Once again Eiji and I connected for a fantastic climbing trip! This time the Venue was the South Fork area of Cody Wyoming. All winter I had heard about this amazing place from friends who had climbed there, I had seen pictures on Facebook of my friends climbing on fat steep ice that poured through huge amphitheaters of beautiful rock with nothing but blue sky above them. Everybody was stoked about Cody.
When Eiji proposed the trip all plans were shelved as the little voice in my head screamed with intense desire. I was apprehensive about the climbing, would I be strong enough? Could we climb some of the classics or would I be cast away to the derelict has-bin climbs the locals would scoff at me on? Yes, probably, but I'd still get a taste of Cody, the legendary place we ice-less Washingtonians drool over.
Needless to say I had high expectations for Cody which were handily exceeded in our first day of climbing, day one had originally been reserved for Broken Hearts, one of the best known climbs in the area, if it was in climbable condition. From the road we could easily tell that the second pitch had broken off and definitely didn't reach the ground. Mixed climbing unknown terrain wasn't exactly in our box of tools so we compromised on Bozo's Revenge, a two pitch WI3+ . Thinking it was a WI3 climb I definitely wanted to lead it and very quickly I was suffering. Despite the extra difficulty of the climb, my horribly fitting new boots and some settled dust I led through, resting on a few screws.
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| Bozo's from the Approach |
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| Lance leads |
With our warm up on Bozo's out of the way we headed back to town for supplies to camp the next two nights. Also on the agenda was finding some new insoles for my boots, the cheapest pair at Walmart turned out to work perfectly and my feet were happy the next two days.
Day two in the South Fork we found ourselves at one of the main trail heads with a bunch of other climbers all intent on climbing "High on Boulder" one of the only two routes easily accessible from that point. This being the case we prepared to play the waiting game for our chance to climb. Surprisingly only one other team decided to climb "High on Boulder" that day and they were far enough ahead that no waiting was necessary. Eiji joked that our reverse psychology must have headed them off somewhere else, I couldn't agree more!
High on Boulder is probably one of the most outstanding routes I've climbed yet! Eiji led the WI4 second pitch like a pro leaving the first and third WI3 pitches to me.
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| High on Boulder from the approach with the Pillar of pain above it |
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| Lance leads WI 3 first pitch |
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| Eiji leads WI4 second pitch |
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| Eiji leads |
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| Eiji ready to rappel |
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| Your zillion inch plasma-HD-flatscreen TV doesn't even compare |
Day light savings had us a little confused about when to get up but we managed to wake up before sunrise, the plan was to get an early start on a rad climb and then hopefully make a mad dash to the airport for a late flight home. After the previous days of nightmarish heat we weren't quite sure what would be in climbable shape. Eventually we decided on Main Vein, a long flowing alpine route. Eiji woke up with some bad mojo going on for Main Vein that morning which we quickly tried to ignore.
Just as the sun rose we began the approach up the scree field, a sketchy traverse on loose crumbly rock got us into the drainage above the first waterfall which apparently never freezes. From there we headed up the drainage soloing up short and easy ice steps until the first big WI3 pitch. Knowing the top pitch was big and hard I wanted to lead this and hope Eiji would be stoked for the big one. The sun was up high at this point and we were roasting! I stripped to my base layer and kept a shell on for the shower I was expecting, part way up this pitch I had water running down both sleeves soaking my body. Of course I questioned the security of the ice and my sanity, but there was no reason to bail. Ice screws seemed solid and so did my tool placements and nice steps were easy to find.
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| Lance taking a shower |
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| The looming beast |
As we continued up this narrow gully the ominous top pitch loomed above us, growing and snarling at us with every step we took. We eventually sat at the base of the rope-stretching monstrosity wondering if either of us had the energy to tackle it! After splitting a Redbull and some snacks I knew I could give it a good try, we decided I would start up and finish at a small ledge about halfway up the pitch. From there I could belay up Eiji and he could finish the harder more technical pieces of the climb. It was time to go!
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| Lance on lead |
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Eiji took this picture looking up from the inside of an ice cave.
His lead over and around this was quite impressive! |
From my belay I could see Eiji leading the very top of the pitch surrounded by surreal ice cave formations which made for very interesting and technical climbing. I waited at the belay willing him forward and hoping he would move fast! I was literally watching the screws that made up my belay melting in front of me getting anxious I decided to just watch and hope nothing scary happened. As Eiji continued the wind picked up and whipped up the shrapnel ice from the strikes of his picks into the air, his hood flapped and with nothing above him but brilliant blue sky the scene was epic! Slowly I began to realize how awesome this was, two climbers alone on a big route whose safety depends simply on their skill, luck, speed and each other. Right then we were alive!
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| Hey Lance! Poke your head out! |
After quite the battle we found ourselves at the top of the route! We felt tempted to relax and celebrate until a falling rock exploded right next to us. The guidebook's warning of "considerable rock fall during windy days" came back to us quickly so we began to hustle down hoping we could still make quick and decent rappel anchors in the melting ice! One pitch down another rock nearly missed us adding to the excitement! Eventually we found ourselves rappelling into a flowing waterfall! Quite refreshing on such a warm day!
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| Looking down into the waterfall! |
Later that day after a jog back to the car, a two hour drive, an Arby's drive thru and some quick packing at the airport we were on a plane bound for Seattle! Phew! If I'm ever on Amazing Race Eiji already agreed to join me! We kicked ass the whole weekend!
