Headwall:


Colin, Eduardo and Booth on the north summit of Tahoma, Liberty Cap:


We waited an hour below the summit for the snow to soften a bit, and then started down the upper Mowich Face at 3:30pm. Colin on the upper Mowich Face, just before traversing skier's left to the Edmunds Headwall:


Booth on the upper Edmunds Headwall:


Despite the reputation of the Mowich Face as a serious ski descent, there was only one short section of 50 degrees, and most of the descent was about 40 degrees. It was comparable to the Northeast Face of Les Courtes in Chamonix, just with a longer approach. Booth letting loose on the Edmunds Headwall:


I spent last weekend at Mt. Slesse, one of North America's greatest peaks. Nick Elson and I climbed the Complete North Rib, a Jeff Lowe route to the right of the popular Northeast Buttress. Slesse in the morning light, with the complete North Rib marked:


Nick coming up the North Slesse Glacier, with the Nesakwatch Spires across the valley behind:


Nick coming up some slabs on the lower portion of the North Rib. The rock here is good, but quite compact, making for some moderate but runout climbing.


The rock on the lower portion of the North Rib is all good granite. Some of it is licheny and some of it is loose, because the route sees little traffic, but it is solid in general. If the route saw anywhere close to the amount of traffic on the Northeast Buttress it would be very high quality rock climbing. Colin mid-way up the North Rib:


When you arrive at the notch the upper North Rib looks really chossy, but don't be fooled - it is surprisingly solid, fun climbing. My recently-recovered toes couldn't take rock shoes anymore, so fortunately Nick was happy to take the last block up to the summit and I could follow in my approach shoes. Nick on the Upper North Rib:


The other aspect of our Slesse weekend was making a trail for the Crossover descent. The Crossover is a far superior way off of Slesse than descending to the Slesse Creek Valley, but was plagued for years by a bad bushwack at the end. So, on Saturday Nick and I, along with several other friends, spent the day making a trail from the memorial plaque to the Crossover Descent basin. A detailed route description of the Crossover Descent can be found here: http://www.jeremyfrimer.com/visitor/Crossover_Pass_Descent.pdf

Sara and Seth working on the Crossover trail: