Moving Fast

At the start of June, I was part of a group of 4 that spent 9-10 hours on the side of Yam, climbing Direttissima.  That, by and large, was the definition of a gong-show.  Who the hell takes 9 hours to do a route easily doable in half that time?  A misguided fool, that's who.

Although I didn't get out much in June, (once at the start for the above-mentioned gong show and a weekend of camping in Nordegg), I was hoping the weather would start to cooperate for July.  This past weekend, I took an "Alpine Rock Leadership" course coordinated though the ACC, taught by Cyril.  We focused a bunch on short-roping, rappelling and lowering.  In two days, we covered all of this.  Though our brains were now plugged to the rafters with info, all of us participants decided to do the "Chimney Route" on Roche a Perdrix.  It's a rambly 5.6 route which is pretty short, has only a few 5th class spots, and is good practice for moving fast over moderate terrain.  It was a good time out with an excellent group.  We climbed the route in 7.5 hours return, including a half hour of gum-waving at the top.  While I spent 9 hours crawling up Yam (325 meters), we spent only an hour and a half on the technical portion of the route, which was about 150 meters by my estimate.  Yes it's easier terrain, but it shows how being smart about the group dynamics makes for efficient climbing.  We also rappelled the route in under 1.5 hours.  It would have been an hour but for us making a last, ill-advised, 60m rappel to get down some 4th class ground.  Here are some pics...

Scrambling up towards the route.  It follows the obvious weakness trending left.

Roche Miette and Roche de Smet enjoy the morning sun while Doug and Steve scramble upwards.

Chris follows up one of the upper pitches

Steve happily belays Doug from a sunny spot at the top.

There's an interesting story to the logging that is visible from Perdrix.  I never had a clue there were cutblocks there...

Steve gets ready to leave the rap station, demonstrating proper use of the Purcell Prussik

Looking back at the North Face of Roche Perdrix.  The rock on the left is surprisingly solid-looking, but probably too solid for a gear route.

So how did 4 guys do this route at a staggeringly faster pace than I did Direttissima?  We used 2 rope teams, climbing right behind each other.  We were paced practically perfectly, with both teams almost climbing in tandem albeit a pitch apart.  When we rapped, we head-manned a rope and only rappelled 30 meters at a time.  This, we learned on the course, is much faster than 60 meter rappels.  We didn't run the approach, or pack super-duper lightweight, or avoid hiking to the summit.  Instead, we had an efficient but relaxed climb which was done fast enough that when the nasty afternoon storms rolled in, we were almost back at the cars.  A route done in good style.  THAT'S how I like to climb.