Its all Ken's fault. OK, maybe not entirely but there's no denying he's the one responsible for planting an unstoppable seed that just could not be kept from growing. Several weeks ago after our Blanca & Ellingwood trip, Dominic and I received the following email: "For something to ponder, here's a shot of the Northwest Face route on Little Bear...". Hmmm, seriously Ken? Some time later I made the mistake of letting Dwight catch wind of the idea. Oh boy, here we go. Next thing I know he and Dominic are psyched to try it and I'm apprehensively agreeing to give it a shot during the upcoming weekend. Huh? Just a few weeks ago I remember laughing and telling Pete K he was crazy if he thought I had any intention of climbing Little Bear in winter... and now we're going to attempt the NW Face? Clearly I need to have my head examined.
In the few days before the trip I pester Dwight and Dominic with a laundry list of concerns and they take me for mildly neurotic. I'm worried they don't fully appreciate the seriousness of the undertaking and frankly, I'm a bit scared. A northwest face in winter equals shade and cold for the entire ascent. Steep, exposed 4th class rock mixed with even a little ice and snow is no joke and this route has plenty of it. With well over 1000 ft of potentially tricky terrain, it could take a long, long time. Digging through old pictures and distant memories... will there be enough opportunities for protection if necessary? What if we need to bail? Can we find sufficient rappel anchors to get back down safely? Then there's the descent of the Hourglass to consider... chances are there's no way we'll have any interest in going back down that face if we make it to the top. The Hourglass route is certainly no picnic either though and has plenty of its own issues, not the least of which is the fact that we'll have to count on descending it safely without climbing up it first.
A few positives ease my mind slightly. Dwight & I have been up both routes before and Dwight has been up the Hourglass in winter. It hasn't snowed in the Sangres in weeks. Last week a bold new member of 14ers.com who is either totally crazy or a heck of a good climber reported a successful solo ascent of the standard route using nothing but boots and an ice tool. He offered very little beta but the fact that he made it is comforting.
Saturday morning there's no time left for postulation. Dwight drives us up to 9,300 ft on the Lake Como Road and we're hiking by 4:15. His excitement brings out his inner jackrabbit tendencies and soon I'm ordered to the front of the parade to control or plod to Lake Como - its going to be a long day and it'd be a good idea to not wear ourselves out prematurely. As expected, the road is marvelously tracked and our snowshoes stay on our backs the entire way.
Approaching Little Bear Peak
After crossing frozen Lake Como we follow tracks along the road until 11,900 ft where we catch sight of the couloir used to gain Little Bear's west ridge on the standard route. With hopes that we will be descending it later in the day we cache our shoes and trekking poles here and begin making our way for the famous black hand that marks the start of the NW face route. Luckily the snow is hard and postholing isn't an issue. Ice axes and crampons come out as we begin climbing up moderate snow slopes. Its cold and the wind surely exceeds the NOAA forecast.
Dominic belaying Dwight near the cruxy black hand headwall
Dominic climbing above the hand headwall
The rope comes out at the memorable 4th class headwall by the black hand around 12,700 ft. We'll be roped up from here all the way to the summit - that's 1400 ft of climbing. The rock is reasonably dry, but there's plenty of snow and a bit of ice on most of the ledges. From below it looks much drier than it really is because the snow is hidden from view. We decide to try climbing without crampons and that turns out to be a good choice. Dominic leads us upward. After an initial belayed pitch to overcome the cruxy hand headwall we simulclimb over snow and less steep, 3rd class rock.
A large snowfield near the middle of the face lets us down when we find deep, difficult postholing in place of what we'd hoped would be a several hundred foot cruise up friendly snow. Instead we traverse back to rock and continue to slowly pick our way up.
Things slow down considerably as we near the several hundred feet of steep 4th class rock directly below the ridge. We'll set up proper belays from here on up. Dominic is tiring so Dwight provides some relief on the sharp end. He makes quick work of two pitches and Dominic and I follow. Its painfully cold belaying or waiting to climb. Think of a happy place. Here I don't dare climb in my big gloves and my fingers freeze as I cling to the snowy rock in liners, desperate to get back to their warmers at the next anchor.
Dominic takes the last lead up onto and along the ridge. Even though we're finally in the sun its still cold. Fortunately the rock is drier here and what we thought might be a crux is actually comparatively easy. After much anticipation we reach the end of the hard climbing and its practically a stroll to the long-awaited summit.
Final stroll to Little Bear's prized summit
It's 2:40 and we've been roped up for over 6 hours. We're thirsty and hungry but the tasks of sorting gear and preparing for the descent won't allow us to eat or drink very much.
Crampons go on and Dominic belays Dwight as he makes the initial downclimb off the summit. The snow slope looks formidable at first but proves to be a bit of an optical illusion. Soon Dominic and I begin simulclimbing behind Dwight. We are forced to descend dry patches of the loose talus above the Hourglass that give it its dangerous reputation. Care must be taken.
Rappeling The Hourglass
Dwight reaches a prominent anchor above the steep snow slopes leading down into the Hourglass and we regroup to modify our strategy to suit the change in terrain. Things are getting spicy. Dominic belays Dwight as he downclimbs steep snow past some ice in search of an anchor within 30 meters. What he finds isn't nice, but it'll have to work. Dominic and I take turns rapping down. We can now see the Hourglass's famous anchor below, adorned with slings and ropes galore. Dwight downclimbs on belay once again and Dominic and I gently rappel and climb down using the less than ideal anchor. Dwight will stop our fall if it fails, but we'll go for a bit of a ride first. Once we're all down to the humongous anchor we take turns rapping over the ice flow and then walk down the remainder of the couloir. Whew. Sun's going to set soon.
The rope goes away and we can breathe a little easier. A descending traverse on moderate snow slopes brings us to rocky terrain where cairns guide us up onto the west ridge.
Heading for Little Bear's West Ridge at Sunset
We run the rocky ridge in crampons since we know we'll need them again very soon. Headlamps go on. A wave of relief comes when I look down the couloir and see its in good shape - the snow is of fairly good consistency and there isn't any rock exposed. I'm tired so I make a conscious effort to concentrate on every step.
Finally the couloir lets us go and we follow my GPS waypoint back to our snowshoe cache. It feels good to lie down. We've been so preoccupied that we're starving and dehydrated. Snowshoes on our feet sound better than snowshoes on our back so we strap them on and trek back across Lake Como. A fire near the cabin catches our attention. As expected, its Joe & Prakash and they're eager to hear about conditions and the possibility of a ski descent. We give them a beta dump before beginning the slog back down the road.
The hike out is completely uneventful, except that Dwight almost sustains an injury at one of the difficult sections of the Lake Como Road. The truck appears at 10pm and its all we can do to get ourselves back to Alamosa to a hotel room. We waste a ludicrous half hour waiting to get food at Burger King and its just awful. I choke down half my burger before deciding I'd rather just go to sleep. There are already plans for a grandiose breakfast in the morning...
