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We tested that. It's a really nice horizontal hand-sized crack that leads right into the vertical system, about 20 feet moving rightward. Only problem is no foot holds, completely smooth--and its a long vertical drop.

Great effort and some really good beta for folks. Thanks @JonParker! I am a bit shocked by the approach as well, esp. this early. I know @therunningdog and @sparverius approached via the Terror call some years back and said it wasn't that bad? Maybe it would stay in longer?

DAMN! Still amazing, still off of my list (to lead), but thanks for the report! Good work using all the skillz in the chossdawg toolkit to make it up and down safe. That one is def. no joke and a worthy bonus to the Difficult 10. If nothing else, this TR is a good reminder that I need to go back to Icy for that amazing scenery!

I'm thinking the other side of the spire 180 degrees looked the the probably first ascent line? But certainly neither this nor that aspect perfectly match the Beckey description. FWIW, I was thinking that from this side the route would step down and right from the notch into that crack system to the right and then up. But it didn't look easy!

I climbed this route from the notch lower on the ridge and then met the snow slope where you accessed it. This is actually kind of a cool route...!

It was a great trip! Thanks Jon for bringing me along! That's pretty shocking the difference in the snow from O-H col from last year. Jon and I had some theories as to why... but I would love to hear other people's thoughts.

Hahaha, I did have that thought when we were descending.

Looks much more interesting than the NW Ridge! Thanks -- I'll have to check it out

Sounds like a great adventure! Thanks for the photo beta!

Nice work! No personal experience on that beautiful beast, but it’s reported to deserve a well earned place on the Repulsive 69.

Great rescue pics as well! Glad everyone was safe and it ended up good practice!

Thanks for the report, fun stuff up there. And terrifying chess as well. Amazing how quickly it changes when you can see where you are going or not!

Less than 35 feet to go! I guess it would be the east ridge as our backs were to the Tahoma Glacier. Whether to go right or left here was beyond us.

Was that up the NW side? That thing is pretty impressive! My first time up close...

Ha! Well, @Trent and I may be old but at least we still can armchair mountaineer with the best of them. Sorry to hear about your trip @Nick Sweeney (and happy you survived!), but glad to know we made the correct call. Thanks for the write-up! I'll finish this, this week.

Reminds me of an August trip with similar plans and outcome a few years back! Yikes!

Great effort and thanks for the beta! I was really stoked to try the N Buttress of Terror this season but those approach conditions are atrocious. Hmmm.

I checked out the East Ridge of Dorado Needle. For choss dogs like me, it was kind of fun and definitely a good way to spend a day on a multi-day mission in that area. Full report and photos here: https://spokalpine.com/2025/07/07/dorado-needle-east-ridge-iii-5-7/

For contrast to the double moat encountered on 7/4/25, the 7/6/24 conditions are pictured in the TR linked here. No moats, easy downclimb.

Some notes and photos from our attempt to 12,400'. Definitely not a good year for it, that couloir descent was pretty scary with all the rockfall. https://spokalpine.com/2025/07/03/rainier-sunset-ridge-attempt/

Ah, that's unfortunate to hear.

I saw that photo, but I hate it, it makes the buttress look terrifyingly steep! Thanks, amazing shot.

I don’t, I’ve never looked into it. This is the best recent photo I have of the area

Nice trip, thanks for posting! If that had been you plan it would have been a fantastic outing, too bad about not getting you first choice though. It's good to know about the couloir bypass also. Someday I'll pass through that way. On another note, do you know anything about the north butterss of the Rake? Beckey says 4th and low 5th. I'm intrigued but can't find any info except that the Fireys did it in '74.

Trip: Seahpo / Cloudcap Peak - NE Ridge Trip Date: 07/05/2025 Trip Report: After much discussion and planning and two planned weekends that didn't happen due to weather, and even a scouting trip with binoculars, me Fred and Dylan finally climbed Seahpo / Cloudcap on July 4th and 5th. I had been on a mission the last few years to climb Dallas Kloke’s Difficult 10 peaks and completed the list this past winter with Lincoln. Now as part of my midlife crisis alpinist proving I'm after the self declared Difficult 10 Bonus Peaks. Basically anything that the consensus says ought to be on the list but since it's Dallas's list it doesn't change (much like the bulgers). I consider these so far to be Gunsight and Seahpo. We hiked up through the crowds on the 4th of July with heavy packs loaded with all kinds of climbing gear since we didn't actually know much about the route. We passed a lot of day hikers and Ruth climbers that all asked us where we were going with all of the gear on our packs, I grew somewhat tired and only half jokingly suggested we tell people either Shuksan or Icy just to make it simple. Bizarrely then we met somebody who replied that they had climbed Seahpo!! We went up and over Ruth, then Icy just for fun and made camp near the northeast ridge of Seahpo, making camp in just about 8 hours. We had plenty of time to study the route as it came in and out of the clouds and were pleased with what we saw. On a scouting trip a month earlier the route had ample snow on the ridge which we weren't prepared to deal with. On the 5th we were up at 5:00 and hiking just after 6:00, thus allowing for plenty of sleep to make up for a week of extremely early mornings for work for me. No one argued with that concept. We took the Beckey variation of getting on the northeast ridge at the first opportunity instead of the glacier which we assumed would be in rough shape this far into the 21st century. The scrambling on the lower ridge was excellent class 3 with some easy snow walking, then we got to the top of a tower before a major notch. This notch was the main unknown of the entire route since there's not really any good way to scout it and we had no beta at all. It proved to be troublesome. Naturally we assumed we would just be able to rappel into the notch and climb out the other side, but it took us about an hour to discuss, scout for a descent, and then eventually build an adequate repel anchor. You repelled into the notch, over a moat, down some easy snow, and into the moat on the far side. The moats were deep but not wide at this time. We huddled in the upper moat a little ways down from (south of) the top of the notch, where we had scouted the only fusible way out of the notch. There was a groove/gully that looked feasible to climb up and regain the ridge beyond. The plan was for Dylan to rope gun the rock in his approach shoes and me or Fred to kick steps in any snow in our boots. Nobody wanted to bring boots, shoes, and rock shoes. Tom Sjolseth mentioned in the comments of his Jagged Ridge TR that the northeast ridge of Seahpo was 5.6 or 5.7, so we figured we needed to be able to do that at least. Dylan was confident that he could lead up the groove, but I stated not so subtly that I wasn't confident I could follow it. He made it look hard but doable, and got a good belay 55m above at a rap station. I'm not sure I have ever climbed on a single rope cow tail style until now, and me and Fred were very very concerned with how little rope we had left, hollering constantly as Dylan finished out to the anchor. (Naturally as in most of the Cascades pro was very sparse and anchor opportunities more so). There was exactly enough rope left for me to stand at the last stance while Fred made it through the most difficult part that the receding glacier had just vacated before I had to step on to the wall and make the hard moves. It was extremely doable on second but I'm glad I didn't have to lead it. Definitely 5.7R. We all made it up to the belay and determined that it looks solo-able above, so we put away all the gear, never to use it again. The rest of the route above was no more than class 4 if you made the right choices, a couple of times just for ease/fun we maybe made it 5.2. Jim Nelson’s book Classic Cascade Climbs must have forgotten about this first pitch, Tom gets a Redding credit in the book so Dylan is convinced that he intentionally sandbagged the route old school alpinist style, not sure, but the first pitch is definitively mid 5th. The book calls the whole route 4th class. We encountered some pretty solid rock on the ridge, easy steep heather on the south side, and a short cruddy gully crossing per Beckey. As I have discovered on most of the more difficult routes Fred Beckey usually pretty reliable. We crossed the gully on a ledge and followed some heather slopes to a short rock finish to the summit. We launch it around for a while hoping the mistwood break and we would get some views but it was not to be. The route finance straightforward enough that it wasn't a big deal in fog but it's always nice to have a good look around. I found out later that we would have been able to holler across to Tim Halder on Nooksack Tower if we could have seen it. The climbing was easy enough that we downclimbed everything to the belay station then made a double 60m rappel to a horn above the moat, south of the initial groove pitch. From here we made another double rope rappel down to the top of continuous snow at the top of the glacier. The upper randkluft it was melted down to where we could land on rock and simply walk out onto the glacier. This rap was long and extremely steep, overhung over sock and then transferring to overhung over snow, pretty wild! I went first and was collecting myself at the bottom of the rap until I thought about the 30+ feet of more than vertical snow directly over my head, so I skedaddled a ways back to the top of the glacier. We all gathered back at the bottom, stowed the ropes and cruised down the glacier, and back along the ridge to camp. The glacier was chill with just a couple of moat cracks to walk around, nothing I would call a proper crevasse, in fact I would hesitate to call it a real glacier anymore; still potentially dangerous though. We took some time packing up camp and congratulating and thanking each other, caught a few last minute views and then headed back up the slog over the shoulder of Icy, back over Ruth, then cruised down the very familiar route to the car. We hit the car about 8:30 for just over a 14 hour day. More congratulations (real this time since we made it back properly), thanks all around, then back to civilization and “reality”. The holiday weekend made it so I could lounge around and nap the next day feeling glad to have pulled off another very challenging mountain. This one definitely ranks in the difficult 10 peaks in Washington in my book, when taken as a whole. I would rate the mountain above the first pitch as pretty enjoyable scruffy fourth class rock and heather, similar to other Cascade peaks; Jberg, Triumph, Klawatti, etc. I think if there wasn't the tough first pitch it would be a pretty enjoyable mountaineering route in a remote location, to me at least, 5.7 ads a level up. The approach was extremely enjoyable and pleasant, better than any of the Difficult 10. We pretty thoroughly scouted the pitch out of the notch both on the way up and down the route and determined that the way we climbed it seems to be the most doable line. If you want to do this mountain you need to be sure you can climb someone insecure 5.7R for half a rope length. If I had to do it again and it was up to me to lead I would take rock shoes. Gear Notes: Half rack, 2x 60m ropes, light MTN boots or approach shoes and wet feet, axe, helmet, others wore crampons, not I, extra axe and pickets for steep snow we didn't need. Approach Notes: Trail to Ruth, over west Icy (the truth summit now thanks to lidar BTW), down the other side. Follow the ridge the whole way. Dylan ascending to heaven on Ruth: The whole deal with my partners looking badass: Seahpo: From camp: Camping in an awesome setting: Morning. Clouds rose up to greet us: Approaching the line: Atmospheric weather: The lower route calls to us: Fred on rap: First pitch from the notch, Dylan for scale: On route: Easy: Break time on the summit: Part of the register. The pencil crumbled in my hands as I signed us in, so take a new one: Fred on the last rap: Descent of the glacier: Strolling out beyond Ruth: