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| Wounded Knees   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Oregon, United States, North America Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 4, 2005 Activities: Hiking, Mountaineering Season: Summer | Page By: tazz Created/Edited: Feb 16, 2006 / Feb 22, 2006 Object ID: 173105 Hits: 2089 Loading... Page Score: 73.73% - 11 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
I organizing a trip with 5 others from NWhikers.net We decided on Matterhorn Oregon because I knew we would have better weather than the Cascades that weekend. I had already climbed Matterhorn a few years back with my husband Dan. My goal was to hit Matterhorn and then scoot over the ridge to Sacajewia. Well it didn’t happen quite as I planned it.
Here are the players. There is Rob who has hiked and backpacked in almost every state and about every trail there is. The guy is a go getter but not too sure on his feet off trail . Then we have Jeff who is an avid peak bagger/climber like myself. His friend Travis who had only hiked and climbed a little bit with Jeff. Travis also races bikes, so he is in incredible shape. Denise who is a novice hiker / back packer but never climbed a peak before and not in the best shape. And last but not least Krista, my friend who has only been on one other back pack and it was when I took her up to the Enchantments Via Snow Lakes trail. She didn’t like that trip because the trail got too rough for her after snow lakes. She likes well maintained trails with not a lot of rocks.
After a 6 hour drive Krista and I stopped up this FS road and quickly pitched a tent and
slept a few hrs. The plan was to meet everyone at 9-10am. So Krista and I drove to the trail head and waited...and waited ...and waited. Damn where the hell could they be? They all pulled in around 12 noon. So much for me driving the night before sheesh. Anyway... we all packed up and set down the trail to Ice lake.
It is a 9 mile hike up to the lake. The trail is in great shape and the grade is nice. It runs above the river for about 2.5 miles. Then it takes a right and crosses the river and starts to head up the slope. Many switchbacks later It arrives in a meadow and a HUGE avalanche swath. The views open up all around. Then The trail heads up a bunch more switchbacks to the lake.
Ice lake is one of the nicest lakes I have seen. We camped on the little peninsula that sticks out into the lake. There was still some snow down in the camp areas and the slopes still held a lot too.
After dinner we all decided to check out some route options. I was really hoping to do the SE route which traverses and runs a ridge to the south of ice lake Then hits the big plateau below the summit. . That is the one Dan and I did a few years back. It has no trail or path and has a lot of class 3 scrambling with some exposure in spots. It is a bit more fun than the standard route. There was still quite a bit of snow on this route. This is when Jeff told me he and Travis didn’t bring their crampons or ice axes. (I told the we would need them for the route). This means we take the standard route up. There was less snow on the standard route so they should be fine. We all hit the sack.
Headed out around 7 am. Krista stayed back cause she didn’t want to climb and wanted to sleep instead. Denise was a bit sore and slow from the hike in the day before. The guys took off and I stayed back with Denise. She didn’t Want me to leave her behind. So I just plugged along at a very slow pace so she was comfortable. She was having some difficulty with the steepness of the climb. She thought she would fall. I spent the entire climb encouraging her and letting her know she will not fall and if she did she would only scrape a knee at this point. I thought to myself what will she do when we get to the exposed part just before the summit. (And it is not that exposed)
We could see the guys up ahead. They where up on a ridge which is part of the route. It was good class 3 with some exposure. I could see Rob was having a difficult time of it on some of the rock and exposure. She took one look at that and said “No F-ing way I am going up that!” This where I was like hmm well.....we will have to find another way then.
It is not hard finding a route to take it is all open easy terrain. We made it up a ridge of some class 1-2 stuff but she was making it look like class 3. She was almost crawling. We reached the plateau and headed up one more small steep ridge. Once we made it to the final summit push she was just plain determined to get up scared or not! So I led her up through the exposed rock section. Very slowly! We made it wow! I was proud of her she had a real tough time but not once did she want to quit. She made it the whole way and was thrilled.
The guys had been waiting for us. Travis was not feeling so well and was lying on the ground half asleep half moaning. I think the altitude was getting to him because he raced up to 10,000' in no time and he is not used to altitude at all.
The views are great and with all the snow it almost look like Colorado. much different than the last time I was here. The rock on the summit is my favorite rock on any summit so far. The wind blown grey swirls in the limestone(granite?) so cool.
The little alpine plants that grow in the nooks are beautiful. We took some summit shots and decided because of time and the fact that we would never get Denise to climb up to Sacajewia that we would call it a day. I was a bit bummed but just getting her up there made me happy.
Coming down was another long slow process. She was having a hard time cause her knees hurt and being scared of any kind of fall. I had a hard time by this point cause I held back the whole way up to help her get up. Now the guys were taking off again. No firggen way I said! I was tired of going slow! I told Jeff it is his turn to hang with Denise hehe. I was free! I love to descend with some speed and long strides. It is less jarring on my long legs. I stopped to let them catch up and then the guys took off again “damn men!” I helped and guided Denise down the rest of the way through the rock and left her behind just before the lake. She arrived about ½ hr after we all did.
We packed up camp and headed out Denise left ½ hour or so before us cause she knew she would be slow. The rest of us hiked out together and then started to spit up. Krista, Jeff and Travis took an old trail that is no longer in use and I was right in front of Rob. We were now spread all about the trail and slope.
About a mile from the camp I tripped on something (rock hmmm) and went down hard. Face first in the friggen rock and dirt. The weight of the pack shoved me down forcefully. My knees hit really hard along with my hands and face. I had a bloody fat lip, a good bruise and swelling on my cheek bone, and my knees where wrecked. They both instantly blew up. I could not bend one knee at all and the other was only half useful. Shit, I still have 8 miles to get out of here! Rob is a nurse and all concerned about my knees. I asked him if my face was mangled he said no just bloody . I said Good lets move. I reached the meadow and used a kerchief with fresh cold water to clean off the blood and put on the knee to help with the swelling. It didn’t really help but made it feel better for a minute or so. LOL. This is when we found Jeff who was looking for his shirt that fell off his pack. Krista and Travis where gone. They will be waiting for a while for me to get down now . It took me 2xs longer to get down. I finally caught up and passed Denise. I just wanted to get down and didn’t care if it hurt like hell. The last mile I was pissed and in a lot of pain. The one knee was the size of a softball and useless. People Coming up the trail kept asking if I wanted help... heh. I was like what the hell you going to do for me carry me out? I just said no thanks and trudged on. Got back to the truck and Krista and Travis were like what the hell! Ohhhh..........LOL.
This was a trip I will never forget for many reasons. This is the first time I have ever climbed with this many different people. I was so used to climbing with just my husband and or a couple of others that have the same level of ability. I learned a lot on this trip. Meeting and having fun with a great group of people was great. Helping a novice bag her first peak was slow but worth it(she is hooked now!) She did great! Got to climb a peak I just love. Busting my knee cap. I couldn’t use my knee fully for about 2 wks then it started to get better. At least I didn’t fall when up on the exposed areas. Oh what a fun weekend!
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