Split Mountain via St Jean Couloir (alpine climb with fresh pows)

Draft



Climbers:

Tim Berger (Fair Oaks)
Julian Valdez (Sacramento)
Jodie Shraven aka Jodie Tiger (Las Vegas)
Yours truly Ingrid Monique Honrado (Sacramento)

Few friends decided to climb on Memorial weekend. I had plans prior but that did not materialize (I had suspected it to be) so off I go, joined the rest of the batsh*t crazy friends, to attempt, St Jean Couloir.



We started hiking in with the low trail, bushwhacked some and as much as possible, avoided the thick brush and cactis. I had the lightest pack among the four of us (Tim, Jodie, Julian and Ingrid [me]). It was not long ago when I set my eyes on climbing 14ers and that Split had to be done. Several attempts made, solo and/or with friends, that I gave up. But on the 4th attempt, with the long approach from Taboose TH via Taboose Pass/JMT, 36 miles and 24 hours later, I finally crossed off this Sierra Crest peak.

There were few unintended stops in between trailhead and basecamp. I must admit, bushwhacking wears down the body fast. I felt okay though but could not wait to get to Red Lake campsite, pitch a tent, eat, crash and sleep.

Red Lake






Campers were already at the Red Lake, possibly, to bag Split... So that's good then, we got some company.

We settled in and pitched tents. Tim and I had separate tents, Jodie and Julian shared tent. Tim made his place a little cozy, with kitchen and gear areas. My tent, the UL2 Big Agnes and with my small pack, really had not much to unpack. I made sure my tent was sturdy, in case of surprised storms, though we expected variable winds of only 10mph.

Tim's Tent/Site

Julian and Jodie started preparing their meals. All I need was hot water for my dry freezed mountain house spaghetti (ugh). Aside from my hot food, I had boiled egg and meatloaf. I am not a big meat person but I noticed that eating meat when the weather is cold helps a lot keeping me warm.



After dinner, we all agreed that we are going to start approaching the mountain by 4AM. So that means, we doozed off early. That wouldn't be a problem after the hours of bushwhacking.

Jodie was moaning. I thought they were just mocking around but Jodie was really sick. I offered to get favours from the other campers. Luckily, the neighbours had with them anticid. Thought it would work on Jodie's gas pain.

It didn't take that long, Jodie stopped moaning so the meds must have worked. Soon I was able to sleep. The limited space and the cold made me do lots of turns. Or so I thought, I heard this noise like rain but it was actually snow. Yes it has been snowing for hours and to us, that's not good news.



Soon my alarm went off, forced myself to wake up, opened my tent and it was white wow. Already over a foot of snow was dumped.





Almost an hour of getting ready, Julian said --- let's go play............

It was challenging to play with postholing on boulders. The first obstacle I had was the loose rock bands. Gosh, I told myself, "what's with this mountain that each time I am here, there is always something"... Jodie and Julian was ahead. Tim and I were a little behind but slowly catching up.

Then I met my second obstacle, an icy patch that I didn't think it would be that bad. Rock band slightly covered with snow. I dugged in my axe and pulled myself up to safety.  I was one trek pole down so I had to use axe along with one pole. My expensive black diamond pole did not last that long. I was so disappointed! But hopefully it is still under warranty.

We are all ready to work on the infamous St Jean Couloir. Among the California climbers, very few climbed this col, because it is narrowly steep.

My third challenge of the day, the protruding ice patch. Julian was ahead and the first one to passed it. Jodie followed and Tim was climbing in the parallel path. Somehow Jodie's axe got stuck in the ice. That was a dilemma we had to face, Jodie tried to get her axe out and I waited. Somehow Jodie panicked and I tried to offer my axe to her while I waited for her to pass the rock/ice band, before I work it.

Things got more panicky even, after Jodie kept on climbing and ice flying all over me and Tim. As I tried to get myself out, the ice I was standing was collapsing. I didn't expect the snow/ice would melt that fast, though the weather forecast told us it.

Before Jodie made it up passed the ice/rock band, we requested Julian to deploy the rope and we would be belayed up. So when Jodie made half way between Julian and where I was, Jodie was going to throw the rope to me, but unfortunately, Jodie is not experience enough, being new to rock climbing, is not capable of throwing the rope. I asked Tim, if he would be able to climb up and rescue the rope for me. Eventually, I was able to belayed up, before the entire iceband collapsed on me.

It was postholing over two feet of snow from this couloir to the summit. It was also much steeper than thought but we expected it, because of the low snow year.

St Jean couloir is safely navigable when it is packed of snow. When its dry, it'll rain rocks on your path. Our couloir condition was in between or that we are simply experienced climbers enough to tackle this unknown endeavour.

Each time I climbed the High Sierra, condition varies and typically unknown until one made it there.  Fear was my constant companion. After I successfully belayed up, Julian led to break the snow. That was a hard climbed for everyone and specially Julian who had to work harder.

I, on the other hand, did not have to put up as much effort as everyone else because I am light footed. However when it comes to breaking trail on snow covered path, I am not the right person to do it.

We rested after gaining over 1000 feet. That's when I fully grasped the steepness of the slope when I faced nothin' but air in front of me. We dugged our axe for safety purposes. We were determined to make it to summit and back in one piece.























By 2PM we reached the summit. It was beautiful and calm. I have never seen such nature's beauty in the High Sierra. It was very beautiful.








Of course on our descent, we took a different approach down. We descended via the MR/glissade route back to Red Lake. Surprisingly all that snow early morning did not last long. The red lake valley was almost snow free by the time we reached back to our camp site.



Overall it was a fun experience and something that I will remember for a very long time.




We know we can climb steep, rock and ice and descend the same way if we have to, but if you can avoid the situation where you took such big risks, you gotta think hard, what if you fall? This is what we do in the mountains, survive....

To the mountain, we are a tiny speck that don't matter at all, but we do get so much from her. Being on top of the mountain and managed to do it, on our own and away from the civilized world, we are being overwhelmed of euphoria. This impression is simply can't be forgot, because it made such a big impression on us.





Photo credit: Julian, Jodie and Tim

#HighSierra #SplitMountain #StJeanCouloir #ExtremeChallenge #RudyProject





No comments:

Post a Comment