South Face of The Tooth in Winter

December 14, 2014

With little snow so far this season and recently warmer temperatures making ice hard to come by, Kelsey and I were both feeling alpine withdrawal. We decided to head into the Source Lake area near Alpental to see what conditions looked like and make a judgement call from there.

We were on the road by about 7:30am and hiking in a little before 9am. The approach to Pineapple Pass was pretty straightforward except for some ice-covered rocks on the way up to the base of the climb, which another party was pitching out. We were at the col at the start of the climb by about 11:30am, which was a lovely place to be as the sun hit us for the first time in the day.

The route was covered with snow and small bits of ice on all near-horizontal surfaces, so it was an especially interesting 5.4 climb in mountaineering boots. I mostly led with bare hands on rock, but pulled out an ice tool every so often and put the gloves back on when I started losing feeling.

Everything was pretty fun, with the final pitch being especially thought-provoking in those conditions, pulling on flakes, gingerly stepping across the catwalk, and pulling over the final lip. We took our time, given how slippery things were, and summited at about 3pm in the afternoon sun with stunning views of the area and Rainier. The raps were straightforward with our single 70m rope and we were quickly back down in the bowl below Pineapple Pass, heading down the gully toward Source Lake as darkness fell. What a great day trip in a beautiful area and good experience climbing somewhat technical rock in the winter.

Leavenworth Ice - Hubba Hubba

November 15, 2014

With over a week of cold temperatures in Seattle and a weekend forecast with highs in the teens and twenties around Leavenworth, the possibility of elusive Northwest ice was too great not to seek it out. Kelsey and I drove to the Bridge Creek Campground out Icicle Creek on Friday night and, after deciding that the snow cover was too light to warrant an alpine objective, decided to give Hubba Hubba a try in the morning. This meant we were able to sleep 9 hours instead of about 3. Bonus.

In the morning, the view out of our tent faced straight at the climb and it was clear that there was enough ice to warrant hiking up there. It took about an hour to reach the ice. It was pretty thin and unsupported at the bottom, but looked good higher up, so we hiked to the top, set up a belay off a tree, and took turns lowering down the full 70m rope before climbing out. Kelsey put 2 laps in and I got 3 in before we needed to head down to get Kelsey back to Seattle.

The climb was surprisingly fat for mid November. There were plenty of sections that would take screws. It was pretty fun to try a few different lines, including a few bits with about a half inch of ice over rock. All in all, it was a great day and surreal to be climbing ice in November in Washington State.

West Ridge on Mount Stuart

October 5, 2014

After comically getting snowed and rained out of Boston Basin on Saturday, dashing hopes of climbing the East and North Ridges on Forbidden Peak, Skye and I drove South to the trailhead of Mount Stuart, arriving at about 10pm. We slept until a little after 5am, packed, and were moving around 5:45am.

We did the approach pretty quickly, passing a beautiful field of larches near Ingalls Lake at sunrise and reaching the talus traverse below the route at about 9:30am. The gully starting the climb went quickly and was fun 3rd and 4th class scrambling. We reached the top of the gully in about 1:15, then spent the next 3 hours weaving our way up the ridge. As described, there's a bit of steeper climbing on the way up to Long John tower, one airy step around the West Horn, and then a little more easy 5th climbing past the West Ridge Notch to the summit, with the last pitches being the most fun. We had a great time and roped up for some simul-climbing any time we needed to.

The descent went better than my experience coming down from the North Ridge with Dale, but still hurt. There's no great way down the Cascadian Couloir. Unfortunately, near the bottom, I'd descended faster than Skye and she'd taken a turn out of the couloir, so we didn't end up in the same place. After a few feverish moments yelling each other's names, we reunited on the trail and hiked out via Long's Pass. Just as we were getting to Long's Pass, the sun was setting, lighting up the West and South faces of Mount Stuart—it was gorgeous. We descended back to the car, finishing around 8pm. It was a perfect fall day for an easy ridge climb.