Adam Wilcox texted me on Wednesday afternoon and asked if I wanted to climb Odells Gully. It took about 0.3295 seconds to reply with a yes. But since my appetite is large, I was already contemplating a multi-gully day in my favorite playground, Huntington Ravine. And I knew Adam would be up for it.
We started hiking in at 6 a.m. and the early start paid off because we got first dibs on Odells. It would be a freak carnival show later, for sure. There was alot of steep ice to the right that looked exciting, but it was baked out and the fracture line across the bottom didn't look exciting. Without any discussion, we roped up and heading toward the left route on easy ice to see what was up and over the ice bulge. Adam led and before long, I was up. As it turned out, that would be the only ice on that route in the gully. Without much need for the rope, we quickly ditched it and threw it in my pack. Then we headed up the long snow chute to the top. The snow was already softening up and the ice was really just frozen slush. We topped out and decided to head towards Diagonal Gully.
Diagonal was easy to find and easy to downclimb. We were down, heading off to climbers right to avoid Harvard bulge. Once down, we found ourselves at the start of Yale Gully. So that was our next climb.
We left the rope in the pack and started up. Again, slush boot ladder intermixed with slush ice. It was a beautiful gully. I enjoyed this route alot. The highlight of the day came when we neared the top and saw the cornice. Still hanging in there (luckily).. it was small but impressive since it's a rarity to see around here. I snapped a few pictures, but didn't want to waste too much time standing under it. It was a hot afternoon and we were already getting hit with small snow and ice balls falling around us all day. Listening to water underneath Harvard bulge with the heat and falling ice made it feel like the entire ravine was melting out as we climbed. And I suppose it was. It was awesome climbing over the lip of the ravine with those cornices off to the right. Definitely the best part of the day.
Once on top, we were hungry for more. We decided to head down Diagonal again and see what the situation was with Pinnacle Gully. It's usually a madhouse and today was even worse given the stellar weather. There must have been 10 people waiting on line. Since Adam and I are not a fan of lines, we decided to climb Central and make it a 3-gully climb day.
Central was really enjoyable and had more slush ice in there then the other two. I actually swung my tools more than 15 times during this climb. Before we headed up, I handed the rope to Adam to put in his pack because I had just enough of carrying it around. We had alot of falling ice to be weary of in this gully. Central was a great finish to the day. We topped out at around 1:00-1:30.
Our plan was to descend South Gully. We walked over there and started down what we were both confident was the right one. But I didn't see any tracks and I knew at least one person had already been down it and he described it as a slushfest. It wasn't a slushfest and there weren't any tracks, but it looked damn familiar. So we continued down. About halfway down, the climbing was looking a little spicey to me. Thin ice over rocks and alot of vegetation. I shouted up to Adam what the deal was and we decided to screw it and go back up and head over to Lions Head. I'd rather stab my eyes out with a fork then go down Lions Head, but I'd rather do that then tumble down South Gully, or whatever gully we were in. So up we went and climbed a 1/2 gully.
Again, boot ladder, slush steps. Up. Tiring!
Across the Alpine Garden it was windy, as it had been all day up there. Tuckermans looked like a circus and Lions Head was it's usual amateur day. We waited on line like it was the Hilary Step and finally got back to the trailhead around 3:30. This day definitely opened up a few possibilities for me.. namely my goal next winter to climb up all the gullies in one day. Given ideal conditions with everything working right, it could happen.
For the unfamiliar to Huntingtons, here's the route:
South Gully isn't in the picture (which was taken last year). For scale, there's some climbers on either side of the red line near the floor of the ravine heading up to Odells.
Super fun and hard day of climbing the stairmaster in fantastic spring weather in less than ideal snow and ice conditions. We were a couple of wet dogs, soaked to the bone, but hey, got to check out that cool cornice and climbed two gullies I haven't previously with Central as dessert. Good day out.
The full album is HERE There's 24 pics to view.
We started hiking in at 6 a.m. and the early start paid off because we got first dibs on Odells. It would be a freak carnival show later, for sure. There was alot of steep ice to the right that looked exciting, but it was baked out and the fracture line across the bottom didn't look exciting. Without any discussion, we roped up and heading toward the left route on easy ice to see what was up and over the ice bulge. Adam led and before long, I was up. As it turned out, that would be the only ice on that route in the gully. Without much need for the rope, we quickly ditched it and threw it in my pack. Then we headed up the long snow chute to the top. The snow was already softening up and the ice was really just frozen slush. We topped out and decided to head towards Diagonal Gully.
Diagonal was easy to find and easy to downclimb. We were down, heading off to climbers right to avoid Harvard bulge. Once down, we found ourselves at the start of Yale Gully. So that was our next climb.
We left the rope in the pack and started up. Again, slush boot ladder intermixed with slush ice. It was a beautiful gully. I enjoyed this route alot. The highlight of the day came when we neared the top and saw the cornice. Still hanging in there (luckily).. it was small but impressive since it's a rarity to see around here. I snapped a few pictures, but didn't want to waste too much time standing under it. It was a hot afternoon and we were already getting hit with small snow and ice balls falling around us all day. Listening to water underneath Harvard bulge with the heat and falling ice made it feel like the entire ravine was melting out as we climbed. And I suppose it was. It was awesome climbing over the lip of the ravine with those cornices off to the right. Definitely the best part of the day.
Once on top, we were hungry for more. We decided to head down Diagonal again and see what the situation was with Pinnacle Gully. It's usually a madhouse and today was even worse given the stellar weather. There must have been 10 people waiting on line. Since Adam and I are not a fan of lines, we decided to climb Central and make it a 3-gully climb day.
Central was really enjoyable and had more slush ice in there then the other two. I actually swung my tools more than 15 times during this climb. Before we headed up, I handed the rope to Adam to put in his pack because I had just enough of carrying it around. We had alot of falling ice to be weary of in this gully. Central was a great finish to the day. We topped out at around 1:00-1:30.
Our plan was to descend South Gully. We walked over there and started down what we were both confident was the right one. But I didn't see any tracks and I knew at least one person had already been down it and he described it as a slushfest. It wasn't a slushfest and there weren't any tracks, but it looked damn familiar. So we continued down. About halfway down, the climbing was looking a little spicey to me. Thin ice over rocks and alot of vegetation. I shouted up to Adam what the deal was and we decided to screw it and go back up and head over to Lions Head. I'd rather stab my eyes out with a fork then go down Lions Head, but I'd rather do that then tumble down South Gully, or whatever gully we were in. So up we went and climbed a 1/2 gully.
Again, boot ladder, slush steps. Up. Tiring!
Across the Alpine Garden it was windy, as it had been all day up there. Tuckermans looked like a circus and Lions Head was it's usual amateur day. We waited on line like it was the Hilary Step and finally got back to the trailhead around 3:30. This day definitely opened up a few possibilities for me.. namely my goal next winter to climb up all the gullies in one day. Given ideal conditions with everything working right, it could happen.
For the unfamiliar to Huntingtons, here's the route:
South Gully isn't in the picture (which was taken last year). For scale, there's some climbers on either side of the red line near the floor of the ravine heading up to Odells.
Super fun and hard day of climbing the stairmaster in fantastic spring weather in less than ideal snow and ice conditions. We were a couple of wet dogs, soaked to the bone, but hey, got to check out that cool cornice and climbed two gullies I haven't previously with Central as dessert. Good day out.
The full album is HERE There's 24 pics to view.
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