The NRMS presents the classic alpine dilemma - travel light and go for it or carry bivy gear and pretty much guarantee yourself of a night on the climb. My partner, Alex, and I opted for the former and were rewarded with one of the finest outings one could ask for. We did the complete route, not just the upper half in the "50 classic climbs." I'm a little surprised the whole climb isn't recommended as the average quality of the route is consistently good from bottom to top. The weather was crisp and clear, the views were spectacular. There are no man-made structures visible from the N. side of the mountain so it seems pretty remote. The fact that we were alone on that side of the mountain only heightened that feeling.
This climb is typically approached from the south where one skirts the W. side of the mountain via a pass and gains the N. ridge about mid-way via a steep chute. We approached from the north and camped at the base. Having arrived at our basecamp in mid afternoon after a protracted bushwack (we found the trail on the way out), we had time to recon our decent - the Sherpa glacier. Being late in the season (September) there was a pronounced bergschrund high on the glacier which looked difficult. We climbed to it and made an acceptable crossing. Following on the descent back to camp, I took a rather long fall on ice (60+ ft.) and was stopped by one of the few screws we had placed. Luckily I only recieved a good scuffing (I was wearing shorts) and a cracked rib (from bouncing on my axe as I tried to arrest). This was my first outing on ice and the fall didn't boost my confidence much but it did keep me thinking about setting my crampons.
The next morning I was a little stiff but still game. Our plan was to
travel as light as possible and make the climb
in a day. In addition to a decent rack (about 1 ea. tcu, camalot &
wires) and rock shoes we took boots, crampons & ice axe for the descent and
a wind proof layer, fleece top & an emergency blanket. Our plan was to
simulclimb as much of the route as possible, giving the heavy pack to the leader
so the follower could 1) be more secure and 2) get something of a rest.
Alex took the first lead and we simulclimbed until he had exhausted the rack
(about three full pitches). The climbing early on was mostly blocky, low
fifth class with gusts up to 5.7. Alex's first
"crux" was a slab-chimney, the rock was remarkably clean and solid -
as it was throughout the climb. By the time I reached Alex I had most of
the rack but was breathing hard from the fast climbing. The next few
rackfuls of pitches were pretty quick, again mostly blocky low-fifth. The
lower crux was the first 10' above our first swap ledge, I'd guess it was about
5.8. After half a dozen pitches, the views began to get impressive.
The Ice Cliff glacier to the left was losing ice and rock at a pretty good pace
and made for some spectacular sights and sounds. We had been talking about
the Girth Pillar earlier but it was clear from our new perspective that we made
the right choice. We continued about as fast as we could manage, limited
primarily by (my) aerobic capacity (it was getting a little painful to breath
after my rib injury). Alex waited patiently.
I ended up leading the knife edge up to the base of the Great Gendarme. The Gendarme is the crux, a 5.9 hand-crack / lieback followed by a short section of 5.9 OW. Alex, who was providing most of the enthusiasm by this point, took the lead. This was the only section we belayed on the climb. Alex strung together two pitches (barely) with our 55m rope . This was also the one place were a little more gear would have helped - Alex shuffled our big piece (#3 camalot) through the OW. After this, it was straightforward to the top. Our time from the base was 6 hours.
The descent took longer than we had planned (as long as the ascent in fact). We didn't stay high enough on the ridge when traversing E. toward the head of the Sherpa. We were eventually forced to break out the rope and climb some more 5th class, possibly the technical crux of our entire day. We took the first chute down the Sherpa and it looked mighty steep to me (more than 45 deg.) but what did I know. The soft snow, my inexperience and paranoia from the previous day's fall led us to rope up. We proceeded down placing a couple of pieces in the moat every rope length. At the junction with the glacier proper, the snow was harder and steeper. We had to traverse a fair ways, precariously close the the yawning schrund to reach our crossing point. We rapelled 50' to the floor while subjected to the ominous sounds of the glacier. We left our rope in place for a partial TR to exit the other side. From there it was all down hill as they say. We arrived back at our camp by dusk pretty hammered. The next day we packed up and moved to Colchuck Lake in preparation for Colchuck Balanced Rock but that's another story.