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Battle Range MountaineeringJuly 27 - August 4, 2001Photo Gallery |
Climbing the "Tadpole" [Back to Main Photo Gallery Page]
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The "Tadpole" turned out to be the only real roped climbing of the week, due to some combination of weather, lethargy on one climbers part, and inexperience on the part of some others. About half the group were general "mountain travelers" who explored fairly extensively but had no interest in technical climbing to begin with. This is written up as "an interesting, short rock climb for a day off" with "3 rope-lengths of technical climbing with one step of artificial aid". Including the approach and descent this took our group of three a long day. We never found any feasible aid step but rather traversed around to somewhat loose ledges on the east side by using a short, smooth apron that was a bit awkward where it rounded a corner. Given that we did somehow avoid any aid climbing we were tempted to get t-shirts which said "We freed the Tadpole!" That would probably baffle the casual reader of said shirts! See the trip summary for a report of this climb along with a summary of what else people did during the week. |
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Climbing the polished rock apron below the retreating Moby Dick Glacier. The center and right photos show this from different perspectives. Surmounting the initial ice was steep. |
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The lower part was a moderate "ramp" or "apron" which we scrambled up unroped. From some perspectives a descent to the east seems feasible, the middle photo shows the problems with that. |
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Of the roped climbing this awkward sloping ramp was the most difficult. We resorted to this after being unable to find any more direct way up from its base, including via aid climbing. (The route is rated as having an aid move, we never did one.) |
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Descent was via a full 2-rope rappel into the gully (south?)west of the Tadpole, down the gully, and then down steep snow. On the way "home" we had a nice alpenglow view through Houston Pass. |
 Climbing page |
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