Eldorado Peak - Inspiration Glacier

This past weekend I headed out to climb Eldorado Peak via the Inspiration Glacier.  My buddy Matt Palubinskas, who is a new climb leader for the Mountaineers, was leading the trip and agreed to have me along as assistant rope lead.  The group consisted of Matt, his wife Shari, three other Basic students - Tim, Shaolan, and Spencer, and myself.  Unfortunately, I was post-call Saturday when the group headed out.  So my plan was to leave as soon as I could Saturday and hike up on my own and meet them at high camp.  I was then informed by my wife that I had forgotten an important birthday party for Caleb Saturday afternoon that I had to be at, and following that was Krysta French's going away party at my fave spot the Beveridge Place Pub.  All told, I ended up leaving Seattle at 8:30pm to make the 2.5 hour drive.  My plan at this point was to take a short nap and then head out, but I couldn't fall asleep due to nerves about finding my way up the steep climbers trail alone in the dark.  I ended up gearing up and leaving my car at midnight. 

The crux of the whole climb for me ended up being finding the correct log crossing to lead me to the climber's trail.  An hour of bushwhacking and swearing ensued, and I almost gave up.  I finally tried the first log I'd tried again, but followed it further, and then let out a laugh as I spotted the giant sign marking the start of the trail.  Things improved from there.

I made quick time from that point on, and 3.5 hours later, crested a roller and spotted my party's tents. 

Matt and Shari invited me into their already cozy two-man tent, which I did not turn down.  I spooned with Matty, who spooned with his wife for the next hour, but didn't sleep.  When Matt got up to start melting snow for the climb, I crawled into his bag and napped for 30 minutes.  We were finally all geared up and ready to depart high camp at 5900 ft around 8am.  A quick jaunt up to the ridge left us with a significant moat to negotiate to drop down into Roush Basin. 

We set up a rappel and Tim Baker makes his way down:

The snow was soft, and the mists continued to move in and out.  The clouds would open just often enough to keep us moving.  We weren't too encouraged, however, when we met two parties headed down after stopping around 7000ft due to lack of visibility and soft snow.  Matt and I continued to swap leads through knee-deep postholing mush.

The Triplets peek out through the mist:

We continued to make progress, however.  Perhaps our late start helped us out as the weather gradually improved.  We worked our way up the side of the Eldorado Glacier. 

Finally we got a view of our objective:

We made the 1-crossing of the Inspiration Glacier.  It was easy in early season - no open crevasses or holes whatsoever. 

From the edge of the Inspiration Glacier, looking back as Johannesberg makes an appearance: 

The rock outcropping of the bivy at 7500ft was a welcome respie from the slog thus far:

Forbidden Peak makes an appearance as Shari and Tim work their way up.

The snow arete up top ended up being quite spicy.  Probably a bit much for Basic Students on that day. Perhaps it needs a bit of good weather to melt out a bit.  It was heavily corniced, and was at least 50 degrees for us, perhaps a bit steeper toward the true summit.  Here's Matt leading toward the summit, placing pickets for protection:

Looking back down the arete toward the team:

The summit:

The weather improved slightly as we started our descent.  Once again, sweeping views of Forbidden, Sahale, Boston, Johannesburg, and the Ptarmigan Traverse Peaks made and appearance.

Broseph and I share a touching moment.  Forbidden Peak is in all its glory right behind us, but apparently Shari chose to leave that out.

Looking back up toward the summit after the weather lifted a bit:

We made it back down to their high camp around 4pm, and I napped for an hour while they packed up.  Then it was down the horrendous boulder fields to the "trail" below.  I was amazed at how much easier this section was in the light and with company!  We made it back to the cars around 8pm.  I drove to the Marblemount Ranger Station, where Matty signed us out.  Then he graciously offered to drive my car back to Seattle, while Shari drove their car.  I did not turn this down, and quickly passed into oblivion for the trip home, after spending the last 20 hour continuously moving, off little sleep post-call, and no sleep leading up to my departure.  This was the most vertical gain I've ever done in a day (although not the most descent - Rainier takes the cake on that one).  Took me a few days to recover!  Next time I do this mountain, I think it will be on skis, and hopefully in better weather!  Thanks Matt and crew for a safe and fun climb, nonetheless!

SEWS - South Arete

June 11 was Jacqueline's and my 5th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we had my mom take care of Caleb, and we rented a room in the Freestone Inn in Mazama and planned to head out for a weekend in the North Cascades. Saturday, Jacqueline and I took a crack at South Early Winters Spire. She has climbed the Tooth in the past, but has an extreme fear of exposure. I thought the climbing would be easy enough on the South Arete that she'd be able to handle it, but we all know that the Washington Pass spires are pretty sheer.

Saturday morning we left Burlington at 3:45am, anticipating crowds on SEWS in light of the stellar weather forecast. We parked at the Blue Lake TH, and were moving by 6:30am. The approach was straightforward, but the snow was bulletproof. We were wishing we had crampons, and it was Jac's first time using an ice axe. We needed them. She wore snowshoes just for the added traction.

Jacqueline scopes out the South Arete, the Southwest Couloir is the snow gully to its left.

We made it to the base of the climb by around 9:30. The weather was absolutely perfect. I climbed in a tee-shirt all day. The first pitch was the "crux", which goes at 5.4. The difficult section is only 20 feet long or so, and then the climbing mellows out to low 5th class. We kept the pitches short so that we could see each other and communicate easily, but they could easily have been combined.

Looking down the first pitch:

The second pitch involves easy scrambling up a gully to a chockstone.  The climbing to surmount the chockstone is easy low 5th-class chimney moves.

Short chimney: 

After finishing the chimney the easy scrambling resumes, covering several ropelengths until the infamous "whale's back" is reached.  We remained roped up and pitched things out for Jacqueline's comfort.

 

Here we encounter some snowy ledges up high on the scrambling section:

Unfortunately for Jacqueline, the comforting protection of the gulley from the staggering exposure of the Early Winters Spires was lost at this point. She quickly became frazzled despite the easy climbing and decided not to go on.

Jacqueline nears her high point as the exposure mounts: 

 I left her at an anchor in a nice alcove and quickly scrambled to the summit.  She was a bit nervous, but we remained within earshot and the climbing was easy.  I soloed the 5.2 whale's back, and I felt really comfortable.

The whale's back, the top of the Southwest Couloir, and the summit block:

 Looking back across the whale's back.  Note the hanger has been replaced (previously bent over):

Summit shot.  Concord Tower and Liberty Bell in the background: 

 On the way back down I decided to do the whale's back "au cheval":

 Once I got back down to Jacqueline, she was feeling better and was much relieved to be heading back down.  Instead of unroping, she downled the scrambling section to the last anchor, placing two pieces of pro for my protection on my way down.  I cleaned and we made three single-rope rappels to reach the bottom of the climb.  We loaded up and started down, despite my desire not to leave this beautiful area. 

I taught Jac how to glissade on the way down, and she loved it:

 Happy 5 years of marriage!  Liberty Bell, Concord Tower, and Lexington Tower behind us:

All told, it was an awesome day.  The weather was perfect.  And while I didn't get to share the summit with my beautiful wife she ended up having a great time and being glad we did it.  The climb took us 8 hours, car-to-car.  I love this area, and will be back again.  So many options: SW Rib of SEWS, NW Corner of NEWS, Concord Tower...