Wham Ridge without a rope

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Marmot72
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Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by Marmot72 »

Hi. After a search of the forum, I found one response in a thread about "can you name this peak" that stated a lot of people free climb Wham Ridge, but I can't find any TRs of people who have.

I'm just trying to assess the feasibility of going it without a rope. I'm a fit, experienced scrambler, and I don't own a rope. I downclimbed from Crestone Needle free, and I scrambled the Gash Ridge of Blanca. I have no real idea of how those two routes compare to Wham Ridge. None of the pics seem unbearably steep, but then again, few people take pictures on the steepest parts of mountains (I know I rarely get a shot of a crux - I'm too busy getting over it).

Any feedback from those who've climbed the ridge would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-Steve
I have phenomenal route-finding abilities. Specifically, I have an uncanny knack for selecting the path of most resistance.
tmathews
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by tmathews »

Well, I haven't done it, but I've spoken to a few people who have said they did it without a rope. There are only a few short Class 5 sections and the decent can be made on a Class 2+ route.
Glen
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by Glen »

We did it with out a rope a few summers ago. lordhelmut has a good trip report of the event. But..we did have perfect weather. if something were to happen and we decided we wanted to turn around, I would much rather rap down than down climb. Would it hurt to have a rope and gear?..No..could you have a bad day if you made a mistake and took a tumble...oh ya. Hope that helps
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John Landers
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by John Landers »

If you are comfortable with slabby low 5th class you can do it without a rope. I have been up it twice and to be honest it doesn't protect all that well anyway. We have gone up the middle following natural weakness, angling back to the right and then about half way up as it starts to steepen a little, cut back to the left to the obvious dihedral in the middle of the face. A few hundred feet higher, a ramp runs across the face which will take you to the right edge where some routefinding and scrambling will lead you to the summit. Continuing above the ramp in the middle of the face gets considerably harder. People also climb further to the right on the lower part. You can go about anywhere you feel comfortable.
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lordhelmut
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by lordhelmut »

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepor ... m=tripuser

Here's a report of a trip I did with my buddies Kiefer, Glen and ChrisJFerraro. The middle section talks about the Wham Ridge. As John Lander mentioned, you can make it as comfortable as possible (which means hanging on the right side of the Wham). To be honest, neither of us thought it exceeded class 5.0/5.2, and aside from maybe one 10-20 foot move, it was kept to class 4.

A warning though, if you suffer from vertigo, I recomend taking a rope. I don't, but when I looked over my shoulder at one point, I remember getting a little fuzzy feeling in my gut, both unbelievably exciting and a little terrifying. By the way, the "class 2+" descent off the backside was noticeably more anxiety riddled than the Wham, just a FYI and my own personal opinion and after consulting with many others, this tends to be the consensus.
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Marmot72
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by Marmot72 »

Awesome - thank you all! I didn't even have time to log off before replies came in!

Brian,
I saw in another TR that the climb down the other side of Vestal was loose, perhaps more precarious than the climb up Wham Ridge - what are your thoughts on a traverse over to the Trinities? I'm thinking of a hike in and camp on day 1, then Vestal via Wham and the Trinity traverse on day 2, followed by a jaunt up Arrow on day 3 and back out to civilization.
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lordhelmut
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by lordhelmut »

I'm not too familiar with a traverse from Vestal to W.Trinity, but thats not to say its never been done. Kalet who posts on this site, has a write up of an unnatural climb of all 5 of those mountains from Molas Pass in a day. Might want to check it out, its either on here or summitpost.
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by MtHurd »

It's all about route finding. I was roped but it wasn't too bad until I stayed on the arete a little too long (near the top you have to exit the ridge and get back on the face for easier climbing). It still wasn't that bad but the exposure was high and the penalty for failure was death. Even still, some guy unroped came flying by me as if the route was easy 3rd class.

The descent sucked and was miserable, but wasn't really dangerous unless there was someone above you. Just nasty loose and steep scree. If you get off route though (like I did), it becomes much more difficult. I started traversing over towards the Arrow Vestal saddle too soon and got into some pretty steep cliffed out stuff. Make your descent straight down until you see the cairns if you decide to go towards that saddle.

It's best to not exit between Arrow and Vestal but to exit between Vestal and West Trinity.

As far as the Trinities, very fun. You might want to take 1 ski pole for one of the saddles, I forget which one. There is snow in it and if you break through, it's a struggle to get out. And I didn't have time to try, but if you like exposure, traverse out a ways onto the 4th Trinity (subpeak of Middle Trinity). Very cool knife edge. My profile was taken on West Trinity looking over at Middle and the 4th Trinity.

If you look close enough, you can find us in this pic arriving at the ridge after the green ramp.

http://www.kaephotography.com/photo/wha ... juan-range" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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mattpayne11
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by mattpayne11 »

Obviously, this would depend on your skills and comfort level. My partner for Wham Ridge said he would have done it without rope if I was not there with him, but he climbs 5.11 - 5.12 in his sleep. Personally, I would never do Wham Ridge un-roped. There was one move in particular that if I had not been roped, I could have died. That being said, I'm NOT an experienced technical climber, but I do consider myself to be an experienced scrambler. This does not even compare to Crestone Needle (not even the same league to be honest). Wham Ridge is a difficult but amazing climb. Like Barry, I found it to be quite a challenge (not saying it is overly difficult though).

One spot in particular is where a cam is stuck in the rock - there is a move there that requires some pretty good strength to get up. Other than that, it is just super exposed. Despite what John Landers stated, we found plenty of great places to put protection, and kept it to two pitches. There's a small section near the top that we were un-roped for that was a little scary - had to move carefully onto a very exposed rock that did not appear to be anchored to much of anything, rather wedged in nicely to the face.

Additionally, I would not call the back-side descent of Vestal to be class 2. It is for sure class 3. It is loose, nasty, un-marked, and absolutely treacherous rock. If you are slow and careful, it is not too bad, but it reminded me of Crestone Needle only looser and steeper without an obvious route. The route down is very convoluted and hard to find. We back-tracked several times and found it to be quite annoying to be honest. I loved the climb though, - probably my favorite of all time.

I hope you find my trip report useful:

http://www.100summits.com/trip-reports/ ... inest.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Enjoy - it is the best area in Colorado, IMO!
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Summit Lounger
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by Summit Lounger »

Wham ridge is an excellent route. The "crux" is only 40 feet long or so, on solid rock, straightforward holds, and it is a crack through a slabby section. I concur it does not feel or climb very hard (5.0-5.2?), but there is considerable exposure. It is always hard to recomend that someone climb without a rope, because it is such a personal decision with some large consequenses. It sounds like you have decent experience scrambling. How much experience do you have with technical climbing? You don't own a rope, but have you climbed with one before in the mountains?
Routefinding, as others have stated is the key to the route. The "crux" is relatively easy. The hardest part is finding your way through the 4th class stuff above the crux, with loose rock sitting on the ledges. The descent is loose also, and felt more like class 3.
I have some good pics of the route. Maybe I should do a trip report..........These are some great mountains, have fun climbing them. Greg
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Kevin Baker
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by Kevin Baker »

I think if you did Gash ridge on Blanca free, you shouldn't have an issue with Wham Ridge. I was glad to have the rope on Wham in a few spots. It gets pretty steep near the top and there is some loose rock to be wary of. Also, I wouldn't want to be on that face sans rope if weather moves in. I have a TR posted here. Adding the Trinities can be done if you're quick, but the routefinding on those eats up a lot of time. You would need a perfect day.
Always do what you are afraid to do. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
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tmahon
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Re: Wham Ridge without a rope

Post by tmahon »

A buddy of mine told me he climbed the ridge with his dog, unroped. I think you can do it.