Central Sierra Nevada, The Evolution Traverse ED, 5.9, 40,000' of traversing. FA Peter Croft 1999
I apologize for the length of this post, believe me, many edits were done. I felt it necessary to include some info on training and some thoughts on inspiration leading up to my trip. Also I want to thank the friends that knew I was not crazy for wanting to do the Evolution Traverse, though at times I had trouble convincing myself of this. There are special people in everyone's lives, these people I relied on to keep shadows of doubt out of my mind. Of their encouragement I can't say enough so I'll be simple....Thank you!
First thoughts...
Two years ago while climbing on Temple Crag I saw the Palisades Traverse and knew right then I would be back for one of these.
Why I decided on the Evolution Traverse... 8 miles of knife-edge ridge, 8 summits over 13,000' with several other un-named peaks along the way.. How could I not want to give that a go?
Add this to it and I had no choice. From Andy Selters.. " The traverse's position, difficulty and especially length all combine to make this line in the sky one of the most intensive high-rock engagements on the continent."
And Peter Croft "Countless sections of 5.9 and more than 10,000' of elevation gain and loss. Compared to climbing El Capitan in a day it was "way harder. No other traverse even comes close."
These words scared me but also gave me a burning desire....Six days was all I needed... I would fly out Weds. Aug. 12th. hike in with my sister the next day ( she lives in Independence Ca.) take Friday to acclimatize and go for it Sat.
Of training..
I was in good shape at the end of this past winter season (2008-9) The way this summer was going (weather-wise) I got into doing long day hikes, the Franconia Ridge a few times, the Pemi Loop, The Presidential Ridge. I did get in some good solo rock climbing link-ups too; Thin Air, Standard, (Whitehorse) Pinnacle & Henderson Ridges and on Cannon; Lakeview, Wiessners & Moby.
I had two awesome trips to the Adirondack's with Wallface's Diagonal route to the Trap Dike link. Also on 8-1 a run in the Great Range. Of this trip I would like to write of first....
I wanted to give Diagonal another go to see what kind of time I could do C to C from the Loj. As I got into Vt.on Fri. (7-31) it started raining and did all day. I hiked Noonmark that afternoon in the pouring rain. I knew Wallface was out. I decided on a long hike thru the High Peaks, from the ADK Loj. to Roaring Brook, and perhaps a few easy climbs thrown in too.
I left my car at the Loj. Sat. at 7:55am for Avalanche Lake. The trails were muddy and the Trap Dike flowing like mad, which made it interesting...
(colden's summit block)
From Colden to Marcy had some super muddy sections but was fun.. once past Lake Arnold there were very few humans. Marcy's summit however was wedged. On Haystack I got my first look into Panther Gorge. My gaze went from the Gothics to Marcy's Grand Central... The thought of Joe Szot & partner doing the Trilogy, then Emilie Drinkwater doing it solo had me totally just shaking my head.. (again!)
Seeing this is why I want to write this piece. Thinking of Emilie plunging into Panther, alone, with skis on her back, takes guts and determination. Solos such as this give me inspiration & drive and are the tools needed to do climbs like the Evolution Traverse. The Great Range is one rough place, the traverse from Gothics to Grand Central, in the winter, must have been heinous!
The rest of the hiking over Basin & Saddleback to Gothics was beautiful.
On my way down from Gothic's I toyed with doing the Gothic Arch route on the south face.. I started the bushwhack between Pyramid & Gothics then looked at my watch.. It was 4:15pm. I wanted to be at the Roaring Brook parking for my ride back to the Loj before 6... The climb was out, I needed to run out right then. I made it by 5:35pm... I felt really good about my day, I was tried.... but seeing that part of the Trilogy is what really made it.
Of the Evolution Traverse...
The day of the traverse was to be the hardest physically & mentally of my life.
The hike to Darwin Bench (11,200') is 10+ miles, mostly cross country and beautiful, we saw two people the whole day. My first view of the norther part of the traverse came at about 8 miles at Lamarck col.(12,886') From here one can see the first three mtns.
(mendel (R) & darwin)
Starting with Peak 13,385 then Mendel (13,710') and Darwin, the highest of the traverse at 13,831'. The view was incredible and the only thing that kept me from doing something involuntary... and messy... was that fact that I did not have any extra clothes with me.
The hike down to the toe of Peak 13,385 is totally beautiful as it passes five turquoise coloured lakes in Darwin Canyon. I planed to just chill the next day (Fri.14th.) and head out Sat. morning in the dark. But the more I looked at the first peak, the less I liked the thought of doing it by headlamp. The climbing was suppose to be 4 and easy 5th. class but the mtn. had many summits... Not to mention I did not wish to have any epics at the start of a very long day. On Fri. we hiked down to the Evolution Lakes and now I could see quite a lot of the traverse. I was unsure if it could go in a day for me before I saw it (it took Croft three tries and when he finely did it, 15hrs. during the longer days in June!) but now I was certain that a bivy would happen.
I wanted to bivy on my terms and left camp that same day (Fri.) at 3:30pm and would sleep on top of Peak 13,385. I would go super lite with just a Heatshield bivy bag, a lite weight down jacket, hat & gloves. I needed to keep the pack as lite as I could for I had 120' of 7mm static cord, waist belt, one biner and Tuber, no chalk, no rock shoes. I topped out at 5:30pm and found what I thought to be a sheltered bivy spot, ditched the pack and checked out the traverse to Mendel. Down climbing some then up or around spires with complete exposure for 40 mins. lead me to a sharp notch and Mendel proper. I stopped here for next was a cool looking hand crack in golden granite. I reversed the ridge but all of a sudden I felt ill. I kept it together as long as I could but at about 50' down from the top of the first peak I went into dry heaves big time. It was all I could do to top out and crawl into my noisy bivy sack. I put everything I brought on and pulled the sack over my head and drifted off into a weird sleep.
I woke at 12:30am, the wind had shifted and was hitting me good causing the silly sack to make loud, crackling noises. It was then I notice that I and the inside of the sack, were wet from condensation and I starting to get really cold. Out I got and turned it inside out, held it down with some rocks to dry and then went looking for a new spot to sleep. I found a sweet hole in some huge boulders and then had a mini epic coupled with panic finding my stuff at my old spot! When I finely settled down, it was 1:30am.
Dawn could not come soon enough, I was freezing. I warmed myself in the morning sun on the east side of the summit for 45mins... it was 6:45am and time to leave. I quickly got to the steep crack on Mendel I had seen the night before. It was wonderful jamming, the rest of the climb was easy 5th. I was on top of Mendel at 9am.
(the view of the ridge from mendel back to peak 13,385)
The next portion of the ridge to Darwin is totally picket-fence with complete exposure and some 5.8 cracks up and down spires.
(from mendel to darwin..excellent climbing)
On Darwin's huge summit plateau there was rock hard snow. I busted up a bunch and added it to my Camelbak. The true summit is this little prong of rock with a 5.7 mantel move. I took a 15min. break before tackling the the next section of the ridge... the crux.
One is supposed to descend a few hundred feet of loose, block-filled chimney's at 5.9 right below the summit. I found this horrible looking gully and down climbed it as far as I dared, then tied a sling thru the only anchor I could find.. the worst looking stacked blocks ever! I wedged some smaller rocks between to keep my sling in place, took a picture of this thinking it could be my last and rapped... scared shitless.
(the awesome anchor)
60' down was not quite far enough and with a heavy heart I pulled my rope. I now had to cross this gully, it was very steep and the dirt was rock hard. With my Guide Tennies I kicked to make some foot holds across it. On the other side the dirt was loose with big blocks... I was relieved.. a little. I found the ascending crack that Croft says leads back to the ridge, it was excellent!
This part of the ridge has some really big towers, incredible climbing with some more 5.8, by now I had the towers wired... sort of. You have three choices, left, right or over. Sounds simple enough. I think out of the hundreds of spires/ route choices I dealt with that day, I hit about 20 right my first try.
(looking back to darwin)
(super good climbing at 5.7)
The next named peak is Mt. Haeckel (13,418') from Darwin to it the ridge is long and you go over two un-named peaks, the crux of the route is between Darwin and this first peak 13,332 then the climbing eases off to peak 12,996. Easy cruising now leads to Haeckel where you climb it's classic Northwest Arete (~5.6).
(easy ridge to Haeckel, then up the golden rock at 5.6 )
From here to Mt. Wallace (13,377') is non-technical.
I stopped for some food on top of this for a little while. It was 4pm. I was tired but super stoked for I had 11hrs. 15min. of total climbing time in so far and I had three more peaks, Mts. Fiske 13,503', Warlow 13,206' and Huxley 13,086'. It would be close... but I should make it off of Huxley and to the Muir Trail by dark. Then it's just 4 miles or so back to my tent.
I took a deep breath and bolted down to a col and up to another un-named high point where the ridge swings right to Fiske. I stopped to take a picture and shit my pants! I had left my camera on Wallace! For a moment there I lost myself. I got my shit together for I had a decision to make.
Blow-off my camera with all the pictures I had taken and finish the ridge.. (I stupidly though I would come back in the early am and re-climb Wallace to get it, that would have been like 24 miles with the hike out to the car!!) Or blow-off doing the traverse and get the camera, I would loose too much time and energy to do both. I had to get the camera so back down to the col and up Wallace I went, cursing like a drunkard sailor the whole way.
The "easiest" way out at this point was to descend to the col again and then down this loose, nasty slope to these high lakes that had moraines all over the place. I was unsure how far it was to the Muir Trail seeing it was all cross country ... and the boulder hopping was going to be slow. I was running as much as I could though scared about an injury, I was more worried about it getting dark in this boulder strewn place. After what seemed an endless amount of time I saw the trail across Sapphire Lake.
This lake is big and it took awhile to get around it, once on the trail I relaxed but tried to keep a decent pace going... for the mountains I had been on were starting to glow orange.
I had been out of water for hours and was feeling nauseated. I found a stream and drank a little, emptied the snow/Cytomax slush out of the Camelbac and put some water in. The act of drinking sent spasms thru my gut.
To get to the Darwin Bench off the Muir trail one has to keep a watch out for it's just a little herd path. It was now dark and my mind was in a strange place. The path was hard to follow in my condition, the nausea was peaking and I was going up hill.. As soon as I told myself I was going to get sick I did. For a good 15mins. I was on all fours like a dog.
The thought of my sister waiting, worried and what my friends would think of me in this pathetic state got me going again. I found our tent, my sister was close to coming unglued and going over in her mind what she would have to do come morning. We hugged and as we did our emotions let go. She chewed me out for scaring her, then made me some tea as I told her of my hike out and of my day on the ridge. I was amazed to hear her say she saw me with a monocular on one of the spires after Darwin!
Though I suffered more than I ever had or imagined, I will go back to complete the traverse. It's totally incredible! I know some things now that will help. It's an amazing thing to push yourself to the edge mentally & physically. You expose the soul and you become all that is you.
Again I apologize for the length of this post. To those that endured it through, I hope it was enjoyable!
Thanks! Alan Cattabriga...
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