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...