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Summary
Moon Goddess Arete.
Shirley and I climbed the Moon Goddess Arête on Temple Crag over Labor Day weekend in 2004. Fun with a touch of altitude sickness…in fact, my most vivid memory of the experience was on the way down. It got dark as we were hiking down the boulder field below the start of the arêtes. We left an ice ax at the base (& some jackets) & so I ran up to retrieve our sh.tuff. I searched and searched around the small snowfield only to conclude that “we’ve been jacked!” as stuff was nowhere to be seen. We hiked down to camp by the lake. In the morning as I was looking up towards The Crag, it occurred to me that I was searching the wrong snow field in the dark….dumb dee dumb dumb…ran up, got our stuff and barely made the flight home.
Photos
Temple Crag and the Second Lake (Sept. 2004).
Temple Crag with its celestial aretes. The wide buttress on the right is the start of Dark Star (5.10). The prominent arete to the left is the Sun Ribbon Arete (5.9). To its left is the Moon Goddess Arete (5.8) with the Venusian Blind Arete (5.7) branching off leftwards from it (Sept. 2004).
Shirley enjoying the pretty campsite above the Second Lake (Sept. 2004).
Shirley studying up on the route topo in our camp above the Second Lake. Temple Crag dominates the view (Sept. 2004).
Shirley studying up the Moon Goddess Arete topo at base camp (Sept. 2004).
Shirley in our simple camp (Sept. 2004).
Temple Crag and the Second Lake in the evening before our climb of Moon Goddess Arete (Sept. 2004).
Shirley approaching the Moon Goddess Arete (Sept. 2004).
Overview of key features of Moon Goddess Arete (important belay stations indicated with small red dots).
Shirley following our simulclimb section on the lower part of Moon Goddess Arete (Sept. 2004).
Shirley somewhere on the lower part of the Moon Goddess Arete. Photo taken by an unknown party from Sun Ribbon Arete next door (Sept. 2004).
Shirley on the lower part (I think??) of the Moon Goddess Arete. Photo taken from Sun Ribbon Arete next door by an unknown party (thank you! Sept. 2004).
Yours truly belaying somewhere on the lower part (I think?) of Moon Goddess Arete. Photo was taken by a kind party next door from Sun Ribbon Arete (thank you! Sept. 2004).
Shirley somewhere on the lower part of the Moon Goddess Arete route (Sept. 2004).
Unknown party (parties?) on the next door Sun Ribbon Arete route (Sept. 2004).
Shirley belaying me from the notch behind the First Tower (in background). The previous pitch comes in (traversing) from left side of tower. This is the classic route shot of Moon Goddess Arete (September 5, 2004).
Climbers doing the Tyrollean traverse on the Sun Ribbon Arete (5.9-5.10a) next door. This route essentially follows the skyline in the photo (with its many ups and downs) with some variation near the high step on left hand side of photo (3 different parties seemed to take 3 different variations up the step that day). Photo taken from top of P9 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo) on September 5, 2004.
Close-up of climbers doing the Tyrollean traverse (~20 feet of it) on the amazing-looking Sun Ribbon Arete (5.9-5.10a) next door. View from top of P8 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo).
Shirley starting the pitch after the First Tower (in background; Sept. 2004).
Leading P8 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo). The pitch (acc. to Supertopo) starts off with a loose 5.7 chimney and ends with a 20 foot 5.8 dihedral (I'm just below that part). In fact, the lower section of the pitch does not really require any chimney moves, is not that loose (though it looks pretty bad from across the way near First Tower notch) and is probably more like a 5.6. The upper portion is very nice and is probably a not-so-sustained 5.8. This is probably the crux of the route (if you stay on route :). Photo taken September 5, 2004.
Shirley following P9 (near end of pitch) of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo). This pitch starts on the north face of Ibrium Tower but quickly moves right behind the corner and goes up the low 5th, ledgy terrain (in photo). This is the only pitch for which Supertopo was not particularly clear (IMHO) - it also rated this pitch at 5.8. I belive the pitch was not harder than a 5.6 (September 5, 2004).
Shirley starting P10 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo). This is a long (~160 foot) class 4 traverse pitch that skirts the base of Ibrium Tower. Do not follow this pitch all the way to a "minor arete". Instead belay roughly where the last piece of pro is (kink in rope) and head up a wide "gully" from there for P11 (September 5, 2004).
Shirley following P10 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo). This is a long (~160 foot) class 4 traverse pitch that skirts the base of Ibrium Tower. Do not follow this pitch all the way to a "minor arete". Instead belay roughly where the last piece of pro is (kink in rope) and head up a wide "gully" from there for P11 (September 5, 2004).
Shirley following the off-route minor arete (after the Ibrium Tower bypass traverse pitch). The actual P11 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo) follows a wide gully (5.7) on the right side in the photo. Our mistake put us in some really sh...y terrain - progressively looser rock and harder climbing (probably up to 5.8+, September 5, 2004).
Leading P12 of Moon Goddess Arete (numbering per Supertopo). This is a "step" in the arete just above a large, flat chockstone (level with top of Ibrium Tower) rated at 5.7 by Supertopo (probably easier, September 5, 2004).
Shirley topping out on P14 (pitch numbering per Supertopo) of Moon Goddess Arete. This is immediately below the 5.6 headwall of final pitch (September 5, 2004).
Shirley on the boulder field atop the Moon Goddess Arete...we hiked down from here w/o hiking up to the summit (Sept. 2004).
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