本帖最后由 096 于 2015-1-4 16:50 编辑 WANG ZHIMING New Route on Eagle Rock Peak, Qionglai Mountains, Sichuan A Dream of 353 Years – 13 pitches, 5.11a, 650 m At 4:30 pm on August 27, 2013, I was gasping with my back leaning on the rock. Heng Zhao and Jinyun Dong, my teammates, were thoughtfully looking at me. Cloud rapidly gathered around us as not unusually in this season. We were pushing the 11th pitch at least 500 meters above the base camp. The Eagle Rock Peak ca. 5,300 m dominantly towers southeast of Potala Shan in the Shuangqiao Valley. The only climbing record is Swiss team of Christof Looser, Martin Ruggli and Lukas Durr. They stood atop in October, 2005. The name of route is I Hate Camping: 21 pitch, VI,F7a (5.11d), A3, 700 m. On August 23 We set up the base camp at 4,400 m south of the Eagle Rock Peak. On August 25 We carefully studied logistic route and reconnoitered viable access to start climbing. Weather was easy to change, sunny, rain and cloudy. Pitch 1: A gentle slab of 50 – 60° angle with crack could be soloed with no protection. Grade 5.7R. Pitch 2: Angle increased to 70° with lose rock, but was soloed. Grade 5.8R. Pitch 3: Real climbing started. Slab with no crack of Grade 5.7R. 8 mm bolt and short rope left by Japanese having abandoned due to bad weather was found. Pitch 4: Also slab with less crack of Grade 5.7R continued. Weather got worse with rain. 100m rope was fixed. On August 26 Another party of our group climbed to “Switzerland terrace”. We had different approaches. We chose right way to an integrated crack that directed to the top of the Eagle Rock Peak. The other party returned to the base camp. They climbed three pitches of total 150 meters with 70° rock. The grades are 5.8R, 5.8R, 5.5. They also fixed ropes. On August 27 I was the first that arrived to Switzerland terrace, above which is the main crack. The angle looked vertical. At 12:30 pm Dong and Zhao finally arrived to the terrace. I followed a crack from the platform to the right side. That was Pitch 8 Grade 5.7 with crack and smooth wall. At 1:30 pm Pitch 9 started. Climbing was really dramatic. We made a good choice. After Pitch 8 belay station, I moved 15m to the right side, then to the left by 10 m and entered main crack. This was a wonderful route of Grade 5.10 +. I put an anchor on small terrace, fixed ropes for Griff and Zhao. At 3:00 pm Pitch 10 was steeper with crack. As ascending the crack became narrow and harder to climb with Grade 5.10 +. After about 35 m climb we reached a terrace where we found two pitons and corrupted white nylon rope and small metal ring that was put by Switzerland team for descending after they successfully summited. At 4:00 pm Pitch 11 was traverse with Grade 5.9. At 5:00 pm the initial push of Pitch 12 was big challenge for two narrow vertical cracks, after them we entered easy chimney. When we found three remaining pitons in this pitch en-route, I was very much puzzled. Did we repeat the old route that any team already finished before? This was definitely not along the Switzerland route. Are they belonging to a Japanese or Korean team we met recently? We did not find any information about them online because of the language difference. Our goal was to open new route, thus these three pitons frustrated us a lot. This pitch was the toughest through the entire route. Grade is 5.11a. At 6:00 pm cloud appeared. We opened headlamps. Dong and Zhao followed me Pitch 13 with 70° cracks and finally “Summit, we’ve got it”. At 7:30 pm Looking around I was between the low summit and middle summit of the Eagle Rock Peak. The height gap was about 20 m. There was a higher peak some 200 m away hidden from the Shuangqiao Valley. At 8:00 pm we continuously climbed 14 hours after departing from base camp. I cleaned up ropes for descent. We did not left any spare rock protection, nut, webbing, rope and other climbing gears and man-made rubbish on the route. |