New York Gully 03/15/2020
My friend Vasily and I climbed New York Gully on Sunday March 15th. We started hiking from grooming parking lot at 5:35 AM. We approximately followed Phantom Slide path, occasionally checking our position by Gaia GPS app. The snow was deep, but we tried to find the old bootpack to save our energy. We reached the notch in less than 2 hours. There was no tracks on theNorth side and the snow was deep. We took turns breaking trail in the entrance col.
At the col
Descend to the other side
Entering the approach col
I lead first 3 pitches. Pitch 1 one was not difficult, but exposed snow climbing on a good neve. It ends at the beginning of a broad right-leaning couloir. The route goes left.
Lower part of the route
Pitch 1
Pitch 2 continued left and up. It ends at the large dead tree. From here we could see unmistakable right-leaning box gully.
Pitch 2
Box gully
Climbing Pitch 3 was real fun. Runs on a good neve interchanged with mixed moves on snow covered rock with occasional drytooling. There was enough ice to tax my calves, but not enough to place any screw. First 40 feet or so there was very little pro and I had to do a lot of snow excavation to find any place for pro. In the middle of the pitch there is fun climbing inside rock alcove with great cracks for pro. Then there was a rock fin where you can climb at the left or at the right side. The right side looked like had better neve. I started climbing the right side, but neve quickly turned into rotten snow. I clipped an old piton and made an awkward move to switch to the left side. I built a station below steep corner with fixed piton.
Pitch 3
Vasily took Pitch 4. I knew that after steep corner pitch 4 must be easier with more snow climbing, but Vasily took harder variation with some drytooling. This guy really enjoys drytooling! Pitch 4 ends at the short steep wall – crux of the route.
Pitch 5. It was already sun in the gully. I put off my gloves, put on crack climbing gloves and jammed the 5.8 crack free. After the crack there was delicate rockclimbing on small holds. It took me some time to find small cracks for pro. Reaching snow-covered tree I exhaled with relief.
Pitch 6 traverses right and goes to the notch in the ridge between 2 gendarmes. Vasily quickly lead it.
To bypass the right gendarme, we rappelled on the other side. The anchor on a tree was buried in a snow and we had to dig it out. The snow conditions on the other side were very good and we made only a short rappel.
We reached the col at 4:30 PM. We left our packs and hiked to the summit to make pictures. The descend to parking lot was quick on a good snow.
Fantastic day! Stellar route! This was my second time on it.
Approach:
No flotation used.
Gear notes: