Gato Negro (IV+ 5.10d) With Rebecca

On Rebecca and I's third day in the Wine Spires we decided to go and Climb Gato Negro (IV+ 5.10d) on the Whine Spire. The Whine Spire is a sub-peak of on the East face of Silver Star. Gato Negro is a newer route first climbed by Larry Goldie and Scott Johnston in 2001. It has mostly awesome pitches with a few looser sections. The route is certainly worth doing but it is "kinda in your face" for most of the route.  Adding to that is all the pitches on this route are long, with many around 180-190ft with none shorter than 150ft.

Rebecca approaching the base. This patch of snow seems to always be here and can be a little tricky to get across. There also some scree moats which are a pain to get across.

Me leading up the spectacular first pitch. Don't start on the easier looking chimney around the corner and to the right. This pitch is even better than it looks with many excellent finger locks and great jamming. 

 Rebecca following the first pitch

Rebecca cruising up the 1.5 pitch getting to the base of the 5.10a "Sport" pitch. 

Rebecca following pitch #2

 

Rebecca following the super fun bolted 5.10a bolted face climbing on pitch #2. The climbing is never that hard but sometimes feels committing on fragile feeling flakes.  

 

 Rebecca following pitch 8, a cool rising traverse under a green roof. The rock gets a little loose and hard to protect toward the end of the pitch.

Me climbing the final awesome 11th pitch. A few committing moves down low lead to splitter cracks on this final head wall.

A close up on the same pitch

Making a few raps over the top leads into a steep and extremely loose gully. being mid September it got dark early. I had descended this gully once before and it was a little unsavory, lots of 4th class loose down climbing, a few rappels, stuff falling down everywhere. Well we better hurry it gets dark soon.

Trying to battle our way down this complex extremely loose gully in the dark was hard and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It took us nearly 3 hours in the Dark to work our way down it and back to the Base.

Rebecca wishing we where down, back in camp. We where hoping to hike out that night and drive to Bend for a Wedding, man its going to be a long drive tomorrow.

Me wishing we where back in Camp

So happy to be back in camp, mid-night. I guess thats what happens when you leave after 7:30 in hopes of it getting warmer.

We wished we could sleep in but we had to pack up, hike out and drive 9 hours to Bend Oregon.

Rebecca on the hike out. Looking as cute as ever. Below she crosses Early Winters creek before the final up hill hike back to the car. Upon reaching the car we drove 9 hours to Bend for Chad and Diana's Wedding. We where kinda worked on the Drive.

Piasano Pinnacle W.Ridge(III 5.9) W/Rebecca

In Early September Rebecca and I planned to make a 5 day trip into the Wine spires just East of Washington Pass. But as we drove over the pass, we watched snow fall heavily on our windshield. So we continued down the Road and climbed in Mazama for the day. The next day we hiked in and camped

 Rebecca on the hike up to our camp at 6600ft in the Wine Spires. Some say what can be scares but I have never not seen it running in the "Basin Camp".

Me leading low on the route on the West Ridge of Piasano Pinnacle. We got a late start our second day because it was still a little icy from the snow storm a few days before. When the Sun crested over the Horizon it became fairly comfortable.

Me leading one of the better pitches of the route pitch 4. Piasano is actually one of the best 5.8+/5.9's in the state, far better than the North Face of Burgundy Spire. When linked though they do make one of the best IV 5.8+/5.9's around

Rebecca Following pitch 7. Rebecca you can tell by all her layers wishes it was a little warmer.

 

Me leading on the 6th pitch

Me taking notes along the way.

Rebecca climbing the final steps to the summit on the West ridge

 

Rebecca on top of Piasano Pinnicle, you can see Washington State Hwy 20 in the back ground.

Fine views of the East faces of the Liberty Bell Group

Rebecca hanging out and enjoying the views at Burgundy Col
 after finishing the rappels

Spearhead Traverse

The Spearhead Traverse

 

 In late February of 2010 I went with Eric Dalzell, Pablo Purncas, Ryan O'Connell to ski the ultra-classic Spearhead Traverse from Whistler to Blackcomb. THe Spearhead Traverse is around 20 miles in length and crosses 13 different glaciers and has 34 transitions, yes thats right 34. Most folks do it in 3-4 days, though its been completed in 7.5 hours. We where hoping for 1 night and two days. We were a little woried because the weather didn't look that good, it looked okay.  At least we would have this mega classic tour to ourselves.....

 After leaving Seattle at 4am we arrived in Whistler Village at 9am. Here we are leaving our car (for $25 a night) and getting ready to go. Pablo and Ryan packing up.

Pablo in the Tram riding to the top of Blackcomb mountain, our single lift ride was still $44.

Ryan stoked in the tram, because the weather was marginal they people at custimer service were like "your really going up there", "There is no-one else up there". We at least could explain to them that we were guides and "knew what we were doing".

 For most of our first day we had bad visibilities and relied on my GPS 100% of the time. Skiing was challenging because of the low light but snow conditions were great and stability was good. The skinning was challenging and we changed trail breakers often. Here are Eric and Pablo following up my "AMGA" skin track.

 Navigating in White out conditions early on the first day.

Oh yeah, getting snowed on, skiing in a white out and staring at my GPS.

At times, slight frustration from all the stopping to white out navigate, but a ton of fun to have the tour to ourselves never the less

Here we are making some of the better turns on the First day.

One of the cruxer parts of the day and the and the whole tour crossing over a step pass, in retrospect we might have been able to go around this feature. 

Digging out the mid at the end of the first day.

 Eric Chilling in the mid, we dug it out huge so we could stand up in it and the Mega-mid easily slept all four of us.

 Ryan hanging in the mid

The Mega-mid in the morning, far better weather, high clouds and even patches of blue sky. Because of the poor weather we only made it about 40% of the way around the tour the first day so we go a relatively early start, we were all extremely excited by the improved visibility and awesome ski conditions

 

 First skin of the morning.....

 Pulling up after one of our first descents of the day. Over Lord mountain in the distance. We were so happy to finally start being able to see the route. Of course part of why the Spearhead is so classic is because of its beauty.

Me skiing down one of the other "Cruxes" of the route"

The exact halfway point of the Traverse, it is now easier to continue on than to turn back. We could make out other skiers who had started that day in the distance.

This was one of my favorite shots of the Spearhead Traverse.

Pablo Shredding it

Ryan getting ready to drop in.

Turns toward the end of the Traverse.  We made it back to the final climb back into the ski resort just as it got Dark. After all the white out navigation and everything we did to get there you think it would be easy. But it was challenging, with no one around, no signs, it took us a while to find our way down. Luckily Eric could remember the topography of Whistler and we eventually made our way down in the Dark. We ate dinner in Whistler Village and then drove back, making it to Seattle at 2:30am. Eric and I had to work at Second Ascent at 10am