I have finally reached the point in my winter climbing that I no longer feel the need to wait for trip reports to make a run at a potential route. In Washington if you do that, by the next weekend or opportunity the chance will have slipped through your fingers. It means that I now accept the risk of taking "the tools for a long walk" in order to reap the rewards. Two weeks ago, Eric K. and I made an attempt at the Cauthorn-Wilson route on Cutthroat Peak in the North Cascades. It wasn't in, but it was close. And now, the highway is closed, so we won't get another chance at it. It was a fun day anyway. Yesterday, type 1.5 fun was had on Chair. For those of you who are familiar with that grading system, you will appreciate that for Winter climbing, that is pretty dang good. In fact, I don't think conditions could have possibly been better. The sun was out. There was no wind. There was no avalanche danger. The ice was present where needed, and protectable. The snow was perfect for cruiser climbing. I had an awesome partner, my good buddy Matt.
We met in North Bend around 6:30, and left the Alpental parking lot at 7:20. We took the Summer trail due to minimal snow cover, which worked out. The approach went smoothly, and in a little over two hours we were racking up. As we made the final approach from the Thumb we saw a party of two stalling out while attempting to gain the approach ridge by making a few rock moves, and eventually they downclimbed. We headed climber's right from the Thumb and took an easy snow gully to gain the ridge. That party ended up bailing altogether, which left us being first at the base. As soon as I got started on the first pitch a party of four showed up.
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| Northeast Buttress of Chair Peak |
After surveying the options, I decided to take the right variation on pitch one. The left variation actually looked like easier climbing with fairly moderate ice, but it looked thin enough that protection would be difficult. The right line was more mixed, but looked more protectable. Two or three years ago Matty had led the right variation, and at the time stated that it was one of the hardest leads of his life. Conditions must have been better this time. I found the first pitch interesting, thought-provoking, challenging, but never scary. It was very protectable, and super-fun! I used mostly rock gear, and clipped one existing piton. There was a short ice step, but I didn't place a screw. There are plenty of big trees at the top for anchors.
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| Pitch one has two variations, we took the right |
Matt took the second pitch. "Safety Matt", as he calls himself. In his words, he got lured by the siren song of rock outcroppings for protection on climber's right. The easier climbing was straight up the open snow, which was perfect 50-degree styrofoam for Ueli-stylin'. He ended up stopping halfway up and bringing me up. At that point we got passed by the couple behind us, two out of the party of four that came up after us.
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| Pitch two, perfect 50-degree styrofoam snow |
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| Matt hangs out at the second belay |
That was unfortunate. I led the rest of the way up to the base of the ice pitch. But there was only one good place for an ice anchor at its base, and the previous party was established there. So I went climber's left a little and built an anchor out of one 22" screw and a picket. The unfortunate thing was that it was directly in the line of fire from above. I got shelled big-time. Once the party moved on we moved the anchor over. I led the ice pitch as well, as Matty wasn't feeling to solid after his struggle on the steep snow pitch. The ice section was short, but steep. It was slightly overhanging at first, then mellowed out. I'd give it a WI3 rating currently.
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| Pitch three, short steep ice step |
After pulling the bulge it was back to 50-degree styrofoam to the summit. It is longer than 60 meters from the base of the ice to the summit plateau, with marginal protection in between. I placed one piton, slung one shrub, and then we simul-climbed. I felt pretty solid, but it was interesting to be simul-climbing, knowing that Matt was still on overhanging ice.
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| Josh on top in perfect weather |
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| Matty is always happy in the mountains |
We made the summit first, then the other party joined us. Their other twosome had never made the top of the first pitch. We are still not sure whether they made it partway and then lowered off, or never attempted it, or what. We ended up teaming up for the descent. There are two possible gullies that can be descended from the summit to gain the final descent gully. From the true summit, the best one is the second one encountered. We took the first because of a bunch of rap slings on the ridge in between the two. It worked by rapping into the second gully, but did result in a stuck rope. Two 60's barely reached the notch and the start of the final descent gully, pictured below.
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| Good buddies at the rap station |
Again, two 60's barely got us out of the gully to the snow below. Single ropes would have worked, as there were multiple intermediate anchors on the way down, but none of them looked great. From the bottom of the rappel it was more 50-degree styrofoam downclimbing to the basin and easier terrain. Darkness fell about midway out on the Snow Lake trail, and were back at the car by a little after 5pm. What an awesome day! That one was a long time coming.
