Wedge Mt. 7/3/2005 Northeast Arete

Wedge Mt. 7/3/2005
I finally got to summit Wedge Mt. for the second time, after several aborted tries. My buddy Mike came with me but wasn't feeling up to going past the camp.The weather dawned ideal and I went solo for the full Arete route. I hooked up with two other climbers part way up the route. They went up the west side ice fall, past the bergshrund, then up to the "saddle" on the Arete.It was more slush than snow from the glacier to the first part of the Arete and I wondered if I was not to be turned back yet again. As soon as I on the Arete, I kept to the rocks as the much as possible. The snow cornices looked too narrow, too weak to go that way. Once past the intial high part the conditions firmed up and were perfect the rest of the way.Higher up the route I kept well clear of the cornices. The other two climbers were a bit more brave but you can see from the photos that they cut it pretty close in some sections. I could see from lower down that the cornices extended quite far and that was only what I could see. Better to give them a wide berth.Anyway, we all made it the summit and grabbed a quick snack before heading down the Wedge couloir. I had seen it before from the bottom and it didn't look all that bad. The sun was still not high enough to start melting things there either. The description in Alpine Select doesn't hint at its problems. High rim walls that funnel into a narrowing gap on a steep snow face. We tried to hustle down as fast as we could and stay out the direct debris paths. LUCK was the only thing that prevented a fatality as a six pack sized rock whizzed (like a ricoheted bullet) past us at chest height with no prior warning. Once out off the chute and past the danger zone we rested, pressed on the several hours later we were back at the hut reliving the whole thing. It was a great trip and I got what I came for.