September 2009: Took a trip back to Rocky Mountain National Park to climb the Spearhead (12,575ft) via the North Ridge (5.6). We hiked into Glacier Gorge on Labor Day and bivied near the base of the route. On the hike up we passed a couple of climbers on their way out who told us where we could find a really sweet bivy spot. However, when we got up near the base of the mountain we searched and searched in the waning daylight where they described and couldn't find anything that resembled what they described. Instead, we ended up sleeping on some uneven rocky ground without much of any shelter, luckily it was clear skies that night. The next morning we woke up to the sound of elk trampling around in the rocks below us.

The climbing went smoothly for the most part. I lead all the pitches while Gabe cleaned the gear and followed up. The only major hitch was on the last pitch where I opted to try going left instead of going straight up from our belay. This way took me into a harder variation where I encountered an offwidthe crack and an awkward chimney before topping out. At the top, dark clouds loomed nearby to our west so we decided to descend quickly. After following a path resembling the vague description in the guidebook, we got cliffed. We doubled back up to the ridge and walked farther south and found more paths leading downward and we would follow them down loose scree for a while until we found that they did not seem to lead to the bottom either. We spent alot of time (maybe 2hrs?) following paths and doubling back up to the ridge and re-reading the guidebook description for the west descent. Tired and frustrated, we went back up to the ridge and dropped down the east side and immediately found a descent trail. This trail got us down easily, but we were now on the opposite side of the mountain from our base camp. By this time we had both run out of water and were both exhausted, but felt better after descending to a lower elevation. After finally getting back to base camp there was maybe an hour of daylight left. We debated whether we had the energy to hike the 6 miles out or if we should just spend another night in the park. We decided either way, we should pack up and get moving because we needed to get to a water source and find a better bivy spot if we did want to spend another night. We packed up and started hiking down through the tundra and at first felt good enough to hike the 6 miles thru the night, but quickly changed our minds about that. We stopped at a pond to filter water and I admired some nice flat areas not too far off that we could possibly lay out on...when it started to rain. I scrambled around with my headlamp looking for boulders that would provide us some shelter, but there were none nearby. We had passed some on the way down, so we had to hike back up to find them.

Taking shelter in a small, cramped alcove under a boulder we heated water to make some Ramen noodles. I had just gotten situated and put all my critical overnight stuff out of the rain when it really began to rain hard so that water began dripping down the roof of the cave while the wind was also blowing on us hard. We ate as much Ramen as we could stomach, and eventually the rain and the wind let up and the skies cleared up as well. We then retired into tiny crawl spaces under the boulder and slept through the night. I knew by this point I was overdue to call Tracey to let her know we were out safely, and that she would be worried and contemplating calling SAR, but there was not much I could do about it. Though I had my cell phone with me, there was absolutely no service out in the backcountry.

The next morning we woke up to another beautiful morning. We snacked on some unappetizing bagels and cheese and hiked the 6 miles out of the park.