October 2005 

 

Day Two -- Bear Creek Spire, NE Ridge   ...continued   Once on the arete I knew we were very close to the summit, but several times I thought we were hosed.  Leading ahead, Eric always seemed to find us a reasonable way through the chaos.  The first was a gnarly step out onto a face with tiny knobs and huge air underneath. No thanks.  Joe and I opted instead to mantle up a big block to the right.  Then a huge tower blocked our progress but we found a death-defying hand traverse to skirt it around the right side.  After all of this, the summit block was a piece of cake.  Rumors of huge exposure and a tricky boulder move were oversold; easy handholds on the top of the block together with a huge foot pocket made the final move fun and not all that hard.  We were on the summit by 2:30.
Note:  clicking on any photograph will present a full screen version.
	On the arete.  Here I am right as we finished the vertical section of the arete and the angle eased off.  From here to the summit is a relatively low angle ridge, but with huge towers to contend with.  (photo:  J.Stewart)
	The "don't tell my wife" traverse.  Joe on a delicate hand traverse with plenty of air beneath his shoes.  It is either this traverse or climb over a huge featureless tower.
	Scoping the Feather Couloir.  Eric and Joe cast an eye south towards Feather, Royce and Merriam Peaks.  The nice north couloir of Feather looks like a great ice climb right about now.
	Bagging the summit block.  Eric O shows us how its done (left).  Then Joe follows (lower left), then me.   (photo:  J.Stewart)

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