Martha-5.6, WI2+,M2-3

The initial snow field approach

Martha is a mixed route located on Mt. Lady Washington in Rocky Mountain National Park.  It is a fun climb with stunning views of The Diamond on Long's Peak.  For more information, check out the Mt. Project information page.

I climbed this route on 11/15/15 with my two good friends.  We left my house in northern Denver at 1:10am and were hiking from the Long's Peak trail head at 2:50am.  We made our way to Chasm Lake and hiked around to the right until we came to the first gully on Mt. Lady Washington.  We took our time on the hike and were at the base of the climb and racked up just after 7:00am.

The climb starts with the second most vertical section, after a brief snow field.  We intended to rope up for these sections, but the ice was so thin and the difficult sections so short, that we opted to solo much of the route.

AJ climbing the first pitch on 11/15/15

 The snow fields in between the five or so "pinches" were a lot of fun and very low difficulty.  Since we were climbing without a rope, we made quick work of these sections and only slowed at the more vertical rock.

Ryan cruising up one of the snow fields

The top pitch was the only one where we needed a rope.  It was more vertical than any other section and had some dicey ice.  AJ led this section and was able to get pieces of rock pro (cams .3-.5) after about 75% of the climbing was done.

Me on belay, AJ cruising the top pitch

AJ after getting some much appreciated cam placements

All together, the route took us 12 hours from car-to-car.  We ended the route by hiking west down a scree field on Mt. Lady Washington.  This was undoubtedly the most annoying, consuming part of the day, but getting back to the trail junction (Chasm Lake junction with the Long's Peak trail) was a much welcomed resting point.