North Face of Cobb Peak (11,650 feet)

Dylan and I first saw the North face of Cobb Peak from our climb of Hyndman Peak, a few years back.  At that time we could only dream about climbing it.  

On top of Hyndman in 2010 with Cobb behind us

Fast forward 10 years, and we were going for it!  

Dylan and I had done a couple of Pioneer alpine climbs the previous two years, and I threw out the idea of the NF of Cobb without having any idea if it was even feasible.  Dylan, being Dylan, accepted the idea without hesitation.  The only beta I could find was from Sun Valley Trekking, and it mentioned solid rock with a couple of 5.8 moves. Seemed to be in my wheelhouse...

After a lazy Saturday evening kicking around Ketchum, we woke up to clear (no smoke!) and cold conditions at the Hyndman Creek trail head.  A quick cup of coffee and we were off a little after 7AM.

A cold start!

Cobb Peak (South Face)

In an effort to stay warm, Dylan set a fast pace and we made good time on the 3 miles of flat trail.  The steep pull up to the 8700' basin was followed by another incline into the upper basin at 9400'.  As we headed toward some sunshine in this upper basin, we ran into John and Alyson Kirk of Lists of John fame.  After a quick hello/goodbye we stopped in the sunshine to warm up, eat something, rack gear and look at our objective.

Upper Hyndman Basin

Which way should we go?

Once ready, we headed back down into the shade, crossed the creek, and carefully climbed up the scree field to the base of the wall. I had printed out a picture of the SV Guide's route for reference, but we opted to pick our own line.

Once ready, Dylan took off up the wall as I belayed him and shivered in the shade.  When it was my turn to follow, I was surprised at the difficulty of the first few moves up the steep wall.  Maybe it was the cold (I could barely feel my fingers) or the butterflies, but the first few moves felt like 5.8 right off the bat.  I was hoping things would get easier and said as much as I met Dylan at the anchor.

Close to the end of pitch 1 (D. Fadgen photo)

Contemplating a big move! (D. Fadgen photo)

In his element

Looking up at pitch 3 or 4

Close up

Dylan figuring out his line

The going did get a little easier in the steep, high quality Quartzite.  There was also a considerable amount of moss thrown in with occasional snow on the ledges.  All great fun! 

As we got higher, the temperature stayed about the same, but at least we had feeling in our fingers again.  Though cold, the climbing was very enjoyable with solid holds available for the committing moves.

Hard to keep a smile off his face

Top of pitch 6? getting ready to break out into the sun

Ahhh!

We had one last pitch along a knife edge ridge before we reached our exit close to the walk up route.  We'd climbed over 1000 feet and it was now 2:30.  Where had the time gone? 

Since we were only 600-700 feet from the summit, we figured we'd make quick work of getting to the top.  In hindsight, it might have been easier to stay roped up on the knife ridge. The trip to the top was a mixture of loose rock and steep slabs.  It would have definitely been more fun on a different day.

We eventually made it to the summit at 11,650 feet, but didn't linger since it was still a bit chilly and it was getting late. 

All smiles on top!

We carefully picked our way down through the steep, loose rock and then continued down, and down, and down until we found the main trail.  We did our best to move fast on the trail and eventually reached our rigs just as the sun set.

This was truly another great alpine climb with my son.  Limited beta, mixed with route finding and some committing moves several hundred feet above the deck.  What a way to live!

Our route

Google Earth Track