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| Report Type |
Full |
| Peak(s) |
Dinosaur Mountain - 7380
South Green Mountain - 8073
Green Mountain - 8144
|
| Date Posted |
08/04/2014 |
| Date Climbed |
08/03/2014 |
| Author |
Brian C |
| Mountaineering up Green Mountain |
August 3, 2014
Partner: Brian Kalet
After the previous day's ascent of Overhang Rock, I had the brilliant idea of another mountaineering linkup to the summit of Green Mountain. I had done several big linkups to Green Mountain before, so plotting a simple connection of only two obscure routes had me thinking it would be no big deal. The morning would lead us into Skunk Canyon to ascend the long, seldom-climbed North Ridge all the way to the summit of Dinosaur Mountain. From there we would hike toward South Green Mountain, climb the East Face and then follow easier terrain up and over Green Mountain. Feeling lazy, we decided to set up a car shuttle between NCAR and Chautauqua and soon discovered that this ended up being the best decision of the day. Little did I know how much of an ordeal this would become.
After setting up the car shuttle, we casually sorted gear at NCAR. Not knowing how involved the day would become, we only took a tiny rack of rock pro, a single twin rope and a lone liter of water each. The hike into Skunk Canyon went smoothly and I was rather impressed as to how the floods had cleared out most of the nasty brush. This formerly was one of the worst bush-whacks in the area, but no longer carried the same bite that it used to. After a momentary confusion of finding the start of the climb, we soon were flaking out the rope at the base. Although one of the longer ridge climbs in the area, the North Ridge sits behind the more prominent "Primal Rib" and is not visible from much of the surrounding areas. Information on the route is sparse and the lack of traffic and sustained winter shade has given the ridge a healthy crop of lichen, bushes and exfoliating rock. I had expected easy climbing and had not been concerned about leading on a single twin until I stepped onto the rock. It was immediately apparent that the climbing was thin, crumbly and insecure and I soon found my mind wandering to the thin rope I was tied to. I gradually worked upward and passed several sections of rock that was much harder than was expected and set the first belay. Brian came up smoothly and we agreed that our original plan to solo this was not going to work and we continued on belay.
Each pitch had its own challenges and several unprotected knife-edge sections were just as dangerous for the second as they were for the leader. Finally, after 5 pitches the terrain eased significantly and we stowed the rope and soloed the rest of the way to the summit of Dinosaur Mountain. While attempting to relax under a small tree near the summit, the heat of the day was coming full on and I knew that I had not brought enough water. The intial climb had taken much longer than expected and we thought easier terrain ahead would work out. Unfortunately, the next challenge came immediately as the path toward South Green Mountain was blocked by Dinosaur Mountain's summit cliffs. We were forced to descend a ways down the bowling alley and found a scruffy class 3 descent to easier terrain and brushy side-hilling toward the Dinosaur-South Green saddle. The temps were rising more and we took occasional stops in shady spots as we worked gradually up toward South Green. The closer to the rock we got, the thicker the brush became and crawling over downed trees quickly became tiring. Finally we just decided to rope up and begin climbing and I worked carefully up the large face. The easiest path was not obvious and although there was much less lichen than earlier, there were very few opportunities to protect the climb and I soon found myself belaying from a tiny shrub on the face. Thankfully, the next pitch went more smoothly and I happily belayed Brian up from the impressive summit ridge of South Green. Brian arrived and we celebrated being over the worst climbing until I started off on the next pitch. What I thought was the final summit block was actually a nasty false summit, and I was forced to downclimb the previous pitch before I was able to traverse further and finally arrive on the summit. The top was a pleasant surprise and a nice distraction from the fact that we were both out of water and still far from the car.
The downclimb is also 5th class and we took our time to carefully descend to easier terrain. The final moves were more difficult than I had expected and we took care to make it as safe as possible. Being able to put my sneakers back on was a great feeling and we didn't waste time before chugging up toward Green Mountain. My mouth felt like it was full of cotttonballs and my legs tired, but thankfully the remaining up-climb was short and we soon sat on the highpoint for the day. The descent felt longer than usual but was uneventful and I was surprised that the trail was sparsely populated. I had never been so happy to have reached Chautauqua and made straight for the drinking fountain. The day had taken 8.5 hours and was close to twice as long as I had expected. This was a nice remote excursion along some of the most remote Flatiron terrain I had ever been on, and was likely the most challenging Green Mountain linkup that I had done.
More photos can be found here...
http://www.brianinthewild.com/south-green-mountain-east-face-north-sneak-dinosaur-mountain-north-ridge.html
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