West Face on North Early Winters Spire

October 26, 2013

Washington Pass packs a whole bunch of awesome alpine granite climbing into a tight, easy-to-access location. With only a couple of routes up there under my belt so far, the opportunity to have a beautiful fall day on the West Face was easy to say yes to.

Goran and I drove up from Seattle on Friday night, getting to the Blue Lake Trailhead around midnight. We rolled our sleeping bags out in the parking lot and hopped in them quickly since it was quite cold. The morning brought a solid frost and cold temps in the shade, so we waited for a while before heading up. The approach went quickly in about an hour and we started climbing through the first two pitches (linked) in the shade. By the time I started leading pitched 3 and 4, the sun was peeking around onto the face. Cold hands and feet gave way to comfort as I pulled past the tat on the flake and into
the layback 5.9+ section.

Goran tried his hand at the crux and did really well, only popping off a couple of times when his feet smeared off. I took it from there and had an absolute blast pulling up the off-vertical 5.10c crack with good holds every so often. I had enough rope, so I ran it all the way to the top anchor, which ended up being a full 70m pitch. Stellar!

Matthes Crest

October 18, 2013

Mid-October in Yosemite, immediately following the government re-opening, resulted in a completely deserted Matthes Crest. I'd never done this classic ridge climb with some 5th class moves to gain it. Eric, Owen, Blaine, and I donned our sweet tights and started in late enough to be warm.

The approach was a bit long, but not bad in the context of the Cascade climbs I'd been doing recently. We set up for the first few pitches as two teams of two and belayed leaders until out of rope, then we simul-climbed up to the ridge. From there, we had plenty of exposure on either side, but a wide enough walkway and solid enough rock that ropes weren't necessary until much later. Scampering along the ridge with beautiful, crisp views of Tuolumne was awesome and classic. Our late start and fall timing meant that the sun was pretty low in the sky when we were finishing up the ridge. As we descended from the summit and then stepped across the tsunami-like cap near the end of the ridge, everything was bathed in warm yellow and orange hues. Not too shabby.

Our hike back out was under a full moon, lighting up Cathedral Peak as we headed for it. What an awesome day!

Sharkfin Tower

September 14, 2013

I'd been eyeing up Sharkfin tower since my first trip to Boston Basin earlier this summer. With a perfect Saturday forecast and time to enjoy it, Jake and I planned to wake up early and make a day of it. We left town at 4am, left the trailhead at 7am, and made it into Boston basin around 8:30 as the sun was just starting to peek over Sahale.

The approach for Sharkfin is the same as the start of Quien Sabe Glacier, so we retraced the steps which Kate and I had taken about 4 weeks earlier, getting onto the glacier's edge about 100 feet higher this time. We traversed until underneath Sharkfin Tower and found the approach gully. Unfortunately, late season meant that there was no snow to speak of—only loose scree. We stuck close together to avoid hitting each other with rocks and soon made it to the sloping terrace below the tower. A little more effort got us to the notch at the base of the Southeast Ridge a bit before 11am.

We climbed the first two pitches of the ridge route, which were quite easy, short, and fun. From there, we set up an anchor and rappelled down the Southeast face. There were fixed bolts at the top of the first pitch, so we rappelled from these down to the base of the climb and set up an anchor for the belay. The first pitch was by far the best—it had some delicate face and thin crack moves high above the Boston Glacier and its open crevasses. The second pitch was still a bit dirty and less straightforward in terms of route-finding, but was still quite fun.

We finished the face and then simul-climbed to the summit for some views before scrambling back, rappelling down, and retracing our steps back to the car. We were back around 6pm. This was a great, casual car-to-car outing inthe gorgeous North Cascades.