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.