Vesper peak, still well snow-covered. The North Face is on the far right -- not the steep slab but the one behind it.
Alex showed up a bit after 7:00, and I loaded my stuff into the back of his shiny new 4Runner, leather seats and all, and we headed up the highway.
We didn’t get on the trail until about 9:00. Fortunately, we missed the wrong turn at the stream crossing that I made once, and got up to the basin a bit after 11:00. It took longer than it should to get up to the saddle between Vesper and Sperry, and then a good long time to descend down onto the Vesper Glacier. After putting on crampons, I stepped carefully onto the snow from the rocks I was using, and punched right through the snow, summersaulted, and slid down right into the rock outcropping below us. There were some pretty big rocks down there, and I had just about time to envision myself smashing into them before I did hit, absorbing most of the energy with my pack, I think, but also giving myself a significant charley horse in the butt, and scraping up my forearms interestingly.
On, down the snow, where we followed some footprints that we’d found, probably from the day before. Since there’s a limitless number of route choices on the lower face, we just took the route where the footprints ended. Apparently, some people just cut over from the saddle to the base of the slab and bypass the lower route entirely. I can’t see the point of that, and it looks about as difficult to bushwhack along that ledge than getting to the base of the lower face.
Perhaps the most stimulating part of the day was the routefinding. In most climbs, you know pretty much where you should be going, until/unless you get off route. Here, especially on the lower portion, there were fifty different lines you could take up, so it was up to us to find the line, and hope we were doing it right. The line we started at looked like an easy Class 4 scramble, almost too easy to deign with my attention. Well, there were some easy steps, but there were also some really difficult transitions, getting to the end of one line to the beginning of another. And, there was virtually no place for decent gear placements. Well, okay, there were some, but they were few and far between.
We ended up too far to the left for Nelson’s diagram, so we traversed right, and followed the cracks and weaknesses in the slab, hoping that they wouldn’t run out. It was never particularly difficult or dire climbing except for the uncertainty. And the lack of any pro possibilities. On the slab, particularly when I was belaying Alex, it felt unaccountably like my Liberty Ridge experience. It was rock, not snow, and I was in shorts and t-shirt drenched in sweat, but I guess the open expanse of wall in both directions, and the similar angle of the wall accounts for it. Once on the top, at around 6:00, it was pretty idyllic, if a bit overcast. We took photos and videos, and relaxed a bit, then headed down.
Approaching on the glacier, we heard another party up on the face, but never saw them. Aside from them, and a few people we passed at Headlee Pass, we didn't see another soul all day. A well-known climb, a beautiful weekend day, and solitude!
Isn't life just the best thing ever? (Alex' photo.)
There was a lot of snow on the descent, and it was of appropriate consistency and angle that we could execute the standing glissades for much of the way. Eases the load on aging knees.
Once at the basin, Alex took his ritual dip into the icy water. He claims he really enjoys it, but I find that hard to believe. Of course, if he didn’t like it, would he do it? God knows, I wouldn’t do it on a bet.
I've been up to Vesper Peak half a dozen time, and the hike out is always longer than I remember – especially the descent from Headlee Pass and down the canyon. And today it had been so hot during the day that the beers in Alex’s car, even in a cooler with ice packs, were warm. The 2 liter Nalgene water bottle I had left there was nearly body temperature. Still, it was nice to be able to rinse off some.
It’s awfully nice to have someone else drive. We got stopped for a long time on the viaduct that does from Frontier Village to Everett, there was a wreck on top of the bridge, with a jeep standing there sideways, a whole bunch of personal items scattered around the road, as though someone was moving and dropped a box or two.
Equipment notes: I used my wife's digital camera, and ended up with blown-out whites which even Photoshop couldn't fix. It's tough to get an accurate idea of the exposure looking at the lcd when you take off your glasses to look at it, and everything looks overbright anyhow. It may be possible to set the exposure on the digital camera to a lower level the way an SLR does, but I never got around to learning how to. Apparently I need to do that. Equipment notes 2: Bug repellant is a necessity this year!