Pinnacle Mountain attempt II – July 24, 2004

Mountain height:    3,067 m (10,060 feet)
Roundtrip time:      9:00

Climbing with Mark.

Definitely our most depressing and sobering trip to date. We walked away from Pinnacle Mountain for the second time with heads held low. Armed with the correct instructions regarding the ascent route, we thought that we would at least be able to make it to the crux climb just before the summit. Unfortunately, even ascending the supposed easy 5th class climbing just above the col, proved to be more than I could handle – it was simply beyond my climbing level and my comfort level.

After repeated attempts, we returned to the col, where another party was preparing to make the ascent. Since one of the group members was very experienced (Sirrus from Iran), we decide to watch his ascent and then follow his route. As expected, Sirrus ascended the rockband with great ease and then the other two members of the party (Doug and Curtis) followed. Although they offered to belay us up, we declined. Our rationale was that if we couldn’t do the ascent by ourselves, we probably should be there in the first place.

I followed Sirrus’ route, but even that was too steep and exposed for me and I had to rappel down off a piton. In complete disillusionment, we had no choice but to give up. Looks like its time to back off a little with the climbing and get some more experience with steep scrambling and exposure. We will summit Pinnacle Mountain someday….just not today!

To sum up the previous six days:

  1. 84 km in total distance traveled
  2. 5,170 m of total elevation gain
  3. 48.5 hours in hiking/scrambling/climbing time
  4. 14 hours of driving
  5. only one summit achieved - Mount Carnarvon

Here we go again! Heading towards Pinnacle on a beautiful day, three days after our first failure

 

The long slog to the Eiffel/Pinnacle col

 

At the col, preparing for the ascent

 

The view of Eiffel Peak from Pinnacle is stunning

 

Traversing towards the ascent gully

 

Stymied again! This the easy 5th class climbing - it is far steeper than it looks and I didn't get any further than this point

 

A very depressing retreat

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