Ascent Notes for: Necrophilia - M5 Average Rating : 4.00/5

11-18-05 RMNP, Necrophilia

Here’s the skinny on our silly adventure.

Went up to glacier gorge parking lot where we ran into two guys, one in full goretex fart suit who reacted like I’d caught him sleeping with his sister. He ran off into the woods without a word. The other guy seemed like Forest Gump’s slower brother, he had a lot to say. “Didja bring snowshoes? Ya might need snowshoes, I brought my snowshoes. I fell in a lot last time I was here. Didja ever climb the outlet of Sky Pond? Not me, looks waaaaaaaaaaay to dangerous, dontcha think?” Brian and I ran into the woods to escape the inquisition.

Beautiful day, a full moon over Hallet Peak. Didn’t really post hole until we left the lake and headed up to Necrophilia. I’m joking with Brian about the last time I tried the climb and got so cold I couldn’t feel my hands, face or elbows, just then the wind kicks up….. We refuse to acquiesce, to much approach and not enough climbing. Brian is kind enough (or stupid enough) to belay me on the first pitch. The first pitch is the real meat as far as I can tell. Cam a tool, place a cam, pull up over a serious bulge right off the deck. No gear, thin rotten ice, climb, climb, climb, no gear, climb, climb, climb & place good #2 camalot after 40 feet. Get on the vertical bongo ice, start hooking and place a stubby that hits air after an inch. Climb, Climb and fire in another stubby, it sucks (Brian tells me later that it froze in so was better than I thought, maybe). Finally get a yellow alien and an old pin towards the end of the vertical ice section. Pull up onto some cream of wheat neve and hook some ice shards. A hundred feet up and it probably took 12 hours. Wind has been howling and driving snow the whole time. The belay is sheltered up there so the guilt sets in and I bring up my frozen cohort. He says to me “That was stupid hard, you can be proud of that!” And we went home.