Peak: Mount Blanca
Ascent Route: Ormes Buttress
Descent Route: Over Ellingwood, Descent of Ellingwood’s North Ridge
Partner: Joe Brannan
Date: 8/23/08

Joe called me last week and the conversation went something like this:

Joe: “Wanna go climb Ormes this weekend?”
Me: “Yep”

Well the weekend was set. I left Basalt around 6 pm on Friday evening for the 4 hour drive down to Gardner, CO. I found Joe sleeping in his truck at the turn off for CR-550, the turn off for the Huerfano Trail Head. I ditched my Camry a ways up the road and hopped in with Joe for the ride up to the trailhead.

We started up the Lily Lake Trail and took the right fork up and through the trees on a steep and rocky trail.

Around 11,600 the trail makes a sharp switch back up the hill to Lily Lake. At this time its time to head cross country towards the base of the buttress.

After talus hopping for a half mile and 500 feet or so we arrived at the small snowfield at the base of the buttress.

From here the first 100 vertical or so are easy class 4 climbing that did not provide much of a challenge. Above this, we found a suitable ledge for switching to rock shoes and strapping on the harnesses.

The start of this pitch was very low class 5 climbing for a while and Joe ran the rope out for a while as there was very little reason to place protection.

He soon found himself in a corner that required a 5.6 move and set a piece to protect a fall in this area.

He soon climbed out of sight and when he hit the end of the rope I simo-climbed with him for about 20 vertical to where he could set a good anchor for belay.

He gave the shout down that I was on belay and I cleaned the route fairly quickly as there was not a large amount of pro necessary.

I’m not going to go into a ton of route detail, but to say that 5.6 is probably the hardest move we had to make on the way up. The best thing to say about this route is it was very “junky” the whole way up. We would pull out basketball sized pieces of rock that would go tumbling down. This is a constant reminder of the consequences of a fall. (As though I need a reminder) We topped out sometime after 1 pm. Here are a few pictures along the way:

Once you reach the top of the route, you have a couple hundred vertical left to the top of Blanca. We bounced our tired legs up talus and solid rock to the summit. We took one look out over the plains and we were off towards our descent route, as thunderheads were building and threatening to turn our day into a wet and electric one.

The problem with our descent route is that it required climbing Ellingwood on the way. After the traverse and climb of Ellingwood we descended the North Ridge to the low point (or so we thought) in the ridge.

From here one look down doesn’t tell the whole story. On first glance it seems that the downclimbing is limited to hard class 4. About 200 vertical down is where the Epic begins.

After downclimbing class 3 and 4 terrain we came across some “more vertical.” After exploring a couple of different options we did a rappel as far as our 54 meter rope would take us. We were left standing on a slanted and very loose ledge looking for pro for another rappel. After some creativity in finding good nut and hex placements, I, being the heavier of the two of us tested the placements and rappelled down to the edge of a cliff. At this point it felt incredibly “airy.”

I did not see a reasonable way down given the length the rappel below me. I climbed back up to where Joe was waiting and told him the news. Joe decided to give it at least a look for himself and took a diagonal line. He got to the edge and said “Jordan, I’m going down.” With the latest crash of thunder and flash of lightning he was gone.

As he dropped out of site the wait began. I sat and waited for a few minutes watching the occasional movement of the rope as he inched his way down the vertical wall of smooth rock. Finally the relieving words “Jordan! I’m off rappel!” came and it was my turn. I followed the general route of the rope and upon coming to the edge of the cliff Joe came into view below me. I looked down to realize that the rope had reached to a wide vein in the rock and no farther. This rappel was tricky and required keeping your left leg far out to the side to keep from swinging around to the face proper and leaving you in a very exposed position without enough rope to reach solid ground.

After some heavy searching Joe found enough pro to set up one last rappel. A couple of Nut placements and we were ready to go. I took off first and rapped down angled slabs to one last cliff band. Taking the rope as far as it would get us and adding in some downclimbing on class 4 terrain got us to the talus field below. Throughout this section of the climb we heard the echoing of thunder and watched the flash of lightning through the valley.

Joe was moving faster than me today and as we intentionally spread out across the open area above treeline he moved farther ahead. By this time of day my feet were absolutley throbbing. I watched as Joe reached treeline a little way ahead and figured that he would be waiting somewhere in the trees for my tired self to show up.

I found Joe sitting under a tree in the woods looking a little worn out himself. We sat for a few minutes snacking on what was left of our food and finished our water. It was 7 pm by the time we got up to walk the last couple miles to the truck. We walked, ran, and walked some more back to the parking lot and walked up to the truck at 8pm, 14 hours after we started in the morning.

Realizing that our loved ones might be somewhat worried we made a point to pack up and head down the road quickly to cell service.

Joe and I both agreed that we are glad to have done this route and it was probably excellent training for plans we have remaining this summer (stay tuned), but we would also not do this route over again. Watching the lightning storm on the drive home made me incredibly happy to be in my car headed home.

Thanks for reading.
JW