By 0630 we had scrambled to a position where pitching was necessary, and we switched into technical climbing. Phil belayed me off a large tree and we were off to a good start. Although the fold we had planned to climb was poor quality, the face to its right was very workable and led to a smaller fold with reasonable rock. The pitches went fast, but they just kept coming at us, and it seemed as though we were getting nowhere. After around 6 pitches we reached a large roll which allowed for a bit of context. I looked at Phil and he looked at me. “This is a monster,” I commented. I was set on trying to stick to the fold, so we climbed a sixty metre pitch towards it, only to be shut down by its poor quality.
I climbed back down to the belay and struck off towards the central face. This line offered fast climbing in a moderate range with cleaner rock, and good protection. At this point we did what I love most – we climbed fast and I stretched the rope. Pitch after pitch of climbing fell below us as we were starting to get somewhere. We were making fast gains but the mountain seemed to be growing under our feet.
Finally after thirteen rope stretching pitches I looked at Phil and put the drill in my backpack. “From here up it looks a bit less steep, how do you feel about using alternate rope techniques to finish the last third of this thing?” We moved quickly but noted that good belays could be established for pitching where needed from here to the summit. This was a great day with an amazing friend.
I hope to hear many stories of wild adventurers getting lost trying to follow this route and making their own way to the summit!
