Sitting deep in the enchantments lies prusik peak. It shoots up above lake Vivian, a beautiful spire of white granite, reminding me of the giants in Patagonia like Cerro Torre. Obviously prusik is not Cerro Torre though, with a well maintained approach and a quick 5.7 line up the west ridge, it begs for the weekend warrior.
With a free weekend and decent weather, I messaged Emily about doing it on thursday. At 19:00 on Friday night, we met up and decided to do it car to car from stuart lake TH. After a rough sleep in the hustle and bustle of Stuart Lake Trailhead, we got up at 03:00 and were moving by 03:30. While I still maintain my hate for the trail, it is much nicer in early hours when there isn’t as much traffic.
By 05:15, we made it to Colchuck lake and started the circumnavigation. The sun started to come out as we started up the asgard pass talus field. This was my first time up asgard and it definitely wasn’t as bad as the some said. You simply have to embrace the slog and by 07:15, we were on top. The core-zone is beautiful and I understand the hype. I think I’ve started to become a spoiled alpine climber since I was personally a little underwhelmed but for such an accessible location, it is beautiful.
From Aasgard pass, we worked our way over to Prusik. The trail through the core-zone is well maintained and cairned. We still found our way off trail a few times but with a little rock-hopping, we were able to get back to it. As we neared the base of the west ridge, we saw one party racking up a good bit below the true start. After hearing they were planning on pitching it out, we rushed ahead to the base and I started the first Simul lead.
I ended up going a bit too close to the crest on this lead and put us near a (rap) anchor on the ridge crest but Emily took the lead and we quickly found our way back and got to the base of the offwidth. I started this lead but in approach shoes, I didn’t feel secure so I handed it to Emily. After some less than stylish squirming, she got through the OW. If the stuart gendarme OW is 5.9, I believe this is at least that. 5.7 my ass!
This lead put us on the summit at 11:00. After a little summit break, we started the 5 straightforward raps down the north side. 5 minutes of traversing put us back at the base of the west ridge at 12:00. From here, it was fighting against the crowds of the enchantments loop. Climber Kyle had done the West ridge car to car in 13.5 hours so that was my goal. After being humbled by climbers who had just done acid baby passing us on the way down Aasgard pass, Emily and I split up for the last segment from the lake. At 14:22, I made it back to the car with a time of 12:52 with emily arriving 15 minutes later. I’m super happy with that time but will say that I don’t think the approach is worth it for the climb. I’d like to come back to do the Beckey-Davis or Stanley-Burgner. A quick stop in leavy got me a pretzel and brat and then I was off to Esmeralda Trailhead to go climb Stuart with a friend the next day.
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