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Graham Zimmerman climbs the mushroom tunnel after the Lightning bolt Courlior at the end of the first 700ft pitch~Photo Mark Allen
We retreated yesterday after about 7 pitches on the SE face of Bradley so we did not continue up and bivy. As we were coming down the route, from our high point our ropes got stuck and we had to resort to some alpine trickery to get our the ropes back and then we had to hang out on the wall for an additional hour in a cave while heat of day threated the stability of some loose snow slopes. Once everything cooled down we could safely walk back to our skis and ski back to camp. So we're back here now... just chilling, our pirate flag is still up. Now, we're going to go right back up onto the wall but we're going to have a different strategy. Instead of leaving at 3am, we're going to leave at 3pm ( Friday ). And then climb through the cold of the day and then through the night and hang out in the heat of the day ( Saturday ) for our bivies. We'll get about 9 hours of climbing and bivy in the sunshine, and then come off the next day. We're going to go for the same route. [ listen to the podcast for full route description ...about 500 ft of steep snow up a ramp, leads to 5.10 offwidth in a cave, pop out of the cave to the crux ] And we figured out how to get through the crux, we needed to bring rock shoes. So we're going to bring rock shoes this time and we think we'll be able to finish
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Mark Allen recons Mt. Bradley's 4600ft SE Buttress (left hand slyline) of Mt. Bradley before the first attempt. The route begins with a "Lighting Bolt Coulior" that gains acsess to the buttress~Graham Zimmerman
We retreated yesterday after about 7 pitches on the SE face of Bradley so we did not continue up and bivy. As we were coming down the route, from our high point our ropes got stuck and we had to resort to some alpine trickery to get our the ropes back and then we had to hang out on the wall for an additional hour in a cave while heat of day threated the stability of some loose snow slopes. Once everything cooled down we could safely walk back to our skis and ski back to camp. So we're back here now... just chilling, our pirate flag is still up. Now, we're going to go right back up onto the wall but we're going to have a different strategy. Instead of leaving at 3am, we're going to leave at 3pm ( Friday ). And then climb through the cold of the day and then through the night and hang out in the heat of the day ( Saturday ) for our bivies. We'll get about 9 hours of climbing and bivy in the sunshine, and then come off the next day. We're going to go for the same route. [ listen to the podcast for full route description ...about 500 ft of steep snow up a ramp, leads to 5.10 offwidth in a cave, pop out of the cave to the crux ] And we figured out how to get through the crux, we needed to bring rock shoes. So we're going to bring rock shoes this time and we think we'll be able to finish
the route in this style. We're still psyched and conditions are improving every day.
Mark Allen Heading back to base camp on the Ruth Glacier under to looming North Face of Mt. Bradley home of the "Spice Factory" ~Photo Graham Zimmeran
Awesome, send it guys!
ReplyDeleteWow...it is such a treat to hear your podcasts. Even in the Florida heat I feel that I am sort of with you up there.
ReplyDeletexo Cami