Yesterday, while going through
a stack of “paperwork” I happened across an 8x10 printed photo I shot in June
last year just before a climb up the east ridge of Mt. Idaho. I made the trip
for two reasons; to get a close look at the East Face for possible routes and
to get a decent shot of the North East side of the mountain from the Merriam
cirque. Although the photo didn’t turn
out, (I’ll be back this June for another try) the ridge was great fun,
especially puzzling out the class 4 summit ridge. I sat down at the computer and started mousing
through photos of the trip and eventually migrated on to photos of the East
face climb with Kevin. Here are a few of those shots.
Meadows below Mt. Idaho. This is an out of focus photo of the 8x10 print. I
couldn’t find the original photo on my computer. The stream of water on Lookers
right points directly to the East ridge, The East face falls off the left side
of the summit.
The approach from
Merriam Lake to the East Face corrie is
pretty hard to beat, the higher you hike, the more you see. From my vantage in
the photo however, the East face had our complete attention.
Kevin Leads out on Pitch 1. The rock on the lower part of the route was a dream to
climb and protect, the stuff up high wasn’t too bad either.
Pitch three. As
usual for a LRR climb, the pro was fairly spread out but the holds were
everywhere. We rated the arête section above me as 5.8 but I wiggled my best
cam of the climb into a clean notch just below the most exposed moves.
Pitch 4) In this
photo you can see the big holds and thin gear nature of the climbing. This was
the easiest pitch (5.4) on the route but also the dirtiest. Kevin didn’t place
any gear and did a great job of keeping most of the crap balanced on the little
ledges.
Pitch 5 anchor. I’d climbed about 40’ above the last good anchor site and dead-ended at the top of what felt like a loosely attached arête system. I stuffed a .3 Cam way up into a dark little recess and threaded a 5mm. cord around a rotten chock stone, then backed it up with a small nut (not seen) on a long sling. Pure garbage!-and just one of the perks to following a Collins lead. Looking back on it, I believe that anchor closed the door on a “direct route” of the face for us. The crux bulge and corner was 15’ above and we both knew that even a tiny fall could blow
the anchor and put an abrupt end to a great day.
Dance floor. This is a shot of Kevin trying to climb over the bulge. He boogied back and forth on this foothold several times while trying to suss out the moves of getting into the dihedral. From below it looks like a pretty good stance but without good handholds it wasn’t a fun start to the prickly 5.10b/c crux. He had placed a rickety nut right above the belay and then a small “good” nut a few feet above that. He continued up and over the bulge but the good hand holds he’d hoped for didn’t materialize. He was able to mine enough dirt out of a crack to place a good #3 cam and later told me, “ As soon as I plugged that in I said to myself, I could lower off of that if I had to”. A few minutes later, he was doing just that. When he got back to the belay he looked wrecked and the road rash covering his arms and sides drained all of my ambition. He offered me the sharp end and if the look I gave didn’t send the message, the “@*#! You” certainly did. We rap/down climbed back to the Pitch 4 belay ledge and I did a left hand traverse around a wide corner into giant 5.6 chimney that took us to the top of the face. It was a bitter sweet end to the climb, although we didn’t finish the “Direct” I’ve wanted to do a route on the face since my first hike into Merriam Lake and we’d definitely accomplished that.
Kevin at the top of the face, the finish gully is at his back. It may appear as if he’s looking for the next great unclimbed plumb but in fact, he was already planning his return to finish the Direct. Less than a month later, he and Cory Harelson put up a new and consistently tougher line just to the right of the mountaineers route. Their line incorporated the crux dihedral finish but wisely bypassed the Pitch 5 anchor.
In Early November I made my
last drive of the season into the West fork to get one last look.
