Despite sleeping underneath such a scary face and the imminent difficulties lying before us, I ended up sleeping pretty well the night before. I think the fire sang me to sleep. When the sun was up though, I didn’t hesitate to get Michael and Aidan up. They were glad to have the shelter of the Betamid after the cold night on Challenger’s glacial slabs. We put harnesses on right away and headed out. We found the shortest and easiest way down the steep moraine to the base of the glacier. From above, this section of glacier appears to be more moraine, but it’s actually ice covered with several layers of dirt and dust with an occasional boulder thrown in. Obviously, a lot of rock fall has been falling down from the Northern Pickets and Mount Fury.
Our route would gain the north buttress on the west side. To get there, we spotted a prominent snow tongue that would lead us to glacial slabs. We could then either continue up in the direction of the tongue or go straight up the slabs. Or next landmark was another snowfield with a prominent mudslide in the middle that would lead us up to a snowfield on the edge of the buttress that we dubbed “New Zealand”. Passing under that snowfield would give us access to the buttress crest. Unquestionably the most dangerous part of the route was getting on the buttress. We opted to go up the slabs instead of switchbacking by following the snow tongue all the way up; that way would expose us to more rockfall. The rockfall was fairly periodic, much more frequent than I would like. The slabs were more difficult than we had anticipated. After one unprotectable slab climb, we arrived at a wide ledge where a waterfall was (which we had spotted from below). Aidan found a much easier and smarter way to gain the upper snowfield. Instead of climbing more similar slabs (except these were steeper), we downclimbed about 100 feet and scrambled up easy terrain to the base of the snowfield. While we were getting some water at the base of the snowfield, I heard rockfall and shouted “Rock!!”. I looked up and saw a rock the size of a cooler rotating high in the air 200 feet above us. We instantly scattered, bumping into one another and tripping on the talus. But, we were easily out of the way as the bomb exploded and blew shrapnel all around us. OK, that was enough for me. We clipped into the rope and jumped onto the thankfully firm snow and I proceeded to lead us at top speed out of this nonsense. We gained ground rapidly and were able to exit onto reasonable ground below New Zealand. Michael headed out for the first long simul-climb pitch.
The climb to the ridge was pretty easy except for one maddening section where we were forced to go through a tight gully of snow. We chopped at snow fins to allow passage but this was ridiculously too much work. Instead, if I recall, Aidan unroped and scrambled around easy terrain on the left and I took in a lot of slack and scrambled up the boulder on the left.
The various pitches on the low part of the ridge escape me now. Michael is one with the memory for such things so hopefully his account of the tale will furnish that. I don’t even remember if Aidan took a lead or two. I do recall that when I took the lead, it was the first really fun pitch. I went up a short slab with a nice crack in it and then turned a corner where the climbing became steep but flaky and solid. Back on the crest, however, I came to an impasse. The climbing suddenly became significantly harder than 5.6. Hmm…was I on route? I knew I could do what was in front of me, but there was no protection for the first dicey move and I couldn’t see any pro above that and the terrain didn’t seem much easier until a move after that. I looked to the left but it looked too steep. So, I opted to bring the boys up for a look see.
Michael was up for trying it out. He did a great job at it, but it was as I suspected – not possible to protect well. At least we were there to spot him. Aidan thinks that we would have found a better route if we would have looked even farther to the left. I tended to agree with him after seeing it from above. It looked steep but blocky. Anyway, we were on our way – following it wasn’t too bad. Aidan took over a couple of leads. One of the first was a super exposed but easy and protectable climb directly on the ridge, maybe 5.2? The easy exposed climbing was what it was all about and this section was the first of many that were to follow in the middle of the buttress.
Aidan led two spectacular pitches and then I led two more. I distinctly recall one section on my first lead of the middle buttress. The climbing was exposed but moderate in difficulty and so solid. The route led me right around an overhanging tower to a hand traverse of sorts with few footholds. There was horn after horn for me to sling. As I continued though, I prayed that the route would go; I could not see around the corner. I continued on…it would! I protected it with another horn and then stepped over an exposed gap to easier ground and then up a short step where I brought Michael and Aidan up to.
My next pitch was also fun, although not as thrilling as the previous. It was still moderate and solid. After following directly on the ridge crest, the route dropped to scrambling along talus. There was a snowfield off to the left. I recall that it was in the mid afternoon by now and the sun was again beating down to us. I made for a large tower that would shield us from the sun and belayed from there.
Michael led out of the shelter from the shade up more 4th and low 5th class terrain. Aidan took over somewhere as the two prominent gendarmes high on the route slowly got closer and closer. Between the gendarmes, the route became more easy talus scrambling before it gave way to the final snow arete. We unroped for that section and roped up again for the snow climb. Michael led off for the first pitch. From across the valley, the snow arete on Fury looks ferociously steep and exposed. From here, it didn’t look as bad although once we were on it, it felt pretty exposed again. Left and right fell away steeply. We wisely used our two pickets all the way up. The arete is divided into three segments. I took over Michael’s lead and led the final two. They felt even more exposed and I took the time to make great ice axe and boot placements. I actually swung my axe and the ice tool from the base as opposed to dagger style – it felt more solid plus I could reach farther and use my arms to help pull me up the route.
My pace was slow, but the foot placements were solid for my buds. At the top, I dropped into the moat and brought them up. Michael then decided to lead out (without a rack, oops) up a rock buttress on the left. Aidan and I scrambled around the backside on 4th class terrain. It was a little exposed but nothing compared to Michael’s scary route. Beyond this tower, we scrambled up easy blocks to the summit as the sun began to set. Well, we were going to spend a potentially uncomfortable night on the summit of Mount Fury. At least we had all our gear…not like we had a choice given the nature of this expedition!
I did see a cave underneath the summit with potentially flat slabs on it. That would be a pretty miserable camp cooped up in there like a packrat. Michael and Aidan spotted a small patch of level snow just big enough for the Betamid. I wasn’t keen on squeezing in on the snow ledge so I found a warmer rock ledge of my own about 60 feet below the summit – great views of the Southern Pickets. I enjoyed a great meal with Aidan and Michael. We also melted snow for water. Afterwards, I carefully made my way down the south side of Mount Fury by the light of my headlamp until I came to my camp. I yelled, “I’m down guys! Good night!” - the signal that all was well. I played a game as I went to sleep – I tried keeping my eyes as long as possible while watching the numerous shooting stars. I don’t think the game lasted long, but I saw lots of shooting stars.
On to day 5.
