TonyM

These ropes were wedged in a cornice, frozen in place, abandoned far away from Index, Vantage, etc. Envision snow, not rock, and think delectably new. Thx for posting this vs not...

Thanks Scott. We didn't see a soul the entire day which was unexpected given how popular Blanca Lake is. I still think dropping 600 vf down to Blanca Lake and skirting south/left of the lake would be the better approach. But that depends on crossing a log jam (risky?) and cliff access at the head of the Columbia Glacier. Would be an interesting try.

Trip: Kyes Peak - South Ridge via Blanca Lake TH Date: 7/4/2009 Trip Report: Sally and I climbed Kyes Peak via it's south ridge from the Blanca Lake TH on Saturday, July 4th, 2009. Although beautiful, there's a reason this route is not as popular as some neighboring peaks- its a long and arduous affair with lots and lots of steep traversing over a mile long heather and tree lined ridge. The TH starts at 1900 feet elevation and follows a well maintained trail up 2700 vertical feet for 3 miles to Virgin lake, appx elevation of 4600 feet. After leaving the trail on the North end of tiny Virgin lake, the route follows a steepening slope that soon narrows to a proper ridge. Generally the route stays on or near the crest of the ridge to about 5300 feet elevation. To this point, we stayed south/east (climbers right) of the ridge when progress became blocked by steep rock. There are several variations and none seemed any better or worse than the others. Once above the first gendarme/rocky outcropping, the route broadened and flattened at 5400 feet for several hundred yards. Further up the ridge an impasse is reached, Point 5850 I beleive. At this point, we dropped climbers left into an open meadow passing difficulties located climbers right. We followed this slope for maybe 300-400 yards and then regained the ridge. As with the previous section, no one route seemed any better or worse on the way up, so we elected to stay lower and traverse. After passing Point 5850, we regained the ridge and traversed to a low point (lost maybe 100-200 feet of elevation) before climbing the final steep heather and treed ridge. For the most part, we tended up and left alternating up and through several steep open heather slopes and treed sections. At about 6300 feet (give or take) we finally arrived at an open snow field. Here the nature of the climb went from unpleasant and difficult to scenic, alpine, and enjoyable. We both breathed a sigh of relief that we were nearer our objective. Crampons on, we made a beeline for the gap between the third tower and point 7025, or the false summit. The false summit is easy to see, but the third tower is less discernable, so we aimed for the false summit and the gap became evident. At the top of the gap we made our way up and climbers right of what would normally be an exposed class 2 ledge. But when Sally and I did the route, the ledge was a very short 30 degree snow slope with zero room for error. It would have been difficult to self arrest quickly enough before transitioning off the top of a rock face some 500+ feet high. Once around the corner, we continued past point 7025, now to our left, up easy snow to the base of the final south ridge. From a distance none of it looked like Class 3, but closer, the route came in to view. The last few hundred feet was lose class 3 with no ledge larger than a foot or so wide. In climbing terms, it was easy, but with death scree everywhere and a nice drop off to the south and east, the route wasn't trivial. Views were spectacular with many famous Cascade peaks in sight. We enjoyed the late afternoon warmth and sunshine before beginning the long descent. The scary corner was in the back of both minds, but other than muttering a few choice words, we made it down with no real issues. Once on the lower snowfield, we found some much needed melt water below a rock outcropping and filled up 4 liters of water. Later in the season, or in cooler conditions, this may not be an option, so recomend filling up before at Virgin lake (would need a filter or iodine). Tanked up, we sighed in disbelief that we now needed to down climb the ridge. Going down was some what better for obvious reasons, but mostly due to the fact we could follow the faint climbers trail we had lost going up. But often, this trail faded to nothing and we took a best guess as to the easiest route down. After what seemed an eternity, we reached Virgin lake and made our way back the the 4Runner. Gear Notes: Crampons and Ice Axe Approach Notes: Blanca Lake TH to Virgin Lake, then ridge to summit

GB- Was on the team ... The approach to the 9400 foot level camps took a half day. Have a look at the first photo and climb the right side, near the dark streaks, of the lower Wilson to gain the correct route. Then angle right and up. Had we known this (and there was no way of knowing as conditions change daily) , it would have saved us a couple hours on the first day. We started late and arrived at the bottom of the Turtle snowfield around 7PM. Up at 1AM, out the door by 2AM. We had 2 detours that cost us about 2 hours. So in general, if you start at 2AM, you'll be up and over the rappel by maybe 4AM'ish, but even that could be done faster. The ice fall was slow but only due to the fact ice conditions were not good that day (very brittle ice). So it probably took 2-3 hours to get all three of us up and over the 2 ice falls/ramps. We did not place pro on the first one. The second one was a real challenge that day- the first pitch took a long time (2-4 whacks with the pick to get a good stick). The second pitch was cool- a little more exposure but solid sticks. So if we had not had some early difficulties, and if ice conditions were better, we would have been on top by maybe 1 PM or so vs 4 PM. Carrying all your stuff up and over can not be underestimated. I'd like to think the 3 of us are in good shape, but the extra weight kicked our collective ass at 13K and we slowed down when compared to a normal day (OK, yes I climbed an extra 1K feet, but I'm not complaining!). That said, since the days are still long, and if you hit it on a cool but sunny day, none of that will matter. We did not encounter any soft snow on the way down. Granted, it was cooler and the wind was a real factor during the entire time (kept the snow firm). This is a challenging and rewarding climb and the walk from the top of the Kautz to the crater rim is very, very cool. You get cool views of the Muir SF, and all the climbers/hikers, and the top of the Nisqually from above- good stuff!

Was there any climbing involved on this trip? Looks like some nice scrambling opportinuties based on the pics.