Val Zephyr

I just started a new job, so I'm a dedicated weekend warrior for the next three months until I'm allowed vacation days (some other time though, it would be fun to climb with you again Joe!). With weekends being all that I have for now, I am aiming to fill every single weekend day. The good thing is that grad school is done, so I have no responsibilities after Friday at 4pm. Pick a weekend that you are over here and we'll pick a good climb depending on weather and conditions. There are always a lot of options in the summer, so I'd rather have a good partner lined up than a place. I'm generally also just looking to increase my base of alpine partners again to keep up with the demand for a busy summer climbing season. If anyone else is similarly motivated, get in touch with me.

Hey all! I'm hoping to line up a climbing partner for next weekend. I'm very fit (Ptarmigan Traverse last summer in 26hrs). Lead 5.8 trad right now (used to be up to 5.10, but getting back into it after a short break). I'll follow 5.10 still if you are leading though I have a few ideas: some ambitious, some more reasonable and am happy to hear your objectives as well! PM me and we can start throwing around some ideas for next weekend! Val

Climbed Hubba Hubba Left yesterday. There was good ice that took stubby screws. Pitch 1 Pitch 2

The Colchuck Glacier really is that melted out. It was rather shocking. I doubt that it is anything less than easy ice right now to get to the summit via the normal walk-up route. We were all happy to see the snow fly this weekend up there! I was pretty happy to get some interesting clouds for the photos on this trip. I actually spotted this little peak last weekend while I was up there on a photography focused trip. The weather was much more cooperative this time though. Too bad my friend with the better camera skills wasn't around this weekend, he might have gotten an even better pic of Jaberwocky with our little group on top. It might be worth setting up something like that for next year's larch season photography trip

Trip: Jaberwocky Tower - East Face Date: 10/24/2015 Trip Report: A few friends joined me for a late season trip up to the little tower known as Jaberwocky (located between Colchuck Lake and Colchuck Balanced Rock). It was a great choice for the late season conditions. Two short 5.6 pitches of fun climbing on the east face reach the summit. 360 degrees of impressive views including: Stuart, Colchuck, Dragontail, CBR, Colchuck lake and Cashmere make this one of the more scenic summits in the area. A few photos: Jaberwocky Peak: Approaching via the basin below CBR: The first pitch goes up on the right side of the east face to gain a ledge that traverses to just below an obvious chimney: The second pitch ascends the chimney to the summit. The chimney protects very well and has some really fun moves: Looking down from the base of the chimney. We had some wintry conditions during our little climb: One double rope rappel or 3 single rope rappels down the east face will reach the base. Beware of rope-snagging trees if you go for the double rope rappel: Happy climbers! A few more views from Jaberwocky:

Trip: Prusik - Beckey-Davis Date: 9/24/2015 Trip Report: This is a belated trip report of Jerry and my climb of the Beckey-Davis route on Prusik last month. I thought that I'd post it here, since we couldn't find in ton of information prior to trying this route. I was very surprised when Jerry asked me to join him for this route as he hasn't done the more popular Stanley-Burgner yet. As I'm running out of Enchantment moderates, having a partner who was equally excited for this semi-obscure climb was great news. I'm glad that we barely managed to make it happen before the temps dropped and the snow arrived! Edit: Jerry and I were just looking around a little more online at old TR's and realized that we climbed the wrong crux pitch! (we were too far to climber's right). Everything still went, but it was an intense pitch and we both though that is was the most sandbagged 5.9 we'd ever done (we just figured it was rated by Beckey so.....). If anyone who's been up there can verify our suspicion, we are curious. We came up just east of the 5.10- crack and had to traverse about 30' west to reach its base. It looks like other parties have climbed straight up to the base of the 5.10- crack. Here's Jerry's write-up: Val and I had been eyeing the Beckey-Davis route on Prusik for a while, and after a couple weather and life related misfires, finally got our chance. We headed up to the trailhead the night before, leaving Seattle at 6:30 and making it to the trailhead a little before 10, even after stopping for groceries and dinner. We got off to an early start the next morning, waking up at 3:45 and heading off around 4:15. Steady hiking took us to the lake, and we steadily climbed up Aasgard as the sun came up. As we crossed the plateau, the day gradually got warmer and less windy and we started to get excited about climbing. We racked up and stashed our packs in a tree, and were ready to climb a bit after 10. I got the first pitch, and decided to choose the 5.8 crack that is technically part of the Stanley Burgner over the 5.7 “unprotectable” chimney. I was a bit nervous based on the description of the crack as “wide and awkward”, but it protected really well with our rack (I used two threes and a four on the wide part) and succumbed to my remedial off-width technique without any trouble. From there, Val headed out on 5.7 terrain for about 50 meters, then brought me up. I took the next pitch, and it started to seem like we might be off-route as I plowed through piles of lichen. But pro and holds continued to come up, and I worked my way to the base of a clean corner that lead to a ledge system where it looked like we could traverse back right to the crux pitch of our route. Val took over and climbed the awkward corner, and then started the traverse. A few short pitches of horrible rope drag took us over the ledges, to the Snafflehound ledge – a large ledge that was perfectly flat and more than large enough for a bivy. We refueled and I racked up to jump onto the crux. The crux pitch, a 5.9 shallow dihedral, started off easy but rapidly got more difficult as the cracks got thinner and dirtier. I cleaned some moss and dirt out of a particularly dirty section to get some pro, then moved up to a good stance just before the crux of the route. A good crack on the right gave me a few good pieces before I moved onto the crux – an eerily thin flake with thin features for feet. This lead to a large solid undercling flake where I put in a solid cam and pulled an awkward bulge, then the pitch got easy as I went up some friendly twin cracks to the next belay. We were sure we had just climbed the crux pitch, but from our belay there was only one way to go, and it didn’t seem to match the route descriptions we had. But Val was up to the challenge, and squeezed through a narrow gap, then climbed through some awkward 5.8-ish moves before getting to easier ground that lead to the notch right below the summit. From the notch, there are two choices to get up the last few meters to the summit- a 5.10- tight hands crack that goes straight up, or a traverse to the north that leads to a 5.8 corner. Not excited about the prospect of more awkward 5.8 moves, I stood on my tiptoes to place a cam high in the 5.10 crack and started up. Some good jams took me to the top of the crack. At this point, a cold wind had numbed my hands, and nervous about doing a mantle without having hand feeling, I reached forward, grabbed the best holds I could, and did a fully horizontal beached whale move as Val laughed below. Val followed with even colder hands and an awkward follow pack, but still managed to nail the beached whale move. After topping out, we waited at the summit as an off-route west ridge rope soloist worked his way up the rappel route. Val, who had gotten the worst of the cold wind belaying at the notch, wore both of our puffy coats, while I stayed warm by doing summit pushups. After a short wait, four rappels took us to scrambly terrain on the north side, after which only six hours of walking took us back to our comfy car bivy. Over all, we were glad that we did the route, but would probably recommend the Stanley Burgner above this one – Val, who has done both, described the SB as much cleaner and easier to follow. (Most) pictures credit to Val. Gnome Tarn Little Annapurna and the Flagpole First pitch. Don’t let the wide scare you, this thing’s a blast. Val following up the first pitch. Moving towards Snafflehound Ledge. Heading up the crux. Splitter up to the summit! The only beta you need to top out on Prusik. Summit! Climbers, remember to exercise your antagonist muscles! Gear Notes: Doubles 0.3 to 3”, one 4, silver, blue, and purple TCUs, and triples of 0.75 and 1. All of it got used at some point, and we both felt like it was worth carrying a larger rack in. I used almost every piece by the time I built an anchor at the top of the 5.9 crux. Two nut tools – the leader might need one to clean out cracks on the crux. Lots of pizza (no thin crust!) Approach Notes: Long.

Ha! I was wondering how often people climb Horizontal Spire and I was really excited to see a TR with this title. It figures that you guys climbed it on accident There is so much climbing in this area that rarely sees an ascent. The wall on Porpoise Point is certainly inspiring too. Do you think that there might be an enjoyable route to the top of Horizontal Spire? What do you think that the best approach might be? I love the obscure towers in the Enchantments. Thanks for the TR!

Trip: Crystal Lake Tower - SW Rib Date: 8/16/2015 Trip Report: Kyle and I teamed up for a weekend in the Enchantments, which included a lovely walk up McClellan and an ascent of the SW Rib of Crystal Lake Tower. Crystal Lake Tower is a worthy alpine objective. The ridge is long and complex (19 pitches up to 5.8) with interesting climbing throughout. The 5.8 cruxes are short and there are ample belay ledges, yet exposure on the climb is high and the location in the Enchantments is hard to beat. We met up at the Snow Creek lot and stashed a car there to give us more options later. Then began the hike into Crystal Creek from the Ingalls TH at 2:30pm Friday. Our full itinerary for the weekend began with a rough start. I’ve never been up Crystal Creek from the Ingalls side and with way too much beta, somehow managed to miss the correct drainage by a mile, literally. We ended up doing a long traverse on steep slopes at 5000’ and sleeping in a creek bed 1000’ below and 0.5 miles of steep brush away from our intended location of Crystal Creek basin. Saturday morning we completed the hike in to the basin and were staring at our intended objective of Crystal Lake Tower by noon. It is a long, intimidating ridge and we were not about to jump on it this late in the day. Off route on the approach: Our first view of the SW Rib of Crystal Lake Tower (ridge line coming directly toward us): We decided instead to tag the summit of McClellan. Despite the countless times I’ve visited the Enchantments, I hadn’t stood atop this particular summit yet. The route is short and enjoyable and offers probably the best view in all of the Enchantments. With renewed stoke after hitting a summit despite our disaster of a start Friday, we set our sites again on Crystal Lake Tower. Instead of a leisurely hike out on Sunday, we were now preparing for a very long day, with the climb and the 10 miles of descent down Snow Creek (given that I hadn’t seen the correct Crystal Creek in the day, I didn’t want to try descending it tired and in the dark). We took in the views of the Enchantments in the fading light before ducking back toward Crystal Creek Basin for the night. The view from McClellan isn't bad: Evening walk through the Enchantments: The climb of the SW Rib of Crystal Creek Tower was as good as people had described it. It is another huge ridge of granite, and is just as worthy an objective as the rock routes on Stuart and Dragontail. The exposure is impressive throughout much of the route, climbing sometimes on steep faces or knife-edge ridges, but there were ample comfortable belay ledges. The setting is hard to beat too. Views down to Crystal Creek and Little Annapurna and the Flagpole, which I think Kyle and I both never stopped admiring the entire trip. Pretty much every time I had the camera out, Kyle would say, “get a picture of the Flagpole!” I took 17. As you gain elevation the entire Enchantment Plateau comes into view as well as Fantasia Pond, the Chessmen and the Nightmare Needles which are all tucked in this whole other world on the south side of McClellan. What really sets this climb apart from the others is that there was no play-by-play description of each pitch and there is not a defined route to follow. It really is a choose-your-own-adventure style climb. That was both rewarding and mentally challenging at times. There were a couple of times that we had done some fairly committing moves, hoping that things would work out and the route would continue around the next corner. It seemed like whenever things were starting to look grim, a new weakness in the rock would present itself and we could keep moving up. Without giving you all a play-by-play (so that you can go have an good adventure yourselves!), I’ll say that we started left of the toe of the ridge and simul-climbed to the bottom of the prominent slab ridge in 3 simul-leads taking 3 hours to reach the ridge. Much of the terrain was fit for simul-climbing here, but we still did find a few difficult sequences and stopped to belay the second when this happened. From the base of the ridge we pitched out the remainder of the climb. After this ridge, the difficulty increases and the route-finding becomes more thought provoking. There are some excellent pitches in there, there is also some choss. We topped out a little more than 10 hours after starting. Flagpole in the morning light: The prominent slab ridge that marked the end of simulclimbing: Fun face climbing pitch: Rounding the corner at the top of the face climbing pitch. Great exposure here again. I'm really glad that the route kept going after this! Final summit tower comes into view: Fantasia pond and Nightmare Needles: Summit! Chessman from the summit: The descent is very straightforward. We walked the ridgeline toward the First Chessman and there is an easy walk-off to Crystal Lake. Easy walk-off from just before reaching the first Chessman: We thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the rest of the Enchantments, soaking up the scenery in the fading light. This is paradise. We would need these happy thoughts for the next 9 miles of dark trail that would follow. We reached the car at 2am, exhausted but happy for a trip well done. I’m so glad that Kyle is the kind of guy that would pick a big climb over getting a good night’s sleep any day. Thanks for the trip! Gear Notes: Double rack to #3 was plenty Approach Notes: 7 miles to Crystal Creek. Why did I let myself think otherwise....

Hi everyone! I'm planning to do the Torment-Forbidden Traverse this Friday through Sunday. Myself and another experienced climber will be taking a good friend of ours (with little experience beyond basic glacier and easy alpine). Our friend requested that the trip be "epic", I just don't want to actually epic Has anyone been up there lately that can give me a conditions update? I've done the traverse before in 2012. This time I'm planning to take the rock bypass to keep things more tame. I'm curious how troublesome the moat crossings are right now. Also is a single 60 or 70m rope sufficient? Or would we benefit from having 2 half ropes for the rappel off of Torment? My friend only gets out about once a year to climb, so I want to make sure that she has a fun and memorable trip. Thanks for any help! Val

Cool trip Ilia! Thanks for the approach beta too. My first attempt to climb the Flagpole was via Crystal Creek. We didn't like the look of that gully either. I went back a few years later and tried the approach just west of Little Annapurna. http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=866340 This was much better.

Partner found. Thanks!

I'll have some free time in Leavenworth from Friday-Sunday and I'd like to get in some alpine climbing. I will be driving over from Seattle on Thursday night or Friday morning and can climb Fri, Sat and Sun. My first choice would be for a 2-3 day climb of Crystal Lake Tower, but I'm open to other ideas as well. I can meet up in Leavenworth or can carpool from Seattle. Shoot me a message if you can meet up for a climb this weekend. Valerie

Keith, Excellent trip report. Congrats again on pulling off this trip in these conditions. It sounds like things got quite a bit more spicy since we were there. With these added challenges you certainly got a full value trip, the kind that you won't soon forget. Thanks for posting! Val

Nice Jon and Dylan! This is another one that I had considered lately (we've had quite a few near misses in the mountains in the last few weeks). I was planning to come in from Spider Gap though. On my little recon. hike last summer (where I ran into you and Dylan on Buck Mountain, Ha!) I noticed that it only took about 4-5 hours of easy hiking to get to Lyman Lakes (in this photo) and what looked like a nice trail to Holden via the Railroad Creek (maybe 5-7 more miles away). We of course went the other way to Buck Creek, but I think that it would make a nice alternate approach with the work going on in Holden right now. Has anyone tried this? Is the Railroad creek trail from Lyman lakes to Holden lake in OK shape? Bonanza is hiding in the clouds. I think that you can see the shoulder of it on the right.

Minerals was Brendan's goat theory too. MattP is right about the rocks and seracs. I would absolutely plan on a carry over. There was only hard snow, no real ice climbing was needed in the Sickle. We brought screws, but only ended up placing a couple of pickets on the steeper leftward traverse into the Sickle. I liked the route overall. I think that Rainier is generally chossy, so expect some of that. But this was a more varied and interesting route than the other standard routes that I've done so far.

Cool trip! A friend and I actually tried a very similar line on June 17-18th. I scoured the internet for beta on the WR of Argonaut without any success. We bailed after the WR of Stuart and WR of Sherpa. Argonaut looked tedious from the west and looked like it would likely prevent us from reaching our arranged car shuttle in time. Thanks for the info. It's good to hear that the ridge will go. It's also good to hear that we probably made the right call for our trip. The Sherpa-Argonaut col to Argonaut was the only part of the traverse that I hadn't done yet and it certainly looked like the crux.

Trip: Mt. Rainier - Tahoma Glacier- Sickle variation Date: 6/24-27/2015 Trip Report: I recently finished graduate school and am taking a couple of weeks off to regain my sanity with some quality climbing. With this sort of free time, I could finally try a longer route on Rainier. Brendan and I chose the more remote Tahoma Glacier route with a carry over to the DC. High pressure was firmly in place, so we had a great opportunity to camp on the summit of Mt. Rainier as well. With time to spare, I took a more relaxed approach on this trip by hiking into St. Andrews Lake the first day and camping. I recently realized that I had never camped alone in the backcountry, so one of my goals for my time off was to do just that. I was imagining pristine meadows, time to wander around and take photos and relax in the sun. Instead I found bugs; so many bugs. I think that the better option would be to camp higher up on the ridgeline toward Tokaloo Spire. I hadn’t seen any water source yet besides the lake and the ridge looked unlikely to have water from my vantage point below, so the lake seemed like the safer bet. The next day on our hike to high camp however, we passed gorgeous bug-free ponds with amazing views. Camping at St. Andrews Lake: Better camping on the ridge above St. Andrews Lake: We stayed on or just right of the ridge crest past Tokaloo Spire, then on or just left of the ridge crest along the Puyallup Cleaver up to the base of Lower St. Andrews Rock. Past Tokaloo Spire there was no more signs of human boot tracks, but plenty of goats. Maybe the goats were using old human paths in the snow? We soon noticed that the goats were better at navigating the terrain than us. Whenever we veered off of the goat track, we would soon find out that the goats knew of some unforeseen obstacle and had taken a better (more direct) line than us. Eventually, we just decided to follow the goats. The lower glacier was too broken up to access below Lower St. Andrews Rock so we continued up the lower St. Andrews on our goat path. The path was often a well-marked trench right on the ridge crest filled with goat shit. The goats seemed to know where to go though so we continued climbing through this alpine barnyard. The goat track took us right to our high camp at 10,800’ between Lower and Upper St Andrew’s Rocks. Why do the goats frequent this spot?! Lower Tahoma Glacier is out for the season: Climbing up and over lower St. Andrews Rock: Our route-finding goat at 10,800’ just before high camp: High camp: The climbing to get to high camp was definitely more exposed than I had anticipated. We were both really hoping that we would find a way up the broken up Tahoma Glacier the next day, but there were still a lot of unknowns. We hadn’t seen the crevasses behind Upper St. Andrew’s Rock, so didn’t know if we would be able to access the Tahoma Glacier that way either (which was our last chance to access the glacier at this point). We could see the main route, but there were substantial looking cracks on both the Sickle and the main Tahoma Glacier. We had picked out two potential lines, but weren’t sure if either of them would go. We got moving at 5:45am and figured that we would either get through the difficulties by the time that the sun hit the glacier, or we would dead end somewhere halfway up and have time reverse our path before it got too hot. The upper Tahoma Glacier: We nearly bailed getting around Upper St. Andrews Rock. We finally found a path through that required briefly entering a rock fall prone area just right of Sunset Amphitheater. We moved fast and were back out near the center of the Tahoma glacier. Firm snow made for a calf-burning ascent up the main glacier. We found a steeper ramp left that would put us on the Sickle above some of the difficulties. Climbing in the Sickle was still steep, but was easier than the central Tahoma Glacier because the snow was much more featured in the Sickle, providing excellent rests. Thankfully, the cracks that we had seen in the Sickle were small enough to be stepped over. We were clear of the rock or ice fall hazards by 9am and were just left with the slog up to the summit. Brendan kicked steps all the way up to the top and I still had a hard time keeping up with him. He was handling the altitude much better than I. We hit the summit at 12:15pm and didn’t see a single person up there. In fact, I hadn’t seen anyone (Besides Brendan) in two days. Looking back at lower and upper St. Andrews rocks from the center of the Tahoma Glacier. Our route onto the glacier was just to the right of this photo: Climbing in the Sickle: Summit! We made camp, napped and then started exploring the summit ice caves. Brendan was looking for plane wreckage and a lake that is reportedly up there, but all we found was garbage and blue bags. Some of the rooms were quite warm and steamy and the drips from the roof provided a great water source that saved us from burning up all of our fuel to melt snow. Camp in the summit crater: Ice caves: At 8:20 we made another trip over to the summit for a spectacular sunset. Lingering at 14,400’ proved to be more difficult for me. I’ve summited Rainier 5 times prior to this and have always slowed down at around 13,000’ but have never felt sick. I didn’t get any sleep on the summit. I had a nagging low grade headache and by midnight or so was quite nauseous. We thought about packing up and leaving the summit during the night, but I never felt like I was in danger. I was just annoyed that my body wasn’t cooperating with me. At 3:30am we heard the shouts of the first people I’d seen in 3 days. A team of 12 had just summited. At 4am another team arrived with fireworks. The DC route can be ridiculous. We packed up at 5am and began our descent down the DC. It was a stark contrast to the isolated Tahoma and was both entertaining and frustrating at times. The traffic jams at crevasse crossings could last 20-30 minutes before you can find an opening to get through. We were still happy for the easy descent provided by the guide services though. There was a wide trail all the way down the mountain and crevasse crossings that would have been show-stoppers for us on the Tahoma now had ladders and hand-lines for easy travel. We were down to Muir at 8:30am where my appetite had returned an we were ready to break out the stove for a morning coffee before our final descent to Paradise. Morning on Rainier’s summit: Hiking down the DC route: The climbing rangers at Paradise helped us out with a pen and paper for a NEED RIDE sign to get back to our car at the West-side road. It worked great. We had a ride in 10 minutes. Thanks!

Awesome work Kyle and Bryce! I'm glad that you got this climb in this season after the false starts.

That looks like a fun route. Beautiful photos!

Nice! Getting up the on Saturday would have been a real challenge, being about 15-20 degrees cooler. I think that I'll continue building a streak of fair-weather winter ascents on Rainier. I like the quiet that you get on the mountain in winter, just not the extreme cold.

Trip: Mt. Rainier - Gibraltar Ledges Date: 2/23/2015 Trip Report: Jon, Dylan and I ascended the Gibraltar Ledges route during a good break in the weather on Monday Feb. 23rd. Thanks to several good trip reports from January, Gib ledges was back on my radar. I asked Jon, who I had climbed the Ingraham Direct route with two years ago in January, and he was stoked to go. Dylan was also ready for another Rainier trip and that rounded out our group to a nice rope team of three. The hike up to Muir was gusty at times and we were thankful that we managed to shift our climb to Sun-Mon and a more favorable forecast. We got up to Muir an hour before sunset to meet a group from Colorado and another group of three. It was really fun to stay in the shelter in winter. With the good weather, it was busy there, but not overly crowded and there was a community feel between all of the groups there (sharing snow shoveling duties and spare water). Still, bring earplugs if you want to stay in the Muir shelter, and even with those, none of us managed to get any sleep. We were the first group out on Monday morning at 4am, the other two left closer to 5am. We were on the ledges at first light and steadily moved across this no-fall terrain. The ledges are in reasonable shape, but there are a couple of attention getting moves over crumbly rock right now. The exit chute was a welcome sight and was easy climbing on firm snow to the top of Gib rock. We took a lengthy break there and gathered ourselves for the trudge ahead to the summit. Dylan is a beast in the low-lands but the altitude was getting to him. My water hopelessly froze and I bonked shortly after Gib Rock too. Jon took the lead and charged ahead. What a slog that final section is! There was a small lenticular forming on the summit when we got there, so the cold winds picked up and there were no views. I feel like we earned our winter ascent a little bit more with these conditions rather than the warm, sunny skies we had last time during an inversion (when someone actually hiked up to the summit in a T-shirt and shorts!). Dylan gathered himself, and left some of his breakfast at the crater rim. I staggered across the crater rim with Jon in search of the true summit. I’ve usually enjoyed the flat hike across the crater with blue skies and the summit in view, but this time was that special kind of misery that only mountaineers can fully appreciate. We tagged it and got the hell out of there. Back to the sunny skies and what felt like warm temperatures below (though I must be mistaken because no matter what I did, my water tube would not thaw). We descended the Ingraham Direct route which is quite broken up. We made a line staying skiers right to stay away from the main path of the icefall (some of which has recently fallen down the majority of the glacier). We nearly got dead-ended at the bottom, we went all of the way right (next to Gib rock) and found a few blocks stuck in the crevasse, which we could climb onto and back out of again and we were home free! Back at Muir we were greeted again by other parties and offered freshly brewed warm recovery drinks for our hike out. There were so many friendly people on Rainier this weekend. Thank you! As we packed our tired bodies back into the car on the way home and asked the usual question, “why do we do this?” I know that the people that we meet on these trips are at least part of that answer. Approach: Sunset at Muir: Gib Ledges: Exit chute: Hiking across the crater in search of the summit. It was a rare treat to have the entire summit of such a huge peak all to ourselves: Navigating the Ingraham maze:

Trip: Enchantments- Flagpole and Little Annapurna - Date: 6/14/2014 Trip Report: Craig, Vern and I climbed the strange little formation on the side Pennant Peak known as the Flagpole on Saturday in just under 19 hrs car-to-car. I’ve been coming to the Enchantment area to climb for several years now, hitting many of the major moderate routes, and repeating several of these routes again. I love the area, but I was looking for a new adventure. Craig was in a similar predicament. What do you do when you begin to run out of new things to climb? The answer became obvious as we stood atop Argonaut Peak a couple weeks ago and noticed the Flagpole off in the distance. Neither of us had set foot on its airy little summit. This subpeak of the nearby Pennant Peak (which is a subpeak of Little Annapurna in itself) probably goes unnoticed by most, but in 1950 Fred Beckey and Pete Schoening bolted a line up the north side of the spire, making this objective possible for the moderate climber. Fast forward to 2014 and I doubt much has changed, “These bolts aren’t getting any younger”. Armed with as much beta as we could gather from John Plotz and Kyle Flick’s ascents a few years back Craig, myself and Vern set out for the Flagpole. We left the Stuart Lake Trailhead at 4:15am ready for a long day ahead. The all too familiar trail to Colchuck Lake and Aasgard pass went by quickly in the cool early morning. We crested Aagard Pass at around 8 am. We chose to approach the Flagpole by descending the prominent col between Little Annapurna and the Witches Tower. From the col we descended nearly 1000’ to traverse below a few rock ribs before regaining the elevation and being situated just two short pitches below the final aid pitch up the Flagpole. I got these couple of pitches; the first being not much more than a scramble (Vern actually did just scramble it). The second pitch was real, even if just for a move or two; an old bolt protects smear in a shallow, flaring corner crack. Approaching the Flagpole via the col Climbing the second pitch of the Flagpole Craig took the lead of the final aid pitch up the Flagpole. The old bolts held. There’s a sizable gap between the fifth and (now) sixth bolt were one was broken at some point though. Thankfully Craig is a tall guy, I couldn’t have made this reach. An old #3.5 and an old #5 cam (similar to a new #6) allowed him to aid through the final wide crack to the arête. Once on the arête, there are a couple of 5.7 moves with some wild exposure to the top of the formation. Vern and I followed, aiding the route while on top-rope. The summit surprisingly fit all three of us well enough. If anyone out on Little Annapurna saw us all crammed up there and got a pic, we forgot to take a proper summit photo! There is an old bolt, old pin and a shiny 3/8” bolt for a rappel. Two 60m ropes reached the top of the first pitch, though one could make an additional rappel from the top of the second pitch and avoid carrying the extra rope. Aiding up the Flagpole The final 5.7 moves that gain the top Back at the base of the Flagpole, we contemplated our options. The snowy exit gulley (just west of the true summit of Little Annapurna) looked too steep, icy and melted out to ascend with flexible boots. We debated going back the way we’d came, but that would involve loosing and gaining 1000’ in slushy snow. We consulted the internet again and found a nice TR for a south face rock climb of Little Annapurna and set our sights that way. We walked a few hundred yards, scrambled a couple hundred feet up a gulley on the left of the main summit and roped up. An easy 4th class ramp system led right from the gulley, then easy 5th class straight up to a few feet west of the summit. Craig and Vern each led a short simul-climbing block up this route and we were on the summit in just over an hour after departing the base of the Flagpole. No lengthy traverse back to our original col, fun and easy climbing, and a bonus summit. Sweet! South Face of Little Annapurna Easy ramp begins the roped climbing Then straight up to the summit Bonus summit of Little Annapurna Since we saved a little time there, Craig and I opted to continue on for the full value trip down through the rest of the Enchantments and out the Snow Creek trailhead. Vern was not convinced by our “logic” and opted for the 6 mile return trip down Aasgard instead of the 12 mile return through Snow Lakes. Vern as well as other friends and Craig’s wife, who had hiked to Lake Vivian via snow lake that day helped sort out the cars and somehow everyone (and their cars) ended up were they needed to be and Craig and I received leftover Mexican dinner upon our return. Friends rock! Getting ready for our long walk home Little Annapurna and the Flagpole Thanks for a great trip guys. I love long days in the mountains! Gear Notes: Crampons and an ax were useful for descent from the col to toward the Flagpole Very light rack + a #6 (new) camalot Small biners for old hangers and extra cord to thread through them if carabiners don't fit. Approach Notes: Nearly snow free all the way up to Aasgard Pass. The upper Enchantments are still holding a lot of snow.

Trip: Argonaut - NE Couloir + Colchuck Date: 5/31/2014 Trip Report: This past Saturday Brendan, Jerry, Craig and I linked up the NE Couloir of Argonaut with Colchuck peak for long and awesome day in the mountains. We got out of Seattle fairly late, so went straight to the Stuart Lake Trailhead with sleeping bags and mats ready to go. We probably managed a good 4 hrs of sleep before the alarm went off at 3:50am. Craig punctually met us at 4am, so we didn’t get a chance for coffee, but this early start would pay off big for the rest of the day (with cool morning temps and solid snow). We were on the trail at 4:30am, with Brendan setting a wickedly fast pace we made great time to the point where you break away from the Stuart Lake trail and start brush bashing up Mountaineers creek. Happily for us though, brush bashing was kept to a minimum as we managed to navigate the approach perfectly (Craig was a big help as he knew exactly what not to do given an attempt he made years ago, and another successful climb he made of the route after that). I doubt that I’ll ever hit it quite this good again. We were staring at the brush-free slopes of Argonaut by 7am. Snow started fairly low down allowing for minimal rock-hopping and a very straight forward approach to the NE couloir. We were already on the route by 8:30am. Perfect firm snow, thanks to our early start, and convenient steps from a party a day or two ago allowed us to cruise up the couloir. We never felt the need to even break out the rope. We followed the couloir to its end. From here and short, low-angle, hand-crack in a dihedral gained the upper snow slope. This was easily managed in boots without the need for a rope (though we did bring the rope along for a rappel back down the rock section). The traverse across the upper snow slopes was the most mentally challenging part of the day. We could easily plunge our tools all the way to the head in slushy snow. It was before 11am, and I would not want to be crossing that slope much later in the day. Next was some fun scrambling that brought us underneath of the leaning summit pillar and to a final 10’ climb onto the summit. We summitted shortly after 11am and didn’t linger too long, eager to get the snow slopes over with. Once we finished crossing back over the upper snow slopes, we did a single rope rappel to the top of the couloir, a double 60m rappel down toward the east gulley brought us to a good anchor and a final 60m rappel brought us onto easy snow slopes below. We regrouped on a rock outcrop at 1pm and got ready for our next summit, Colchuck peak. A scenic flat hike brought us past a really cool rock outcrop in an area of the Enchantments that I’ve never been before, which is always fun. Now began the most physically challenging part of the day. We could have just cruised up to the Colchuck col and been on our way down, but we had another summit to tag! The summit of Colchuck was another 1000’ gain up softer afternoon snow. We took turns kicking steps, as we were all pretty tired by now. “Huh, it feels like I’ve already done something like this today”. We arrived at the summit of Colchuck at 2:45pm. Down the Colchuck glacier side, the snow was continuous all the way to the lake. We had had such perfect conditions so far, that we could hardly believe it. I was able to step off the snow covered boulder field and onto a perfectly dry trail straight to the car. Sweet. We were back down at 6:15pm. This was a fantastic linkup in the Enchantments that covers a lot of ground and goes through some more remote-feeling terrain, but is still very manageable in a day with light packs! Photos! The trick to a happy approach is the snowfield on climber’s right. Whatever you do, don’t go into the slide alder on the left. Snow slopes approaching Argonaut Narrowest point in the couloir Upper couloir Short hand crack that gains the upper snowfield snowfield Final summit scramble of Argonaut Summit #1, Argonaut! Traverse to Colchuck Argonaut from Colchuck’s summit. You can see our tracks in the upper snowfield. Our ascent couloir is on the right, our descend was alongside the left side couloir. Summit #2, Colchuck! Gear Notes: 2 60m Ropes for rappels We took a light alpine rack for the couloir, but didn't use it Approach Notes: Snow where we needed it, bare trail where we didn't.

We just did this trip today, conditions are perfect for this climb right now. Approached via mountaineers creek to the NE couloir, descended by rapping into the east gully (you'll want two 60m ropes to reach the same rap station as we did), then walked over and tagged Colchuck. We did it in just under 14 hours CTC. So much fun!

Cool bivy spot. We were watching your headlamps on Saturday night and trying to figure out which route you were on. Nice job on the west ridge in the deteriorating weather, the north side was nicely protected, but as soon as we crested the ridge it was windy!