20100105 Harwood NE Face Attempt #3

Post by **Taco** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:22 pm

Brief style of writing. NOW.

Too warm, too much rockfall. Lots of smaller rocks, but some bowling balls (killers) came down.

Parked at 3n06 gate where it turns to Baldy Notch. Hiked up to base of NE face. Crappy traverse on bad snow with ice underneath next to rock. Checked out cool waterfall. Continued up and took a break out of the line of fire (of which there were a shitload). Decided to abort the attempt, as I'd rather live. Went up "Consolation Couloir", which isn't entirely a couloir but it sounds funny and nobody gives a damn so there. Topped out on Devils Backbone. Talked to a dude named Rob from Tenessee. Tennesee. One of those. Damn red squigly lines. Hiked over to Thunder, thought of attempting (climbing, it's easy) the NW face of Telegraph, but maybe tomorrow or somehting. It's in condition, and the face sees almost zero sun during the day, which is awesome as hell. Went home instead. Took Baldy Road to 3n06 (same thing, actually), 4.1 miles according to Tom Harrison. Drove out on shitty 3n06 in my oldass Corolla. Can't wait to build that car up for rally, to bomb dirt roads. Hell yeah. Anyway, pics.

Pretty pictures of the NE Face.

Getting "into" the face. What's that streak?

Nice. Coming back to do this.

Yay, Graupel. Just kidding. Go to hell, Graupel. Go to hell and die.

A look up the primary garbage chute, or couloir, running along the base of the face.

Went up just left of the big rocks, to the center of the pic. Took this up and out.

Climbing.

NEF from the route.

Topped out. That's the section that gets everyone sketched on DBB.

Looking down the up.

NEF again

Breaktime on the lift thing. Nalgene Everyday bottles are way better than their old Nalgene Every-Other-Thursday bottles. Har har.

General conditions.

NWF of Tele

The totally sweet downhill decreasing radius understeer killer of front right tires/wheels/suspension bits turn. Don't mess up here. You'll know where it is when you do. Note: I did not mess up here right now. It's been a while.

YUS!

Got a buncha video clips to put together. Right. Too lazy.

mve · Post by **mve** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:11 pm

We need more snow! I am actually amazed it lasted all this time with this heat ...

Post by **Taco** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:18 pm

There's a SHITLOAD of climbable routes if you come in from the north.

Some that come to mind:
-Telegraph NW Face (except Northpaw)
-Harwood North Face couloirs
-Baldy North Face (also West Baldy NF)
-Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe Pine Mountain Slide Zone if before noon.
-That twin thing on the north side of part of the north ridge of Telegraph
-Random crap on the north face of Cucamonga and Ontario

mve · Post by **mve** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:36 pm

TacoDelRio wrote:There's a SHITLOAD of climbable routes if you come in from the north.

That's true -- I am just not ready for these ... I am still trying to commit climbing the Baldy Bowl

My boots are just killing me -- this past weekend I couldn't make it past the Baldy Bowl ridge -- my heels got all chewed up. I though I got it all dialed in at home but it's a whole different story when I put the crampons on ... Probably will have to tape the heels or learn how to flat foot facing down ...

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:55 pm

Maybe you can use one of those riot police shields to block the rocks....

How tall was that frozen waterfall? Ice climbing in Socal!

I'm looking for something to climb this weekend, something that won't require ice tools, any suggestions?

Post by **Taco** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:05 pm

MVE, what's your sock situation?

Mike, Telegraph is fine with one axe. Won't vouch for the other stuff though. Other good traditional stuff is melted out, sadly.

mve · Post by **mve** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:16 pm

TacoDelRio wrote:MVE, what's your sock situation?

I tried the following:

- a single pair of heavy smartwool mountaineering socks -- heel rub ...
- a pair of lightweight smartwool + mountaineering -- too much volume
- a pair of mid-weight hikers -- severe heel rub ...

And a combination of the above with and without orange superfeet insoles plus additional volume adding tongue that came with La Sportiva ... I now think that superfeets actually lift my heel even higher and cause more rub.

The only thing I haven't tried yet is a liner + mountaineering sock with stock insoles ... If that fails I am SOL and will have to sell the boots -- it's that bad.

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:25 pm

mve- fwiw, I've tried everything you have and I like the liner+smartwool mountaineering+stock insoles the best. But I also use Scarpa's, not La Sportiva's.

Taco- Can I get on Telegraph's NW face from the Thunder/Telegraph saddle?

michaelmagno · Post by **michaelmagno** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:41 pm

$.02 here MVE: The thin synthetic liner sock is the critical missing link in your sockquation. Combine that with your insulating sock of choice depending on conditions, and they'll take all (or at least most) of the friction that your feet would normally take. Swear by it. Keep the change.

lilbitmo · Post by **lilbitmo** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:17 pm

michaelmagno wrote:$.02 here MVE: The thin synthetic liner sock is the critical missing link in your sockquation. Combine that with your insulating sock of choice depending on conditions, and they'll take all (or at least most) of the friction that your feet would normally take. Swear by it. Keep the change.

Getting the same thing have tried all those combinations, started tape-ing the back of my foot with bandaid underneath, then coating it with "vaseline" seems to be doing the trick.

Taco, that one face completely covered in snow, that is second to last in your pictures, with the big run of snow are you saying that is the North West Face of Telegraph, are there any roads to access that from the backside? And where? What's the run out on that approximately? And roughly the angle?

Those are some of your best shots yet, nice work. Nice work not getting hit this time.

EManBevHills · Post by **EManBevHills** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:27 pm

The Rock Bookies are looking for Taco. He defied the odds and returned unscathed!
Neat pix. Especially like the perspective on the usually sketchy section of the DBB.

mve · Post by **mve** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:09 pm

Thanks guys for all the tips with the boots -- I'll give it a shoot!

Elwood · Post by **Elwood** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:21 pm

Better late than never: really cool report and pictures. Badass, definitely badass.

Post by **Taco** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 8:22 am

Mike, yes you can. Going from that saddle cuts out a lot of simple snow climbing, and gets you closer to the stuff up high. Pick the widest couloir if you only have one axe. I might go up one of these days if you're interested.

MVE, try what they said. The slick liners help out a lot.

Lilbitmo, that's Telegraph's NW Face. Check out some info under the routes on this page: http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -Peak.html

Gonna give this one a shot again after we get colder weather and hopefully some precip.

EnFuego · Post by **EnFuego** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:59 pm

It all looks nice. Lets do it middle of night (during coldest temps) to avoid rock fall. If there is rock fall, I always hear "what you don't see won't hurt you".

406 · Post by **406** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:27 pm

Nice work!

Surprised to see the frozen water fall with the warm weather. How tall was it?

Post by **Taco** » Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:05 pm

David, it wouldn't be too hard to roll that way. Getting up into the primary chutes by dawn would be friggin' perfect. Routefinding is a bitch though, as the face is complicated. Gotta print out some pics of it from the air and such to get a good look at where we are during the climb.

Another "crux" are the snow conditions that are kinda sorta unique to the DBB area. Really shitty powder and graupel over sorta harder snow, and then nothing for 6ft, just air before you hit the deck. Kinda like a snowbridge, but from hell. There's a stream running under the snow in that couloir. Tricky getting across.

406, it was about 20ft tall or so. Hard to gauge and I admit I suck at guessing. 20ish feet.

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:55 pm

Taco, are you interested in doing any climbing this weekend?

Post by **Taco** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:08 pm

Going out already, interested? PM sent.

norma r · Post by **norma r** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:23 pm

Great TR and awesome pix Ryan. Hey, how do you like being able to breathe through your nose? hope all is healing well.

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:34 am

TacoDelRio wrote:Going out already, interested? PM sent.

I never received a PM...? PM sent.

Post by **Taco** » Fri Jan 08, 2010 1:31 pm

Site decided to take a dump when I was sending a PM.

norma r wrote:Great TR and awesome pix Ryan. Hey, how do you like being able to breathe through your nose? hope all is healing well.

Feels great! I can finally breathe! I've actually never been able to blow my nose and actually clear it until now. It always took a ton of time and nothing really ever came out.