A First Trip to "Da Wadd"

In the summer of 2003 I finally got to go on my first trip to The Waddington Range. Don Serl had organized an ACC trip and I tagged along, climbing for the most part with Robert but doing a couple of routes with Don (Stilletto, Dragonback and The Claw). The weather was marginal the second week and we had to haul all our gear from below Dragonback on the Upper Tellot Glacier to a landing site below the Plummer Hut in order to get flown out.

We did a bunch of fun warm up routes from a basecamp on the Upper Tellot and Robert and I did the very fine South Ridge of Serra Two during the last two days of good weather.

These pictures are Robert's. I rather carelessly decided to drop my camera down the Hidden Couloir and it didn't work so well after that.

Summary

A handful of routes with Robert Nugent and Don Serl over a period of a couple of weeks in July/August '03:

The Blade, East Ridge - new start variation, 3340m, (180m, D 5.9). 28^th July.

Start up the obvious corner system a 100m right of the existing route. Continue directly up this corner to cracks, eventually joining the original East Ridge route a pitch or so below the crest.

Serra Two, Hidden Couloir
Dragonback, Dragon’s Tail Ridge
Stiletto Needle, West Face
Serra Two, South Ridge
The Claw, West Ridge

It's worth noting the weather does not have to be that bad for helicopter pickup from the Upper Tellot or Combatant Col to be impossible. Go light and plan to be able to move lower in order to get flown out!

The Waddington Guide: Alpine Climbs in one of the World's Great Ranges, Don Serl, Elaho Publishing www.elaho.ca.