This past weekend was organized by one of my friends who recently recovered from a severe back injury. As support to her, I agreed to come out and hike the Great Range Traverse in a day with her. Otherwise normally I wouldn't hike. And yes, I'll be the first to admit, I hate hiking because I'm terrible at it, plus it hurts my already achy knees.
As far as hiking resume goes, mine consisted of a few training hikes last year to prep for Mt Rainier - all, by the way, were in the rain. After that, most hikes are just long approaches to some remote climbing. This year, I've only done a few climbs that involved hiking at all.
The Great Range Traverse is approximately 25 miles over 8 peaks. It's considered the 3rd hardest hike in America.
The weekend weather called for rain on Saturday. It didn't sound like a good plan hike given the forecast. But, one of our friends insisted the show must go on.
We woke around 4:45AM. We checked out, and it wasn't rain yet. So everyone got ready and started off the Roostercomb trailhead around 6AM.
My goal for the day wasn't to complete the entire traverse, but it was to get as far as I could and while being the least wet possible. So a friend and I took off in the dark. We marched on over Hedgehog and to Lower Wolfjaw. It was a little muddy and damp, with a light sparkle here and there. But, the weather mostly head up as we came across the first bail point after the Lower Wolfjaw. It was almost 10AM. We were unsure where the rest of the group were, but decided, we were going to keep moving while the weather was satisifactory and try for Gothics where the next bail point lied. So, off we went, when we heard from a distance, someone calling our names. We waited for two to catch up while the rest of the group bailed. The 4 of us marched on when it started to rain on us, making the trail slick and muddy. Finally we got to Gothics at 1PM and by then, I felt mentally exhausted and was happy to bail. The weather cleared on our 8 mile hike back to The Garden. Finally at 4:45PM, we were in the Garden Trailhead parking with one of our waiting in the car for us. It was the nice and I was so grateful that he did that.
Back at the Ausable Inn with a beer in my hand, trying to drown out the pain in my wrist, ankle and knees, I reflected on the day's events. Everyone was glad to have done something, but everyone was also miserable while hiking in the rain. Compared to my backpacking attempt of the GRT last year, which was also in the rain and we bailed after Lower Wolfjaw, this time around I was pleasantly happy with my performance. Although, I wasn't so sure if I would have had it in me to go another 8 miles, on top of the 16.5 miles we did today, in order to complete the traverse.
The next day, everyone woke late and had a big breakfast over at Noonmark Diner. We discussed over breakfast what the day's festivities be. I decided to go and try the Regular Route (5.5) at the Chapel Pond Slabs. Since my boyfriend didn't come with me on this trip, I felt a tinge of uncertainty. It has been a while since I had to be fully self reliant without knowing fully that there will be someone to back me up if things didn't go my way. My boyfriend's friend came up with me to the trip at the very last minute and would be climbing with me. He has limited multi-pitch rock climbing experience but proved to be a reliable mountaineering partner for my boyfriend.
A friend dropped us off by chapel pond and showed us the start of the climb. I took a quick mental note of the features on the slab, marking off where the route would go and good ledges for belay.
It was 11AM already. With the shorter daylight and we still had a 5 hour drive home that night, my partner was doubting whether we would be fast enough to finish the climb without it becoming an epic.
With only 6 pitches all 5.5 and under, I was fairly confident we would make it down by 5PM. So we racked up and started the climb at 11:30AM. I led the climb from start to finish. The climbing wasn't hard but protection was scarce on pitches 3 and 4. There were moments where the runouts were 40 ft long with nothing but pure friction moves with nothing for my hands or feet to grab onto. I breathed hard through those sections and prayed that the rubber on my shoe was sticky enough.
We topped out around 4:40PM. I was happy and felt stronger mentally, having successfully led the entire climb start to finish. We then skirted around the edge of the slabby cliff to the north descent. Finding our way to the two fixed lines on the steeper wet sections. It was 5:30PM when we got to the bottom back to the car. Our friends had just arrived 10 minutes earlier to pick us up. It was perfect timing. It was a great day of epic free climbing.
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