| Summary | |
| Owner | Dan Walker |
| Creation Date | 2007-12-17 09:57:06 UTC-0500 |
| Description | Shoestring Gully 12.15.07, MITOC Mountaineering Committee
Michael Baym, Woody Hoburg, Eric Gilbertson, Andrew McDonnell, Andy Stachyra, Darren Verplogen, Dan Walker after an early start from the yurt/cabin, we headed over to the ever popular D+D. The plan: flexible scheduling where you get up early enough to get yourself ready to go at the trailhead by 7am. knowing the temporal dangers of a D+D run, Woody and I headed up two stores to the Irving for some delicious fat and sugar -- a major time saver if you don't get seduced by the many options. The gang is fully assembled at the Webster Cliff trailhead by about 7:30, close enough for goverment work. Rather than taking the cliff trail bridge over the river, we followed the road until we were directly below the climb. This way the navigation was considerably easier. We lucked out and found an old dam to cross. We followed the gully up through the usual weeving bit, avoidign fallen trees and rock ledges. Pretty soon we were high in the gully itself. about 6-12" of snow over rocks. We hit the first bulge, which was smaller than last time I climbed it. About 15' of low angle stuff, so we harnessed and cramponed up, then climbed up unroped. Then up the next snowfield through some thin snow/gravel to the base of the ice. There was much more snow and less ice than last time I climbed it, so we suspected it would be simul-climbable. Fortunately it was, with the crux as a 20' section of moderate ice. This saved us the time of pitching out the 5-6 ropelengths to the top. Woody and Darren headed up first, then Me with Andrew and Eric, and last Andy and Michael. The climb was pleasant, offering a variety of ice and snow types and angles, with only a few deep powder sections at the top. Once at the top I led up a rock gully that ended in some super sketch bare rock at the top, and had to cheat with an anchor salvation of a gilbertron, then followed by Woody. Then Darren set up a toprope for the harder 3 finish to the gully. Andy, Andrew and Michael took off, quite satisfied with a good climb in good time. the rest hung out and climbed for a bit more before heading back. Fortunately, the icey roads held off until after we all got back. -dw |