Healed, ready, steady, go...

"Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy..."  - Lennon–McCartney (and the crooner at the hut)

Nearly 4 months ago my friend Greg Sadowy asked me if I wanted to join his team at climbing Gran Paradiso (4061mt/13300ft) by the normal glacier route in August this year. Apart from Mont Blanc, which is shared between France and Italy, Gran Paradiso is the the highest peak fully contained in Italy. Back then, every morning when I woke up I was still limping around for half an hour like a one-legged dog. I would join my office-mates for an occasional run, only to wake up next morning in more pain. Gran Paradiso this year, or perhaps even next year, seemed out of the question.

But then, my 30th birthday was looming, and the impending quarter-life crisis got me thinking very very hard. I am too cheap to go through actual physical therapy (apart from after my accident, I have not visited a doctor in last 8 or 9 years), and the no activity/gentle activity approach seemed to be proving futile. I had to take the remaining Hamikesque option: increase the intensity level of activity and push through the pain, secretly hoping it will eventually get bored and go away letting me play again.
 

The Eiger, with the distinct Mittelegi ridge in the skyline and the famous North wall. The Eiger Rotstock is a 500 metre via ferrata in the bottom right hand side of the North wall.

This new plan started with increased running mileage, then meeting Stephen and the Beckers in Grindelwald to climb the Eiger Rotstock via ferrata on day 1, some more running later that evening, and on day 2 hiking up to 9000 feet (with a heavy pack) in the Bernese Alps. The ankle seemed fine! Hooray to stupid absurd plans! And, I saw the stunning Mittelegi ridge on Eiger. That sealed it. I wrote to Greg, 2 weeks remaining, and asked if I can join for Gran Paradiso. He said yes!

Totally stoked now, I ramped up my activity levels in the next 14 days. I ran close to 50 miles, including a half marathon with my officemate Ali, did several local hikes, watched Rocky 1 and parts of Rocky 2, and climbed the local (30 mins by bus from my home!) San Salvatore via ferrata on my 30th birthday! I later read in a guidebook that this via ferrata is technically the hardest in Switzerland, with a rating of KS6. Federico, whose gear I borrowed, tells me there are harder and longer ones in the Dolomiti.

Half way up the San Salvatore via ferrata. It is short (1.5 to 2 hours), but pumpy, and I went on a 90F day. Good thing I have been doing my pullups regularly! 

 On 15th August (buono ferragosto!) I was hiking up with 5 others in our team (Greg, Marilee, Lillie, Carsten and Kathy) from the stunningly picturesque Aosta valley to the Vittorio Emmanuele hut at 2715 metres with a 20kg backpack. I had left my ice axe in India, so I took Kyle Dempster's ice tool out for a spin. If you don't know who he is, check this video of him on a most inspiring multi-week solo biking and first-ascent climbing trip through remote parts of Asia. I have those very tools as in the video now! It makes sense to get accustomed to doing snow/glacial approaches with it instead of an axe given my future objectives.

At the trailhead

At the hut, 7PM. The hut itself is a popular hike destination. On this sunny evening, when we reached there this guy was playing and singing "All you need is love". Good omen.

La Trescenta and Ciarforon (left to right) at bedtime

The hut was quite posh (by my cheapo standards). Great food, nice beds, and I made 3 new friends! Virrna, Matthias and Chongma. If you go there, please tell them hello from the shaven-head Indian guy who came in ferragosto. If you get lucky, maybe you too will get a free macchiato or free apricot pie :)

Per usual, I upped my garlic intake (I had it high for 5 days or so before the climb). My teammates did not protest much, or at least were kind enough to not punch me. You can explore the scientific literature on garlic and tell me (and Messner/Twight/countless sherpas) if it just a placebo or not.

We had dinner at 8, and were in bed by 9ish. Next morning, Friday, we woke up at 4, to find that Greg had been up all night powdering his nose. Carsten as well was not feeling great. This was a bummer. But perhaps for good, since we had all come up from sea level the previous morning. So we decided to postpone summit attempt to next day. We instead went up to the beginning of the glacier, and scouted out the route amongst moraines for tomorrow. There are a few scary and bad ways you can go if not careful! We were back by lunch. I had a voracious appetite on the entire trip, and ate 1.5 meals. Then, some good icing in the lake next to hut. Later that evening we practiced some crevasse skills and got ready for next morning. Greg and Carsten were thankfully starting to feel better.

Carsten chilling before the snow/glacier begins, around 3150 meters.

Don't fail me tomorrow, ankle! I have waited 1 and a half years to come back for this.

Next morning, Saturday, we woke up at 0330, and were on the road by 0440. Marilee, the ever so trooper, pushed it till the glacier, and following her we were soon at the base of the glacier and roped up. On one rope team, it was Greg, Marilee and me, while the other three were on the second rope. We went past a few clearly visible crevasses, not too many. We reached the summit ridge by 0845, to some most excellent views. The ridge had now started to get crowded. This ridge, with some exposed class 3 scrambling, is the major challenge for especially the guided teams, and is a clear bottleneck. We were early enough to not get too badly stuck. The rest of the story through pictures:

we go UP!

sunrise as we climb the glacier

so good to be back. I smiled, whistled and sang most of the way.

Nearing the summit, visible beyond the dirty ice here. our route avoids this and goes to the right.

Mont Blanc and Grand Jorasses. The ice tool I carry today has been to quite a few of those places!

from summit ridge

little bit of fun easy but super exposed scrambling to reach the summit proper. Here Marilee on a "belay" by Greg.

The handsome couple Marilee and Greg at the summit

The punk in crampons at the summit

This one's for Kyle: to love, respect and adventure! Hello from your old cobra!

We then downclimbed the ridge, and jumping a few little crevasses, were soon back at hut. ~8 hours round trip hut to hut, with 45 minutes plus on the crowded ridge. Beer and cake was consumed at the hut, and then a quick hike out.

back on the ridge

Kathy jumping over a crevasse on the way down

La birra

Until next time! Time to get stoked for some metadynamics now, but only after I eat a gelato straciatella by the lake Lugano and dream a bit more.

Healing takes time

I have been in Switzerland 3 months now, and it has been a year since my accident. I have barely climbed in this period, and the few times I have, the subsequent morning my ankle has protested loudly. Now however it is getting much better, and after running run 4-6 miles 2 to 3 days in a row, the ankle still feels good. I can see the flexibility is coming back.

One might ask as to why run if the ankle is messed up. There are 2 answers. First, it feels good. Second, my natural disposition is to become fat if I do no cardio, and biking seems just too complicated.

I have been hiking the local hills in the meanwhile - Bre, Boglia, Denti della vecchia. Sometimes I feel really desperate to get out to the high, snowy places, and with the quality of healing, I think it will happen soon. Healing is taking time, and it is teaching me a lot of humility.

Off to California for 10 days tomorrow, and there I will make a short trip to Malibu (probably Planet of Apes or Stumbling Blocks area).

First month back into climbing

Gunks - Echo Cliffs - Tahquitz x 2

3 months have now passed since my stupid fall, and I was getting restless, angry, almost desperate to climb. Now in this last month I have been able to get out and climb 4 out of 4 weekends!

The first was August 25-26.  I spent the month of August at Brown University, and took the chance to finally head out - climbing with Tim at the Gunks. Mellow 2 days, and we got a first taste of the Gunks. We climbed in the Trapps. Day 1 was Northern Pillar (3 pitches, 5.3) and Minty (we did first pitch, 5.4). Tim led all of Northern Pillar, while I led Minty. By the end of the first day my ankle was swollen enough that my left shoe was too tight for it. Day 2, we climbed Three Pines (5.4), where I led P1 and P3. Fun, easy climb, and I could see how out of shape I have been after 3 months of couch-hugging! I then wanted to rest the ankle, so I belayed Tim on some hard top-ropes, he was having dinner later that night with friends and I am guessing he wanted his forearms to look pumped and masculine.

The next weekend on 1st Sep, Greg, Patrick and Clara went with me to Echo Cliffs. It was rather hot! Greg and Patrick led some 5.8s, that I meekishly followed. I then led a short easy 5.7, and then followed Greg on that 5.9 next to the trail.

The third weekend started early. Megan's friend Kim was visiting from the UK, and we were going to the Sierra Nevada on Sat/Sun 8-9 Sep for hiking/hot springing. So, I went climbing on Friday with someone who never says no to "hey want to go climbing?" - Josh Zahl. We thus went to Tahquitz on Sep 7, and climbed the nice Fingertrip (5 pitches, 5.7-5.8, three stars in the guidebook). Josh led the first lieback pitch. I led P2, but went a little too far left, got into some 5.8, got tired soon, and belayed Josh up from a nice hanging belay. Josh led P3, a short P4 that I led got us to the lunch ledge. P5 was Josh's lead, since I was not quite excited about leading the 5.5 slab at top with its one lonely bolt. 8.30 PM, back in Pasadena, and then drove to Big Pine with the two ladies. The next day we hiked up to First Lake near Temple Crag and basically had a nice weekend, ending at Santa Monica Beach. I saw 5 shooting stars in an hour on Saturday night from the hot springs near Bishop! This is Josh and I after topping out on Fingertrip, I borrowed Megan's camera that day.

 

The fourth weekend in this "first month back into climbing" was on September 15th. Jeandrew was visiting from South Africa, and I saw her in the Red Door Cafe. 2 or so years ago some of my first trips to Tahquitz were with Jeandrew, when she would patiently lead all the pitches. I asked her if she wanted to go to Tahquitz and she immediately said yes. So Josh, Jeandrew and I went to Tahquitz and climbed the super-fun Left Ski Track (5.6, 3 pitches, again a 3-star route in the guidebook). I led P1 and P2 while Josh led P3. We were not super efficient, and it took the three of us 5-6 hours for the three pitches. All three pitches were worth the three star rating! I almost connected P2 and P3 by going up the arete that leads to a bolted slab, but right before the bolt I searched for my balls and I got a "DOES NOT COMPUTE" message. So I downclimbed the arete (airy!), and belayed the other two. The step-around move on P2 was actually not that scary, but the part on P2 till the step-around was tiring, with the crack bveing somewhat awkward. I saw Roman from the top of P2, that was nice! He is a monster, he climbed El Camino Real, Whodunit and something else that day.

Left ski track and Fingertip traverse were the first two routes I ever climbed at Tahquitz, perhaps 3+ years ago when I followed Hamik. It is some sort of coming-of-age for me to be able to go back and lead LST.

Now I am icing my ankle, waiting for this second month to commence. There is much on the menu - Tahquitz, Gunks, East Arete on Humphreys (alpine!), and hopefully, Palisade Traverse.

Whitney MR - Lone Pine Peak South Face - Lone Pine Peak North Ridge - CRASH

The title sums up my climbing in the last few months. All that, plus few trips to J-Tree and Tahquitz. I was finishing up my PhD, so was sort of busy these few months, discovering what all I could have done in my research during last 4 years, and generally getting sad. A culmination of this not-so-active and sad phase was a 50 ft fall on the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak at around 12000 ft, leading to 18hrs of being stranded, and eventual helicopter evacuation. This was on May 20th, so now it has been 3 months of couch suffering.

Let's have a flash back on these last few months. There were two practice trips in February with the Caltech Alpine Club, wherein Patrick, Hamik and I led nearly 20-30 people each time to the top of San Gorgonio. Easy snow camping trips both, but they had their fair share of excitement. Especially on the first practice trip, where one person got lost on the approach, and all the leaders and the veterans on the trip except me had to go looking for him. I then took rest of the group up the mountain, and with help from Bryan and Joel, we practiced variety of basic snow skills and some rope work. The weather was more alpine on this trip, than the second trip the weekend right after.

Right after the second trip, I went to Los Alamos lab, armed with my self-confidence, knowledge and ignorance to give a talk on my work in front of someone whom I consider one of the fathers of my field. At Los Alamos I also met Doug Shepherd, a most inspiring climber-cum-scientist. Doug later visited us at Caltech to talk about disaster style alpinism, something I experienced myself this year.

Anyway, so entire March-April went to talks and writing up my PhD thesis. Oh yeah, I did manage to go to Josh and Tahquitz a few times with Josh, Patrick and Greg. I fondly remember climbing Fool's Gold/White Maiden's Walkway with Josh! And there was the club trip to Whitney, where many of us summitted the Mountaineer's Route in good style.

And now, I was Dr. PT. Yes! Let's go climb! I paired up with Greg Sadowy to climb West Lark at Tahquitz. A 5 pitch climb, where I (by mistake) led my first Tahquitz 5.7! I led the last 5.5 pitch in rain, oh man, that was so much fun! The next weekend Greg and I paired up and climbed the Winter Route on South Face of Lone Pine Peak. This was the veteran's trip of our club, and everyone summitted.

Up from the summit, I saw the North Ridge. The emotions were similar to when I saw Megan for the first time. So pretty! I must know this ridge better! So, in 5 days, Tucker, Erik, Patrick and I got together and set out for a 1-day climb of the North Ridge. We scrambled up to ~11500 feet, where we roped up for the first time on this climb, and I led a easy 5.something pitch. Terrain became easier, we unroped and kept going. Easy class 3, and there was this one easy class 5 move. I shout to Erik "Hey Erik! This move seems awesome! I love it as I am doing it", and grab with my right hand a big flake, and with my left hand a small knob. As I transfer load from feet to hands, first the knob broke, and then the whole flake. And soon I was tumbling down, like Homer Simpson on his staircase. I lost consciousness for a few seconds, woke up, and felt the most pain in my left ankle I have ever felt. I don't really want to talk more about the accident here, it makes me sad. You can read about it here or on google.

That was 1 PM, and SAR folks reached us at 1 AM. Those guys are amazing. Strong and noble. Next morning, at 6.30 AM I was dangling from the side of a helicopter.

The doctors could not believe it when they found nothing was broken - I was so lucky - but I had 3 very deep wounds in my left ankle. I spent 3 weeks on crutches, watching others climb, feeling helpless myself. I also had to cancel my trip to Washington State for which Lauren, myself and others had won the Live your Dream grant of the American Alpine Club. Kyle Dempster visited us during this time and gave a most inspiring and fun slideshow. One day I want to take him to India with me - to Uttarakhand. I know he will love it.

I have now started climbing in the gym (crushing gnarly 5.5s on auto-belay), am headed to the legendary Gunks on 25-26 with randy-T (or Tim), and Tahquitz soon thereafter with Greg Sadowy. Mt. Humpreys East Arete in September, yes! Maybe it is because of the song I am listening to as I write this part (It's natural to be afraid by Sigur Ros), but I can't wait to get back to the Sierra, and laugh, sing, dance, cry all over again.

Man, it's good to be back.

Attempt on winter ascent of Swiss Arête

After spending too many weekends cragging at Joshua Tree, Patrick and I decided to take our trad skills to the high peaks. A winter ascent of Swiss Arete on Mt. Sill seemed a natural choice - cold, relatively remote and a beautiful way to summit an amazing peak. This had been a low snow year, and I had done the route 2 years ago with Hamik (it was my first multi-pitch alpine route then, or maybe second if I include the club's trip to Chimney Variation on U-Notch/North Palisade in winter earlier that year). From 2, we quickly became 5: Patrick, me, Jon, Josh and Tucker.

This was a fun weekend, pretty much alone in the Palisades, except Vitaliy M.'s 2-person team climbing the L-couloir on Sill. However we failed to achieve our objective by far. This was mostly due to a general lack of seriousness on the team's part given how hard the objective was. A successful winter attempt on Swiss Arete warranted an expeditionary mindset, which we clearly lacked. That said, it was still relieving to actually get out there and spend time with good friends in a very beautiful area.

We did not leave Pasadena until 8PM or later on Thursday 2nd Feb, reaching TH at 1:30 AM or some ridiculous hour like that (the plan was to leave Pasadena at 6.30PM.) After very poor quality sleep, we took >2 hours to get ready, and we did not leave the TH (7800 feet) until 9.15 AM. We set camp at Sam Mack Meadow (11,100 feet) at 5.30PM. The last 200 vertical feet took more than an hour. Our original plan involved taking the gully above Third Lake to directly reach Gayley Camp, but that gully looked quite rocky in parts. So we did not take it. Turned out the alternative of going to Sam Mack and then taking the use trail to Gayley Camp is much longer.

We did not carry snowshoes, and post-holed extensively in the slopes leading up to Sam Mack Meadow. This was a major mistake as the only other team in the area which did have snowshoes seems to have post-holed 0 to minimal and made it up to Gayley Camp first day itself. Vitaliy, who left that morning before us, knew from his friends that the current conditions warranted snowshoes. Note to self: ALWAYS carry snowshoes to trailhead if there is any chance of snow.

Next morning we woke up at 3 AM (after a semi-awake few hours). We left camp at 4:10AM. We followed Vitaliy M and Bryan's snowshoe tracks from the previous day that took us to Gayley Camp. This was not as easy as we had thought it would be, and almost all of us felt either the altitude (leading to slowness) or the cold. Patrick was way stronger than the rest of us on this entire trip, and somehow managed to make no big deal of any of the post-holing. Tucker had fell sick so he stayed at Sam Mack camp.

The combination of lack of sleep for 2 nights, and extensive post-holing with a heavy pack on the approach, had left me very demoralized. I just could not bring my spirits up - even with the sights of my favorite peaks Gayley, the Palisades and Winchell, all glowing bright in the Sierra alpenglow. Vitaliy's headlamps, that we could earlier see in the L-couloir, had now disappeared. At around 7 AM, at around 12500 feet, in full view of the Palisade glacier and the Swiss Arete now coming into sun, I simply gave up.

I told my partners Josh and Patrick that I would be a liability if I continued further with them. Patrick at this time was feeling cold in his toes and fingers, and my giving up was the proverbial last nail in the coffin for our Swiss Arete attempt. Patrick felt he was not comfortable leading 5 pitches at 13000 feet all on his own.

Jon soon joined us, after taking what he called "the biggest dump known to man-kind" (speaking of which, I have always wondered, why is it called take and not give. But I digress.) My low morale had diffused into Patrick, and both of us simply decided to walk back to camp.

Jon and Josh still seemed charged. They switched the objective to Mt. Gayley, and possibly some ice-climbing on the glacier. The latter was promptly dropped since we did not have stuff for an ice anchor. However as we realised later, they could not make it up to even Glacier Notch because of the snow quality and tiredness.

All of us then hiked out. At 5 PM, the TH was still around 20F cold, as per the car thermometer. The donut shop in Lone Pine was a natural destination now. A voluminous 2-scooped hot fudge sundae and some strange groovy MTV videos made me feel a bit better. Patrick drove all the way to Pasadena, the champion of late night post-climb driving that he is. Somehow, this time on the drive back he did not play Mountain Goats' "Ezekiel 7 and The Permanent Efficacy of Grace".

I read this once (perhaps in Andrew Lindblade's book "Expeditions", not sure), that there are 3 requirements from any expedition - come back alive, still friends with your partners, and successful, in that order. I guess we did succeed in 2 out of 3. What makes me particularly sad is that we could have had the 3rd too, if we did a 3-day trip instead of 2, carried snowshoes and in general been a little more careful about the planning.

Palisade traverse attempt: Thunderbolt, Starlight and North Palisade

The Palisades keep drawing me back. They stand austerely far away from the glances of the crowds (non-mountaineering folks mostly still are not aware of their existence). It gives me strange joy when someone asks me "so where did you climb", and to my reply "in the Palisade regions of the high Sierra" they respond with an empty stare.

After the Gayley and Thunderbolt trip around May 1st, I had been mostly pre-occupied with research and had been using that as an excuse to sit on my ass all day and eat waffles. I did run a slow 4:37 Pasadena marathon, and made that first in 2011 trip to climb El Whampo (5.7, 5 pitches) at Tahquitz with Dan Berisford. But that's pretty much it - further worsened by Echo Mountain run induced ankle injuries. So scare was a natural state of mind when I found myself facing a 3 day trip to traverse across the Palisade ridge, involving 5 jagged peaks above 14000 feet. Especially because my partners on this trip (The Kedrone, Patrick and Jon the Wiseman) are in common parlance known to be some of the fittest hikers around who also poke you with a stick (or ice-tool) if you lag behind. Patrick and Kedrone had also climbed Russell East Arete the week before, so I was also worried that they will have much superior acclimatization than me. But in retrospect, looks like garlic and gingko IS the way to go (gingko having the additional advantage that you won't be mocked upon by your girlfriend for having a perennial bad breath)!

We set out June 23rd 7.30 PM from Pasadena, and drove up to the high Horseshow Meadows campground to spend the night, next to a gushing waterfall on the roadside. Next morning, after stuffing ourselves with donuts and bagels at the appropriately named "Donut and espresso shop" in Lone Pine, we went to the ranger station and collected our permits. We soon reached the South Lake trailhead, and by 11.30 AM, we were stomping across the trails headed for the 12400' Thunderbolt Col. The hike in was mostly uneventful but had great views as usual. The undulations between Bishop Pass and Thunderbolt Col led to extended swearing and spitting on my part. By 6 PM we reached our small campsite hidden between rocks right at the Col. We melted snow, ate and drank, and soon were ensconced in our sleeping bags. We did not bring tents and the calm and clear night sky full of gazillion stars and occasional shooting stars lulled us to sleep.
Only to wake up at 3 AM. By 4 AM, we were cramponing up the semi-icy Southwest chute #1 of Thunderbolt.
We reached the notch between Lightning Rod and Thunderbolt at around 6.30, and soon thereafter we were at the summit block after some class 4. Peak number 1 done, 4 more to go.

We downclimbed the 5.6 chimney (which seemed much easier) as advised by Stephen. Some class 3 slabs, and we were at the top of Underhill Couloirs. I later saw some other climbers descending the alternate (to the 5.6 option) class 4 slabs, and that was scary (3rd picture below). We then scrambled some exciting class 4-5 to get stuck at a point where we saw rappel slings. Like the Donkey in Shrek 3, who can not but eat waffles wherever he sees them, we could not but rappel when we saw slings. So we rappelled. Jon had stayed back at TB and would descend later on his own.
Now we reached a chimney, which I thought looked easy. I started free-soloing it, but very soon found myself doing 5.7ish moves, and so I stopped at a ledge. Kedron then led it placing adequate pro, and belayed me and Patrick. It was a bad idea to climb that thing in boots since there were some slabby moves which I slipped on (good that the prussik belay held). By 12 noon, we had climbed the phallic Milk Bottle of Starlight Peak. 2 done, 3 more to go.

A couple of fun rappels (including a twist-and-shout one at the gap between Starlight and North Pal), some more class 4 and we were 50 odd feet below North Palisade's summit block. The wind had now picked up. The class 4 route on the east side of the summit was all snow covered and looked super sketchy. So we roped up again and climbed the 5.5 chimney variation. Roping up takes time! Especially with 3 climbers. This meant it was 4.30 PM or so when we reached the summit of North Palisade. 3 done, 2 more to go.


I was here a year ago on the Caltech Alpine Club's winter mountaineering trip, and knew well the way back to U-Notch. The key is to immediately jump down the summit block, and not traverse west. Some more fun scrambling, 2 rappels, and we were at U-Notch. Time was 6.30 PM. We almost immediately started climbing the class 4 to Polemonium. But almost immediately, we also discovered a collective dip in will-power. We knew the terrain now was much less technical and that we could do it if we tried. But it was too windy for our morale, and as The Kedrone said, we decided to sand. We then downclimbed the west side of U-Notch. Some scree, and big crevasse shaped holes left in the ground by the waterfall. But overall an easy downclimb. It was 9 PM when we reached camp. I was too tired to eat or talk, but still pretty happy.
Next morning we woke up when the sun was so high and strong it almost perforated through our sleeping bags. Marmot at the campsite, deers at Bishop Pass going from somewhere to somewhere. The Palisades shone, enticing me to come back to finish the traverse. We hiked out the 10 odd miles, and rewarded ourselves with dinner at Still Life Cafe in Independence.
Peter Croft calls this traverse a Magical Mystery Tour, and now I can see why.

(All pictures courtesy: Patrick, Kedron and Hamik)

Palisades: Gayley and Thunderbolt

29th April - 1st May was when the Caltech Alpine Club did its annual veteran's trip to the Palisades. The objective was to climb Thunderbolt (14003 feet), and perhaps some other peak(s) too. On 29th April, 5 of us (me, Bill, Patrick, BG, Odin) did the 11 odd miles approach from Glacier Lodge Trailhead to Sam Mack Meadows. Temple Crag and a frozen Second Lake on the way:



We then set up camp at Sam Mack Meadows, around 11,000 feet. The plan was to head up 800 feet the steep looking chute you see in this, but the snow looked funny, and the trees at Sam Mack seemed better from shelter perspective (especially since 50 mph gusts were in the forecast), so we stayed at Sam Mack.



Day 2 was allotted for climbing Mt. Gayley (13510 feet), as an easy class 3 acclimatization peak. Leaving camp at a leisurely 7.45 AM, we climbed up to the Palisade glacier, traversed on it admiring the sights of the Palisade ridge and climbed up to Glacier Notch. From the time I had climbed Mt. Sill, I remembered the climb up to the notch to be an easy scramble. But now it was full of snow, so was a little funky, and gave the satisfying pleasure of listening to the sound of crampons scratching on loose tumbling rocks. I had forgotten my helmet and was promptly scolded by BG for it.






All of us on the summit of Gayley:

We then decided to downclimb the southwest ridge itself, as we were concerned about descending the steep icy snow especially since there was loose rock around.

We then descended the notch, ran across the glacier amazed as we saw skiers everywhere on the mountain. There was a group climbing up the L-couloir on Sill, with skis on back. There was another group that had climbed up U-notch to ski it down, and was now climbing up the V-notch to ski! Unbelievable! I had left some food at the top of the notch. When I got back i saw that the garlic naan was gone (probably taken by birds that were circling around as we were climbing up, or by the skiers on Sill). But once again, my trusty Nutella was untouched!


We were lucky enough to find a small patch of breakable ice in the lake above Sam Mack. We broke through it and filled up stomachs and bottles with as much water as we could, accompanied by loud water burps (the kind Calvin makes to irritate his folks).


We were back at camp by 2.30. Very soon we were joined by 4 other climbers: The Kedrone, Erik the Red, Theo, and Hamik. Much laughing and gossiping ensued. A lazy dinner and we were in bed by 6 PM. The last night had been pretty cold, and the morning had greeted some of us with frozen boots and ice bottles instead of water bottles. Thus tonight our sleeping bags were especially full with all kinds of smelly crap to avoid freezing. Next morning we woke up at 3-3.30 AM, and were up and climbing by 4.30. My head lamp seemed lazier than me, and I spent 10 minutes doing kala jaadu on the batteries. We climbed up the first 1000 feet in 45 minutes, pretty good for 12000 feet elevation. We were then lucky enough to see an amazing tequila sunrise and alpenglow: Winchell in alpenglow below (Patrick, I and others climbed last June when we climbed Sill too).


Spindrift was pretty constant and most of the day today looked as if it was snowing. Our route was the North Couloir. The first challenge was the bergschrund - yes, that same bergschrund which had tried twice to eat some of us. Luckily it seemed pretty full, so we happily stomped across it. So we climbed up the North Couloir and soon reached the top of it. Now we downclimbed a little into where the Southwest Chute comes, and then climbed up some 45-50 degree snow to attain the notch between the Lightning Rod and the real summit.




Hamik now fixed up a line for everyone to take to the summit. I clambered around to find an easier looking class 4+ chimney route, which I free soloed up to be greeted at the summit around 8.15 AM by a surprised Hamik's "WTF!". Everyone else gradually reached the summit. The next challenge was to climb the 5.9R summit block. We tried a little to lead climb it, but the combination of cold and tiredness made it difficult. So the two French in the group joined forces to lasso the summit block after which all of us climbed it.


A quick rappel from the summit, and then we retraced our way back to the camp. The snow bridge on the bergschrund was still strong. We reached camp by 3ish, and hiked out between 4 to 5. Temple Crag lured me again, I guess she wants me to come back and climb her. OK, soon my dearie. We were back at trailhead by 7-8 PM on Day 3, and were soon stuffing our mouths with food at the Subway in Lone Pine.




(All pictures courtesy: Odin, Patrick and B.G.)