A Day of Alpine Climbing: March 19 2016
Spending a day tackling Huntington Ravine is very much a mixed box of chocolates. My previous attempt a full day of alpine climbing in the ravine resulted in a
dislocated shoulder and a broken hand
!
The conditions during the preceding week were reported to be quite bleak mostly because the warm weather assaulting the Mt. Washington massif. Fortunately, mild snow precipitation accumulating in 1-3" (varying on altitude) came down from Thursday through Saturday AM, and the temperatures dropped significantly in our favor. Our plan was simple: to get some climbing in where we could find winter.
Arriving at Pinkham Notch by 5:30AM having woken up and left Boston sometime around 2:30AM, I felt prepared for a whole day climbing in the mountains. The parking lot was certainly chilly single digits, as Mike says "the parking lot is the second coldest place on the mountain", and we made haste to get going as soon as we could. Our trip start time: 6:10AM
Conditions were mostly as predicted throughout the day, starting off with microspikes to combat the freeze thaw of the TRT.
The TRT in early morning conditions
Photo: Mike Hasse
Approaching the base of the ravine known as the fan as the wind was cutting through our hiking layers, so we transitioned over to climbing mode. Retrospectively, we stopped a bit too early, since we stopped again to actually affix crampons and the rope for faux-simul-climbing on the steeper approach.
Breaking Trail via Alpine Wading
Photo: Mike Hasse
Approaching the first anchor
Photo: Mike Hasse
Official Quad Anchor setup
Mike leading the first pitch
Our first belay stop was in the shade to looker's left in the shade, offering greater stability of the ice. Winds had substantially died down to the conditions on our approach, but the occasional 15mph gust would blow down the gully.
Mike sending the second pitch, no problems
I didn't catch any pictures between the first pitch and the start of the second as the conditions on Odell's were very akin to steep snow gully climbing, so we sped thru these sections. As I followed the second pitch to the end, we transitioned into soloing as the upper section of Odell's was ideal for that kind of climbing.
Sending the second pitch, which turned to snow at the top
Photo: Mike Hasse
Mike running up the slopes after we packed the rope away
Me, feeling stoked in the legs
Photo: Mike Hasse
Avoiding the wind loaded center of the gully had us resort to some mild and hollow ice patches
Photo: Mike Hasse
Topping out
Photo: Mike Hasse
Having successfully topped out, we didn't see that it was safe to rappel down Central Gully as we had thought to do originally. Conditions were most likely too dangerous likely having heavily loaded wind slabs in the center of the gully concealing multiple hidden dangers and down climbing would be too unsafe from our risk management stand point. Unfortunately, hiking down and out the Lions head trail and then back up the ravine is too time consuming for another climb, so heading down that path, our climbing was done for the day.
Mike walking down through the Alpine Garden on our way out (doesn't this look
?)
All things considered, my first day of full alpine climbing was somewhat of an anomaly as very little went awry and almost everything went according to plan. We achieved what we set out to do, and the overall weather conditions were more ideal than predicted, granted the snow pack conditions were as expected. This trip was vastly different than my previous Huntington trip, and I can feel confident in coming back for a future adventure, but for now, onto the early rock climbing and trekking season!
