Mt. Triumph, August 21-22nd 1999
Phil, Cormac and Greg got a leisurely start Saturday morning in Seattle and started driving north for Mt. Triumph. We stopped in Lynwood at Jeff's house to borrow some cams and other pro. For some reason Jeff didn't have a huge breakfast waiting for us with big stacks of pancakes, maple syrup, toast, and juice. Whatever. We drove on to our destination, stopping at the Marblemount ranger station to visit our good friends again and get a backcountry permit. The road from route 20 to the Thornton Lakes trailhead is getting a little rough lately and the tiny little subcompact car we were all piled into barely made it up there. At the trailhead we met two other parties with the same destination in mind. One party was headed for the northwest ridge, even though approach involved a lengthy bushwack. We decided on the northeast ridge because, even though the climbing was longer and more technical, the approach was far easier. Becky describes this route as taking "two long days, or three days from road to road." We would be trying it in two. We headed up the trail for Thornton Lakes. Beckey said it should take us three hours to reach the notch beyond the lakes.The before picture: Thornton Lakes trailhead.
View from the ridge above the first Thornton Lake. Our camp was in the notch on top of this picture, just right of center.
Clouds over Backbone ridge?
Crossing the log jam on the first Thornton Lake.
Steep grass and heather below the notch.
We arrived at the notch about five hours later wondering how any mortal human being could possibly make it in three hours. Just as we got there another party of two was heading out across the glacier to bivouac at the beginning of the ridge. We decided to camp in the notch to save carrying full packs across the glacier. We camped at the notch to an onslaught of mosquitoes, no one had brought bug repellant! Phil and Cormac quickly hid in their tents, Greg hid in his bivy sack which fortunately had a mesh screen over the face. Many mosquitoes continuously walked along this netting, poking their stingers through holes in the netting, but to no avail. The weather looked good.
At the notch, Mt. Triumph in the background.
View south from the notch.
Mt. Triumph from the notch, Saturday evening.
The Picket Range from the notch, on Saturday evening.
At about 6 am the next morning we roped up and headed across the glacier to attain the ridge on the far side.
Mt. Triumph Sunday morning. The north-east ridge is on the right skyline.
It only took us 40 minutes to cross the glacier, then some sketchy scrambling to climb onto the ridge itself. On the way back down we would learn that if we had gone thirty feet to the right we could have just walked up. Yet another party of two was just starting to climb the ridge (crowded mountain). They had camped near us back at the notch. We let them go ahead of us since they would move quicker two on a rope. We had debated the wisdom of our own plan of being three on a rope but figured we would move fast enough since the route is described as mostly fourth class. As we started climbing the party ahead of us held us up from time to time. We couldn't afford many delays.
At the base of the north-east ridge. Our camp was in the notch on the far right.
We continued along the ridge. The climbing was all very easy but lots of it. A fun part was scrambling along a knife edge section with about a thousand feet straight down on both sides.
Climbing along the ridge.
Picket range from the northeast ridge.
Climbing along the ridge.
Another Picket picture.
The crux of the climb is a 5.7 off-width crack. It wasn't very long or super difficult but it was hard to protect. Cormac pretty much just kept climbing as he led it. It's hard to have a free hand to place pro on off-width. At the top of the crux we met the party coming down who had bivouacked on the ridge. They marveled that we actually did the crack, saying they had gone off to the right somewhere. They also said it had taken them another one and one-half hours to the top from there, saying it was all scrambling and just about one more pitch of class 5. It was already early afternoon and if we continued on we would really be pushing it.
Greg on the crux of the climb.
Descnding the ridge after we turned around.
The descent back down was a long one. A double rope rappel back down the crux, more simul-climbing, down climbing, and lots more rappels. About ten or so rappels in all. Getting close to the bottom of the ridge we did another double rope rappel to reach the next set of slings. One more double rope rappel would land as at the base of the ridge. Cormac said something about pushing our luck on the rope hang, and we didn't really need to because the bottom part could be easily down-climbed. For some reason we did it anyway and sure enough the rope hung. Phil climbed back up it with a prussik and freed it. High on the mountain we could see the party who had been just ahead of us when we started. They were clearly going to be rapping down in the dark. Then it was back across the glacier, pack up camp, and hike out. We didn't get back to the car till after midnight. When Greg mentioned something about maybe sharing the driving he found out Phil can't dive a stick and Cormac's Irish driver's license is no good around here. Ugh! Got back to Seattle a little after 3 am; very, very tired.
-Greg Mueller, guest writer.
The after pictures....
