Mt Triump, NE Ridge (August ?, 1998)

Don't remember too many details about this climb except for the fact that it was great. (Thanks to Dan for filling in some of the missing/incorrect details below!) We made it to the high notch in about 4.5 hours from the car, where we bivvied. The morning was cloudy, and we debated even trying the route. We decided to at least hike across to the base and put the decision off for a while.

The "glacier" crossing was easy: we crossed slabs below the glacier, then a bit of snow to get onto crappy scrambling to reach the ridge. At this point, the weather was looking up, so we decided to give it a go. We simul climbed the whole ridge, aside from a couple of steps. The steep, wide crack was one such spot. I would have protected with a #3 Camalot, which we didn't have. The last stretch on heather was a bit nervous -- it would be scary if wet/snowy. Fortunately it was dry.

We summited in about 3 hours from camp. Lazed about in the sun for about an hour, and then downclimbed the ridge with about 10 single rope rappels. This took longer than going up (3 hours on the rock portion). We brought double ropes but only used one all day. Go light.

I vaguely remember winning a bet that we would be back at the car at 5pm, but Dan's report puts us back at the car at 6:40... All in all a spectacular climb in a great location. Not at all difficult/long if you're willing to do lots of simul climbing. In terms of difficulty, I'd put it in the same class as the complete N ridge of Forbidden, although Forbidden obviously has more glacier issues, because of its elevation...

Rack and gear:

9mm x 50m rope
small rack:  some stoppers, ~5 cams (to #2 camalot), 4 hexes
lots of slings (doubles are good, as usual)
ice axe
rock shoes

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