Mount Cline

Mount Cline – July 8-9, 2006

Mountain height: 3361 m
Elevation gain: 1981 m (approx. 1000 m each day)

Ascent time:
            To bivy:                        5:15
            To summit:                  6:00

Descent time:
From summit to car: 9:45

Mountaineering with Mark, Raff, and Renata.

I’m not sure what to think about this trip. Great company, great bivy site, interesting and very challenging ascent (the notches, that is)…..terrible weather. We weren’t expecting completely clear skies, but neither were we expecting incessant rain and whiteout-like conditions. As such, the summit was a bitter/sweet achievement and in truth, personally I would have preferred to fail to make the summit, but see some of the amazing surroundings from near the top, instead of ascending into a thick layer of clouds and seeing nothing, as we did.

The 5 hour hike to the bivy site was uneventful, except for a black bear encounter several hundred metres from the road, and the four of us watching Renata’s backpack tumble about 80m down the gully alongside the headwall (Raff, the consummate gentleman graciously volunteered to retrieve it). At the bivy sight, we set up camp and sat down to enjoy the beautiful surroundings – it’s obvious to see why the location made the “Top bivy sites” in Bill Corbett’s 11,000ers guidebook. This was my second visit to the lakes (the first, a year earlier) and the area was as stunning as I remembered.

We awoke at 4 am to relatively clear skies, but upon ascending a couple of hundred metres, it became evident that nasty weather was coming in from the west and quickly clouds covered the entire area. The view was still decent, but not as good as it should have been. We roped up for the glacier, although it seems to have deteriorated to a year round snow patch and there was a route around it. After that, a short and enjoyable hike brought us to the infamous “notches”.

The first notch didn’t look too bad although the exposure was significant. It was here that we all realized how lucky we were to have the fourth member of our group with us. This was Renata’s first alpine trip, however, she has a great deal of traditional climbing experience. Renata volunteered to lead the notches and she did so with great ease and grace - we were all very impressed. She then belayed Raff, Mark, and me over and we continued to the second notch, a few metres away.

This notch was definitely more challenging – perhaps more psychologically than technically. It required steep and severely exposed downclimbing and then a step across a gap from one wall to the other. Again, Renata negotiated the climb with ease and then belayed Raff over. Unfortunately, Mark found the step to be beyond his comfort level and after downclimbing to the gap, he decided to retreat and came back up. This was good for me because it meant I was going to get a belay from both sides. Mark would belay me down the wall and then Renata would belay me across the gap and up the other wall. It was also raining steadily, at this point, and I was concerned that would make things harder. In all honesty, the rain was not at all a contributing factor, as I was so petrified stepping across that gap, it didn’t even occur to me that we were all getting drenched by the downpour.

Once across, Raff, Renata, and I raced to the summit as quickly as we could, in worsening weather conditions. From about 3150 m to the summit there was no view at all and we could barely see each other, though separated by not more than 20 metres in distance. The summit stay was short, was obvious reasons, and then we hi-tailed it back down to the notches. Getting back across the second notch was a little easier, as it required you to step up to the second wall, instead of down. And, of course, Mark was there to give us all a solid belay. The first notch was trickier getting back than going, because of the steep downclimb to the chockstone. In addition, everyone had pretty cold hands, which made things more difficult.

The remainder of the descent was mercifully easy and we arrived back at the bivy site at around 3:30 pm. The hike back to the car started off well and the “on and off” showers were quite refreshing. Unfortunately, at one point, someone forgot the turn the “off” tap and we spent the last couple of hours in a steady downpour. Back at the car we were all thoroughly soaked, not to mention very tired. A terrific trip, but I am certainly inCLINEd to repeat the ascent on a better weather day. Thanks to Raff for organizing the trip and Renata for getting us across those notches and to the summit.

(some photos taken on my 2005 trip)