https://www.climbingguidebg.com/cdb.php?f=advertise
https://www.climbingguidebg.com/cdb.php?f=donate


Comanche Ridge New Route

Статии - Светът | Нови катерачни маршрути

20.11.2002 10:07 JohnHarlinAAJ, Коментари

Comanche Ridge, 2400 feet, about 17 pitches, V 5.10. October 7-8, 2002. Anne Arrans (UK), John Harlin III (USA), Roger Payne (UK), Nikolay Petkov (Bulgaria).



The route ascends the narrow ridge rising from near the Colorado River to the summit of Comanche Point (7073’), in the Palisades of the Desert o­n the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The ridge begins just north of the Tanner Rapids, at the foot of the Tanner Trail.

I first spotted the line during a Backpacker magazine hike of the Escalante Route along the Colorado River in November 2000, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The knife-edge ridge slices down from the rim and, if taken to its full length, drops almost to the river (the Colorado River is at 2,700’). The full vertical would thus be about 4,400 feet, though the lower buttresses would be easily avoidable. The rock looked adequate, probably even good in places, but then I was examining it through binoculars from over a horizontal mile distance. So when I found out the UIAA General Assembly meeting was in Flagstaff this last October, I e-mailed the president of the UIAA Expeditions Committee to see if he knew foreign climbers who might want a big American adventure. According to Stan Mish (stanmish@verticalrelief.com, 928-213-1840), a long-time desert rat who lives in Flagstaff and has paraglided from Comanche Point to the Colorado River, no o­ne has climbed from the inner canyon to the rim anywhere in the entire multi-mile-long Palisades of the Desert. A prominent 200-foot spire near the top has been climbed (Comanche Point Pinnacle A1 or 5.12) by rappelling in from the rim. Stan said that we should expect o­n my proposed route “a lot of rotten rock, and a really good adventure.”

As it turned out, the rock wasn’t so bad and the adventure proved quite pleasant. Thanks to choosing the most efficient lines reasonably quickly, we arrived o­n top just as the sun went down o­n the 3rd day, thus avoiding a third night out, this time without water.

Photo John Harlin III

The basic itinerary as best memory serves me (semi-colons indicate pitches):

October 5
Hike down the Tanner Trail to the Tanner Rapids o­n the Colorado River (about 10 miles).

October 6
Fill water containers (it’s dry to the top), and hike 2,000 vertical feet to base of cliff (at about 4,400’). We opted to bypass short outcrops lower o­n the ridgeline in order to save time. The day’s climbing: 5.10 moves to get o­nto the cliff; scramble 3rd and 4th class ledges for roughly 200 feet; 5.8 corner to the ridgecrest; easy 5th o­n ridgecrest for two pitches; 5.7 pitch with utterly rotten top-out; 4th class scramble across knife-edge rotten ridgecrest (Annie’s Arete); two pitches (5.8 and 5.9) up crack system o­n White Tower; ledge walk; 5.9 crack through Lower Red Band; bivouac o­n broad ledge system. About 9 belayed pitches, plus scrambling.

October 7
Upper Red Band 5.10 move followed by 5.9 crack; hike left to bypass beautiful 2-pitch 5.11-looking cracks (we were concerned for time and choosing the fastest alternatives everywhere); 5.7 crack-corner; hike to left side of Big Green Buttress; 5.9 crack; 5.9 crack; 5.10 thin crack bypass of dangerously poised Monster Pillar; 5.9 crack; hike left and up several hundred feet of 3rd and 4th; cross over ridge at Comanche Point Pinnacle (no time to climb it); 5.7 crack; ledge traverse right followed by 200 feet of 3rd-4th; 5.8 crack and traverse left; 150 feet of 3rd or 4th class. About 8 belayed pitches for the day, plus scrambling. Approximately 6 miles of cross-country hiking and 4WD road walking back to the car at Desert View.

I’d love to go back and try to do the entire journey in a very long day, and to climb those 5.11-looking cracks we bypassed in the name of speed. I’d also like to try to kick off the hideous Monster Pillar, thus doing a great service to anyone who might repeat the line. I don’t think it would be reasonable to try to traverse in at the 4,400’ level; most likely future climbers need to take the trail to within a few hundred feet of the Colorado before scrambling up, which means you might as well fill the canteens in the river. I do think the route is well-worth repeating by anyone with a taste for big alpine style ridges in a spectacular desert environment.

Personnel: Anne Arrans is from the UK, o­n the UIAA Youth Commission, and o­n the UK sport climbing team, or something like that. Roger Payne is from the UK and is the Sports and Development Director for the UIAA; he lives in Leysin, Switzerland and is also a mountain guide. Nikolay Petkov is the president of the Bulgarian Alpine Club and owns a computer software business; his wife was the second woman to climb Trango Tower (alas, now dead from a climbing accident at the local Bulgarian crag, leaving Nikoloy with their two-year-old child). I’m editor of the AAJ. A good time was had by all, with the possible exception of Anne. She at least looks back at it being o­ne of the more peculiar events in her life.

John Harlin III, 10/29/2002,
Hood River Crag Rats, AAC

To album with photos from this ascent

Photo John Harlin III
 

Още няма направени коментари.

Добави коментар
Запазените марки в този сайт са на собствениците им. Авторските права на коментарите, статиите и снимките са на изпратилите ги, всичко останало © climbingguidebg.com. Използването без позволението на авторите е незаконно. Отпечатването е разрешено само за собствена употреба.
eshop.climbingguidebg.com  | esoft.cmstory.com/