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“C’mon, let’s go!” Jonny Copp’s voice startled me from my
slumber.
I don’t know how long we’d been asleep in the middle of the trail. It felt like
hours, but I looked at my watch – 11:30 pm. Must’ve only been 15 minutes. The
sparse grass and dirt felt better than my mattress right then, but we had to go
if we wanted to break 24 hours. I tried to think of ways to argue for staying
and sleeping just a bit longer, but nothing worthy came to mind so I rose,
turned on my headlamp and put my feet in the cold stream. I know this little
game too well by now – rationalizing is always pointless, it’s just time and
energy. You can’t fool yourself, get up and do it. It’s
only in your head.
Between approaching, climbing and descending, there’d
been the perfect variability in the perfect proportions – as soon as we’d tire
of one thing, it was time for another. And the climbing always kept us alert.
But this final trudge of eight miles to the Wild Basin trailhead was bordering
on hateful. At least we’d finally found the trail after bushwhacking, crossing
streams and bogs, and shouting warnings into the night in case Rocky Mountain
National Park’s now notorious “troublesome bear” was in the area.
The east face of Long’s went well enough, the 15
guidebook pitches going in three rope stretchers (simul-climbing). I’d
never climbed the whole east face before, despite having “done the
Diamond” a couple of times: Ya bypass the lower east face by scrambling up
the disintegrating North Chimney to Broadway, climb a route, miss the
upper parts of the wall by exiting on Table Ledge. It’s standard practice
for tons of great routes and always a great day, but still, when hiking
out and looking back up, there’s always that deep-knowing truth that you
really only climbed the middle third of the face.
Granted, the Crack of Delight route (not a great crack and not
particularly delightful, especially with the vegetation, loose rock and
running water) on the lower east face isn’t that proud, but at least it’s
fifth class, real climbing. And the Forrest Finish added more real
climbing above Table Ledge. With the Casual Route in the middle (despite
missing the 5.7 traverse by going too low, into spicy 5.10…), this was
definitely the path of least resistance for the Full Monte – climbing
the complete east face of Long’s. But there was more to it. The other two
biggest technical rock faces in the park are on Chief’s Head and Mt.
Alice.
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“The Triple Lindy – is that hard?”
“That’s impossible!” (except for Rodney Dangerfield in
Back to School)
There’d been plenty of schmack-talkin’ among my friends and me over the
Triple Lindy. Sometimes, depending on the mood and the margaritas, it’d
even been the Talk of the Town among the local denizens of Ed’s Cantina
bar. But it was still an unfinished project – to my knowledge anyway
(Rodney’s dive not withstanding), and certainly to me personally. My buddy
Brent and I had a memorable go at it the previous summer but, about a rope
length from the top of the runout face climbing on Chief’s Head, hail,
freezing rain and lightning bolts drove us and our single rope 800 feet
down and out. Now Brent was temporarily out of the game – all of the toes
on his left foot had just been lopped off following our last adventure
together – he, Jonny and I epiced on a big north face in the Alps last
winter. It now seemed fitting to go with Jonny. Besides, we’d recently had
a great trip to Alaska and were each heading off soon to adventures in
India and Peru, so the Triple Lindy would be great training. And I knew
that by mentioning it to Jonny, I’d have to go (or have it stolen) instead
of just talk schmack about it.
We coiled the 8.8mm rope, changed shoes, scrambled to
the summit of Long’s and down the Trough past puzzled looks from hikers
navigating the Keyhole route, then across Glacier Gorge. Smooth enough.
The northwest face of Chief’s Head: “one of the finest alpine walls in the
contiguous United States,” according to one RMNP guidebook. A sandwich and
a Shot, off again. Starting with Path of Elders – the first route
established on the face – and connecting to Birds of Fire – the newest
route on the face – we were racing the clouds, just like the race Brent
and I lost here last year. Rain and lighting were hitting everyplace else.
No rain yet…go… We finished the face, scrambled to the summit and back to
our gear. Breathe... One to go – the moderate Central Ramp route on Mt.
Alice’s east face. No more 5.10 climbing, no more runouts, just a couple
miles of easy slogging on a spectacular, high alpine ridge, then some
talus and, hopefully, the base of the route by sunset.
We finished Alice’s east face
at dusk and scrambled to the top as the sun set. I knew that our energy
wouldn’t last, but for then we were invigorated, just looking at a
scramble down, some errant bushwhacking in the dark and drizzle, and
knowing that the trail had to be someplace off to our right, and we’d hit
it soon. Then we’d rest before finishing the trudge out.
The trudge turned into a jog, and almost 23 hours after
leaving my car, under a crescent moon we rested on the tailgate of Jonny’s
truck. The beers sure tasted good.
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