Mt. Triumph - NE ridge

July 3, 2006

Traveling under one mile per hour is not as easy at it sounds!

We planned to spend the first three days of my four-day weekend climbing something long and off the beaten path. The plans changed when my partner, Steve, was grounded for a few days in Yakima due to some silly airplane problem - a possible fire on board. He drank beer pool-side and I was domestic the first two days of the weekend. We'd call each other longingly on the phone, disappointment increasing exponentially each time. By the second night I was pretty worked-up about climbing something that would get the climbing bug out of my system for a while. We had just a day and half to climb left, so we settled on a good challenge: the northeast ridge of Mt. Triumph. The guide books (Selected Climbs vol. II, CAG, and Classic Climbs) all call for 2-3 days to complete the trip, but I was with Steve and had climbed the route once before and so I gave us a 50:50 chance of succeeding in the short time frame available.

Instead of the planned ascent of the ridge the first day, bivy near the col above the middle Thornton Lake, and early walk out the second day, we actually pulled the climb off in a single push from 5 am to 12:45 am. Why? Mosquitoes and beer! It’s amazing the power those two incredibly disparate forces have to encourage constant movement through the mountains. You see, the mosquitoes were out in force and there was no wind to blow them away from my bug-netting-free super-light bivy sack. So, as we scrambled down the ridge towards the bivy site I asked Steve if he wouldn’t mind hiking all the way out to the trailhead that night to enjoy the cold strong beer waiting for us. It was an unfair suggestion to make since he’s absolutely gung-ho about beer consumption at trailheads. Of course he was game immediately and the suffer-fest was on! The return from the base of the ridge began at 8:15 pm and ended 4.5 hours, a few hallucinations, a broken ski pole, a little dehydration, and millions of newly-broken spider webs later. Poor spiders, they need to find a better place for web-placement than across trails! The funny thing was that we were too tired to drink the cold beer once at the trailhead and instead just got inside my van, sipped a teaspoon of whisky each, stared dumbfounded at nothing, and pondered the long day that was suddenly over. Sleep came soon and but the physical pain from such a long day lingered long after the trip was completed.

Thorton Lakes;  Mt Triumph from the col.

The Pickets from the Ridge;  On the ridge.

On the ridge;  summit glory!

Gear notes: We used a standard alpine rack (set of nuts, hexes, and cams to 3”), lots of slings for running-belays (8 doubles and 6 singles work well), and a single 60m rope (I think that rappelling this ridge is much more efficient with a single rope rather than two due to high rope drag and snagging problems on the ridge descent). If you climb up the obvious nice 5.7 leaning parallel crack near the top of the route (instead of the 5.5 ascent to the right of the crack) it would be nice to have a 4-inch cam for protection, otherwise you don‘t need any cams larger than 2“. A cordellete is handy for slinging large horns. Bring extra rappel anchor cord because you may want to replace what you find at a few stations (be sure to remove old webbing and take it home for disposal if you replace any anchors (check out the ball of old anchor material at the Marblemount Ranger Station). We did not use crampons to ascend to the col above the second Thornton Lake or cross the glacier/snowfield, however the snow was very steep and hard in spots and it is worth taken them along just in case. Tennis shoes are wonderful for the long approach but you’ll likely want stiff-soled boots for the potentially hard steep snow traversing. A helmet is useful due to some loose rock at rappel anchors that may be dislodged when pulling the rope.  Good ice ax arrest skills are important (there is one very steep snow slope that is quite hard right now - maybe not an issue late in the summer)

Bivy sites: The books mention bivy sites being available one pitch up on the ridge. It’s actually two 5th class pitches up by our calculations and although it is a beautiful spot it does not seem worth climbing to with full overnight packs when there are great sites just one mile away near the col.

Conditions: We had ideal conditions (lots of firm snow), but in the middle of summer the glacier/snowfield crossing to reach the base of the ridge may become problematic due to melting and snow/ice block sliding problems. The rock on the ridge is quite good and takes gear pretty well overall.

Trip suggestions: Take two to three days and a camera to photograph the Picket Range, Mt. Despair, and just about everywhere else. Begin climbing the ridge by 9:00 am so you can enjoy time on the summit and afford probable time-consuming mistakes (we stuck one rappel rope and made a mistake onscrambling up to the beginning of the first pitch to ascend the ridge).  Consider climbing Thornton Peak also. Averaging a speed of under one mile per hour was a lot for this trip (it’s about 19 miles and we didn‘t stop except for changing shoes, harnessing up, obtaining water, and sitting on the summit for 10 minutes - 19.75 hours car-to-car). This is an arduous trip (6500 total gain in 19 miles, half of which is on fairly rough terrain). Go light!

Partners: Make sure everyone you go with is a capable 3rd/4th class unroped scrambler, otherwise this long route will be VERY long. Climbing teams of two are ideal for the multiple pitches and rappels.

Water: Clear running water is abundant and available constantly except between the col above the middle lake and the summit. There’s plenty of snow to melt at least through mid-summer from the col to the bivy spots on the ridge.