5/16/2009, Greybeard Peak East Face

Dan Helmstadter and I climbed and skied the East Face of Greybeard (on maps appears as eastern terminus of Ragged ridge just E of Easy Pass, elevation 7965€™) on Saturday. I haven't seen any record of this being climbed or skied; would be curious to hear if any of you have heard tales. The climb alone as a moderate alpine objective is worthy and recommended; its proximity to the road makes it that much more appealing.

A few weeks ago, somebody had posted a shot of this face, unnamed, on a report from Cutthroat (I think)€”looked intriguingly possible. Then last week a couple buddies and I were on Mt Hardy and noticed the east face looking pretty fat€”perhaps probable. Greybeard East and North Faces:


On Friday evening I drove up towards Swamp Creek and saw that the face had melted out some from a week ago, but still appeared relatively do-able. What the heck, give it a try and if it€™s not good, bail or descend some other aspect (the southwest is more mellow)€¦

We started climbing from 6100€™ at around 3:30am after a solid freeze, and availed ourselves of a NE-facing couloir to gain a rib and ultimately the east face proper. Runnels in the couloir initially made for ready sticks with axes and crampons, but abruptly morphed into chunder-wonder variability. The climbing on the ribs and faces above was often steep and entertaining; I recall at one point left hand to rock hold, right hand to axe in snice, left foot post-holed, and right foot kicked into ice€”what was next was a guess. Route-finding slowed us down a bit, as did two crampon failures for Dan, which he handily repaired. Luckily, clouds kept the sun at bay, urging us upward.
from the summit, looking down our route  (so i've fiddled around with this thumbnail stuff long enough, no consistent results, coaching welcomed...)



some views from summit



click here, etc. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/YK6uYNQshBcnzGBvthE48g?authkey=Gv1sRgCMucrIO4sb2IzAE&feat=directlink
The skiing was classic €œspring variable€. We had gained the summit at a bit before 8, and as it had been cloudy all morning, waited for the sun to come out and work some magic on the icy patina found on most of the snow we had climbed. When the sun finally came out full-force at 11 a.m., it was forceful, and our worry turned from too crusty to too soft. For the most part we enjoyed soft-snow turns on the face.



We had to down-climb a couple sections due to either grave avy conditions or too-rocky chocolate-chip sections. We finally jumped a little step to finish the c. 1700'face, and skied a ridge feature to my bivy site at 6100€™, making for a c. 1900€™ run.

Perhaps this face will come into better shape (i.e., ski-able in full) in future years after a more robust snowfall for this area.
route up in red, down in green