Last year when we climbed Oasis we came across to this couloir on the NW of Eureka. Since then, Adrien had been talking about climbing it. I was pretty excited when Adrien contacted me .
I had proposed to him to climb NE Arete of Wedge on the way up.
The plan was to travel light and fast but for me it wasn’t the case over the week-end. For some reason I always pack light but on this trip my back wasn’t happy with the load I carried. I hate carrying over 50L pack because I always end up cramming a bunch of extra stuff which I don’t even need.
We made to the hut in 3 hours but I was pretty much knackered by then. After a quick lunch we continued to the glacier, roped up, and dragged my ass by Adrien to Weart-Wedge col where we planned to bivi. Dropped our overnight gear and continued to the arête. We summited at 8pm and back to the camp in the dark- exhausted but satisfied.
It was a calm night. The wind wasn’t bad.
I accidentally set my alarm off at 4:30am. The night before we agreed to wake up late since Eureka is an easy/short climb. At 5am, I was up and couldn’t back to sleep so I decided to sit in my sleeping bag to watch the sunrise while melting snow.
We dropped down to Weart glacier, crossed it towards Eureka. Crevasses were still filled in. Last year, on our way to Oasis we ran across some ginormous crevasses.
Finally, we were at the bottom of NW couloir of Eureka. Adrien discussed his concerned and some objective hazards of the climb. He decided to take the South ridge instead, while on the other hand, I was keen of climbing it. We agreed to meet up the summit. From the bottom, the climb was quiet fairly easy, the exposures did not look bad.
Adrien handed me the rope and pickets. We parted ways and found myself doing a solo ascent again. The gully was a little steep at the top but it wasn’t bad at all. My ice tools were biting on the hard snow pretty well. All the moats on both sides were shallow.
Soon, I was standing on top of the last snow on the gully but I had still quite ways to climb to the exit. To my right side, there was wall of vertical rock sheets, some potential hand/foot holds- it was quite tempting but I knew it’s gonna be a hell for me to pull myself up. Straight up and left side, it was mixed of pile of rotten shit (hardened mud, sands, mud, loosen rocks, shit…and more shits) but by the look of it the slope kinda eases off. I kicked steps-kicked horizontal with my crampons on the mud while trying to hook the blades of my ice tools on some rocks/mud. It did not work well, so I put them away on my harness gear loop. The nightmare begun when everything below me collapsed. I would pinch some small rock, dig my fingers in the dirt just to get a hand holds. Nerves started to kick in but I still calmed. I tried to balance the weight between my two hands and feet . The rest of climb to the exit was like a solving a puzzle.
I made to the North ridge safe and unharmed- the summit still far from the exit gully. Stopped for a bit to recollect myself, then continued to the east side of the ridge but ended up on some exposed bluff traverse. I back-tracked and went on the west side instead- loose rocks but much better. There were two breaks on the ridgeline. The first one, a 10m rappel will be needed but I managed to down climbed on ledge. On the second break, I stayed higher and I did a two steps hairy traverse on the pinnacle. But could be bypassed if you stayed lower( I was lazy and tired to back-track again). From there, I saw Adrien standing/waiting for me on the summit. It was an easy scramble after the second break of the ridgeline.
I’m always thankful to have Adrien as my climbing partner.
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