After another rather wet summer, September had arrived with a splitter forecast—warmer and sunnier than it had been for weeks. For Labor Day weekend, Nate and I snatched this late-season opportunity to spend a few days in the alpine. I secured a bivy permit for Upper Glacier Gorge (need to be climbing a route that is at least four pitches to qualify for a bivy permit), and Nate and I bivied up there for two nights (Friday and Saturday nights) below The Spearhead.
Due to the splitter forecast and an expired national park pass, I cleared up my Friday schedule and decided to head up to Glacier Gorge in the early morning, secure our favorite bivy site, and do a traverse over Arrowhead - McHenrys - Chiefs Head - Spearhead, arriving back at the bviy around the time Nate arrived. On Saturday, Nate and I climbed
Sykes' Sickle (5.9+, 7p). On Sunday we climbed what we called
"The Barbfisher" (5.11a, 8p)—a link-up of the first 5 pitches of The Barb with the last 2.5 pitches of
The Kingfisher. We also enjoyed a couple of sunny afternoons hanging out in this spectacular area.
This page gives a trip report for my "Glacier Gorge 5-2+1 Traverse" from Spearhead to Arrowhead. (The reason I called it the "5-2+1" traverse is because full "Glacier Gorge Traverse"—posted on
mountainproject—starts at Arrowhead and goes all of the way to Longs Peak. My "5-2+1" traverse deletes Pagoda and Longs but adds Spearhead.)
The following gives map, stats, and lots of photos from my traverse, and below that a photo smorgasbord from our three-day, two-night Labor Day weekend hanging out in Upper Glacier Gorge. Enjoy!
