lunger

thanks for the report, and good to see your photos of the place! i really enjoyed that climb too--good granite, and felt remote. yeah that approach/deproach packs a punch. way to crush it fellas.

right on, nice work pioneering a line up that face. having climbed the NE Arete, I'm familiar with the good and bad (loose blocks, kitty litter, oatmeal) rock of that peak--pretty intrepid pulling .10 moves on that rotten stuff! but if the NE Arete is any indication, you also enjoyed some sweet climbing on good rock. guessing there's a bit more traversing than the distant white line suggests? your tr compels another visit to that place/face.

very entertaining. "(I can’t turn left)" -- Derek Zoolander?

yeah great pics, esp appreciated the sunset burst after the storm. agree that the whole set makes me want to get back to Zion again soon--spectacular place. thanks for the reminder.

Yeah sweet pics. That area is stunning this time of year. And congrats Tim! Looks like you're enduring some sort of choss-quickening there on the summit...

go get it wayne! "climbed" it Sunday--truly stellar, and now a bit cleaner too. To be clear: no loose rock at all, just a bit of grit that my flailing largely removed.

good stuff, fellas. that rock looks neato.

Cool trip Tom; plus, a new route way the ____ out there! Wait, what, 75 pounds?!

Sounds pretty alarming. Will be interested to see the origin/scar. Incredible effort Blake and Jens! Adding some flavor to familiar terrain (for you); extra salty.

Trip: Mt Despair, N summit - NE ("Bipolar") Buttress, 3700+', 5.9 Date: 7/28/2014 Trip Report: Low. (Our first glimpse of the double buttress from banks of Goodell Cr.) High. (Rolf climbs the final snow arête of the N Ridge to the N summit of Mt Despair. The highpoint of the NE Buttress is barely in view on right. Pickets background.) Route summary: the NE Buttress (“Bipolar Buttress”) of Mt Despair, ~3700’ net vertical relief of climbing and scrambling; a few hundred more are climbed thanks to multiple rappels into notches along the way. Difficulties up to 5.9. (Rolf nailed the name.) I think we belayed a total of 9 pitches, 8 on the buttress and 1 to attain the N ridge? This shot taken from the southeast shows the NE Buttress toeing down into Goodell Cr. Photo courtesy of John Roper, taken from the Roost. We began climbing at the base of the big open book in the area of lighter rock on the lower buttress. The feature can also be seen in the background of this shot taken from Mt Terror last summer: And here: Trip summary: a delightful tour of Picket-ness proportions; we approached via Goodell Creek, climbed Mt Despair via the soaring NE Buttress/N Ridge continuation, descended Despair’s west flank, and ultimately exited via Triumph Pass and Thornton Lakes trail to a bike, where the lucky loser of roshambo commenced the 8ish mile ride to retrieve the car. Lots of ups and downs. (On a map, this looks like a reasonable horseshoe route. Plan for three demanding days.) More-enterprising types might more fully express this route by traversing from the N to the S summit, thence to Triumph Pass and home; we left this for future work due to budget constraints of calories and time. A good thing too, as I botched the de-proach; in a monomaniacal fit of hubris, neglected to thoroughly research the route from Triumph Pass to the Thornton Cr trailhead, instead relying on simply a map and odd recollections. As a result, deep into the third day, we achieved new psychological limits by rat-schwacking up a 600+ vf stretch of steep, dense brush. My bad, brah. A soi-disant Cascades dignitary pronounced this a Last, Last Great Problem of the Cascades, while the other side of same mouth pronounced it “table scraps”. The Bipolar Buttress is more akin to eating a spilled gourmet meal off the floor, tasty if a little dirty--the floor in this case is the Goodell Creek valley. The NWMJ notes Roger Jung used Goodell to score FWAs on Mt Fury, but my contacts with real Cascades dignitaries yielded little info re: optimal access in the brushy summer. Sundry, pleasant surprises await those who in future travel this way. Route description/photo blast: Scrambling the lower buttress. Around 1300’ of mostly solid and well-featured scrambling up to low fifth class. Chimney moves to finish the lower buttress difficulties. From top of lower buttress, we rappelled into a notch; a party could bail from here at relatively low cost. Beyond this point, costs increase. Rolf leading out of a notch after a rappel. A very deep cleft in the upper buttress weighed on our psyches during the whole climb; the most technical pitches had occurred climbing out of smaller notches after rappelling into them. This deeper cleft can be seen in Tom Sjolseth’s picture from the N. Only the upper buttress is visible here, extending left—the cleft is near the summit of the buttress. With apologies to Jimi Hendrix, this is the Manic Depression. New lows were hit upon closer viewing of the chasm. The wall we needed to climb appeared very steep, overhanging in places, and meager viable lines looked difficult to access. We rapped in and scoped around, finally settling on a route beginning maybe 50’ to the south of the notch: a right-trending stair-step ramp kept the climbing at a reasonable grade. Watch for loose rock here. Rolf led the first pitch, and I got the leftovers; a bunch more rambling (an exposed stretch felt like the TFT) and we found a dee-luuuuxe bivy site on heather near the high col, where the two E-side glaciers meet. Views into the Pickets were available all day, and made even more enjoyable by respite. Smoke filtering in from eastern Washington provided color. Mr Bo Jangles S Pickets N Pickets The next morning we crossed the high col, climbed a 70m pitch of rock to attain the N Ridge, and then continued on its final snow arête. This pic shows the upper buttress (blocks view of lower buttress) on the right, with Goodell Cr far below. Descent was made by downclimbing to the notch S of the N summit, then down the W side of the peak; one rappel required. Demanding tour, but rewards with sweeping views and ambiance. Bunch more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2014_07_28MtDespairNEBipolarButtress?authuser=0&feat=directlink [Might add or swap out some photos upon receipt of Rolf’s.] Gear Notes: Medium rack with several pins, but never used them. Axe/crampons. Lithium. Single 70m rope. Approach Notes: See above.

Yes thanks for the informative TR and good pics. On the list!

Nice report, Blake. Great route. After the 5 pitches, to top out, we traversed left and climbed parallel to Serpentine--your exit appears better. Many years ago I led pitch 1. Was tempted to continue straight up, but was fixated on the description, so made that traverse move left--it felt hard for 5.10, slippery feet and an insecure knob or two? (Maybe Pete has a sharper memory.) At any rate, I recall feeling like we stayed on route. Maybe Jens went too high before contemplating the left turn? I've heard of other parties whipping due to a common tendency to go too high... Anyway, thanks for the report and pics.

FWIW, here's a photo from the other (N) side taken 2 days ago: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/q8Dvsncd1FZMRjJg29gMINMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink Road is gated 1.2ish miles past Eldo trailhead.

Yep that's the E Face of Graybeard; shot probably taken from Swamp Creek (I drove there to recon the night before--looks in similar shape as when we skied it, maybe even a little fatter down low). Good to see tracks on it, hope the party enjoyed it as much as we did! (Edit: oh, appears those are climbing tracks, not ski tracks? At any rate, the face begs to be skied.) Re: the original North Face TR, nice work managing the route in those conditions. I think we spoke briefly the previous evening at the Easy Pass trailhead, we were the party going skiing towards Ragged Ridge. Was relieved to see your car gone when we returned.

it's spitting distance from work, i plan to stop by. t-shirt = medium, probably.

nice send!

wow nice pics and adventures, lads. must get to Alaska soon! yes, 'tis the season to be thankful. seeing the last of my firsts taking shape, aiming to make the firsts last. also scored other quality times. i'll share a couple pics, many more in the video below. take a guess where...all Cascades: W, you inspired me to try making a video for the first time, was actually pretty fun and v easy w/ Picasa to throw some pics from my albums into a chronological pile and run it. Think it took less time to create than it did Vimeo to convert. Not high quality (reflects newbie-ness and v little time invested), but a decent catalog of fun-hog. Fun way to reflect on the year. Might have to tinker with this some more when have the time.

Looks savory, thx for the report. Yeah Pete as I recall we talked about this one but opted for Bardean instead--in hindsight suppose ok w/ that call. Would've missed the all-you-can-shovel breakfast in Dewdney too. I heart Dewdney.

nevermind -- sold!

And many years ago by Teleross. Would probably take a rare snow year to ski it entirely, if possible at all.

As I recall, there should be some spots close to the summit of Greenwood, maybe even a cleared one on the very top--but I might be switching it up with Dumbell (we daytripped them both on long summer day). But pretty sure Greewood is better...sorry for rusty memory.

Thanks for all the generous comments; good to hear the enthusiasm from fellow players of this sport we value so deeply. The gratification lingers, as does the fatigue. To the original reason for posting. Somehow I missed this post : (http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1111466) Entertaining tale, thanks John. Thought worthwhile to link these two. And for the record, the first pic in the TR was also taken by Mr Scurlock; sorry missed adding the credit there (though certainly many already knew this). Hozo sure looks good from afar... Also wanted to add that the rock was surprisingly textured and well-featured for climbing, and very enjoyable where solid; don't want to dissuade repeats! Those of you who like exercising your risk-management skills will love this one. C'mon, someone please repeat this or After Hours on Lemolo Mox (waaaah), which by comparison offers plenty of protection.

Having just returned from a couple days in the backcountry w/ my 71 y.o. dad, can appreciate the uniqueness of your trip. Quite the onslaught of incredible trips (and TRs), Tom! Way to make hay while the sun shines. Is there any worthwhile corner of the Cascades (or Olympics) you haven't traversed through?

Trip: North Hozomeen Mtn - Zorro Face, IV 5.9 Date: 8/31/2013 Trip Report: “squamish?” Written at the end of a planning email for Hozomeen which addressed some nagging details, this would become our refrain throughout the trip. Labor Day offered a nice climbing window, and our list of objectives included just plain ol’ good times at Squamish, which typically promises immediate rock, clean rock, solid rock, protectable rock—all conspicuously (or suspected) absent at our objective. Most likely, many of you are aware of the opening passage in Jack Kerouac’s Desolation Angels: “Hozomeen, Hozomeen, most beautiful mountain I ever seen, like a tiger sometimes with stripes, sunwashed rills and shadow crags wriggling lines in the Bright Daylight, vertical furrows and bumps and Boo! crevasses, boom, sheer magnificent Prudential mountain, nobody’s even heard of it, and it’s only 8,000 feet high, but what a horror when I first saw that void the first night of my staying on Desolation Peak waking up from deep fogs of 20 hours to a starlit night suddenly loomed by Hozomeen with his two sharp points, right in my window black – the Void, every time I’d think of the Void I’d see Hozomeen and understand – Over 70 days I had to stare at it.” Later in the novel: “The void is not disturbed by any kind of ups or downs, my God look at Hozomeen, is he worried or tearful?... Why should I choose to be bitter or sweet, he does neither? – Why cant I be like Hozomeen and O Platitude O hoary old platitude of the bourgeois mind ‘take life as it comes’…” “take life as it comes” indeed. This is a useful mantra when approaching the west face. We had suspected an approach from the N down a gully would grant us access—Colin Haley’s blog post seemed to confirm this suspicion. However, this approach is nontrivial; the initial gully third-class down-climb, while loose, and dangerous, pales next to the shenanigans required to cross several precipitous ribs to our targeted launch point. A slip at any point spells an unpleasant end in the valley a couple thousand below. The approach took us a tedious and painstaking 4.5 hours (this after a first day of humping heavy loads 11+ miles to a camp just N of the peak.) Camp in that basin; S and N Hozomeen left to right, with the west (Zorro) face mostly out of view; some of its northern margin on the right skyline. Our approach continues down (out of view) from the furthest notch on right. Views during approach included the Picket range. Approach soloing; downclimbing skills or funeral bills. squamish? “take life as it comes”, also a useful mantra when trying to piece together leads up loose, sometimes friable and/or vegetated and/or wet, mostly welded shut (read: sparsely protected) metamorphosed basalt. The stuff is also called Hozomeen chert and was valued by the Salish for making knives and arrowheads. Hozomeen apparently is native Salish for "sharp, like a sharp knife." Looking up at much of our (foreshortened) route, which tends left to the central summit in this pic. Finally at the base, we decided to take it one pitch at a time, figuring we would try to retain the option to bail. squamish? Rock, paper, scissors, Rolf wins first lead this time. End of rope. I follow and gain an appreciation for the climbing challenges this Hozomeen chert will proffer; sparse pro and selective handholds will be the order of the day. I lead up a second long pitch to the only evidence of human visitation: a ¼ inch bolt and a bail ‘biner. Someone came, saw, and turned around; foreboding. (We did not see any other indication of passage higher than this.) After a couple pitches of metamorphosed basalt, we were talking about turning around too. But we could see trees on ledges above, and figured we could still bail in a relatively safe and reasonable manner. squamish? The land of milk and honey beckoned us. The third pitch required an exposed step-around with muddied feet; expletives drifted down to my belay. No pics. My pitch 4 went steeply up to a ledge, and traversed left; we were somehow making our way, and could still bail. Rolf’s face at the pitch 4 transition betrays some of our uncertainty. During his pitch 5 lead, some curses and words in the wind, “I wanna go home”. It was probably just the wind; he would’ve said simply, “squamish?” I’d like to forget pitch 6. I was forced up a steep 5.9 corner/arête with a paucity of gear. And what few pieces there were went into mungy and rotten fissures. Loose rock abounded, and without gear, there was no way to constrain the ropes from sending it down. Rolf didn’t get hit, but reported that he dutifully tied knots below his brake hand in case he was knocked out—so sensitive to my needs. I grunted up to a fat ledge, and Rolf managed to follow without getting shelled. Then Rolf drew one of the plum pitches, the seventh. 5.9+, climbs a nice corner (but with a section of unavoidable decking potential), then a tricky traverse to another corner, up and then traverse again to the only belay opportunity. Again, only so much gear and rope management was possible; missiles flew by my safe belay spot, but a few also threatened while climbing—somehow, no carnage. This wouldn’t happen in … Rolf up the p7 corner. Hand jams!?! Pitch 8 had a couple steep sections. Here Rolf discerns which holds to clean and/or trust. Pitches 9 and 10 stretched the ropes, continuing up the “corner” system we had identified as a weakness. More 5.9 (mostly easier) runouts. At the belay at top of pitch 10 I placed the only iron we used, a crappy pin to back up a solid piece and a marginal piece. For pitch 11, Rolf raced the sunset to a ledge. Uncharacteristically, this pitch didn’t stretch the rope; he thought we should take the bivouac bird in hand. I thought we were close to the summit and could possibly manage to climb to the top in the twilight-soon-to-be-night. He pointed out that idea was risky, and his logic prevailed. In retrospect it was definitely the right move. “take life as it comes”, also useful for shivering through the beautiful folly of an exposed bivy on a sloping ledge one nasty pitch from the summit. We’d brought some warm clothes but could have been warmer. All in all, the bivy wasn’t so bad, and definitely not as miserable as our unplanned bivy on Lemolo Mox across the way. Hozomeen wasn’t done with us. In the morning, I put together a long and winding pitch on some of the worst rock and pro conditions on the face—one strong cup of coffee, scary to the last drop. But it got us to the summit ridge! Unfortunately, the only spot to belay again made rope-disturbing rubble unavoidable. On the finishing moves, Rolf got clocked right in the helmet with a softball-sized rock, but was ok. Shudder. Top of our climb, just North of the summit, shortly after getting rocked. Glad to have done it. Another Scurlock masterpiece. Our route makes its way up to the left-facing corners directly below the summit. Our bivy occurred on the relatively large snow patch right below the summit. In the background is the Southwest Buttress, climbed many years ago by some hardcores. Kerouac again: “And I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time.” But we won’t die on Hozomeen. Hopefully not in Squamish either. But I will climb again at the latter. Both Rolf and I have mildly obsessed over this face for years, and were gratified (gruntled, even) to execute our vision. I expected technical demands exceeding 5.9, but given the challenges of Hozomeen chert, was glad for the limit. Probably half the pitches had some 5.9 moves, depending on what you trust for holds. We stretched the rope for most of the 12 pitches of pure adventure. I am fortunate to have a teammate like the curmudgeon: rich in experience (old), strong (for his weight), solid (old), and somehow able to check my relentlessly positive delusions. Thanks hardcore. A couple summit shots: And more pics. BTW, we descended the North Face route, rested, ate and drank, packed up and marched to car. The mosquitoes for the last couple miles were some other $#!+. Gear Notes: Single set of nuts. Tricams up to hand size v useful. We took lots of small cams, but the doubles would actually be better in the mid-range. Approach Notes: Nontrivial. Day 1, due to tons of rain the day before, we elected to take the scenic Skyline trail instead of the steep bushwhack. Day 2, follow your nose and low sense of self-worth.