After spending the night in a field at Mike King's,
we had great conditions
and were able to fly directly into Combatant Col. The north face of Waddington was mighty
impressive 
as
was the Skywalk Buttress on Mt. Combatant
.
. The preceding week, a pair of climbers had to descend in a storm after their
tent blew out. We dug in to about 4' first thing
then took a look around. 
I
thought I had a great shot of Rob walking out on this knife edge ridge with the
full moon overhead 
but
for some reason, it didn't quite come out like I'd hoped. From the tip of
this spur 
you
get a nice view down the Tiedeman Glacier 
.
The following day we climbed the Skywalk buttress on Mt. Combatant (~IV
5.9+) via the newer variation that veers left than back right up a ramp at about
1/3 height (2002 Croft line?) .
It was great
. I'm not sure where the crux was. It was mostly
mid-5th with some sustained 5.8 or 5.9. We had 6 fixed belays and did a fair
amount of simulclimbing, primarily on the lower half of the route.
It took us about 7 or 8 hours from camp to summit. Unfortunately, it took
longer than that to descend .
We had to free stuck ropes three times as I recall and had some poor anchors 
. We completed the descent at 12pm by rapping into and down a
loose box gully that eventually passed the base of the climbing route
.
The next day we rested. I somehow picked up a stomach bug that didn't help
with spirits but we managed to lower our tent by another couple feet and
have another hike around the col
.
The following day we sarted to climb the Angel Glacier route on Waddington but
the snow conditions were quite poor - thigh deep post- holing. We turned
back at 5am and decided that conditions were unlikely to improve over the next
two days so we called 
Mike and got picked up within a couple of hours. Not
much of an adventure with a helicopter handy. I read later though
that a party that had been sharing the col with us stayed on a little too long
and had to leave gear and descend on foot in bad weather. I guess the 1-way
helicopter ride is a little more of an adventure.
After leaving Waddington earlier than planned, we hit Squamish for three hard
days of climbing. On the first, we did a linkup from the Apron to the top
of the Squamish Buttress - all simulclimbed except for the crux 5.10 pitch near the
top
.
It seemed very low commitment after Skywalk.
The following day we cragged on the Chief, doing laps on a fine finger crack 
and then a 5 pitch route just to the right of Cruel Shoes. The following
day we did Cruel Shoes and
the Grand Wall 
to
Bellygood ledge
- one of the best free climbs around. Robert was happy but bleeding
.
pictures © r. meshew & m. pratt
last modified by mrp on 050109
