Little Bear - 14,037 ft

Date: 8-7-2005

Climbers: George Barnes, Aaron R., Mark B.

Route:  West Ridge III, Class 4

RT distance (from high camp):  2.2 miles

Elevation gain:  ~2,150 feet

RT time:  7 hours

USGS Quadrangle:  Blanca Peak

Trip Report:

After a great day on Ellingwood and Blanca, we went to bed early with alarms set for 3:30 AM.  Our plan was to hit the trail by 4 AM, hopefully getting a head start on other climbers.  Rock fall in the "Hourglass" (see below) makes this route one of the most dangerous on any Colorado fourteener, so we hoped to mitigate the risk by avoiding rock fall from other parties entirely.

Our plan looked like a winner as we gained the notch on LB's west ridge at 4:30.  We could see headlamps moving in the camps around Lake Como, but there was no one ahead of us, and no one was following us up the scree gully.  This scree gully is fairly unpleasant, and more than once I had to execute a "black-magic talus dyno" just to avoid sliding down with the loose rock.

At the notch I tempted fate by caching my trekking pole.  I'd only seen one marmot the previous day, so I was optimistic that the grip wouldn't be chewed off when I returned.  There was still no sign of light in the eastern skies as we picked our way along the ridge crest. 

The ridge passed quickly, and we were soon descending from Point 12,980 on a climber's trail bound for Little Bear's southwest face.  The Hourglass (aka Bowling Alley, Shooting Gallery, etc) is a deeply set gully in the southwest face.  Any rock knocked loose higher on LB's slopes is funneled into the gully, hence the name and dangerous reputation.

By 6 AM we reached the bottom of the Hourglass where we were greeted by a stream running though the center of the gully.  This made the climbing more interesting as we were forced to climb the rock on the north side of the gully.  Someone has placed fixed lines in the gully, but they're so badly damaged by rock fall that we know the rope can't be trusted (not to mention it's sopping wet from lying in the stream).

Above the class 4 pitch we head to the far left of the gully and have a pretty easy time getting up the class 3 scree.  We're careful not to kick down rocks on anyone who might be ascending behind us.

We top out at 7 AM, in time to see an impressive shadow of the Blanca massif cast over the valley floor.  We spend only enough time on the summit to take pictures and don harness for the rappel down.  As we're about to leave one solo climber tops out and heads for the traverse to Blanca.

We descend our ascent route as we cautiously make our way to the rap anchors above the class 4 pitch.  A very large boulder has been slung with webbing, and we use this as our primary rap anchor.  Just to be safe we back up the sling to some old pitons placed 25 feet above the boulder.

I take the first rappel, and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that our dual 30 meter ropes get me down to a nice step at the bottom of the class 4 pitch.  I unclip from the rope and put Mark on a fireman's belay as he begins his rappel.  Aaron's the lightest, so he comes down last and brings our back up anchor down with him.  This stretch could have been down-climbed, but we all agreed that the rappel was the quickest and safest way to get down.

A half dozen climbers arrive at the base of the gully as Aaron finishes his rappel.  Our timing was perfect, we managed to never have climbers above us during our ascent or descent of the Hourglass.  After butterfly'ing the ropes we picked our way back across the climber's trail to the west ridge.

Back at the notch I'm pleased to find that my trekking pole hasn't been assaulted by the high altitude rats.  The scree slope down was as bad as expected, but we soon reached the tents for a RT time of 7 hours.