We couldn't get too early of a start, as we needed the day to warm up enough for delicate climbing.
We set our alarms for 5am, but I woke before four and, noting the perfect sky and still air, couldn't get back to sleep.
After breakfast, we started ascending the talus by moonlight.
There are no words or pictures that can do justice to sunrise in the moutains.
After our two+ hour scramble up the talus we stopped to eat and investigate the route. Where the heck was it? It's not like there are signs. We guessed and started up. Then yelled down to our friends passing below for advice.
Our friends passing below told us we were off-route, so we rappelled down and started in the correct location, but we had already burned four hours.
600m and all vertical. Was there even a chance we could succeed? Might as well climb on.
The crumbly Tridente over Dave's right shoulder.
Dave being proud of the difficult pitch he just led.
A fantastic blue glacier, spilling from the moutains and reducing to water.
The day was the warmest we had yet seen. Avalanches thundered off of the surrounding high faces and seracs collapsed from glaciers. The moutains were alive.
Not quite apparent in this photo is that the cracks we were climbing were running with water. As warm as it was, we didn't care.
We were pushing our physical and mental limits.
Me coming up Dave's 5.10+ offwidth pitch. I worked my butt off to follow it.
You think offwidth cracks are hard work? Try climbing one with an alpine pack.
Dave staring down the chimney pitch he just led. It is a long way down.
I started climbing the chimney with my shoulder against one wall and my feet on the other, but the pack kept getting in the way.
...so I took it off and hung it in between my legs.
An interesting sensation to shimmy your way up an elevator shaft.
Cleaning gear behind my head.
Getting back onto the face.
Putting the pack back on my back.
There's that hypnotic glacier again--the icecap leaking into more habitable land.
I took the lead after the chimney pitch to attempt one of the hardest pitches I had ever been face with. I took a 25' lead fall onto the rope, right before the finish. The gear held and I wasn't hurt, but it became evident that we were wasted, physically and mentally. Also, the sun was about to set. We needed to bail.
We rappelled through to night and returned to our little cave around 3am. All we had left from our three week food supply was a couple servings of rice. We were done in Paine. Or so we thought...
