Chronology of Some Memorable Climbs:
1996
- Ingalls Peak, North Peak - S. ridge
This was my first alpine climb. I packed way too much stuff in and we ended up climbing longs pass and hiking the wrong direction. We eventually got turned around in the right direction and climbed the route. There was one other party ahead of us that we let complete the route and the rappels before we started up. The climbing was easy but fun. We climbed it in May and there was still a lot of snow on the ground. The ranger told us we would need snowshoes which we didn't need or bring. The waterfalls coming off of Esmeralda peaks were awesome. We camped in the parking lot and then hiked in and climbed the next day. We brought a tent and sleeping bags which are totally unnecessary since you can easily do the climb car to car in a day but what the hell did I know as a gumby? In any case, the scenery was awesome with Mt. Stuart towering above and no once else around. I recommend this climb as a early season venture. The face gets sun and is probably climbable year round. I climbed this with Bill Zimmerman who was kind enough to mentor me on the first few outings.
- Dragontail Peak - Serpentine Arete
I climbed this the weekend after the 4th of July. The prior weekend I had chickened out on Liberty Ridge getting as far as the Carbon glacier after crossing the Winthrop and looking straight up at small dots which were climbers below the Black pyramid. I had no business being there since I had only worn crampons a couple of times before. I bought most of the gear I needed the day before the climb at the old REI on Capitol Hill. I still use all the gear so it was one of the best investments I have ever made. Charlotte Moser crampons and a Stubia 65cm Axe. Bill and I drove up the trailhead the night before and bivied. The next day we got a leisurely 8:30 AM start up the trail reaching Colchuck lake around 11:30 AM. From there we made our way up to the moraine below Colchuck glacier which we reached around 1:30 PM. It was still early and we had planned on climbing Dragontail the next day but we decided to shoot for the top that afternoon. We moved across the glacier and scrambled the first 200 feet until it started getting into 5th class terrain at which time we changed into our climbing shoes and harnesses. It was around 2:30 PM at that point. Bill took the first couple of pitches and I followed with the pack which had both of our axes, boots, jacket and 2 liters of water. We moved slowly at first but soon realized we would run out of time so we picked up the pace. Up around 1500 feet up we were simul- climbing with no gear between us (gumbys) and Bill grabbed a 7x7 foot pedestal and pulled up on it. It gave way at that moment and he barely leapt back out of the way clinging to a handhold that miraculously appeared I am sure. The several ton boulder rapidly accelerated down the face and into a side gulley that spit out onto the Colchuck glacier. I have never since seen rockfall so severe from so close. That incident pretty much scared the hell out us. I retreated and set up a belay. Bill cautiously made his way up another rope length and called off belay. I followed with a sense of urgency not only because of earlier events but because daylight was waning. When I got to Bills belay above him was a intimidating looking crack... he handed me the rack which I was grateful to have for at that time it felt like being the leader put my life in my own hands. I climbed the crack deliberately but fairly quickly and pulled over the top to find a perfect flat spot on the summit! It was one of the best feelings of my life. The other nice thing was that there was a trail from the top over 2nd class terrain. Bill followed up and we tagged the summit as darkness set in. You could see the lights of Eastern Washington and the sky to the west was a orange hue. We coiled the rope and made our way down from the top and over Asgard pass. The trip back was icy and I slipped a couple of times each time arresting with my Axe. It was a bit unnerving descending down the mountain with nothing more than a feeble beam of light in front of you. We finally made it back to our bivy site on the moraine about 12 AM. I had the most intense dreams that night about the rockfall that had occurred... it was so real which was amplified by the sounds of the Colchuck glacier seracs falling on a very warm evening. It must have been 60 degrees which was amazingly warm. The next day we made the quick hike out which seemed like forever. This climb more than any other hooked me on Alpine climbing. The feeling of accomplishment was intense. The world around me seemed different after climbing Dragontail but I think it was just me.
- Tooth - S. face (1st time)
This peak gets a lot of attention due to its proximity to the Seattle Metro area. It is best to go during the week or during less than perfect weather. Nonetheless it is a fun year round objective. The west side of the peak looks kind of interesting. The next time I go up there I might try something on that side (according to Fred it is 5.6 or something). The first time I climbed the peak it was great weather and pretty relaxed. No epics are to be found here.
- Guye Peak - Improbable Traverse
Head up the rock slide right in the middle of the face and find a ramp and blocky climbing that heads up and left. You will see some slings at a tree belay. Continue along the path of least resistance over 4th and low 5th class climbing until you come to a belay below a dihedral/crack. This is about 40-50 feet of 5.8 climbing (protects really well with hexes). The exit from the crack over to "lunch ledge" on your left is a bit tricky since you need to duck under a protruding roof (watch your head!). The next pitch is the reason for doing the climb! You head out and right directly across a 2-3 inch ledge hugging the wall in front of you for almost a full length (the improbable traverse) - there are some fixed pins along the way. Enjoy the exposure! When you get to the end of the traverse down climb a bit to a belay. From there you head straight up a ramp which goes up and left. It is 3rd/4th class. From the top of the ramp it is 3rd class and you can unrope. I have never nailed the descent quite right. The first time I ended up heading straight down the east face via rappels from trees. We ended up bush whacking to the PCT and out with failing headlamps. The second time we turned too soon and headed towards alpental but ended up on some scary waterfall sections and slippery/mossy rock. I think the idea is to head straight for the Guye-Snoqualmie saddle and find the standard trail up Snoqualmie and descend that. It would be well worth looking for because your other options really aren't worth considering.
Rainer - Liberty Ridge (failed attempt)
We went all the way across the Winthrop to the carbon but turned around. The tiny dots which were people above the black pyramid scared the hell out of me. I didn't have the experience so I fled to fight another day (read I was chicken). It was super warm... probably 80 on the glacier. A mountain goat came all the way up to Curtis ridge on this trip. He looked like a polar bear from a distance until reason took over and we realized that a polar bear would be out of place at Mt. Rainier National Park!
1997
- Stuart - N. ridge
Jesse and I finally got this climb after trying it earlier in the year (May). We didn't do the gendarme so I would like to go back and give it a shot... the complete North Ridge this time. Our trip went in through Ingalls lake with a bivy at Goat pass after a slight detour. I missed the trail to Ingalls lake somehow so we ended up headings straight up over the South Ingalls Peak and then down to the lake adding some elevation gain I am sure. The days were pretty short since it was mid September... we summited at around 4 PM or something and it got dark around 7 PM. We raced darkness down Ulrich's couloir and ended up sort of losing the trail once we crossed Ingalls creek. We settled in with a small camp fire in a nice flat spot. The next day we realized it was the trail! A quick hike over Longs pass put us back at the car. What a great climb! I really would like to do this one again. notes: after the rappel from the gendarme base to the right side of the ridge we encountered a fair amount of ice. It was dicey traversing and then climbing back up to easier ground. The knife edge sections are classic and super fun. Weather was pretty good some clouds here and there would envelope the summit but the wind was light and the temps probably in the high 50s or low 60s.
- Thompson - E. ridge
I did this as a solo trip. The weather was raining off and on the whole way. A clearing opened up and I dashed up the peak. There were lots of huckleberries along the way. I had a 35ft piece of 1" webbing which helped coming down the short 4th class section which is fairly exposed. Pretty neat looking peak coming around the corner from Kendall.
- Del Campo - S. face
Another Solo jaunt... this time up to Gothic Basin. I hiked in on a Thursday afternoon with lots of snow still in August and made a quick sprint up the south face. This is a great scramble - not too easy and not too hard. There was one other party that was making a day trip out of it coming down as I was going up. I sat for a short time on the summit which was steep on all sides. It was pretty cold up there so I didn't stay long. I descended and bivied on a big rock at the base. That night I had vivid dreams of aliens mining ore in the sides of the surrounding mountains and skeletal ghost miners being conscripted into service... hmm something that I ate? The next day I ventured over to the Castles and Gothic. (below)
- Gothic - E. face (+ the Castles)
Day 2 of the Gothic basin trip. I went north to south climbing all the rock "castles" on the ridge line between Gothic and Del Campo. Some were fairly difficult for short sections with some tricky down climbing involved (take a short 30m 8.5 mm rope if you go). I found some interesting summit registers on top of the Castles. On one of them was a band-aid box with some entries from 1956 being the last party (boy scouts I think). Next I went over and did the standard "trail scramble" up Gothic. Some great views up there! There was a circling eagle which added to the ambiance. Nice to get some solitude. I descended and glissaded towards the lake and then found some cool quartzite crystals on a rock outcrop. I want to check out Sheep gap mountain sometime. It has a really cool profile from the basin. It looks like it might not be too hard to get over there but it might be kind of brushy. I then headed back to the car and didn't see anybody the whole day until the Barlow pass parking lot.
1998
- Snoqualmie (winter) - West slopes
I did this solo on New Years day. It was the first sunny day in eons. The snow was sloppy down low but got nice and firm as I went up. Had the summit to myself with a sublime view into the central cascades and all points on the compass. No smog even over Seattle. I descended the south slopes plunge stepping. I ended up coming down some drainages which were a bit scary down low (I punched through on one occasion to see raging water a few feet below me). I needed to put on snow shoes just to get down. A fun day all in all.
- Chair Peak (winter) - N. face
Perfect Weather and perfect conditions. Jesse and I did this one on fat blue ice. I got the screaming barfies on the first pitch of steep ice. It was a bit scary getting over the bergshrund on some slightly rotten ice. After the first pitch Jesse was able to sling some trees and we simul climbed to the top. We had the summit to ourselves and the views were great. We had so much fun we wanted the climb to be twice as long.
- East Wilmans Spire - S.E. Face
Did this climb after sleeping at Barlow Pass. We rode Mountain Bikes to Montecristo and left them across the river. (this was before they put in the bike rack that is there now.) This was one of my first climbs back form the east coast and I was psyched to get out. I had tried this climb in November of 1996 but was turned around by lack of daylight and falling ice from the approach gulley. This time I didn't have crampons so I chopped steps up the gulley about 1000 feet to move around to the south side of the peak. From hear you hear up another gully on the other side until you are below the SE face. Leave your pack and head up the slab toward the crest and then across the face for almost a rope length until you reach the rappel anchors. It is a short tricky downclimb to get back to the shelf belay. From here it is more or less straight up to the tiny table top summit. When we got there it was socked in and foggy which was a great disappointment as I was curious to look out and see our position and the other peaks that lay around us. Two rappels left us at our packs and for me what tuned out to be a harrowing descent. After leaving the notch we though we might try to downclimb into 76 basin. After heading down for a thousand feet or so it was unclear whether this was the correct decision so we decided to head back and downclimb the steep coulier splitting East Wilmans spire from West Wilmans. Since I didn't have crampons I was careful to plant my ice axe firmly and put my foot into a small ice ledge that I had previously cut on the ascent. It was becoming tedious and quite an effort to maintain balance and move the iceaxe a few inches downward and then repeat the procedure again and again. My mind lapsed and I slipped. Before I knew it I was racing down the steep icy slope toward the precipitous rock walls of the moat that yawned ready to receive me. I threw my weight onto my axe and hung on as it jerked through the consolidated snow. I breathed a sigh of relief as I came to a stop after sliding for 300 feet. I was much more careful as I continued to claw my way down the steep slope. At least I had bypassed some of the steeper section in a very direct manner. Once back into Glacier basin we sped down the trail and back to our bikes. The ride back to the car was uneventful and I was back in Seattle by early evening.
- Rainier - Liberty ridge
- Vesper - N. face (direct)
Mark and I headed up to try the Wiegelt route on Vesper on a crisp autumn day. We left Seattle early on a Sunday arriving at the trailhead around 7AM. The hike led us to a stand of old growth and some really pretty waterfalls before putting us into a open basin. Mark in the lead scampered straight up a watercourse thinking it was the trail. We realized fairly quickly that this was not the case so we turned around and found the real trail after a 15 minute detour. We headed up over a knoll and then into a canyon under impressive cliffs that towered above us. We climbed up the steep switchbacked headlee pass. He headed past a lake and looked up at the summit of Vesper that rose to our west. We took a short break and then moved on hiking toward the col between Sperry and Vesper. From the col we wound our way down between boulders and toward the Vesper glacier nestled in a dark hollow on the north side of the peak. The late season condition of the glacier provided very icy conditions. Mark didn't bring an ice axe so after tentatively testing crossing towards our intended route we decided against this approach and instead scrambled over some steep rock to gain a ledge system that split the North Face. We geared up and I took the first lead straight up a a steep 5.8 crack on the the face which seemed to steepen more. I brought mark up to my belay which consisted of a single #1 camelot. Mark headed right up towards a ramp that trended left towards the ridge line. The rock quickly degenerated into a dirty and mossy gardening session. From the belay I watched as boulders of various sizes came whizzing over my head and out into space and Mark tossed those that impeded progress or hid protection opportunities. I was dismayed as the rope came taught as I knew Mark still had not reached a adequate belay nor did he have any protection in. What was more I had to climb out onto a face that was dripping water (from where I did not know). I climbed carefully up and around the dripping sections of steep rock looking for disturbed moss as an indicator of where to put my feet or search out handholds. I was overjoyed to hear that mark had found a good #2 placement after some excavation. This would mean that we would not plunge onto the glacier 1000 feet below if one of us was to slip. Cooper lake shimmed far below... a deep turquoise in the autumn sunshine. Neither of us was impressed with the rock so Mark continued more to the skyline and onto the ridge which put us 200 feet below the summit. It was a beautiful day to be in the cascades and all of our friends were out (Rainier to the south, Whitehorse, Sloan, Gothic, DekCampo). The climb down the east side of Vesper went quickly and we were back at the car with daylight to spare. I still want to go back and do the Wiegelt route which later appeared in Selected Climbs II.
- Colchuck Balanced Rock - N.W. buttress
- Snow Creek Wall - Outer space
- Prusik Peak - S. face
1999
- Dragontail Peak - Triple couloirs
- Old Snowy - Ives col
- Snow Creek Wall - Orbit
- Green Giant Buttress - Dreamer
- South Early Winter Spire - Direct east buttress
- Fay Peak
- Buckhorn
2000
- Dragontail - Backbone ridge (escape onto N.face after snowstorm)
- Baker (March 25th) - Coleman Deming
- Mt. Shasta - Casaval Ridge
- Nooksack Tower - Beckey-Schmidtke To Nooksack ridge and traverse to Shuksan
- Green Giant Buttress - Dreamer
- Three O'Clock rock - Total Soul and Silent Running
- Cathedral Peak (Sierras)
- Eichhorn Pinnacle (Sierras)
- Unicorn Peak (Sierras)
- Chair Peak - NE Buttress (Winter)
was on the NE Buttress of Chair this weekend linking up patches of vertical ice and frozen Heather clumps. The N. Face was not in... mostly bare rock. We had do some 5th class just to get up to the notch on above the "thumb tack" basin. There was one other party that turned around after witnessing us use gear on the approach The climbing was spectacular... very exposed but also run out. A real classic mixed climb. With the conditions we found and the variations that we did I would give it Grade III AI 3 5.6 (Left car at 8:30, climbing at 11:00 AM summit at 4:00 PM back at car at 7:00 PM) Not super sustained.. you had no hands rests after 15 feet of climbing or so... the gear was sparce though. The only gear we used was a #1 & .5 camalot, a #6 nut and 4 kbs (some tied off). Oh, and slings for the occasional krumholtz. Climb the rightward slanting gully (5th class) to some blue slings. From there head right and up onto the ridge proper. From there head towards a Yellow sling a full rope up and right. From there look for a cool band of water ice cascading over some technical terrain... this is the AI3 section for about 30+ feet... there are some trees atop this cliff. from the trees angle right along the ridge using trees for anchors... this is class 3/4 ground (50 - 60 degree snow with good anchors) You should end up in a notch after 300-400 feet. The summit is another rope length along the ridge to your right. The descent is straight ahead. Head down the gully by down climbing. You will end up at a col above the exit gully. You should see some anchors (yellow and blue super tape). Use these to rap into the gully (recommend 2 60 m ropes... can be made with 5 single rope raps... some of the anchors look dubious).
- Guye Peak - Improbable Traverse (Again). Awesome traverse pitch!
2001
- Lundin to Snoqualmie traverse: A fun ridge traverse and then alpine ambience above I-90.
The ridge of Lundin - Mark getting ready to climb , The Summit of Mt. Snoqualmie
- Static Point - Online: A steep hour hike leads to the base of this granite dome/cliff. They have shut the roads down that lead to the climb due to the proximity of the reservoir that the Seattle Metro area relies on for water.
Mark following a typical "Online" pitch
- Thompson - W. ridge
- North Early Winter Spire - W.face
- Chianti Spire - E. face (Rebel Yell)
- Temple Crag - Sunribbon Arete
- Yosemite - Nutcracker
- Tuolumne - Daff Dome - West Crack
2002
- 2002 Short Trips (pictures from some day trips taken in 2002)
- St. Helens (winter) - S. ridge
- Charlotte Dome (Sierras)
- Town Crier - Index Town Wall
some photos taken along the way
- Ruth Mountain - Standard Glacier route
Link to Theron's Trip Report on Ruth.
- Rainier - Kautz Glacier
- Colchuck, Dragontail and Prussik in a day!
With the questionable weather this past weekend a partner and I scaled back our plans in the North Cascades and headed over to Leavenworth for some crag climbing. We left seattle at 4:30 AM and as we pulled over Blewit pass the weather seemed to be holding with only some small sprinkles. We decided that we would head up the standard Colchuck route since neither of us had done it. We left the car at around 7:30 AM and and were on top around 11:00 AM. It was snowing a bit here and there but not too bad so we decided to traverse over to Dragontail up the West ridge past pandoras box. There was a gully that went up to the ridge crest and then we scrambled along the "dragonstail" on some superb scrambling rock. We continued along the crest until we hit the summit of Dragontail around 1pm. I realized I had forgotten my food so we had to ration the 4 gu packets and a handful of coffee nips that Mark had along. We tanked up on water and started looking towards Prussik peak which had just poked out of the clouds. We had brought about 120 feet of 8 mil rope and a set of stoppers, some shoulder lengths, yellow tcu, and a #1 camalot so we had plenty of gear for the west ridge. We left the summit of dragontail around 1:30 PM and glissaded into the enchantments and were at the base of Prussik around 3:30 PM. We simul climbed in our hiking boots up to the 5.7 slab and set up a belay... that was a bit tricky but found you could reach out and grab an arete on your right for balance and a semi-lieback. We finished up on the ridge crest avoiding the chimney finish and were on top at 4:30 PM. Rappeling with a short rope didn't turn out to be too big of a deal. We set up one extra rappel and did some downclimbing but in general it worked out OK. It took us about a hour to get down. We left Prussik Pass at 6PM and got to the car at 10PM. The crux of the day was the drive back over Stevens pass in a downpour and fog as thick as soup. All in all a great day in the mountains. I strongly recommend the traverse from Colchuck over to Dragontail along the "spine"... fun and interesting 4th class scrambling.
- Sahale, Boston Peak, Sharkfin Tower and Forbidden E. ridge
Went up on Friday afternoon and climbed Sahale via the
arm... great easy climb with good views. Camped in Sahale Boston Col. Next
morning was raining off and on. We went over and climbed Boston Peak... rock
isn't great but not as bad as it looks from a distance. We climbed the East
ridge direct roughly following the rap stations. You can rap from the summit
with a single 50m in 3 rappels. Plan on 1.5 hours from col to summit and 1 hour
back. We then dropped down the Quien Sabe and over to Sharkfin tower for the
regular route... the removable bolts were not installed on the Nelson route. Met
Caveman & PMS as we were coming down... I tweaked my knee shortly after so I
iced it and took some ibu. By the time my knee was feeling better it was around
2 pm so we decided to wait until the next day to climb anything else. It rained
saturday night but dawned clear so we went up to climb the east ridge of
Forbidden and downclimbed the West ridge. The couliour was in stellar shape and
the the climbing was as fun as I remember it. We simuled the whole thing in
around 3 hours. There was a party on the North Ridge coming up that I got some
good pictures of... here is a link to the photos. Conditions were great... there
are blowdowns on the Boston Basin trail which are a pain in the ass. I imagine
the NPS will not be clearing them out and later in the year when the avalanche
paths melt it might get to be more of a pain in the ass... who knows.
- Slesse - NE Buttress
- Vasiliki Ridge - Clean Break + new route on Bacchus Tower (Compound Fracture)
Compound Fracture III 5.10-, E. Face Bacchus Tower. Bypassed snow couloir on rh side via short 5th class rock sections intermixed with several hundred ft of 3rd class continuing up loose scree on rock until level with lower section of broken face. Inspected a direct line on rh side of face from ledge through crack system and small roof but abandoned that for short scramble up cleaver in rh gully transitioning back to face about 100' up. From top of cleaver, traverse left and up to face. Climb and stem chimney to reach ledge, traverse left until beneath hand crack. Climb crack to a roof and upper face (5.10-). Climbing toward and then on ridge, find summit (2p mid 5th ). Not highly recommended but has a couple of quality pitches - a good option for the approach day for Clean Break.
- Mt. Conness (Sierras) - West Ridge
- Exfoliation Dome - West Ridge
- East Wilmans Spire (in December)
- Chair Peak - NE Buttress (Winter - Christmas Eve with the Caveman)
The fist couple of pitches protected well and were great fun. The fourth pitch ascended across the very thin East face. I spent an eternity prospecting for placements to protect the final 10 feet over a ice curtain. The ice was too thin for a screw and the rock was too compact for pins or nuts. I traversed a little more to the east... although the ice wasn't much better there was a tree above that I really wanted to get to. I took a deep breath and hoisted myself over the ice curtain and swam to the safety of the tree. Ray, I am sure was shivering at the belay at this point and was thankful I was able to reel him in. Loose snow lead to the summit. The lack of snow in the descent gully put some of the rap anchors out of reach requiring a final rap off of a detached flake. Surprisingly the rock in the descent gully is granite which contrasts from the other rock in the area. The steep snow slopes brought us back to the snowshoes and an uneventful slog back to the car.
2003
- McClellan Butte - NE Ridge
With the good weather window but a short amount of time we decided to head up McClellan's Butte today. The snow conditions were excellent. We cramponed up the couliour that you can see from I-90 until we cliffed out and then climbed two semi-rotten mixed rock pitches (5.5) up and right onto the NE Ridge. You don't have to climb the rock... you can go right and enter the ridge up higher from another gully to the climbers right. The route once on the ridge stays on the crest for the most part at parts steep vertical tree climbing (don't be sucked back down into the basin the climbing looks harder than it is). At about 4900 feet we contoured NW into a bowl and then gained the ridge crest again with a cool ice pitch (50 feet) and mantle up and over a solid cornice-- you might be able to avoid this by going out and right up a snow ramp but there is a large cornice overhanging the ridge where it exits. From there it was class 3 to the summit on mostly rock. It was a fun way to spend a short day. (on trail at 0830 at car at 1600 -- wasted about a hour on the rock).
- Snoqualmie Mountain - Slot Coulior
We wanted to scope out NY Gully and the weather and
visability was poor so we decided it would be fun to head up the infamous Enigma
Gully (get some conditioning and learn the approach). It was hard to find the
entrance into the basin below Snoqualmie peak due to visiblity. We ended up
heading too far up the valley (I think .5 miles is too far) and hit the ridge
too far West. We traversed the ridge and weaved around some gendarmes that
proved the most exciting part of the day. The clouds lifted for a moment and
revealed the basin and the lower part of the North side of the mountain. We
dropped down into the basin on 25 degree stable slopes with breakable crust. At
this point crampons were balling up. We headed over towards NY gully and it
didn't look in to us. The rock was wet and there wasn't much ice that we could
see. The lower part of slot couloir had unpleasant breakable crust but about
100m up it turned into harder snow you could stay on top of. There were a couple
of big rocks exposed in the middle of the gully due to overall lack of snow this
year. It was a really cool easy climb and the horrible visibility and hard snow
fall added to the fun. What is neat about the coulior is that you can barely see
it at all as it is completely hidden with only an avy cone to betray its
location. At the top of the coulior was 3 inches of new snow over ice for the
last 50m. The descent down the SW slopes sucked because the crust wasn't strong
enough to support your body weight so you would sink in and then somtimes be
thrown forward because your foot wouldn't come out. At about 4000 feet the snow
turned to rain and we trudged back to the car. Another party had headed for the
N. Face of Chair and reported no or little ice on the face. They opted for
standard climb up the descent gully which they said was in good shape.
- Rock Climbing - Mount Erie
Went out with Theron and Michael to Mount Erie. The weather man was predicting sunshine in February so we were anxious to jump on it. We originally wanted to do something alpine but with a big snowstorm that hit earlier in the week the high country traveling would have been arduous.
