Much in the style of Will Gadd and his descriptive posts I'd like to take some time to analyze yesterday's assault on The Dribbles (WI 4) in Hyalite Canyon, looking at the good, the bad and the icy.
The climb consists of 4 pitches of ice about a mile and a half hike in from the Hyalite Peak trailhead. The first pitch has two vertical sections of ice, about 5 meters a piece, with rolling low angle climbing in-between ending at either a tree belay (which we experienced is quite far off to the side and awkward to belay from) or a v-thread spot at the base of the next pitch. Kyle led this first pitch using a double rope setup and placing 3 screws along the way. The lead went very well, nice job Kyle, and the v-thread anchor he set up was bomber in the ice. One remark to be had about the climb was cleaning the route wasn't all that flawless. Cleaning the screws was fine, but having only clipped one rope on the way up left the second rope to be dangling awkwardly off to the right side. Since the clipped rope had the directionality of the line of ice screws it provided a nice top rope line, pulling up the intended ice route. The second rope however dropped low and got wrapped around a big ice bulge, pulling me quite vigorously off to one side requiring some interesting stemming of my right leg to prevent me from being pulled off route. A way of remedying this is either to not pull much slack from the unclipped rope, or to make sure directional screws can be placed on the route. In the end it worked out well and it wasn't really a fault on either of us, just an educational moment.
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| Dribbles January of 2012 |
Continuing on to the second pitch, I met Kyle at the belay where we had a very clean transition for my subsequent lead, trading screws and clippy-draws before I set off. The next lead went very smoothly up a probably WI-3, 20 meter pitch placing 3 screws on the steeper section and then v-threading an anchor off to the right of the next intended pitch. The belay and anchor were both bomber and the clean went very well with good communication, however my rope management was a bit sloppy. Instead of properly lap coiling the rope in front of me on the anchor I just let the rope dangle below me which required an extra 5 minutes of re-coiling it before Kyle could set off on his lead of the next pitch. A potential problem, that was luckily avoided, was the rope drifted off of a rocky overhang below us and could have snagged leading to an awkward recovery of the rope. In the future, proper rope management will make this potential problem null-and void while also saving some time.
The third pitch on The Dribbles is a 20-30 meter pitch of WI-4, starting off quite steep and angling out at the top to a solid v-thread belay (already set up) off to the right of the waterfall. Kyle led this pitch swiftly, placing 4 or 5 screws along the way and made an incredibly swift transition with the belay setup. He also called out a fair warning of thin ice in the middle, allowing me to safely traverse over onto much better ice to the right as a good partner should.
Moving onto lead again, I was off in no time after briefly exchanging screws and began to lead the fourth and final pitch (30 meters, WI-3). It became apparent to us as I was topping out that Kyle's belay spot was right in the middle of the funnel for all of the falling ice I knocked off which could have been devastating had I knocked anything large off onto him. It just goes to show that even if someone else has established part of a route (like his belay station), their placement may not be ideal and extra consideration should be taken into account when climbing. With lovely 20-20 hindsight, we came to the conclusion that moving the belay over would avoid the danger of falling ice and make the climb exponentially safer. 4 screws later I set up a belay, slinging a tree at the top and safely belayed him up to the top of the route. The summit! Success!
Any climber knows that the summit is not the end but barely half of the climb. Getting down still must be executed and executed well, with mental acuity and physical stamina otherwise lives could be put on the line. I admittedly fell prey to this legendary predator and was not in and of the right mind on the descent. Traversing over to a gully where we had read was an easy and proper rappel, we came to the top of a relatively steep chute with no trees and some wind-deposited snow. Kyle was the first to approach it and wisely began searching for a tree with which to set up a rappel to safely traverse the chute to the next set of trees to begin the rappel. I however, feeling mighty after conquering my first multi-pitch ice climb, was eager to press on and forget the safety line while traversing the chute (it looked as though other climbers hadn't used a rope so it seemed safe at the time, and maybe it was). Upon Kyle's insistance though we set up the rope and safely traversed the gully and began the rappel. It wasn't until later that night while I was reading a sad story of a climber, having completed a climb, descending a chute very similar to this one only to trigger an avalanche and end up in the hospital that I realized my mental instability. Two crucial things came to mind while reading this story: you must always consider the safety of you and your climbing team first and foremost (almost like the EMT training bulletin of analyzing the scene safety before approaching the patient), and second you must be able to rely on your partner. Cheers to Kyle for insisting upon the rope for the traverse over the gully for we both made it down tired, but safe.
All in all the climb was beautiful. We were graced with great weather, bomber ice, and a fun and successful climb. Can't wait for the next one!
Cheers,
James
