Climb: Johannesberg-NE Buttress (1951/1957)

Date of Climb: 7/24/2005

Trip Report:
The mere mention of Johannesberg is an interesting thing. Some shudder at the thought of interminable vertical bushwhacking, while others see only the glorious snow arête leading to the summit ridge. My friend Chris has had Johannesberg on his tick list for a long time. I, on the other hand, had never seen the mountain…

Our Route


As we drove up the road, I had a hard time comprehending the size of the massive northern flank of Johannesberg. The hanging glaciers, gullies, and the prominent NE Buttress just scream to be climbed…but how? Perhaps the more important question is “why?”

We parked the car at the last switchback, took some photos with the “insta-beta machine”, and headed off into what would prove to be an incredible adventure. Soon we were at the snowfinger, roping up and ready to go up. I might as well get excited to climb since, after all, there is no easy way off Johannesberg after this point…short of a helicopter. Undoubtedly it was one of the more committing moments I have encountered in the mountains.

The next few hours are somewhat of a blur. Mostly, it consisted of devils club, wet gulley systems, the odd 5.8 slab, and endless bushwhacking. Occasionally we consulted the “insta-beta” to confirm that we were on our proposed route and continued to trash our way upwards. After a couple hours, we reached the 1951 snowpatch/gulley system and took a needed rest.

Steep 'schwacking


We could see that we had to climb up and right a few hundred vertical feet to the ridge crest. It sounded easy enough. As I lead off up the gulley system, things were looking pretty feasible. Soon we climbed under a snow remnant in the gulley (way cool) and up to a steep step in the gulley. Chris belayed as I tried the direct route (a hard offwidth), but I soon resorted to climbing the left wall, a short overhang into an obvious gulley system (5.8R, loose). We hauled my pack on this pitch and somehow ripped my ice tool off the outside. If someone finds it, I would really like it back.

Above this, I lead another rock pitch (5.6ish, runout) to get onto steep heather slopes and more bushwhacking. We did about two more pitches until we found a suitable bivy ledge at ~5200’. By “suitable bivy ledge,” I really mean that it was small and uncomfortable. We tied in for the night. Chris ran out of water. I realized that my ice tool was gone. We were definitely having the adventure that we expected.

The next day, we began climbing just as the alpenglow faded into the morning light. "Jungle's-berg" kept feeding us pitch after pitch of heather and bushwhacking, some simuling, some belayed, took us to the crest of the NE Buttress. Bushes slowly gave way to steep heather, 4th class rock, and magnificent views of the hanging glacier off to our right. We passed two appealing bivy locations along the way.

4th Class rock above the heather


Chris nearing the pin rap station


Soon we reached the titanium pin rappel station. Between the snow gulley being discontinuous and me without an axe, our only choice was the infamous “5.3” loose chimney. We climbed the obvious right-hand chimney, which seems like the wrong chimney since it was more like 5.8 on solid rock (the 5.3 chimney is 50’ further left, I think).

The "5.3" Chimney


A very loose low 5th gulley brought us, finally, to the base of the snow arête (awesome bivy location). We brewed up water and I found a caveman “ice rock” to compliment my nut tool for the glacier crossing. It was 3PM.

Snow Arete


The snow arête climb to the steep snow headwall was simply fantastic. The bushwhacking, runouts, and uncomfortably bivy faded into memory as we sped towards the summit ridge. Chris climbed into and out of a crevasse, then hauled me up the other side since my aluminum ‘pons and ice rock/nut tool combo weren’t getting the job done.

We reached the summit ridge and descended about 75’ to a ledge, dropped our packs, and scrambled to the summit. It was 5:15PM, time to get as far down as we could before dark.

About an hour some of the most exposed and loose traversing/downclimbing I’ve done lead to a rap station well above CJ Col. Along the way, I built a few cairns. A series of 7 raps and more loose downclimbing took us to the col and a fantastic bivy site. Much happiness ensued, food was eaten, and we didn’t have to worry about falling off anything for the first time in two days.

Alpenglow on Formidable


As we watched the evening alpenglow on Formidable, Spider, and Boston Basin, we debated when the NPS would come searching for us. We were supposed to be out today, after all. I recalled John Sharp & Jim Nelson’s story, hoping that we wouldn’t be “rescued” in the parking lot the next day.

The descent down Doug’s Direct was straightforward. A bit of forewarning, it gains nearly 1500’ from the base of the Triplets buttress to the notch on Mixup. As we descended towards the Cache Glacier, we saw a solo climber heading towards Gunsight notch. It turns out that it was a ranger sent to look for us... Cascade Pass was a zoo of overweight “hikers” and the trail to the parking lot was endless.

Doug's Direct route


The NE Buttress of Johannesberg was an incredible adventure that I’m glad I did. After looking at Beckey’s photos, it appears that we connected the 1951 and 1957 routes via the gulley/heather/bivy system around 5200’. All told, it took us 51 hours car-to-car, with 25 hours of climbing from car to C-J Col. We belayed a lot of stuff that wasn't necessary, but we didn't want to get hurt up there either. Thanks to Kelly Bush for not calling out a helicopter out when we were overdue, to Juan for the descent beta, and to Chris for convincing me to tackle my first grade V route. I’d probably do it again too, now that I’ve finally stopped bleeding from all the scratches…

Full Size pics are in my gallery .

Gear Notes:
60m half rope
alpine rack to 1"
ice tool or axe
lots of slings
pins

Approach Notes:
Cascade Pass
Doug's Direct

Careful dude, keep posting pictures like this one and Klenke's gonna show up

Cool! I recognize the "5.3" chimney. We thought it dubious so went around the corner to the left, making a "5.8" move on the way up to a belay. I remember standing at the base of the chimney slinging a chockstone and wondering "do I want to go up this?"

Doesn't anybody ever rap into the couloir instead of heading left into the steep rock?

People can/do rap into the gulley, but the snow was discontinuous and I had lost my ice tool and only had aluminum crampons. The chimney pitch was pretty solid, leading me to believe it wasn't the "5.3" chimney anyways.

Full TR should be done tomorrow.

The TR is done (edited above). I have a full route description if anyone wants it, but I won't post it here to keep the adventure of this route alive.

oh yea, check out Chris' TR for our week of adventure at Cascade and Washington Passes.

an excerpt: "next 10 hours would be 90% vert-a-shwack with the occasional dirty/wet/mossy rock face move thrown in. Highlights include multiple tenuous veggie belays, the jungle gym climbing amongst the hanging tree limbs, making our way *under* a snow finger which occupied one of the gullies and a dirty, loose, sketchy and very awkward chimney which I made Kurt lead"

vertical bushwacking? yuck!!!
nice work.

Vertical bushwacking can be rather strenuous at times, but I recall some parts of the NE buttress route, the way I did it, as being a very pleasant vertical bushwack. On steep rock, the cedars grew out from the rock and then upwards, forming perfect ladder rungs in a kind of J shape. It was quite unlike the nightmarish maple thickets you often encounter on approach hikes and, while upwards progress was sometimes impeded, a firm stair rung was quite beneficial.

Three cheers for the Cascades!