Little Bear

6.4 rugged uphill miles lie between the Lake Como trailhead and Little Bear's summit. Jeeps modified for rock crawling and all terrain vehicles can drive up the 4X4 road to Lake Como at 11,760 feet. From the lake, the trek to the summit is just 1.1 miles. The pitch of the road approaches 30 degrees on some sections. There are massive rocks. Looking down, you can see the wreckage of trucks that have crashed on the steep mountainsides below. I noticed a memorial for someone who had died in such a wreck.

The road would have torn apart the rented P.T. Cruiser we were driving so we parked at the trailhead and set off under sunny skies carrying overnight packs. While the sun shone down on the trail, chalk gray clouds squatted over Blanca and Little Bear. Luke thought they would blow over but they started dumping hail and sleet on us around 3:30 p.m. We ran into the woods above the stream that the trail follows, looking for a branch that we could drape Luke's rain poncho over. Instead, we found a flat site above the stream and decided to make camp. We pitched the tent in minutes flat, threw our gear in, and then thew ourselves in. My body core was warm but my fingertips had gone numb from exposure to the freezing precipitation. It had been a rush to run into the trees and pitch the tent at breakneck speed with the hail coming down.

When the precipitation ended, we hiked up the trail and discovered that the storm had caught us just a couple hundred yards below Lake Como. We talked with two hikers who had weathered the storm in the shelter on the lake after trying to summit Bear earlier in the day. One had turned around at the Hourglass Gully because it was iced over. The other had been able to climb up the gully by staying on the left side.

We left the trail and hiked to the south side of Como where we surveyed the steep north-facing gully that takes you to the top of Little Bear's west ridge. From the west ridge, the route heads east to a steep, rain-polished gully called the Hourglass. The Hourglass is the crux of the route and climbs up Bear's southwest face. From the top of the Hourglass, you scramble a couple hundred feet to reach the summit.

We set off for Lake Como at 5:50 a.m. the next day and reached the top of the gully that climbs up Bear's west ridge by 7:00 a.m. The west ridge provided stunning views of the Lake Como basin and Ellingwood Peak. The rocks in the gully were icy. We hoped the conditions would be better in the Hourglass.

An hour later, we were at the base of the Hourglass. Five or six ancient ropes that had been tied into a rappel anchor were hanging down the gully. Much of the rock was covered in ice. Water flowed down the center of the gully. The ropes were water-logged and the strength of the anchor was unknown, so we started climbing up on the left side in the hope of finding a route that was free of ice. Luke led.

The gully is rated Class 4 terrain, which means vertical climbing. A fall may kill you. Some people prefer to climb fourth class terrain with a rope as protection against falls, but handholds and footholds are abundant enough that protection is not mandatory, which distinguishes Class 4 terrain from Class 5 terrain.

The climb got hairier the higher we went. Half way up, Luke climbed up a few feet, side-stepped left on narrow footholds under an overhanging bulge, and then climbed up to a flat step above the bulge where he was secure. We belayed my pack up to him so that I would be unencumbered when I climbed the section. As I climbed, I found bomber handholds on the bulge and rushed across the horizontal section without paying attention to my feet. My failure to place my feet cautiously freaked Luke out. "You're being a jerky fucking climber, Pete!! You're not paying any attention to wear your feet are going!!" I answered, "Sorry, man. You're right. I'll pay more attention."

At that point, we were 20 or 30 feet below the anchor the ropes were tied into. We were nearly done with the crux of the route, but the prospect of climbing the rest of the gully and climbing all the way down was frightening. I couldn't see any readily climbable line to the anchor. The ice had made it impossible to safely reach the summit, so we decided to turn around. It was a frustrating but sensible decision. Bear and Blanca will have to wait till next season.

September 18-19, 2009