The Palisade Traverse: Paul and Nate

The Palisade Traverse: Thunderbolt Peak to Mt. Sill. Five fourteeners in a day. Scotty and Shay climbed the Palisade Traverse the weekend before... but didn't run over and tag Sill. Since climbing is all about competition (and fashion) Paul and I had to one-up them and do the whole thing!

Scotty and Shay did it in a day car-to-car, price so we figured we'd give ourselves a better chance by bivying at the base of Thunderbolt. It all worked as planned, erectile except for the descent. Going down the wrong way + miles and miles of talus = unplanned bivy!

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And now for a few videos:

[flv:/wp-content/video/PTnate/bivy.flv 480 363] Our lakeside bivy site.

[flv:/wp-content/video/PTnate/windy.flv 480 363] The wind blows our rap ropes all over the place.

[flv:/wp-content/video/PTnate/pan.flv 480 363] North Palisade summit panorama.

Specifics of the climb: We brought a 8mm 110 foot rope and minimal rack (nuts and one cam) and a few tied slings. We soloed the whole route except for two rappels: across a notch with a big gap and a chockstone in it (forgot where) and down into the U-notch (3 raps).