Saturday:

Saturday Jerry and I each climbed 12+ 5.10 routes in the gym so that the RSS students could practice and take their belay tests. We got to the trailhead and started hiking at 3:00pm.

Each of our packs weighed 48 lbs. Threatening clouds were in the process of burning off at Pawnee Pass. Bozek and Smith said in their trip report that if you hike at a punishing pace you could make it over the pass and around to Crater Lake in 8 hours. They took 10. We stepped on the accelerator and got to Crater Lake in 4.5 hours, then spent 30 minutes looking for an open campsite.

Filtered water, got to sleep. Temps dropped to mid-40's which kept the mosquitoes at bay (we forgot the DEET)

Sunday:

Up at 5:00, cruising by 6:00. Once again, Bozek and Smith took 16 hours campsite-campsite for this 10-pitch climb, so we hoofed it. Jerry was unconvinced that we were on route after P2 because Bozek's distance measurements didn't add up at all. Some of the description did, so we started cruising. We did 3 rope-stretcher/simulclimb pitches that moved us up nearly 700 feet in no time. Turns out that we were a few hundred feet to climber's left and making our own route, but it was fun climbing anyway.

Pitches got shorter due to meandering and rope drag. We found the final headwall 5.7 crux pitch. I started up and came to a place with 3 choices: 5.7 left, 5.7 right, or some face climbing with a 5.9 offwidth right up the middle. Greg to self - 'What would Wally do?...' The 15' long section of 6" wide crack proved to be very spicy. Topped out at noon. Route gets 3 stars for it's adventure feel and solid rock.

The descent was a loose gully with somewhat manky rap stations that had been backed up very recently with nuts, fresh slings, and biners. Still took us 3 hours to get back to the talus.

Started hiking out at 4:00pm. Jerry had massive blisters on both feet from his relatively new shoes combined with wet feet from a river crossing. We were already feeling worked. Started motoring with our heads down and missed a turn. Hiked the better part of a mile towards Grand Lake and lost ~1000' before we realized our terrible mistake. Fatigue set in halfway back up the pass. The pass was completely socked in and we were getting drizzle. We wanted to get over it and through the snow crossing in daylight at the very least. The clouds burned off as we got within 1200 vertical feet of the pass, but that brought on 75 mph gust that made us stagger like drunk sailors. We crossed the pass at 8:30 and got through the snow before the headlamps came out.

Got back to the truck at 10:30. The last 4 miles seemed endless. I was delirious with fatigue and pain. When I was 20 feet from the truck I keeled over and puked my guts out. Nothing but bile. Puked twice on the way home, too. It was the most difficult test of endurance I've ever been through (including the midnight lead on the Salathe.)