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Continued
Longs Peak Winter Solo,
14,255’
1/25/03
Aron Ralston
Published 8/01/03
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14. A view from the notch
at the top of the Trough Couloir looking back down the gully, over
the crux chockstone at 13,800', in the center of the photo. There
was an increasing depth of snow the higher I got in the couloir—an
unusual phenomenon above treeline.
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15. The Narrows—this is the traverse at 13,800'
across the southwest face to get from the top of the Trough Couloir
to the bottom of the Homestretch. It's Class 3 in a few places when
it's dry in the summer. Rime and ice made it a little trickier,
but nothing like what was waiting for me around the corner.
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16. Winds were howling at the notch where I crossed
the west ridge, depositing much rime on the pinnacles and towers
of the mountain. This area made me think of all those infamous reports
of foul weather down in Patagonia and what the infamously snow-pasted
peaks of the Fitzroy massif look like in pictures.
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17. Into the Homestretch, I decided to head a little more directly
for the summit—I followed the red arrows that someone had
conveniently painted on the rocks (whereas I should've followed
the red-and-yellow bull's-eyes that take you on the actual route
instead).
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18. Again, the red arrows are my ascent route—up the snow
fissures until I reached the face traverse that ended in the 10-foot
chimney I'm standing above here (I'm on the summit plateau). The
purple arrows are the path my backpack took when I bricked it against
the chockstone under my right foot in an attempt to throw it up
out of the chimney so I could make the 5.3 moves needed to climb
the tight squeeze. You can see the pack at the end of the last purple
arrow. On my descent, I had to drop well below the pack's resting
spot, down the ice-plated cracks of the Homestretch and then traverse
more ice to regain my ascent route, all without crampons. I negotiated
the descent with intricate and dangerous step-cutting across the
AI2 and M2 terrain. (I slipped at one point and self-arrested with
my ice axe screeching down 15 feet of dry slab.)
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