Thursday, May 24, 2007

Back to Reality

Ryan and I are finally out of the mountains. What an amazing trip it was. Although, after 20 days of living on ice, we were ready to come home. The weather was primarily bad, dropping about 2 meters of snow in four days, but we also had some incredibly warm weather reeking havoc on conditions. The conditions were presented to us and we made the most of it. After all of our time, we tallied about 10,000 feet in technical climbing. Some of the time the conditions were good, most of the time they were not. Ryan and I persevered and had fun with what was thrown at us. The Buckskin glacier is an amazing place, solitude and magnificent walls. It is a place I plan on returning to someday.

The Moose's Tooth and Bear's Tooth massif.

Base camp. Only 30 minute ski from the base.

Hokan-dog kick'n it in camp.

Approaching our first route. The left gash to the summit. Potentially a new line.

Reaching the belay, top of pitch two.

Rest day.

Third attempt on the Moose's Tooth.

Looking down the route with the sun rising.

Climbing started to get more difficult.

Approaching the crux and our high point. 3,000 feet up the face.

Feeling worked after a 18 hour push.

Back at camp for some much needed rest.

Shooting for the second ascent to the col between the Moose's Tooth and Bear's Tooth.

Sun rise high on the route.

Ryan leading near the top.

Ryan pimp'n products at the top.

Starting the descent. Hour 16.

Time to head home.