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[TR] Chair Peak, WA - NE Buttress winter 1/14/2017


niroyb

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Trip: Chair Peak, WA - NE Buttress winter

 

Date: 1/14/2017

 

Trip Report:

We used the beta for the Chair Peak NE Buttress route from RobUSA of RocknRopeNW

 

There were at least 4 teams attempting the route yesterday including us. Since the beta is already good, I'll focus on the conditions.

 

Timing: Left the car at 5:40, arrived at the base of the climb at 8:00, summited at 14:20, started the rappel at 15:40 and back at the car at 16:45.

IMG_20170114_162510.jpg

 

P1: The S gulley has decent snow, little ice and some exposed rock steps. There is a slung horn about half way through. Built an anchor in the trees.

vlcsnap-2017-01-15-20h21m44s048.png

 

P2: Snow conditions were really bad, a 1" crust of ice over 2-3 feet of super dry powder. We were postholing and breaking chunks of crust that would fall down P1. This probably discouraged the other teams from attempting P1. Anchor was a slung lone tree.

vlcsnap-2017-01-15-20h46m06s882.png

 

P3: Same bad snow conditions, minimal opportunities for pro. We built the anchor at the bottom left of the ice step with 2 cams and an ice screw.

vlcsnap-2017-01-15-18h48m47s729.png

 

P4: The ice step was in good condition, thick and solid. We climbed it from the right side. Afterwards, the snow slope was solid for kick stepping. I built an anchor when I ran out of rope with a picket and pitons just 10ft short of the next trees... This anchor is consistently hard to find and build for many parties.

vlcsnap-2017-01-15-20h19m01s682.png

 

P5: The snow became crusty again. Belayed from the the other side of the ridge just before the small summit block.

 

We saw faint footsteps near the summit but none on the route.

GOPR4732.JPG

 

We descended a gully on the SW side of Chair before going back up East to the rappel notch. The west side was receiving a lot of sun turning the snow to slush.

 

Single 60m rappel from the notch brought us to a manageable steep slope. We saw many rap stations during the rappel.

The anchor is three rusted pitons that sounded fine and we backed it up with a .75 cam.

IMG_20170114_154026.jpg

 

We walked back to our stashed skis and skied all the way to the car.

 

[video:youtube]

 

Detailed GPS:

http://caltopo.com/m/5528

 

chairTopo.PNG

 

Gear Notes:

Cams to .3 to 1, .75 used to back up the rappel

Thin pitons

Small nuts

2 Pickets

10 alpine draws

5 ice screws (10cm to 21cm)

1 ice tool and 1 hybrid tool (BD venom)

Tat, knife, quicklink...

70m rope and 60m tag line for the rappel.

 

Approach Notes:

Started at the upper Alpental lot with AT gear.

Followed the climbers left side of the Source lake drainage.

Booted up the second half of the Chair peak basin to the start of the climb.

Edited by niroyb
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