On Saturday Jordan and I finally got out to Wasootch Tower to climb the North Ridge. We have both wanted to climb this Kananaskis obscurity for some time and although the weather looked sketchy, we drove out to hit it.
We started later in the morning thinking that it is generally a shorter day climb but that isn't necessarily how it went. The approach we took was the North scree-slope as I felt it was safer than the blocky crap I had scrambled in the NW drainage a few weeks earlier. It only took an hour and we were at the treeline where it meets up with the first ramp. The first few pitches were pretty straight forward as most of the lower climb matched up with one of the only topos available on the web. Once we got to the top of what we eventually found was pitch 3, we started to wonder about the route description on this topo. Using the guide, Jordan lead across a wide gully to a small cliff band with only two meager pieces of pro (one being a fir tree - we used a lot of trees on this route). Once we were both at the 4th (what should have been the 4th) belay I decided Jordan should lead as I wasn't sure we were on route and I wanted to know where I was going before I lead another pitch.
Jordan started out the 5th pitch fine but after he climbed up and out of site, his rope stopped moving and I figured I only had let out about 20 meters (not enough to get to another belay station). 30 minutes later the rope starter to play up the rock but then stopped. Then the 5 meters that had earlier gone up came back down, then 10 meters went up, then 5 meters down, then only the blue half went up... I yelled up to see if Jordan was ok and got a frustrated response. Apparently the area Jordan was in had no place to put in protection and could not find the route to a belay. 20 minutes later the blue half ran right out and I had to ask Jordan for an update and give him the news that he was out of rope length. An hour after Jordan had left the belay, I heard the best news; he yelled down that he had found the belay and was ready to bring me up.
Now this might sound like the makings for a potential epic but in reality Jordan did an amazing job. The topo description is severely lacking and the route is nothing but blocky-loose crap. The perfect definition of "Rockies Choss". This section is like the Bermuda Triangle of routes and in reality you could wander around up there for hours before finding the next belay.
After the setback we moved back into the ridge as the clouds cleared and gave us a sunny blue (but extremely gusty) backdrop to our evening finish. The last pitch had some fun moves on it and after all that loose choss I felt like I was far more deliberate with where I placed my feet and used my hands. Over all, as shitty as the rock was on most of the route, I had an exhilarating day and would definitely climb it again. Just not anytime soon!
