Wind River Climbing Part I

I gave myself two days to recover from Speedgoat and move out of my place in Ogden before meeting an old friend Chris Dickson at Big Sandy trailhead, excited for a week of climbing in the cirque of the towers and deep lake area.  With a 50+ lb. pack, the approx. 8mi hike in was a little rough on the legs but we made good time and found a nice camp spot in the cirque.

cirque of the towers from the summit of mitchell

The next day, we decided to get on the classic E ridge of Wolfs Head (III 5.6 10p).  We soloed up the low 5^th class gully and up-and-over Tiger tower to reach the base of the ridge.  We simul-ed the majority of the route, doing 3 true pitches for the short stretches of 5.6 terrain.  This route was more of a ridge traverse than a straight-up climb, but it was spectacular nonetheless.

chris on the "catwalk"

exposed traversing on wolfs head

one of my favorite shots of the trip

through the tunnel 

summit of wolfs head

The following day, we got on the other ultra-classic route in the cirque, the NE face of Pingora (IV 5.8+ 12p).  We linked it down to 8 pitches, leading in blocks, with Chris taking a nice 5.9 finger crack variation on the crux pitch.    

pitch 1 on pingora

following pitch 1 above lonesome lake (photo: chris)

chris about to start up the crux pitch

pitch 7 - endless quality granite

pingora summit

Once back at camp, we enjoyed the 2 beers I had hiked in and a cold swim in a gorgeous alpine lake.

cheers!  (photo: chris)

swimming below warbonnet peak (photo: chris)

With beautiful bluebird weather each day, we decided to get on the N face center of Mitchell Peak the following day, on the other side of the cirque.  We experienced some route-finding difficulties (our pitches 2-4 were climber’s L of the actual pitches 2 & 3) but some great route-finding by Chris put us at the base of the stellar flake pitches (4-6) and we stayed on-route til the top.

chris route-finding on mitchell 

awesome pitch 5 flake system

pitch 9 

summit of mitchell, stoked to be in the sun after hours of shade on the N face (photo: chris)

After climbing a few thousand feet of granite in the past 3 days, we felt a rest day was in order, so after sleeping in, we broke camp and hiked over the pass to set-up a new camp at the far end of clear lake, below the broad W face of haystack mountain.  Stayed tuned for part II with climbing on haystack mt. and steeple peak.

hiking over to haystack mt (photo: chris)