A Blast In The Past. Soloing The North Buttress Of Bear Creek Spire.

Bear Creek Spire in the middle. N. Buttress is the sun shadow line running up to the summit. Photo from 2015 climb

Date of climb July 2005
Route: North Buttress

A recount...from memory of one of many solo alpine routes done in the "glory days."

The 5.6 approach pitch was enough to get my attention. It was then that I started considering what the 5.8 pitches ahead held in store for me.

It started as it always does with a very pre-predawn wake up and drive down to the trailhead. The early morning sunrise over the crest of the Sierra, per expectation was spectacular and set my metabolism up for the approach and climb ahead of me.  I've always been somewhat lazy in my efforts to find compatible partners to accompany me in the pursuit of my own ambitions. It has nearly universally set me up for, if not failure then at least some sub-optimal experience to what it could be. It is true that on most occasions the best experiences are those you share with others. However, true to my own nature I set off on yet another solo adventure.

I was soon passing the Treasure lakes and the snow was rock hard climbing the chutes at the head of the lakes. In my efforts to emulate the light and fast credo I had not brought crampons, seriously hindering both my safety and (in my own head) my attempt to set a good time for the car-to-car round trip time. I brought a minimum of gear to protect the technical part of the climb.  A few nuts, a harness and a 120 foot rope. It was my standard soloing rack. My badassery just isn't up to the task of soloing with no bail gear whatsoever.

I could see the approach pitch ahead of me. 5.6. No issue. Barely worth the effort to realize it's there. Uh-huh. Wake up and get your climbing head on I thought to myself at the top of the pitch. The real start on the buttress was nose to nose with me now. It didn't look too intimidating. I put on my climbing shoes and harness, flaked some rope into the top of my climbing pack and racked up my minimal gear. I hoped it wouldn't be needed.

The first 5.7 pitch consisted of beautiful clean thin flakes with very positive holds. It presented no problem and I was soon groveling up the tightness of the chimney on pitch 2. I passed a roped party at the top of pitch 2 and moved on up some more 5.7ish ground to the the base of pitch 5, the crux of the climb with a 5.8 offwidth section. I paused for a couple minutes to shoot a few pictures then moved into the pitch. No offwidth technique was needed here as it went fairly easily using stemming moves. I continued up pitch 6 and from the top the route is mostly 4th to low 5 class climbing along the ridge or just to either side. I don't remember what time I summited, but didn't have resort to rope or gear.

Looking down from the base of pitch 5

I was pretty happy soloing this route in under 10hrs car to car, even though it is relatively easy as technical routes go. This was my 3rd time on the summit having climbed via the normal Ulrich's route in the 80's and the class 4 (some say 5.3) NE ridge with Joannie in '95.

Note: I soloed the NE ridge again in August of 2015 and the opening shot in this narrative is from that climb. The following video from the 2015 climb shows a bit of what the upper ridge climbing is like.