Hubba Hubba

And Left of Hubba Hubba, and Right of Hubba Hubba.

3 routes, all WI3, in Leavenworth's Icicle Canyon.  5 pitches of ice - some fatness, some sketchy topouts, all fun.  And 7 Russians.

It was the tail end of probably the only long stretch of cold weather and high pressure that Washington State would experience this Winter.  And I hadn't been on ice yet.  And then a strong inversion set up, with temps at Snoqualmie Pass in the 50's.  Surprisingly, avy forecasts remained moderate.  But everyone remained wishy-washy about heading out on a real alpine objective given the lack of recent beta and warm temps up high.  All my usual partners bailed. 

So I teamed up with Dave Schultz from Cascade Climbers.  This was my second time hooking up with a random partner.  And again, it worked out great.  Dave is a very strong climber, and we made a good team.  He climbs very safe.  And he taught me some stuff.  I'd definitely climb with him again.  We debated the options: Chair Peak (he'd been on it last weekend and bailed after the first pitch due to sugar snow and slow parties ahead), Drury Falls (lack of an inflatable raft), Franklin Falls (no beta), Hubba Hubba (probably crowded).  We obviously chose Hubba Hubba.

I picked Dave up at 4:45 in Everett and we made fast tracks to Leavenworth in order to get an early start and beat the crowds.  We drove up the canyon in early light.  We were pleasantly surprised to find multiple climbable ice lines: Careno Crag, Icicle Buttress (mixed), X-Y Crag.  We parked with the hordes of winter adventurers at Bridge Creek and headed up.  There was shockingly little evidence of bootpack, and we had to forge our own way up the hillside.  We were shrouded in a dense fog layer, and I had little to go on in terms of landmarks, but we eventually made it to the climb.  It took us around an hour.  Thankfully, nobody was there and the ice looked promising!

Hubba Hubba and Right of Hubba Hubba as seen on the approach

 We suited up and got ready for action.  It was so warm that I decided to climb in my Piton hoody, and put the shell on my harness.  Dave chose to keep all his stuff and climbed with his pack on so he could have his puffy and food, etc., closeby.  Anyway, Dave was stoked to go, so I gave him the first lead.  Hubba Hubba goes at WI3, with at least 2 pitches, and sometimes more depending on snow cover.  But after the first two pitches, the terrain mellows out and the last bit is WI2.

Dave is ready for action

Dave tackles the first steep curtain on Hubba Hubba

 The first pitch was around 50 meters and ended in an alcove with an anchor comprised of 3 pitons and a knot in a crack, equalized.  After the first curtain, the rest was moderate, but with good fat ice.  It was solid and took screws well.

Sweet undercast conditions

 I took the second pitch, which was a full 60 meters.  It also was WI3, with one intial steep bulge, followed by more moderate terrain.  After topping out onto snow-covered ice, I headed left to a tree with slings for a rap anchor.

My first lead, the WI3 second pitch of Hubba Hubba

Dave follows P2

 Up to this point, both of us kept thinking about how amazing it was that we had the place to ourselves!  As we were rappelling, that came to an end.  We saw not just a small party, but seven Eastern Bloc climbers approaching.  They brought five ropes, and planned to "practice" on the main flow.  Thank God we got there early!

At this point we decided to take on Left of Hubba Hubba.  It looked thin, but protectable, with a mixed-y shortish first pitch to a large snowy bench.  From there, another ice flow headed up that we'd assess once we got there.  I got this lead.  So fun!

Left of Hubba Hubba P1

 It was thin, but solid.  And it took 13cm screws without a problem, so protection was not an issue.  The moves were delicate, so as not to destroy the whole thing.  The anchor was two pins equalized.  I brought Dave up, and he headed up to check out the second pitch.  It looked thinner than Hubba Hubba, but much fatter than the first pitch.  There were several options.  He chose the far left option, which was sortof a dihedral system with fatter ice, but steeper climbing at the top.

Dave scopes out a line up P2 of Left of Hubba Hubba

Dave places pro near the top of Left of Hubba Hubba

Josh tops out on Left of Hubba Hubba

After some brief trouble with stuck ropes on the first rappel, we headed down and quickly got out of the way of the Russkies and their shenanigans.  At this point they had one person leading P2, three waiting at the three pin plus one knot anchor, and one coming up P1.  Five people trusting their lives to that anchor!  Wow.

We weighed our options.  Right of Hubba Hubba looked the thinnest of the three climbs there.  We'd heard that there were several options in the canyon, including Careno Crags and Dog Dome.  Icicle Buttress looked "interesting."  We decided that since we were there we'd climb Right of Hubba Hubba.  It was possible we'd find better ice elsewhere, but there was no guarantee, and we'd potentially waste substantial time looking for it.  Right of Hubba Hubba proved to be the most difficult of the day.  Maybe it was truly harder.  Or maybe we were just fatigued at that point.  It was still no harder than WI3, but the topout was particularly difficult.  It was a full 60 meter single pitch.  I had to take down my belay anchor (1 lost arrow) in order to give Dave the extra 2 feet he needed to reach the anchor.  It wasn't clear where it was (right of the ice flow), so he spent quite a few tense moments scratching around on snow on top of rock slabs looking for protection.  He slung a small bush and put a screamer on it (!), and made the traverse to the rap anchor.  We rapped, packed, and headed out, making it back to the car around 4pm.