The Lama Wrangler, the Cook, the Guidebook Author, Boston, the Luxumberger and his son, Harvard, the Counselor, and the Lizard.

This is a story about a trip that came to be through Supertopo. The Lizard posted up that he had more room on a trip he was taking to the Wind Rivers one of the great ranges of North America and had a couple extra slots. The Lizard is one of America’s greatest alpine climbers and was looking to go into the range in great stile. He said he had a cook, food, and lamas lined up for 9 days. The Counselor being a lifetime 40/hr per week kind of guy thought it was a great opportunity to get away from work and do some awesome climbing while hanging out with some legends of the sport. The Counselor emailed the Lizard and the Lizard sent him his number. They touched base and agreed to meet on the evening of August 2nd at Big Sandy Opening. The rest of the crew would assemble there as well and they would walk in the next morning. So that evening we feasted on salmon, quarts of fresh raspberries the counselor had brought from his yard, various other food, and canned beer from the Crow Peak Brewery in the Black Hills.
On the morning of the 3rd they ate a huge breakfast and spent several hours loading up the lamas and deciding what would stay and what would go, but first we had to round up a couple of the lamas that had gotten loose over the course of the evening. As we were packing unbeknownst to most of us the Guide Book Author showed up. He had decided to join the group for a good chunk of the week. They packed climbing gear, camping gear, and personal gear first, and then went on to work on the common gear. Things such as kitchen items, food, tarps, and so on. They then had to saddle up the lamas and equalize the load so that each lama had an equal amount on each side. There ended up being about 45-50 pounds of gear in each pannier which gave each lama about 100 pounds of gear as they each would carry two pannier. There were 8 lamas, 8 people, 800 pounds of gear, and 4 dogs hiking in the first day with Harvard to come the next day, but he had sent some of his gear to be packed in. Within the first mile there were several problems. First there was downfall across the trail and the lamas had a very hard time getting across it. Then the loads started shifting and several loads were dropped and much time was spent readjusting and reloading, but before too long the Lama Wrangler had things running smoothly and slow but steady progress was made into the East Fork Valley of the Wind River Range. Lamas are wonderful animals with a great temperament and unbelievable agility. They walk anywhere a human can and are very sure with their movements. The back foot goes right where the front foot was and in that way they never seem to trip up or kick the many rocks in the trail. The first camp was set up at about 10 miles in at Skull Lake. The views of the cirque and the many wildflowers are absolutely stunning. We finish the evening by making dinner, doing a little fishing, and having a few drinks. We decide that we will all climb on Mid Summer Dome the next day as a warm up for the bigger stuff in the Ambush Cirque the rest of the week.

August 4th: everyone sleeps in as the day before was a big day. We make breakfast and start heading for the Dome. The Lizard and the Guidebook Author will make one rope team at 140 years between them they have a lot of experience. Boston and the Counselor will make another team as will the Luxumburger and his son, and the Cook and the Lama Wrangler. As we hike up toward Pyramid Lake the views of Ambush, Raid and Gieke become more and more spectacular. The Lizard is the first on a route and he is a pitch up before too long only putting in three pieces in that pitch. Before too long the Cook is heading up to the right of that and the Luxumbergers are to the right of him. The Counselor waits for the Guidebook author to get a ways in front of him but then soon launches off. Before too long we are all in the same vicinity wandering around wondering where to go as we all forgot to bring a topo. Guidebook author is having trouble remembering where the routes go as he hasn’t been there in many years and he did not bring his own book. Mid Summer Dome routes seem to wander and we all cross paths several times that day. Everyone made a successful ascent accept maybe the Cook who ends up getting into some difficult terrain and takes a 30 footer. They traverse off and end up OK. The Lizard finishes first and heads off to stash his gear at the base of Ambush. The Counselor sees him going there on the hike off Mid Summer and scrambles to catch up and stashes his gear there also. There is a super nice bivy cave at the base of Ambush where we can keep our gear out of the weather. Everyone then hikes back to Skull Lake to fish, eat, and drink some more while telling stories about climbs and climbers. In the mean time Harvard had walked in and is at camp when everyone arrives. While cooking it starts to rain and the Patron starts getting passed around with mini key limes to take the bite out. We discuss tomorrow’s objectives which include Ambush Plaisar and the Great Grey Book.
August 5th: the counselor gets up early and goes fishing and catches 4 tiny trout, before too long Boston comes down and is fishing too. When they arrive back at camp a new plan is hatched to move camp up a couple of miles to Pyramid Lake so that 4 miles can be cut off the round trip to the climbs and several hundred feet of elevation gain. We pack up much faster this time and we are on the way at around noon. It only takes an hour or two to get to the next camp site and we spend a couple of hours setting up camp. Also the Luxumbergers decide that this is not their scene and decide to hike out. So now there are seven of us. We finish the night with a big meal, fishing, and drinks and decide that the Counselor, the Cook and the Lama Wrangler will to Ambush Plaisar a 1300ft 5.9 that ends under a huge roof at about mid height on Ambush. Harvard and the Lizard will do the Great Grey Book 5.9 on the Apostle a buttress of Ambush. Boston and the Guidebook author will take the day off to hike and fish. All get to bed planning on an early start.

August 6th: Again everyone sleeps in later than they want but we are close to Ambush now and no one seems too concerned. The Counselor uses twin ropes to lead the Cook and the Lama Wrangler up Ambush Plaisar. The Conselor belays both at the same time on the whole route which works well until the last couple of pitches where the terrain gets steeper, but they pull through and everyone makes it to the top of the route where they rappel the route. They miss the first four pitches of the route and end up doing some corners for about that length until they meet up with the route a mid height. The counselor finds some old pitons that pull out with his fingers, but the variation provides fun climbing back to the original route. Meanwhile Harvard and the Lizard make quick work of theGreat Grey Book on the Apostle. Boston and Harvard have caught a bunch of fish and we spend the night cooking corn breaded brook trout over a large fire in a large skillet full of grease. Fish never tasted so good. Nobody is staying up too late and camp is quiet by 10pm.

August 7th: The Guidebook Author heads out today and everyone is sad to see him leave. He is so fun to talk to. Between him, the Lizard and Boston and their 205 years on this planet they seem to know every climber and loads of funny, inspiring, and disgusting tails to tell. They knew Kamps, Pratt, Robins, Barber, ect. Ect. Ect. And many of the “younger”climbers(everyone on the trip is at least 30 save the cook who turns 30 in a week or two) can not get enough of these stories. He sets off and the Cook and the Lama Wrangler will take the day off. The Counselor and Harvard are the only ones climbing today and they will do the Becky route on Ambush. The Becky Route has a long grassy ramp that leads to a bunch of 4th to easy 5th class climbing that stops at a huge chimney. The chimney goes at about 5.7ish and is a bit wet and mossy at the start. It then is a beautiful full pitch after pulling a steep squeeze with a big jug on the outside of the chimney. You can place gear up inside the chimney but then have to squeeze back down and go on the outside to finish. After the overhang you go deep inside the chimney to a great crack on the left wall. Once you get out of the chimney there is another 1000 feet or so of easy rock climbing to the most prominent of summits on Ambush. The view down from the summit towards the Golden Dihedral is stunning and we have better views than ever of the Cirque of the Towers. They hike down the backside to the Gieke/Ambush Col and ski gravel and now in their shoes for a 1000ft. back to the bivy cave. We cook steak, tell stories, and drink until we are all too sleepy to stay up.
Even though the mosquitoes are horrible it cools off enough that night for the counselor to camp under the stars where he sees many shooting stars after the moon which is getting full goes behind the ridge.

August 8th: The Counselor and Harvard will try the 1500ft M-Buttress Triple Direct on Ambush and the Lizard and Boston will try Boston’s steep 10 pitch route on a smaller buttress of Ambush just left of the Golden Dihedral. The Lizard and Boston are off well before 5am and Harvard and the Counselor are not far behind them. Boston and the Lizard are at the snowfield blow the route by the time the Harvard and the Counselor are emerging from the bivy cave with their gear. The M-Buttress is just right of the Buttress that the others are climbing on. There is unavoidable snow on both routes, but Harvard and the counselor don’t have an ice axe or crampons to negotiate the snow with so they just go around and end up doing a variation to the route, but get it completed. The lizard and Boston brought ice gear and dispatch the snow before long. The Lizard and Boston make some route finding errors and are moving slowly so they bail after several pitches leaving the gear and the snow pitch fixed for a return attempt. The counselor and Harvard use the Apostle 4th class decent to go back right to the bivy cave without problem, but many days of “going” have taken their toll and both will take the day off tomorrow. The Cook ends up being the hero of the day as we ran out of propane out of our 15 lb tank due to a leak and he hike out to the trailhead with one lama and the propane tank and hikes back in the same day he arrives just in time for dinner a 24 mile round trip. We have fried corn tortillas, black beans and rice we all eat massively for the first time in a couple of days.

August 9th: Harvard and the counselor decide to take a day off and hike around the cirque to look at objectives for the next day and decide to try a harder route on Mid Summer Dome rated 5.9+++ what that means they are not sure, but it seemed less committing than any other route that isn’t a huge step up. The Lizard and Boston again get up early and head for the route to the left of the Golden Dihedral. They get rained off and are back at camp before any one else gets up. Before too long the Lizard is heading over to Baptiste Lake below Mt. Hooker because he heard from a hiker that there is huge trout biting there and they are catching them with their hands. By the time Harvard and the Counselor get back to camp the Lizard has a bunch of huge trout back at camp. He says little about it but is obviously very proud to have brought a ton of protein back to camp. We cook the trout in tin foil with coconut and thai seasoning and it is a big hit. Boston also catches a bunch of small trout that are fried up with corn meal that are equally good but more work. We all get to bed at a reasonable hour in order to get up for our last day before we hike out.

August 10: The Lizard and Boston get up early again and head into do their route again. Harvard and the Counselor head to Mid Summer Dome a little later and the Cook and the Lama Wrangler head to Ambush to do the Beckey Route. The Counselor and Harvard get spanked on the first pitch variation of the 9+++ is rated 10 hard or 9+++ depending on what topo you look at. They get summarily spanked and both decide they are done climbing and it is time to go catch some big trout in Baptiste Lake. The weather holds out all day and the Lizard and Boston get their route done free. As do the Cook and the Lama Wrangler. Harvard and the Counselor end up catching a bunch of big trout and hike back over the pass and pack the trout in snow to keep them fresh. We again have a huge fish fry and everyone is satiated. Lastly Harvard busts out an aluminum water bottle filled with 60 year old scotch that his grand mother had given him from his grandfather’s collection when she had to move out of their house and it is passed around with great care and delight to celebrate a great trip.
August 11: We get up at a reasonable hour and start cleaning up camp and packing the lamas. We are anticipating a smooth hike out as we have at least a couple of hundred pounds less weight, but we are sadly mistaken the lamas seem a little grumpy and are fighting before we even leave camp. The lamas drop several loads and it stops the whole train for quite a while each time this happens. The Lama Wrangler ends up having to stay behind with a very stubborn lama. We get back to the trail head and split up the gear. All in all it was a very cool trip and the counselor heads home and has to be at work the next day. The lama wrangler heads into Lander to get a new pair of climbing shoes as his has a major blow out. The cook will stay and clean up the gear to head back in for another four weeks with the Lama Wrangler. Boston will head to Jackson for a day or two before flying home. Harvard is off to climb the Black Ice with some friends and the Lizard will give a slide show at the climbers ranch in the Tetons before doing some climbing in the range and then heading to the City of Rocks.
Postscript: I would like to say thanks to Jim Donini for inviting me on this incredible trip and to Terry for his use of the Lamas. The Cook, Darin Reay, was great for making incredible food in the back country. Joe Kelsey had amazing stories and was such a great character. Steve Arsenolt for pioneering great routes and sticking to it through all these years through many injuries incurred from Vietnam and climbing accidents. The Luxumbergers were great for the short time they were there but they were very engaging and exposed me to a lifestyle that I would love to emulate with my own kids some day when they are older. George Brewster was a great climbing partner who was continually stoked and always wanted to see what was around the corner. The counselor would like to thank his family who had to endure the motorcycle rally without a husband or father around.