Cirque of the Unclimbable – Vol.06

This is a part of my Cirque of the Unclimbables climbing trip in 2019.
Please search for “TheCirque2019” in my blog search or look for #cirqueoftheunclimbables in tag cloud for more posts from this trip.

On August 22nd, the weather got better. Cloud coverage was about 70% and wind kept the clouds moving. The view from our camp was spectacular. Some peaks were in the spotlight and others were doing hide and seek. I felt like watching a movie.

We all enjoyed the views and had a calm morning time.

At 11:00, Yuki and Marubo left the camp for cleaning up their route, and I followed them. The approach to the wall was more difficult with snow, especially the last talus area. It took us 1 hour and a half to get there.

The good thing was that the wall was snow-free already.

They started racking up their harness and gear loops. It was my first time to see someone getting ready for cleaning a climbing route ground up! The leader, Marubo had so many gears on him. He almost fully racked up his harness gear loops and had two gear slings around his body!! It must be so heavy. Of course, they were not free-climbing. They were going to aid up the route, but it must be so heavy and tiring for sure.

It was so cool to them scale up the wall. The weather seemed to be welcoming them. With the rising temperature, however, we started seeing icicles on the wall falling down. Once the wall got the direct sunlight, a lot more came down on them. Unfortunately, a piece of broken icicles hit Marubo’s face and he got a small cut under his eye. It was really lucky that nothing was serious.

After shooting some photos from the ground, I waited for them to make a belay station at the top of pitch two. Then I jugged up a fixed-line to take photos from the wall. It was a cool experience to see them cleaning a route.