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Date |
Ascent Time |
Descent Time |
| 1st Time |
17 Jun 06 |
7:20 |
3:35 |
Eisenhower Peak is located on the SE end of Castle Mountain. Officially, it's a separate peak. This is the objective
(the right skyline) as seen from the parking lot.
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For the approach, you follow the main trail to Rockbound Lake. After 1hr 20mins, you'll be just shy of Tower Lake and
you veer off to the left. This trail is steep, as seen here. But it's still easy to follow.
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Eventually, you'll come to the lower headwall. This part is nothing more than a difficult scramble (using Kane's ratings).
When you arrive at this headwall, you won't beleive that it's just a scramble, but the trail is well marked and easy to
follow.
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At times the trail is rather exposed, but again, the climbing is fairly easy.
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This is Blair following up behind me. If you look carefully behind him (on the back ridge), you'll see a cairn.
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This is typical scrambling for the lower mountain, as you work your way up to the Goat Plateau.
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Again, here is Blair coming up behind me. As usual, he will pass me soon enough.
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This is me topping out onto the Goat Plateau.
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Here we see Blair walking across the Goat Plateau toward the main part of Eisenhower Tower.
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When we arrived at the base of the Dragon's Back, we had great views of Rockbound Lake and Helena Ridge.
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This is the main part of the climb. It's a lot bigger than it looks. There was a party of three a few pitches ahead
of us. See the next picture for a zoomed in view of the trio. Use the patch of snow has a reference.
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It wouldn't be called the Goat Plateau if there weren't Goats on it. This was taken from the top of the Dragon's Back,
which is the base of the real climbing.
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We climbed the two pitches of the Dragon's Back with our boots on. Now that we're on top of the Dragon's Back, it was time
to put on our rock shoes. This is me doing just that.
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This is Blair starting up one of the pitches.
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This was taken after Blair climbed the first pitch, leaving me at the base of the climb. "Hey. Can I start now?"
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Here I am topping out on one of the pitches. "Hey mom!"
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This is another one of the pitches. It was all pretty easy climbing, and pretty consistant at that (5.4).
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This is me topping out on some ledge.
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Finally, the last pitch. This is Blair leading. The last pitch might go at 5.3. It was pretty easy.
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This is me topping out at the top of the top pitch. The summit is just in front of me.
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This is Blair standing on the summit. In the background, you can see Castle Mountain's summit.
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While Blair was soaking in the views from the summit, I'm standing at the lower cairn, taking my rock shoes off and
putting my boots back on.
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This is looking toward the Helena, Stuart's Knob, Television Peak, and Castle Mtn traverse. What a long day that would be.
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Blair enjoying some summit time, while it rains behind him.
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Okay... time to go home. This is Blair starting the first rap.
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Here I am waiting for Blair to stop taking pictures and continue rapping.
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This is a profile view of our ascent route from the descent route.
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Here is another rap, which is also the second pitch on the ascent.
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