Well, the last 60 feet was the most convoluted, awkward, and dangerous thing I can remember doing. It’s basically a vertical to overhanging boulder pile in a deep v-slot. It’s like pick-up-stix, where you are terrified of pulling loose the wrong “stick” and bringing the whole mess crashing down on you. There is this flared slot filled with stacked boulders, and you’re putting stoppers and other small gear in between these boulders, all of which are “hollow” sounding, some of which even expand when you weight the stopper, making it “click” down a bit before it catches again. And all the while, you’re thrashing in this awkward slot! The gear pulls you deeper into it, yet you need to get “out” of it to make upward motions. What a struggle.
It can probably go free instead of aid, but not by me solo! And not by me hanging with 40 to 50 pounds of gear I have to carry because I’m solo.
Then I finally get to the final “anchor” to find two rusted and non-descript bolts I can’t recognize, and the hangers are choked with 7-mil cord such that I can’t even get a ‘biner into the eye of either one. And these bolts are so low compared to the exit of the slot that I can’t even use them to pull out of the awkward thing! So, after a struggle to extricate myself from the top of the v-slot, I drilled two new, good, 5-inch-deep bolts high up, so that a good rappel from them will drop you back into the slot in a decent position and with good rope-run.
After a short trudge up a 30-degree scree slope to about 20 feet of very loose 4th class, I stand on the summit. The wind is howling so that I’m afraid of standing and being blown off of the top. But I stand like a man and stride boldly (that last part is a lie) over to the registry box (a small ammunition locker cabled to a drilled piton) and sign myself in.
It’s over, and all that’s left is to rappel over 1000 feet to the ground, getting my gear to the ground intact. That will be tomorrow.
Many pics are coming!