Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Triumph on Mt. Triumph!

Last week I had the opportunity to climb a route on a mountain in an area that I've never been in before.  My partner and I made our way into the Cascade backcountry to climb the Northeast Buttress of Mt. Triumph.

The trip had a bit of an inauspicious beginning. As I was racking up at camp, I accidentally dropped five locking carabiners clipped together down the moat between a rock and the snowpack. For a short bit, I thought I might have seriously hindered our ability to climb the mountain.  Over the course of an hour-and-a-half we used our stove pot to excavate a large amount of snow from our camp.

Finally, we found the carabiners!

The following morning, we got up at 4:30am and were walking out of camp and across the glacier by 5am. We were climbing by 6:00am and on the summit by 11:30am. The descent took a long time and we were not back on the glacier until 4pm.  We didn't make it back to the car until almost 9:30pm.

It was a long day, but it was great fun.  Following is a photo essay from the day:

Approaching near Thornton Lake 

The camp is for Mt. Triumph is at the top of the gully in the distance. 

 Climbing the gully below camp.

Mt. Triumph with the Northeast Ridge on the Right Skyline 

Steep snow on the glacier 

 The Southern Pickets

Mt. Triumph 

 Looking back at the Col where we camped.


 Low on the Northeast Ridge









The Obligatory Summit Shot! 


--Jason D. Martin

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