So into the mail goes an envelope of hopes and dreams for a lottery entry into the 2011 Hardrock 100. Don’t know how much of a long shot it is, but I’ll find out sometime around the 1st of February. After that I need to set up the rest of my planning for the Rocky Mountain Slam 2011, all 5 races if my body can just hang in there (Bighorn, Hardrock, Leadville, Wasatch, and the Bear).

DNF in Silverton, CO!

Saturday, November 13th

It’s not what you might think though; a DNF in Silverton. No, it’s not a “did not finish” for anything in particular in Silverton. Hopefully the opportunity for that will be coming later, if I am lucky enough to make it into the lottery for the Hardrock 100 ultra marathon in 2011. Rather, today I climbed the Direct North Face of Peak 12,579, an awesome ice route located on FR 585, just outside of Silverton, on highway 550, heading back to Ouray.
So, my DNF in Silverton was a good thing. Especially it was good to be out on the ice so early in the season. Last weekend was my first time out for the 2010/2011 season and what a disaster that was. I hiked into Black Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park to try and catch a route named Stone Man in condition. After seeing some nice looking pictures on the Internet (from a brief storm earlier in the week), I was enticed and committed to the hike back in to check it out. Being that we have been experiencing an exceptional Indian Summer/Fall here on the Front Range of Colorado, I had missed the prime conditions by a couple of days, and everything was pretty much melted out by the time I got there. The West Gully, a fine line adjacent to Stone Man, was in, as it usually is by this time of year. Having done the West Gully several times before, I wasn’t super psyched to get on it again though, as well there was another party chomping at the bit to climb it too. But being by myself, and pretty much first in line, I decided to head up it anyway.
However, within just a few feet of having started to climb, I decided I really wasn’t into the experience at all. My hands were cold, despite it being a beautiful and warm day. My feet were hurting like crazy too. That, and both of my crampons managed to fall off while I was climbing. So, by the time I reached the top of the 1st pitch, I was ready to come down and call it a day.
The hike back out from Black Lake was unusually painful for my feet too. It made me start to worry about having run too much during the past year, to the point of having damaged something, and maybe I would not be able to get comfortable in my ice boots. Well, I have been climbing ice for just a few years, so I decided to give it at least another trip out to climb, knowing that it takes a little bit for me to get back into the swing of things each year. And I am happy to say that today on the DNF, I really did feel a whole lot better, especially my feet.
Yesterday evening (Friday), Lisa and I drove over to Pagosa Springs, CO to spend the weekend with her mother at a time-share resort. On the way over, we stopped in South Fork for some dinner. Not really knowing where would be a good place to eat, we settled on a simple looking place that had only a sign outside stating “Café” to let you know there was something to eat that could be had inside. It turned out to be one of those magical experiences though where the memory of it will stick with you for long afterwards. The interior was beautiful though simple, being a rough-hewn log cabin, with the inside walls being nicely stained and decorated with typical farm knick-knacks. The food was reasonably good too. But what made it so nice was the wonderful mix of music the proprietor had put together that was playing in the background. I am so sorry that I don’t know exactly who any of the artists were and that it was a mix CD anyway, so it was truly a special moment, fleeting and never to be had again.
This morning I slept in a little bit and got up around 7:00 AM, had a quick breakfast of some oatmeal, walnuts, banana, and brown sugar; then fixed a few snacks to munch on throughout the day, and was on the road to Silverton by 8:00 AM. In Durango, I made a quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a hat and some approach gloves, because I had left some of my things back home in Colorado Springs. Yeah, it takes me a few trips to get everything sorted out and clicking again each fall.
By 10:30 AM I was pulling up to the base of the route on FR 585 after a beautiful drive up over Coal Bank Pass and Molas Pass. Driving to Silverton and looking at the surrounding mountains makes me think so much about what it might be like to run and walk through them during an ultra marathon. I hope I can get into Hardrock next summer.
There were already 4 vehicles parked at the base of the route when I go there. Those made me wonder about just how many people there might be in front of me. I could see one party topping out a pitch mid-way up the route, and another pair climbing the approach gully at the base. Not having much in the way of warm clothes with me, I wasn’t looking forward to a lot of standing around, but I decided to go check it out anyway. It would not be the worst thing that could happen if I was to turn around and just come back down.
So, I took my time getting all of my gear on, wanting to let the parties ahead get as far up the route as possible before I caught up with them. Leaving the car, I crossed a frozen creek by balancing my way across a convenient log, and was soon hiking up the slope at the base of the route. This was so much better than last week, where I had to hike like 5 miles back into Black Lake, and then struggle through some snow to reach the base of something I really wasn’t that enthusiastic about climbing anyway.
It didn’t take long at all to reach the actual gully where the climbing would begin. Here I sat on a boulder and clipped my crampons onto my boots, wondering if they were going to behave themselves better than they did last weekend. Having a crampon come off while climbing is a distraction to say the least. There were some packs scattered around the boulder too, which belonged to the climbers further up on the route. I noticed that somebody had also taken the opportunity to pee directly onto the base of the boulder. I likened it to a car I witnessed on the drive up, where the driver casually threw a cigarette butt out into the wilderness. I guess some people are just too lazy to care. At least the person who had peed on the rock could have taken the time to walk 20 feet away or so.
Time to climb; it felt good to be back out on the ice. No feet problems like last week. The route began with a series of easy rolling sections that gained some height up through the gully. Before long I got to the 1st significant piece of ice, a vertical pillar of at least 20 feet or so in height. It was pretty hooked out, making the climbing easy, though it was still just a little unnerving getting back into the vertical with the ice tools. All things take some getting used to when renewing a relationship with something you haven’t done in a while.
After the 1st pillar, a short, flat shelf leads to a 2nd vertical section that was a little longer, but perhaps not quite as technical. I think it was at the top of this 2nd vertical section that I ran into one of the parties ahead of me, and they were rappelling back down the route. For a few moments I stopped to chat with them. They told me the other folks ahead of me were soloing too, and were running laps on the lower part of the route, hiking off to the side after each lap. Eyeing a little bit more ice above, I decided to keep climbing up.
The pitches started to run together a little bit, but I think there were at least 3 more sections of ice that were worth climbing before I reached what was probably the top of the route. One of the pitches was a very wet pillar, sort of like climbing up into a shower bath. I hurried through it, climbing as fast as I could, but still got pretty soaked. At least the ice was good for getting tool placements.
Way up the slope above I could see a ridgeline against the sky. Swirls of snow were blowing off of it into the wind. However, for me it was time to start heading back down.
The last little section of ice I had just climbed was steeper than I wanted to down climb, and there weren’t any convenient trees or ice to create a rappel anchor with; so I decided to follow a set of footprints off into the bushes adjacent to the route, hoping to find a decent walk-off. The footprints eventually led into the trees and then suddenly stopped when they reached the top of a short cliff. I could tell that the owner of the prints had not rappelled down the cliff. So, that left me wondering if they had simply turned around and headed back to the route or what. I decided to make a quick rappel and continue downwards.
Well, walking off to the side of the route works for a descent after a fashion, but it isn’t something that I would recommend again. Next time I think I might try harder to find a way to rappel back down the route. After rappelling for about 100 feet, I made a very tedious descent down through some tightly packed trees and bushes that fought me the whole way. There was probably more potential for getting hurt on the descent rather than from the climbing!
After what seemed like a long time of struggling down through the trees, I reached the base of the route and gratefully sat on the boulder again to remove my crampons from my feet that now hated me pretty good. Back at the creek, what was completely frozen over that morning now had a stream of water running over the top of the ice. So, I really wanted not to slip and fall off the log as I balanced my way across to reach my car. The shadows were lengthened across the valley to make the time of day feel very late. Upon starting up the car, I looked at the clock on the dash and saw it was only 1:30 PM.
Driving back down the road to Silverton, I munched a turkey sandwich and a banana. Also I took a few minutes to drive through the town of Silverton to think about where the start/finish for Hardrock must be, and wonder what it will feel like next summer. Then I turned my car towards Pagosa Springs and a happy reunion with my wife. It was a good day to be back out on the ice, a DNF in Silverton.