Sentinel Standard Route
18 Jul 2016 17:14 #69186
by ghaznavid
Replied by ghaznavid on topic Sentinel Standard Route
The Icy Soldier
Sentinel Standard Route has been on my to-do list for many years. Like many harder goals, it has been postponed for many years as well. At the start of the year I had put it on my 2016 objectives list, and Neil/Sterkhorn told me that he would like to join too.
So, on Sunday morning I woke up at a cold and wet Witsieshoek. It looked like we would have to cancel, but eventually we decided to at least have a look at conditions when we got there.
The team was myself, Hobbit/Mike, Neil/Sterkhorn and Kylan.
We set off from Sentinel Car Park at 7:30AM. We took just over an hour to get to the base of the route. We were above the clouds and the route was dry, so we decided to go ahead. There had been some fresh snow about, but not much, so this didn’t worry us.
Mike lead the first pitch – his first lead on Berg rock. He placed some gear, but most of it popped, leaving only one piece about a third of the way up. It took him a while to do the climb, but in the cold with poor gear, he couldn’t be faulted on this.
Mike set up an equalised anchor on some gear above, and belayed off the large ring bolt. Neil went up second, and Kylan followed. I went last as I had to organise that the harness and helmet made their way back down, packs were hauled up etc.
I went up last. I tried the line straight below the bolt, but found the short overhanging bit to be too difficult, so I retreated down the route and climbed further to the right. Getting to the ledge was reasonably difficult, but I managed to get there. The crux near the top was difficult – I could not see a way up, so I called for assistance. Mike lowered a rope with some slings (an improvised daisy chain) and I used this to aid through the crux.
We were all through the hardest pitch, but had taken a very long time to get up. We had hoped to be done by about 12, but it was almost 12 already.
Above the climb there was much more snow than there had been below it. The first bit above the south face was actually quite scary because of this. Wet rock, ice and snow are never as grippy as one would like when immediately above a large cliff!
We used the VE GPS track to navigate through the middle section. The trail proved elusive, probably mostly due to the amount of fresh snow on the ground. The mass of bushes proved to be great support to prevent falls, especially in the various more exposed spots. I rate the middle section of this route is probably more dangerous than the actual climbing – it is steep and you are often above big falls. Perhaps this feeling of insecurity was mostly due to the fresh snow.
We took what felt like an age to get to the upper pitch. The mist had slowly been moving up the mountain, and we were now fully engulfed.
When we finally reached the top pitch, we all agreed that a rope was needed. There is a good few hundred meters that one could fall off to the left, and the rock was covered in ice and snow. Hobbit lead the pitch once again – managing to place about 6 bomber pieces, including my size 11 hex.
The team got up this pitch quite quickly, with me narrowly missing a fall near the bottom – my feet slipping on some ice.
The last bit of trail was nice and clear, and there was no snow on top – it must have melted when the sun was shining earlier in the day. We had specified 2PM as the latest time for summiting, and we stood on top at 1:35 – over an hour behind the time we expected to be back at the car.
The mist did very briefly clear, but only slightly. It also revealed some ominous clouds coming our way.
I quickly filled in the summit book, most notably pointing out that Hobbit lead the route at 15 years old – not a bad achievement by any means (although I am doubtful that he is the youngest to have ever lead the group, especially after reading old Berg first ascent accounts where the team included 10 year olds). It was also great to see so many VE names in the book – and a lot of Viking!
We got our group shots, and left the summit as it began to snow – we had been on top for about 10 minutes.
While I might be one of the worst rock climbers around (those who have climbing with me can vouch for this
), and Mike is a far more experienced climber than I am, I knew I needed to take the lead on the descent.
We had left our gear at the base of the upper pitch, aside from what was used to get up the pitch, and a few items that Neil had climbed with (cameras, GPS etc.)
I found a nice heavy rock just back from the easiest abseil line, and used some 7mm access chord and a triple fisherman’s knot to place a top anchor around this rock (which I had done my best to move, i.e. as a test that it would hold) – it didn’t budge, and thus was perfect. After pulling on my access chord, it seemed to be stretching – so I decided to play it safe and placed a 120cm sling around the rock. Only once I had tested this and it also seemed to stretch, did I realise that it was moving to the lowest point on the rock, and not stretching. Oh well – a R120 sling is still much cheaper than a stay in hospital or a funeral.
I abseiled first, being of the opinion that one should be sufficiently confident in their own anchors that they are willing to test them themselves. I knew this anchor was as bomber as one will ever find, an elephant could probably abseil off it. Mike did a top rope belay as a backup (actually more so that the helmet, harness and belay device could be pulled up afterwards.
Neil and Kylan followed without incident. Mike then removed the anchors that he had belayed the pitch and abseil off (leaving 1 of my nuts behind – the nut tool was at the bottom already, and we didn’t needed to get off the mountain as the snow continued to fall). As he was getting ready to ab, he dropped his belay device. Fortunately he hadn’t sent the gold backup rope back down, so we were able to attach the other belay device to the backup rope and send it up to him. While he abseiled down, we found the belay device – so only 1 sling, some access chord and a size 6 BD nut left behind.
We made our way down to the lower pitch reasonably easily – this time managing to follow the trail and cairns even with the snow. We lost the plot a bit just above the main pitch, but a well-timed pocket of air gave us the visibility we needed to see the distinctive features near the top of the climb.
Snow was still falling, but not in massive quantities, so it really wasn’t bothering me. I had given the standard “the summit is only halfway” speech before we started to descend, and everyone had continued to be as cautious as one would need to be when descending on fresh snow.
I knew the rope would get caught on rocks for the lower abseil, and as always, Mike and I would need to coordinate getting the harness and helmet back up for the next person to descend (we only had 2 harnesses, 2 helmets and 2 belay devices for the team), so I abseiled first once again.
The rope had all landed on the middle ledge as I expected, so I had to toss it down. 2m off the ground I learned that the gold retrieval rope had a knot in it, so I had to hang on the rope while Mike untangled it. I eventually untied from it, and descended to the bottom. Mike then threw the end down and I sent the gear back up.
I had made the mistake of walking across a bit on the ledge before dropping down the last bit – anyone who has abseiled a few times will have learned that you always go were the rope takes you, as I came off that middle ledge, I knew I was about to swing, but fortunately the 1m swing didn’t result in me hitting anything.
The others followed me down, both Neil and Kylan looked like they would do what I did, so I warned them about the swing, and they both had an easier time of coming down.
Mike removed the backup gear from the top and followed down while I gave him a fireman’s belay. It took a good 20 seconds for him to get down, much faster than everyone else. Nonetheless, this abseil went much faster than the first one, and with the team all safely at the base of the first pitch, I could breathe a sigh of relief – although it wouldn’t be the first time that I team safely got off the hard stuff only to have something go wrong on the walkout.
Fortunately nothing did go wrong on the walkout, and at 4:30 we were back at the car. 9 hours to cover 11km – a new speed record, I’m sure
Nonetheless, Mike had never climbed on Berg rock before (outside of scrambles and some occasional bouldering – which he is forbidden from doing before 3PM, long story), Kylan had never climbed on real rock before, Neil had never abseiled before, and I am skittish around cliffs at the best of times. Overall I am going to rate this as a very successful trip.
Will I climb Sentinel again in better weather? Maybe, but I suspect not.
A point some might debate is whether or not my climbing of this route counts as a climb – aided top-roping a D-grade isn’t exactly green-pointing a 5.14d route. But to me, getting to the top is what counts, and I did get up, no one carried my gear for me, no one pulled me up. I would like to have done all the moves entirely unaided, but if I can use aid to get up something I may not have managed otherwise, I can live with that. I may invest in a daisy chain so that I am better prepared for future climbs where I might be struggling with moves.
Thanks to everyone who provided info, GPS tracks, photos and accounts - it helped a lot!
Sentinel Standard Route has been on my to-do list for many years. Like many harder goals, it has been postponed for many years as well. At the start of the year I had put it on my 2016 objectives list, and Neil/Sterkhorn told me that he would like to join too.
So, on Sunday morning I woke up at a cold and wet Witsieshoek. It looked like we would have to cancel, but eventually we decided to at least have a look at conditions when we got there.
The team was myself, Hobbit/Mike, Neil/Sterkhorn and Kylan.
We set off from Sentinel Car Park at 7:30AM. We took just over an hour to get to the base of the route. We were above the clouds and the route was dry, so we decided to go ahead. There had been some fresh snow about, but not much, so this didn’t worry us.
Mike lead the first pitch – his first lead on Berg rock. He placed some gear, but most of it popped, leaving only one piece about a third of the way up. It took him a while to do the climb, but in the cold with poor gear, he couldn’t be faulted on this.
Mike set up an equalised anchor on some gear above, and belayed off the large ring bolt. Neil went up second, and Kylan followed. I went last as I had to organise that the harness and helmet made their way back down, packs were hauled up etc.
I went up last. I tried the line straight below the bolt, but found the short overhanging bit to be too difficult, so I retreated down the route and climbed further to the right. Getting to the ledge was reasonably difficult, but I managed to get there. The crux near the top was difficult – I could not see a way up, so I called for assistance. Mike lowered a rope with some slings (an improvised daisy chain) and I used this to aid through the crux.
We were all through the hardest pitch, but had taken a very long time to get up. We had hoped to be done by about 12, but it was almost 12 already.
Above the climb there was much more snow than there had been below it. The first bit above the south face was actually quite scary because of this. Wet rock, ice and snow are never as grippy as one would like when immediately above a large cliff!
We used the VE GPS track to navigate through the middle section. The trail proved elusive, probably mostly due to the amount of fresh snow on the ground. The mass of bushes proved to be great support to prevent falls, especially in the various more exposed spots. I rate the middle section of this route is probably more dangerous than the actual climbing – it is steep and you are often above big falls. Perhaps this feeling of insecurity was mostly due to the fresh snow.
We took what felt like an age to get to the upper pitch. The mist had slowly been moving up the mountain, and we were now fully engulfed.
When we finally reached the top pitch, we all agreed that a rope was needed. There is a good few hundred meters that one could fall off to the left, and the rock was covered in ice and snow. Hobbit lead the pitch once again – managing to place about 6 bomber pieces, including my size 11 hex.
The team got up this pitch quite quickly, with me narrowly missing a fall near the bottom – my feet slipping on some ice.
The last bit of trail was nice and clear, and there was no snow on top – it must have melted when the sun was shining earlier in the day. We had specified 2PM as the latest time for summiting, and we stood on top at 1:35 – over an hour behind the time we expected to be back at the car.
The mist did very briefly clear, but only slightly. It also revealed some ominous clouds coming our way.
I quickly filled in the summit book, most notably pointing out that Hobbit lead the route at 15 years old – not a bad achievement by any means (although I am doubtful that he is the youngest to have ever lead the group, especially after reading old Berg first ascent accounts where the team included 10 year olds). It was also great to see so many VE names in the book – and a lot of Viking!
We got our group shots, and left the summit as it began to snow – we had been on top for about 10 minutes.
While I might be one of the worst rock climbers around (those who have climbing with me can vouch for this
), and Mike is a far more experienced climber than I am, I knew I needed to take the lead on the descent.We had left our gear at the base of the upper pitch, aside from what was used to get up the pitch, and a few items that Neil had climbed with (cameras, GPS etc.)
I found a nice heavy rock just back from the easiest abseil line, and used some 7mm access chord and a triple fisherman’s knot to place a top anchor around this rock (which I had done my best to move, i.e. as a test that it would hold) – it didn’t budge, and thus was perfect. After pulling on my access chord, it seemed to be stretching – so I decided to play it safe and placed a 120cm sling around the rock. Only once I had tested this and it also seemed to stretch, did I realise that it was moving to the lowest point on the rock, and not stretching. Oh well – a R120 sling is still much cheaper than a stay in hospital or a funeral.
I abseiled first, being of the opinion that one should be sufficiently confident in their own anchors that they are willing to test them themselves. I knew this anchor was as bomber as one will ever find, an elephant could probably abseil off it. Mike did a top rope belay as a backup (actually more so that the helmet, harness and belay device could be pulled up afterwards.
Neil and Kylan followed without incident. Mike then removed the anchors that he had belayed the pitch and abseil off (leaving 1 of my nuts behind – the nut tool was at the bottom already, and we didn’t needed to get off the mountain as the snow continued to fall). As he was getting ready to ab, he dropped his belay device. Fortunately he hadn’t sent the gold backup rope back down, so we were able to attach the other belay device to the backup rope and send it up to him. While he abseiled down, we found the belay device – so only 1 sling, some access chord and a size 6 BD nut left behind.
We made our way down to the lower pitch reasonably easily – this time managing to follow the trail and cairns even with the snow. We lost the plot a bit just above the main pitch, but a well-timed pocket of air gave us the visibility we needed to see the distinctive features near the top of the climb.
Snow was still falling, but not in massive quantities, so it really wasn’t bothering me. I had given the standard “the summit is only halfway” speech before we started to descend, and everyone had continued to be as cautious as one would need to be when descending on fresh snow.
I knew the rope would get caught on rocks for the lower abseil, and as always, Mike and I would need to coordinate getting the harness and helmet back up for the next person to descend (we only had 2 harnesses, 2 helmets and 2 belay devices for the team), so I abseiled first once again.
The rope had all landed on the middle ledge as I expected, so I had to toss it down. 2m off the ground I learned that the gold retrieval rope had a knot in it, so I had to hang on the rope while Mike untangled it. I eventually untied from it, and descended to the bottom. Mike then threw the end down and I sent the gear back up.
I had made the mistake of walking across a bit on the ledge before dropping down the last bit – anyone who has abseiled a few times will have learned that you always go were the rope takes you, as I came off that middle ledge, I knew I was about to swing, but fortunately the 1m swing didn’t result in me hitting anything.
The others followed me down, both Neil and Kylan looked like they would do what I did, so I warned them about the swing, and they both had an easier time of coming down.
Mike removed the backup gear from the top and followed down while I gave him a fireman’s belay. It took a good 20 seconds for him to get down, much faster than everyone else. Nonetheless, this abseil went much faster than the first one, and with the team all safely at the base of the first pitch, I could breathe a sigh of relief – although it wouldn’t be the first time that I team safely got off the hard stuff only to have something go wrong on the walkout.
Fortunately nothing did go wrong on the walkout, and at 4:30 we were back at the car. 9 hours to cover 11km – a new speed record, I’m sure
Nonetheless, Mike had never climbed on Berg rock before (outside of scrambles and some occasional bouldering – which he is forbidden from doing before 3PM, long story), Kylan had never climbed on real rock before, Neil had never abseiled before, and I am skittish around cliffs at the best of times. Overall I am going to rate this as a very successful trip.
Will I climb Sentinel again in better weather? Maybe, but I suspect not.
A point some might debate is whether or not my climbing of this route counts as a climb – aided top-roping a D-grade isn’t exactly green-pointing a 5.14d route. But to me, getting to the top is what counts, and I did get up, no one carried my gear for me, no one pulled me up. I would like to have done all the moves entirely unaided, but if I can use aid to get up something I may not have managed otherwise, I can live with that. I may invest in a daisy chain so that I am better prepared for future climbs where I might be struggling with moves.
Thanks to everyone who provided info, GPS tracks, photos and accounts - it helped a lot!
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