The Orthrus

Matt and I had a day so we busted out toward Blanding to climb a two headed tower that I assumed had been climbed because of its proximity to the road.  After walking around the base we were pleasantly surprised to not see any evidence of a previous ascent.  We scoped out a few options but decided to start on the South side slab.  Some loose sandy rock made the easy climbing feel plenty sporty.  Luckily I was able to wander around and find some gear here and there to protect the slab.  At the top of the slab was a little headwall with a thin crack splitting it.  Getting to the crack required a bolt but then some tiny cams and a couple pin placements got me to a spot that was free climbable.  I belayed Matt up to the top of the first summit off a gear anchor as I strategized the next section.  On the second shorty pitch we were able to stem across the gap between the summits and do some easy free climbing to the taller summit.  We decided to name the tower after the two headed dog that guarded Geryon's Cattle.  Unfortunately it was killed by Hercules.  Not cool Hercules.

The Orthrus

Top of the slab.

Matt on the first summit.

 On the way back to Durango we stopped at the Butler Wash Ruins which were super cool and worth the short hike.

Small arch near Butler Wash Ruins

Climbing along the Green River

Initially we planned on doing a small river trip to climb the 'Green River Towers' between Spring Canyon and Hell Roaring Canyon.  Unfortunately between the weather and the start of the Corona Virus people bailed until all that were left was Trevor, Neil and I.  We decided to hold off on the Green River Towers for a bit but since we already had a canoe organized we decided to do some other towers down river a bit. 

'Vena Cava'

First up was 'Vena Cava'.  We paddled across to a sandbar just up from the tower and pushed through some brush to get to the base of the talus cone.  Shortly, we were looking up at the only published route on the tower thinking it wasn't as inspiring as we were hoping.  Luckily we spotted a route on the up hill side of the tower.  The route appeared to have a crack running all the way to the summit but since we didn't have a bolt kit with us we just hoped for the best.  Luckily I was able to get to the top with some pulling on cams and aiding.  Trevor was able to free the route on TR at about 5.12-.  Later we found out that the route had been climbed by Ralph in the past. 

Ben on the beginning chimney.

Trevor on 'The Tool'

After 'Vena Cava' and getting back to the car we decided to check out a tower we noticed on the east side of the river in a little sub canyon between Hell Roaring and Mineral Bottom.  Not knowing if it had been climbed before we hauled a bunch of gear up to the base.  We found a very faded plaque under the obvious crack system on the West face.  It appeared to read, 'The Tool' 5.10+.  Trevor started up pitch 1 and built a belay in a little alcove about 3/4 of the way up the tower.  The final pitch to the summit has some cool face climbing past bolts. Before we started up we noticed a stuck rope in the notch, and unfortunately after we rappelled the last 20' of my tag line suffered a similar fate.

Neil rappelling 'The Tool'.

The next and last day out, we crossed the river again to climb a tower called 'Horse Thief'.  Getting the canoe into the river on the east side required lowering it down a steep embankment and then carefully getting in.  On the west side we just left the canoe tied up and floating in the river while we  headed off to spend the next half hour thrashing through the thick brush on the rivers edge.  Finally we broke out of the brush and found an old road though a cliff band and headed up the talus cone to the base. 

Neil on top of P1 of 'Horse Thief' 

The original route's first pitch is a 5.8 chimney but Neil spotted a nice splitter to the left that appeared to lead to the same saddle as the chimney.  Neil lead the fun first pitch, Trevor took the crux second pitch and I lead the last pitch to the summit.  The route that goes at 5.10 was a great outing with minimal choss.  We headed back to the vehicles and then back to service, where we discovered that the Corona Virus has exploding and that our future desert plans would have to be put on hold. 

Trevor and Ben on top of 'Horse Thief'

The Maze

One of the first times I noticed Standing Rock of the Maze was when Bill, Matt and I climbed Candlestick Tower.  The Maze however is not easy to get to and it took 7 years before I made it over there.  

I piled into Trevor and Emily's truck at the turn off for the Maze.  It was 40ish miles from the pavement to the towers we wanted to climb.  That 40 miles took 4 hours because the driving was at a snails pace for 10 of those miles.  Those 10 miles we rough and required getting out of the truck to scout the line over and over.  We finally made it to camp which was literally at the base of Standing Rock and decided to climb the first of the 2 pitches.  Trevor lead pitch one and fixed the rope for the next day.  Emily lead pitch 2 the next day and then we had to figure out what to climb.  We scoped out the Plug but decided it was too big of an objective for the afternoon so we headed over to a smaller feature called Chimney Rock.

Standing Rock of the Maze

Chimney Rock doesn't have a published route on it and new bolts are not allowed so we scoped for a while before deciding to give it a go.  I started up the obvious weakness and at about 5.9-5.10 was able to make it up.  On top, as expected there were no bolts so we counter balanced to get down.  Later we found out that the route had been climbed in the past by Ralph Ferrara. 

Chimney Rock

After getting down from Chimney Rock we packed up camp and drove out to the Mother and Child to camp.  As Emily set up camp, Trevor and I headed up to the tower to check it out.  We could see a drilled pin near the top and I found a line up to it that looked the most straight forward.  As I approached the pin I noticed that there were in fact 3 pins.  The first was in about a centimeter and pulled out easily with my finger, the second moved when I lightly weighted it, and the 3rd was about halfway in.  I was able to get a sling over the 3rd pin and gingerly aid past it to a mantle onto the summit.  This summit was also missing an anchor so again we had to do a counter balance to retreat.

The Mother and Child

The next morning as we started down the rough road back to the pavement we lost the 4wd in the truck.  This was unfortunate since we had a lot of burly driving ahead of us.  Luckily Trevor and Emily were able to rally the truck out to pavement where my vehicle was parked.  The truck however needed to be towed to Blanding, and Trevor and Emily came with me to Durango.  The next day a mechanic in Blanding took off the CV joint so it was drivable to Flagstaff.  They got a rental car, picked it up, and got it fixed in Flagstaff.

Assorted Small Moab Towers.

Matt and I were lucky enough to get out a few times this winter and climb some little towers around Moab that we've missed for whatever reason over the years.  Some of them are older routes that aren't described in guide books or online, while others are new towers.

Matt on 'The Phurba'

 'The Phurba' is a small tower right off Kane Creek that we've looked at for years as we drove by on our way to other objectives.  Thinking that it wasn't described anywhere we finally walked over to check it out and found a route that was fairly casual.  Later we discovered that the route had been posted on Mountain Project for that last 6 years...

Unknown Tower

This unknown tower was a fun outing that seems to get called 'Arnold Ziffle' frequently.  I have a hard time calling it that because the info for 'A.Z.' in Desert Rock 3 doesn't match the route in any way.  Matt and I walked out to the tower in the rain on one trip to scope the approach and the route and then returned to climbed it in better weather the next trip.  

Matt on 'Frightened Pickle'

We checked out Hunter Canyon which has 3 towers we'd never climbed and discovered that the middle tower(Frightened Pickle) had had the bolts chopped.  We climbed the other 2 and returned on the next trip to put up a new route on the 'Frightened Pickle'.  Matt topped out in 6" of snow and crawled up the gradual slope to the summit.  Luckily he was able to locate the old anchor studs by sweeping his arms and legs around in the snow.  We had some hangers and nuts so he was able to reuse the bolts. 

Ben on 'Misplaced Lunate'

On the same snowy trip Matt and I drove north of Moab a bit to check out a couple little towers that we thought hadn't been climbed.  My wrist had been hurting for months and his hips are jacked up some we named the towers accordingly.

Matt leading 'Hip Displasia'

Matt and I around this time noticed that we were starting to lose stuff.  Matt lost two aiders and I lost my watch.  We are usually pretty good at doing idiot sweeps before we leave an area so this generally doesn't happen.  We decided to retrace our steps and hike back to a couple of the towers.  At the 'Phurba' we found one of Matt's aiders and the other at the base of the 'Frightened Pickle'.  My watch I found a couple weeks later hiding in a pocket. 

Ben on 'Hissing Cobra'

The 'Hissing Cobra' is an amazing little tower that was undocumented and just hidden enough that it is easily overlooked.  We hiked up to it assuming it had been climbed but came prepared for an FA.  As  we approached the West face we started seeing bolts.  Assuming that was the only route on this little tower we started up without walking around to the East side.  As it turns out there is a route on both sides of the tower and we chose the harder of the two.  Luckily we had the stick clip with us as we were not prepared for the hooking and/or hard free climbing the route was probably actually put up for. 

Ben on 'Crying Python'

On the hike back to the car we paused and scoped out a towery feature just west of the 'Hissing Cobra'.  I was able to sneak up a chimney and ledge system to its west.   I got about 60' up with only the coiled tag line I'd brought.  From there I threw down an end of the tag line and hauled up my harness, rope, cams, drill, etc. Matt put me on belay and I continued to the summit.

Park Avenue

I've always neglected towers in Park Avenue for whatever reason but in the last few months we climbed a hand full of them.  Last fall after topping out the Citadel in the morning Matt and I climbed The Corn Dog in arches in the afternoon.  We'd tried to climb The Corn Dog a few years ago but it had snowed and was dark and we couldn't figure out how to get by the snowy slabs to access the tower.  This time things went smoothly.  We got to the base and we were able to stick clip bolt to bolt past all the empty pin holes.

The Corn Dog

A month or two later, the day after Matt and Justin climbed Bridal Veil Falls and The Titan in a day we went back to Park Avenue.  Justin was halfway up the first pitch of the Candelabrum when I showed up.  I'd gotten off work that morning and driven straight from Farmington to Arches National Park.  I led the second pitch to the shoulder because the old Desert Rock topo didn't show anchors on the summit.  Luckily Sam had already climbed the tower and had replaced the undocumented crappy anchors with fatty bolts.  

Igor on the left and Nefertiti on the right.

We rappelled off the back side of the Candelabrum and headed for Nefertiti.  I didn't know that there was a route on Nefertiti until I saw a photo on Instagram with people on it.  Luckily they gave me some info that pointed us in the right direction.  When we had climbed The Corn Dog we'd noticed lead bolts on Igor (the tower between Nefertiti and The Corn Dog) so we weren't surprised to to see and anchor on the summit block of Igor.  After we summited Nefertiti Matt was able to throw a rope with a big knot in it over Igor and get the knot stuck in the crack that splits the summit.  I then rappelled off Nefertiti to the notch between the towers and batmaned up the fixed line while Matt gave me a TR from the top of Nefertiti.  Luckily the jammed knot didn't move or it would have been one nasty swing.  The anchor webbing on Igor was so rotten that the quick link was sitting on the dirt below the anchor.  

Jammed knot.

The last tower for the day was Jello Tower.  The last pitch of this route is supposed to be scary aid climbing past big blown out pin scars.  Luckily when we got there we found one fixed pin and two lead bolts protecting the climbing.  Unfortunately after summiting in the dark and rappelling back to the ground we forgot to make sure there were no knots in the end of the rope when we were pulling the ropes.  Just when we thought our day was over a knot got stuck in the anchor.  I ascended the stuck rope while on belay from below, placing gear in the first pitch as I went.  Turned out the jammed rope just had a few twists and hitches!

The Citadel

The Citadel is a huge tower that has been on my list for years.  Last November Matt and I hiked out there and gave it a go.  I had just hurt my wrist and Matt's hip wasn't feeling great so we were a good team. 

Matt on Pitch 1.

 I left Farmington after getting off of work and met up with Matt in Cortez.  We drove out Onion Creek and hiked up the super cool canyon to the Mysteries.  I wasn't sure how hammering would feel on my wrist so Matt took the first pitch which was a line of beaks right off the ground.  As scary as it was to watch him lead the pitch while belaying, I'm sure it was even more scary to actually lead it!  Matt topped out P1 and I led the long second pitch to the shoulder.  The sun was starting to go down and as much as we wanted to push it to the summit we opted to rap and hike out.

Pitch 2 muddy crack.

 On the second day we hiked back in and jugged the fixed line back up to the top of pitch 2.  Matt was leading pitch 3 when he pulled off a microwave sized block 40' up.  It was nice that it was light for that and because pitch 3 wandered a bit and required some route finding.

Typical bolt.

 On the 4th pitch I wished we had another big cam but was able to make it to the short bolt ladder and the better rock making up the summit.

Summit!

 I was never really interested in climbing the Atlas in the Mysteries because it looks more like a big fin than a tower.  However after climbing the three obvious towers in the mysteries(Doric, Gothic Nightmare and Citadel), Atlas and the Hydra are looking more appealing...

Gothic Nightmare on the left and the Citadel on the right.

Sierras 2019

This summer when Matt and I were driving across Arizona we weren’t driving through smoke and didn’t turn north and go to Wyoming instead of California as we had in 2018. This summer Matt and I drove straight to Lone Pine, CA and got permits for the next day. We hoped to climb at the Whitney Portal that afternoon but it was so hot we just napped in the shade instead. Matt had hiked up Whitney when he was younger but hadn’t technically rock climbed in the eastern Sierra before.  I’d climbed in the eastern Sierra but had never been in the Whitney zone.

Making some coffee while we wait for the Ranger Station to open.

We woke early, shouldered our heavy packs, and headed for Iceberg Lake. We set up our tent, where we’d sleep for the next 3 nights and started toward the Keeler Needle.  Already at 8am we were down to t-shirts and sweating.  We expected cool temps/wind/weather since we were in the high country so we brought our puffy coats. Puffy coat that would never get put on because the temps would never drop, the winds would never come in, the clouds would never come, we cooked all day.

Matt following a pitch on Fishhook Arete.

The next day we headed over to Mt. Russell and climbed the ‘Fishhook Arete’ in the morning.  In the afternoon we climbed ‘Western Front’. In addition to both routes being awesome there was a slight wind that kept the heat down and made for a great day. The plan initially was to do a route on Whitney our last day up there before hiking out.  We decided because of the temps and mediocre rock on Keelers Needle to head out early and go check out another area.

Matt following a pitch on Western Front.

We hiked out and ironically headed to Temple Crag which is lower elevation and generally worse rock. We decided to do something car to car in a day so we didn’t have to deal with permitting.  The plan was to climb ‘Dark Star’ then continue to Mt. Gayley and Mt. Sill but after topping out Temple Crag and looking at the loose ridge that separated us from Gayley we decided to head back to the car.  And to be honest I probably didn’t bring enough food with me to actually be able to continue onto Sill without bonking and probably dying.  Although ‘Dark Star’ doesn’t seem to have the best reputation in terms of loose rock, we found the rock climbing to be fun and all the 4th and easy 5th class to be solid enough. All in all it was a great day.

Matt leading the crux of Dark Star in approach shoes.

After Temple Crag we figured we head to Toulumne for a bit. After a morning ascent of the awesome ‘Aqua Knobby’ the high temps made climbing out of the question so we just chilled at Tenya Lake for the afternoon.  Since long days in Tuolumne were out of the question we figured we’d try out Mt. Conness.

Our home on the side of the road for multiple nights.

The SW Face offered pretty fun climbing with amazing views of Tuolumne.  Unfortunately on the hike out my ankle started hurting which was weird since I didn’t twist it and don’t remember any trauma.

Approaching the SW Face on Mt. Conness

Either way the next day I taped it for a morning climb of ‘Crying Time Again’.  We’d planned on going to the Hulk but decided to bust over to Maple Canyon instead since hiking with another heavy pack sounded less than ideal.

Aqua Knobby

The next morning we were blown away with how fun the climbing was in Maple. We went from crag to crag only climbing the 4 star routes.  Turns out having a couple knee pads in the vehicle would have been more beneficial than the crampons we had in the trunk.

Pipe Dream Cave in Maple Canyon

The Open

Matt's full of ideas.  For awhile now he's been saying we need to do an 18 pitch day at Golf Wall.  18 obviously like 18 holes of golf.  The only rules were that they had to be 18 different routes and they all had to be lead clean.  A few days before we discussed the order that we thought would work and wrote it down on a piece of paper that we conveniently forgot to bring to the crag.  We both warmed up on a couple easier routes before hopping on the hardest pitch of the day, Pink Taco.  I had the route wired but Matt hadn't been on the route in a while and messed up his foot beta near the top and fell on his first go, then crushed it second go.  We both had a big sigh of relief having completed the crux of the day for our 5th route.  We hoped it would be an easy coast to the finish for the next 13 routes.

The next 6 routes went smoothly until I fell on Putt Putt.  I'd done the route a hundred times over the years but just couldn't hold on.  I decided I needed to start taking longer rests between routes, eat more food, and stop trying to do doubles(2 routes back to back).  Matt motored up Bert and Ernie's even though it had some wet holds and I moved onto Cinderella.  I got 3/4 of the way up and melted off the holds.  This isn't good.  Matt proceeded to try Cinderella and fell on two attempts.  It seemed like we had both hit a wall.  More rest and more food is what we needed, I hit Cinderella on my second go by skipping a clip and Matt hit it on his 3rd.  Ok, back on track!

The second attempt on Mail Slot...

I went back to Putt Putt and it felt casual.  I thought I'd caught a second wind until I fell off the top of Mail Slot.  Matt ticked a few hold up top for me after he'd sent Greenskeeper and I sent next go.  We'd thought we'd coast to the finish after Pink Taco but as we got more and more tired there were no gimme pitches.  My last route was Hole in One and to be expected I almost came off right before the no hands rest.  We're surely not the first to climb 18 different pitches in a day at Golf Wall but that's not what it's about.

My order with approximate grades...
1:Greenskeeper .10+
2:Eagle .12b
3:Bushwood .12a
4:Par Six .11b
5:Pink Taco .12d
6:Divitator .12c
7:Masters .12a
8:Bogey Man .12a
9:Birdie(aka Pumpy ten) .10+
10:Shooter McGavin .10+
11:Gator Pond .12a
Putt Putt (fail)
Cinderella (fail)
12:Cinderella .12a
13:Putt Putt .11d
14:Three Roofs .12a
15:Pebble Beach .11
Mail Slot (fail)
16:Ping .11b
17:Mail Slot .11c
18:Hole in One .11a

Harts Draw

Had a great 4 days discovering Harts Draw and Bobbys Hole Canyon in late March.  I accessed Harts Draw from 211 on the first day and walked 4 miles up the canyon to get to Bobbys Hole.  

Hartworm Tower

I got two towers done that day but then had to head back home to go to work.  I knew I'd be back in a couple days so I left my climbing gear hidden behind a boulder so I wouldn't have to carry it back and forth. While at work I looked some more at Google maps and discovered what looked like an easier way into the towers.  

The Infarction

So a few days later when I returned, I accessed the area from 133.  The short section of dirt road was rough in a few spots but was a much shorter drive.  I parked next to two cairns on the side of the road and was pleasantly surprised to find a trail leading down into the canyon.   Luckily no one at taken my pack of gear and I climbed one more tower and hiked out with everything.  The plan was to meet Trevor and Cam to climb some other towers but back on the rim with good service I learned that the area was inaccessible because of the snow melt.  Cam bailed completely because he was sick but Trevor decided to come meet me.  Trevor arrived later that night and we looked at photos and made plans for the next two days.

Harts and Minds Tower

In the morning we carried the climbing gear back into the canyon and set our sights on the proudest looking tower in the area, The Infarction.  Things went smoothly and we were soon back on the ground planning the next day.  We walked over to Harts Draw Rincon Butte with no plans of  climbing it but found a easy route up.  We soloed up and down, happy to get another summit. 

Trevor leading the last pitch on The Infarction

On the last day we woke up to some flurries and weren't sure if we were going to get any climbing in.  However, our packs of climbing gear were in the canyon so we had to do the hike either way.   Luckily the weather cleared up and we were able to put up 3 more short routes.

Trevor and I on the summit of The Infarction

Mexican Road Trip

In January Matt, Adam and I headed on a little Mexican road trip.  We left in the morning after Adam and I got off of work.  The vehicle we were taking was a 19 year old Honda Accord.  On the 2,500 mile trip we would break 200,000 miles.  None of us were concerned with whether the car would make the trip, but Matt and Adam were both concerned with the trunk space.  You see I bought the car 6 months before with a subwoofer in the trunk and I didn't want to take it out.  I don't care about bumpin' down the road, but probably irrationally, I was worried that by taking it out we would mess up the rest of the sound system making for a very long, quiet ride.  Either way I made both of them pack very light which caused a lot of shivering later on the trip.  We got a cheap hotel outside of El Paso, food shopped, and filled lots of water bottles that night.  As planned we crossed the boarder early in the morning in hopes of making the 8 hours to Basaseachi before it got dark.  Everyone we'd talked to about traveling in Mexico suggested only driving during the day.  Luckily we remembered to get our Vehicle Import Permit as throughout the trip we were stopped 3 times by cops asking to see it.  A few hours past the border we saw a taco stand and couldn't resist.  We each downed 9 tacos to the surprise of owners.  We pulled into Rancho San Lorenzo in the late evening and met up with Fernando who owned the place.  

He organized a ride to El Gigante the next day for us.  After an good sleep we woke up and packed in preparation for 3 days on the wall.  In the afternoon we got picked up and dropped off at the TH for the wall.  An hour hike put us at the top of the wall where we would spend the night.  The next morning we woke early and rappelled the route leaving food and water along the way to be picked up as we ascended.  We also left some extra draws on the crux pitches which turned out to be nice but often they weren't on the bolts where you wanted them.  After 5-6 hours of rappelling we were on the ground and started back up.  We climbed the first 8 pitches to the Tower of Power where we'd left our sleeping gear and then climbed and fixed the next two pitches.  

Above the Tower of Power is where the climbing got hard.  Pitch after pitch of .12 climbing.  We only brought one lead line and one haul line to minimize weight and help with station management.  Luckily most of the hard pitches were about half a rope length, so the middle guy could just tie into the middle and we'd caterpillar our way up.  When we had a longer pitch we'd have the middle guy climb it on a micro traxion, maybe not the best option but it worked.  Once at the Critter Bivy which is where we spent the second night we once again climbed and fixed the next two pitches.  

 On the third day after waking up we jugged and hauled the two fixed pitches and punched it to the top.  We decided the last .12a pitch near the top was the best pitch on the route.  We joked that we should have just rappelled those top few pitches to climb the pitch instead of rappelling all the way to the ground and spending 3 days on the wall.  As we climbed the last pitch to the top the sun hit us and we started to thaw out.  The route gets zero sun so we'd been in the shade, and shivering for most if not all of the route.  We repacked on top for the hike back to the road.  Luckily our ride was there waiting for us and drove us back to Rancho San Lorenzo. 

Although we probably should of stayed another few days in Basaseachi we decided to get up early the next morning and make the long drive east to El Potrero Chico.  We made it to Mark's place in Hidalgo a little after dark and then spent ten minutes pulling an Austin Powers trying to get into an admittedly pretty big parking spot.  Apparently I forget how to reverse into a parking spot after driving for 12 hours.

The next day Matt and climbed on El Sendero Luminoso.  We'd been wanting to climb the route for years and Adam had already climbed it.  The route had pitch after pitch of good climbing on clean rock. It's definitely a classic for good reason.  We met Adam in the canyon and decided after some dinner to climb Time Wave Zero which is a route we all wanted to climb.  It was dark when we started but thought that was a good thing since it gets a lot of sun and would be hot during the day.  With only a few hard pitches we thought we'd bring a bunch of draws and simul climb as a group of 3 for the majority of the route.  Adam linked the first third,  I took us up the next third, and Matt took us to the base of the crux pitch.  At that point it started raining and only because of Adam did we continue.  Matt and I were ready to call it a day but Adam took over the sharp end and took us to the top.  We'd forgotten Adam's chalk bag and belay device at the car so we ended up lowering him every pitch then Matt and I would simul rap. 

We wanted to go check out El Salto but the region was dealing with a gas shortage and so we stuck around Potrero for a couple days and got a little cragging in.  We drove back though the boarder near Laredo and paralleled the boarder all the way back to El Paso.  Adam got dropped off in Truth or Consequences to climb some more and Matt and I continued home. 

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Gothic Nightmare has been on my to do list for years.  Matt King and I finally made it happen this week.  The weather was less that prime with cold temperatures and a few inches of snow but to be expected I guess since it's December.  We didn't start the hike until 1pm because I got off work that morning.  We fixed about 100' before fixing the rope and calling it a day. 

Starting up pitch 1.

Matt had been having knee issues. He told me that night that it was aching and that he could probably only do the hike one more time.  So the last 4.5 pitches would have to get busted out day 2.  We left at 7am on day two.  

Snowy approach.

He belayed from the ground as I finished leading pitch 1.  

Jugging the fixed line

Next up was a dirty crack pitch that required a fair bit of mining to find solid placements.  Luckily I'd borrowed a bunch of wide cams from friends or else I definitely wouldn't have made it.  Pitch 3 and 4 followed a line of mostly hangerless bolts that stuck out of the rock 1-2 inches.  When I pulled on to the top of Pitch 4 the route was less steep and slightly on the NW side of the tower, this meant that we now had to deal with some snow and ice.  

Pitch 4 anchor.

I lead the last pitch and rappelled back down to Matt.  What a cool summit!  

Summit!

Selfie on top of Pitch 4.

 Luckily all the rappels went smoothly and we were back at the base before dark.