Val Zephyr

Nice job on the route! I've been up at the top of the icefall/couloir route twice and both times have skipped the final scramble to the summit. I've wondered if I should have gone for it. It sounds like it is as bad as it looks. I have heard that the upper NR may have better rock. Perhaps one could take the icefall to the NR, bivy there (I've heard of a good bivy there), then descend via the east or west ridges? Anyone know which ridge, the east or west, is more straightforward? Just thinking....

I agree, I slightly underestimated how long the route would take me. Next time (and there will be a next as this is definitely worth repeating), I will get an earlier start. Luckily, we only had a late night of moderate discomfort. It was still an enjoyable trip for me.

Trip: SEWS - Direct East Buttress Date: 9/3/2011 Trip Report: Jasmine and I climbed the Direct East Buttress of South Early Winter Spire on Saturday. It was Awesome. My plans to be a good grad student and get something done this weekend after a long string of trips were quickly thrown aside when Jasmine mentioned Washington Pass with a perfect forecast. The shoulder season is approaching…. Perhaps my weekends can wait until then to mellow out? I immediately began thinking about the Direct East Buttress of SEWS. I’ve gotten a good look at this clean piece of rock every time I’ve driven over Washington Pass. It is long, steep and beautiful. The exposure from a place like this would be greater than anything I’ve done. Jasmine was up for the challenge too. We drove over the pass Friday night and met up with a few of Jasmine’s friends who also had plenty of plans to climb over the long weekend. After getting to know everyone a bit around the campfire, we divided into teams for the following day. Two would climb the SW Rib of SEWS, three would climb the East face of Minuteman tower, and Jasmine and I would have a go at the Direct East Buttress of SEWS. We got going a little later than we should have for the long day ahead, but still felt that we’d have time to complete the climb. By 8:45 we were hiking up to the route. The approach is 2 hours and fairly straight forward; there’s a climber’s trail up the main gully just the south of SEWS, then some brush bashing and navigation between small cliff bands to reach the base of the route. To our surprise, we found Jasmine’s three friends descending from near the base of our route. They were a ways from Minuteman Tower… Rather than hiking down and fixing the botched approach, they joined us for SEWS. Unfortunately for them, this climb was a carryover (unlike Minuteman would have been), so they ended up hauling their big packs full of boots, crampons and ice axes up this long route, never once touching snow. Two easy pitches (low/mid-fifth) gain the central left-facing dihedral on the face (the crux of the climb if you do not plan to free the later bolt-ladders). This 165’ pitch goes at 5.9+ with a small, but intimidating, roof. We figured we’d eat up some of our daylight on this one. Similar to our Squamish trip last June, Jasmine and I tag-teamed this pitch. Jasmine led up to about 10’ below the roof. Low on gear and nerves, she lowered and I regained some gear and finished the pitch. We’d love to be better climbers with nerves of steel and do pitches like this in style, but for now this seems to work. Meanwhile the guys patiently waited below and passed the time by interviewing each other about why they had chosen to spend their long weekend stuck at an awkward belay in a tree. We were burning daylight and needed to speed up now. Jasmine styled the 5.8 and we arrived at the bolt ladders at 4pm (I am still amazed that we were this slow until this point). Luckily we had only 2 hard pitches ahead of us, then 3 cruiser pitches to the summit. Unfortunately for the guys, who were just along for the ride, they did not know that the final pitches eased up considerably and thoughts of epic-ing on this steep exposed face were ever present. I see now how this could be quite stressful. I began up the first bolt ladder: 14 bolts, followed by a fun flake, then a three bolt traverse to a final 10a crack. The bolts can be freed at 11a. We freed as much of this as possible to save time, but anything goes on these aid pitches and there was plenty of draw yanking. As was the theme with this climb, this pitch was another surprisingly long one! Bring a good selection of small/medium gear for the final 10a crack. The pitch ends at a small ledge with a gear belay (I stuck in a #3, #4 and a yellow TCU, luckily these fit as they were pretty much all I had left at this point). Jasmine continued up a little further on 5.8 terrain to an intermediate belay to free up the small ledge for the guys. From there, Jasmine continued up another, shorter, bolt-ladder or 5.11 free climbing followed by two awkward 5.9+ mantels on good bolts with minimal gear needed. We reached a nice ledge and the end of the difficulties. Three enjoyable pitches of mid-fifth gained the summit at sunset, beautiful (though a little close for comfort). Jasmine and I were on the summit at 7:30, joined by two others (from a different party) from the SW Rib, and the guys at 8pm. I botched the descent, following boot tracks and rap anchors into the wide gully (I should have traversed south passed the top of the wide gully and down a small gully of the South Arete route). Sooo… the now seven of us spent a cold and tedious 4(?) hours making our way down the rappels in this chossy gully. We couldn’t even save time by leap-frogging the several ropes down because anyone rappelling below someone rappelling from above would be in the path of plenty of rockfall. Seven of us, one at a time, was the only way to go. I believe that at some point that night, another interview about “why did you choose to spend your night huddled under a giant chockstone at the base of a chossy gully?” occurred. To top off our night, two ropes got stuck on a double rope rappel halfway down the gully. If anyone finds themself in this nasty place and is feeling generous, we’d love to get the ropes back! Jasmine and I thoroughly enjoyed this route. We were looking for a challenge and a little adventure (we got it). I found out later, that the guys were looking for a mellow weekend after a long string of their own adventures and long nights….. sorry guys, thanks for coming along though! Photos! The Direct East Buttress of SEWS mostly follows the line between sun and shadow here. The crux (if bolt ladders are aided) is the middle left-facing dihedral (I’d draw a line, but I’m borrowing a MAC and don’t really know how to use it). Happy climbing on P2: Jasmine finishing the 10a finger crack on P5: Someone still owes this guy a beer for freeing the first bolt ladder! I watched the shadow of the Washington Pass crags as I creeped up the hillside across from us. It’s time to speed up! The guys coming up the tricky, hard to protect 5.8 section after the first bolt ladder: One easy traverse pitch to go! A fine end to an exciting climb: Gear Notes: Lots of draws, alpine draws and a few longer slings to minimize rope drag, medium rack up to one 4" piece. We brought a #5 too (because I suck at offwidth), but this section is very short, protectable by smaller gear and big pieces are unnecessary. Save some weight!

I messed up the descent on SEWS Saturday night (followed friendly looking rap slings and foot steps down a nasty gully). Anyway, 4+ hours later, we are out two ropes. They are stuck at a rap station in the middle of this gully. If some suffered the same fate, managed to free the ropes and is feeling generous, let me know. Thanks!

Trip: Prusik - Stanley-Burgner (Sister's Trip 2011!) Date: 8/29/2011 Trip Report: An annual tradition Hayley and I began in 2005 is to find a trip/route that challenges us and to complete it as a sister’s team. This tradition is more important now than ever before as Hayley is now in Baltimore and we only see each other once or twice a year. This year, Hayley had a short trip planned in WA and our window for this trip was rapidly closing as her departure date neared. She had plans in Vancouver through Saturday night, but offered up a crazy idea. I would be in the Enchantments with Nathan on Sat-Sunday. What if she met me up there on Sunday evening and we climbed the Stanley-Burgner route on Prusik peak? I was skeptical. Could she really leave Vancouver at 6am, drive to Leavenworth, and hike up to the top of Aasgard pass by Sunday evening? She seemed to think so. We each got radios with the plan to turn them on Sunday afternoon. If Hayley could make it, Nathan would leave his climbing gear and sleeping gear at Aasgard and I would wait for her to show up. After a long two days of Nathan and I carrying an overnight pack and half a rack all around the Enchantment basin, we sat at the top of Aasgard, ready to head home. I took out the radio to find that it had already been accidently turned on in my pack! With the final bit of juice from the dying battery, I radioed to my sister, not really expecting an answer. “I’m at the bottom of Aasgard Pass” she responded. The trip was a go! Nathan ditched almost all of his gear and ran down the trail with a light pack. Hayley joined me an hour and a half later with a light pack containing additional cams and food. The gear switch, something we’ve wanted to do for years, was a success! Hayley and I found a comfortable bivy and tried (but failed) to get some sleep for the long day ahead. We made our way over to the route and were beginning our climb sometime just after 9am. The first pitch is a long, stiff 5.8. Actually, almost all of the pitches seemed stiff for the grade, because many have off-width portions. I fought my way through it. It was a fun pitch, but challenging for a 5.8. Hayley followed in fine style (after two years in Baltimore, she’s still got it!). She took over from there and led the only moderate pitch on the entire route (the rest are in the 5.8/5.9 range). I got the 3rd, “easy knobs at first, but a fall here would ruin your day” a line in a TR I’d read about the route echoed in my head. After the knobs, I ran out more of the rope up a chimney/gully until rope-drag was a pain and I had a nice belay ledge. Hayley finished the chimney/gully with the hope of tunneling through the chockstone. She stopped at its base, low on cams and low on mental stamina; this thing looks pretty ominous. I tunneled through. It was actually really fun and not too hard, though I can see how it might be harder for those taller than Hayley and I. Hayley attached the pack to the rope ahead of her, and I put them both on belay so that she could direct the pack through (it really is quite a squeeze). This worked well. We had made good time up to this point, which was necessary because the final two pitches would completely destroy us. The sixth pitch was a flaring chimney (much like the chimney on Aries that I can’t climb all that well). I floundered a bit and resorted to yanking on cams (surprisingly still very exhausting). We hauled the pack here too, to give Hayley a chance at climbing this thing. Several minutes of grunting and cam yanking later, Hayley escaped the chimney. “Sorry for what I am about to do to you #1, and you too #2” Hayley joked as all sense of style was out the window on this pitch. We sat at the base of the crux pitch, a 140’ 5.9+ after just getting our asses handed to us by the much shorter 5.9. Ok, here goes! I loaded up every piece of gear possible (and we had brought a lot for this one) and set off. About a third of the way up a nice belay ledge appeared. I split the pitch into two sections to regain more cams and to regain my nerve (knowing that the crux was still ahead). As I worked my way up, it got harder and steeper. Finally I reached the last stretch of handcrack, with the crux being the final move. I jammed the first bit well, it felt great. Then the crack widened… I reached for the #5 friend. I again researched this part quite well and knew that the final move was protected by a #5 camalot. But the #5 friend didn’t fit, no matter how badly I wanted it to go, there was no way. Fuck. I was about 7’ above my last piece with no other options for pro. I jammed my shoulder into the wide crack next to me to “rest”. Another line from another TR ran through my head, “best top out EVER!”. And it was the best top out ever, because I went for it (a side pull, foot smear, step over thing) and I topped out! Horay! Hayley joined me on the summit thoroughly exhausted. We had spent 7 hours on the climb. Luckily for the first time ever, the rappels went without incident. I guess after 3 times of friction issues and rope stuckage, I’ve learned how to best avoid this on the descent. Though the Beckey guide calls for a double rope rappel, it can be done with a single 60m rope (I’ve eyed intermediate stations on previous trips). Use caution on these as they are just big detached blocks, but they work. We booked it to Aasgard and made it to the lake before dark! Then exhaustion set in, and we made our way down the long trail (didn’t seem that long on the way in!). A stop at Jack-in-the-Box for a 1:30 am breakfast (another sister’s tradition) finished off another memorable sister’s trip. Photos! The classic Prusik pic First pitch Hayley, ready to lead P4! Comfy belays The chockstone The flaring chimney on P6 Looking out of the crack from hell The crux pitch: Hayley ascends the crux pitch! Topping out! Random goat with good lighting on descent A fine end to Sister’s trip 2011! Until next year!

We rapped off of a horn on a huge rock on the ridge. It worked really well, especially since you can cruise the snowfield right now. I'd love a copy of the photos that you took of us! I'll send you me e-mail address via PM. Thanks!

Nice TR! It kind of makes me want to climb J-berg... and I didn't think that I'd ever be saying that.

Trip: Torment-Forbidden Traverse - Date: 8/20/2011 Trip Report: I know there's a ton of TRs here about this route, but it changes considerably from year to year (so I hear). Here's what it looks like this year. Apparently, there's quite a bit more snow up there now than there usually is most years in July! ------------------------------------------------------------- Ian, Ben and I completed the Torment-Forbidden Traverse, a fantastic mile-long route that, while not too technically demanding in any one aspect, uses every skill you have as a mountaineer, plus a little ingenuity in spots. This began on Thursday at noon with a plea for partners by myself. Ian and Ben quickly jumped on the chance for the TFT in such great conditions and I was so happy to have a good team on such short notice. I’ve have several “attempts” at this route over the last two years that have ended in the planning process and wanted to finally have a go at it! Ian was joining the trip fresh out of a long Peru trip (he got home Thursday at 3pm!), so we decided to wait to leave Seattle until Friday morning. A navigational error later (Ben and I were talking about hand cracks and missed the turn for HWY 20) and we were finally hitting the trail by 9:30 am. We made quick progress up to Boston Basin and took a quick lunch break at one of the last trees that offered shade somewhere just after leaving the trail. It was at this time that Ian realized that his camera wasn’t working. Well, no sense carrying a DSLR and a tripod on a long climb if you can’t even use it. We stashed it under the “lunch tree” next to the “big bush”. A couple more hours of hiking brought us to the notch at the base of the South Ridge. The notch can be easily gained right now (no moat issues to speak of) which is why I picked this route over the SE Face route. To climb the South ridge route, begin just to the other side of the notch from where you came up (this can be done by either traversing up and climber’s left on rock from the notch or by walking on snow, if available, to gain a nice ledge with a chimney on the right and a dihedral on the left). Take the dihedral and continue climbing up and left for a few rope-lengths. The route follows a long string of rap slings that never make it unto the ridge but stay well to climber’s left of it, enters into a “scoop” formation and up to the SE face. We continued roped up until the top of the SE face and unroped for the final scramble to the summit. Lots of ridge ahead of us! First pitch of Torment, the notch is to the right of the climber: Somewhere on the SR of Torment: The “scoop”, head straight for the notch in the middle: Summit of Torment! A mile of ridge ahead! My original hope had been to get past the steep snow field on the first day, but it was getting late at this point (maybe 5:30 or 6pm?), I figured that we could at least make it to the first bivy (that I knew of), just before the steep snow to camp. We made our way to the rappel. This ended up being one of the cruxes of the route for us. Ian peered over the edge to find that there was no way that we were going to reach the snow on the other side of this gaping moat (it was at least 10 feet away from the rap line). This is where we had to get a little creative. We re-routed the rap line to the end of a rock outcropping near the rappel station. From here Ian was just a couple feet out of reach of the snow. While dangling from the rappel, Ian got his ax, clipped two slings to it and threw it at the snow numerous times until it finally stuck! He could then pull himself over to the other side. This translated into several minutes of grunting from Ben and my perspective. We re-routed the rappel back to its usual location and, with Ian holding the ends of the rope, he was able to swing us onto the snow. We traversed most of this small glacier with ease. We decided to rope up before a short, steep section that re-gained the rock, because climbing chossy rock with crampons on warranted a rope. I led out here and after some swearing (climbing rock in crampons sketches me out) I found a crappy anchor, but wedged myself into a moat enough to protect a potential slip from Ben or Ian. Back on rock, we ditched the crampons again. It was now dark. Ian continued onward and three careful leads brought us across the fourth-class terrain to where the first bivy was supposed to be. We didn’t see it, and we didn’t want to wander around in the dark anymore, so we made camp under a rock. It was tight, it was bumpy, but we all slept great! Small glacier: Our camp: The next crux of the route for us was getting over the bergschrund that sat between us and the steep snowfield. We opted to rappel into it and climb out the other side. The climb out involved a few feet of stemming up vertical snow. I first tried with my alpine ax and second tool, but was much happier after I borrowed another tool from Ben (amazing how much more grab the tools have over the alpine ax in this situation). After this, the snowfield was a breeze. We followed good steps from the day before across in one simulpitch with two pickets on the traverse and a third as an anchor on the other side. Rapping into the ‘schrund: Getting out of the ‘schrund: The steep snowfield (camp marked in the background): The rest of the route was easy and fast (good thing too as we didn’t make it as far as we had hoped for the first day). We passed a gendarme on third class ledges on the south side, then regained the ridge at the start of the classic knife-edge. The knife edge was really cool, mostly 3rd class, but very exposed. We climbed this in 2 long simulpitches, gaining the base of the west ridge at 2:20pm. The end of the “sidewalk”: We climbed the west-ridge in the same fashion as I did a week and a half ago. One simulclimb, one pitch at the 5.6 crux, and another simulclimb to the summit. Ben got the 5.6 crux pitch. I think this was one of his first alpine rock leads. What an intro to alpine rock! We reversed our steps down the ridge, one simulclimb down to the top of the crux pitch, two rappels and one simulclimb to the base. This works really well! West ridge: Forbidden Summit: We rappelled down the rock beside the couloir (it is amazing how much time rappelling can eat up) and made it through all of the difficulties by dark…. or so we thought. Our final challenge was to find Ian’s camera. It was under the “lunch tree” by the “big bush”, remember? Of course it was also off of the main trail and it was now dark. We wandered everywhere, went back to Boston basin and retraced our steps. Finally we found it! Somewhere near the end of the rappels: Back down at Boston basin again, we tried and tried to cross the creek. This was the hottest weekend of the year so far, there was still a ton of snow up there and the creek was a now raging river. We wandered up trying to find a place to cross with no luck. It was midnight. Even if we did find a place to cross we wouldn’t get down until around 3 am and driving home at that point would be a bad idea. To the dismay of our significant others, we spent an extra night out and crossed first thing in the morning. It did add a night of stress to those back home, but was the better and safer option. The creek was much better after a night of cooler temps! Again, I am so happy to have finally done the TFT and to have had such great partners for this route!

A couple of clarifications on my part too: I respect and typically use the permit system in place in the north cascades. I don’t want to see that area become a zoo either. Us not having a permit that day was honestly a misunderstanding about how to read the zone map at the station. The area that we were originally planning to stay was the same color as the regions around and past Cache col (which I know do not require permits). Still, we tried to wait our turn to double check on that (we were next in line for over 30 minutes), but when we felt that we were burning too much daylight for a long approach, we became impatient and left. I picked the photo that I posted not as a sign of disrespect for the permit system, but because I felt that it best captured the moment. We were frustrated. It was a Mon-Tues climb, we were doing an uncommon route and the area was not going to have too many climbers, we had been planning this trip for nearly a month and I had taken vacation days to do so. This was the single best trip I’ve had all year, and it nearly failed before it ever began because of a technicality. I write up many of my TRs as stories and this encounter, and how we decided to cope with it (the two packs), was a major factor that determined how this trip would go. Sorry if the first photo offended anyone. This really was the best trip of the year, great friends, and a very cool route that I hope others are inspired to try, Thanks for reading!

Thanks for the info! Steph's page is great. I'll print a bunch of those photos out and we should be set to go!

Thanks for the detailed report! I am planning to do the Torment Forbidden Traverse with my sister who is visiting from Baltimore next week. We are hoping to not waste too much time getting up and over Torment, I bet that your description here with route pics will help us out quite a bit. I was already leaning towards the S ridge over the SE face because of the moat issues that seem to be common and time consuming on the SE face. Do you think that the collapsing moat at the entrance to the hidden gully will be an obstacle a week from now, or is that fairly straight forward?

With the moats near the walls of the couloir, you probably won't be able to get in any rock pro. The two short pickets will be nice though. Yes, you can reach the rappels by descending just west of the couloir. It looks like there are several rappel lines on this wall to choose from.

I think that you should be OK getting up the couloir next week. A standard ax for plunging would be best. If you are not completely comfortable on steep snow, you may consider bringing up 3-4 pickets to protect the climb up the couloir. I noticed that a few parties had decided to do this. It is very steep right now and a fall there with the bergschrund below would be catastrophic. Also, for your descent, use the rappels on the rock just west of the couloir (not the ones in the couloir itself). There are moats on the sides that make the rappel stations here hard to reach. We saw two stuck ropes on the way up. It must have been a sad day for someone... Enjoy your climb. It is a beautiful route!

I figured that was usually the case. I just didn't appreciate the threat this time around.

Trip: Forbidden - W and NW ridges Date: 8/9/2011 Trip Report: Jon has spent the last several weeks biking around mountains but hasn’t been climbing all summer. Needless to say he was pretty excited to get on some rock when he returned. We began planning an ascent of the NR of Forbidden as soon as he would get home. Jon’s cousin, Jenny, would also join us. Similar to several of my past trips with Jon, he decided to up the ante a few days before we had planned to go. He began sending TRs and Beckey guide quotes of the supreme quality of the NW ridge, “A mini NR of Stuart”. We decided to be ready for both possibilities and make the call after the approach over Sharkfin col and the forbidden glacier. After a day of rest from the bike trip, the three of us were off to the mountains. Begin rant: Our first hurtle came at the Marblemount ranger station. There were two rangers at the desk and two out of town couples that really wanted to chat. We filled out a climbing register and waited, and waited and waited…. (30 minutes in total!!). As we were waiting we noticed that the area surrounding moraine lake was colored in white while the rest of the permit required areas were in gray. The white region came up to the edge of the NR of Forbidden. The rangers would not be interrupted. Screw it, we’ll camp in the white zone. We left. About 25 minutes into the approach we encountered a park ranger. We let him know that we planned to climb the NW ridge of Forbidden and we were camping in the white region, not Boston Basin or Forbidden glacier. Apparently, this still requires a stupid free permit. But to obtain this permit would require a 1.5-2 hour detour back to Marblemount! A stand-off between us and the ranger developed. We tried several times to get out of this mess. “We’ll just do the WR in a day then”, we lied. He informed us that if we were late from the WR, we’d be fined. Apparently, you can be fined even for unplanned bivies in the north cascades. Since we had filled out the climbing register, they had our information. I always have 1-2 responsible people with my full itinerary anyway. I will not fill out these voluntary registers in the future if it means that I could be fined for not getting out on time and potentially could cause pressure in the future for us to try to get out on time, even when staying until morning would be the safer option. He suggested the unbelievably irresponsible idea of climbing something else outside of the park in the Cache col area. We didn’t have a map, route description, nothing for this area, we would potentially be very underprepared for some other random peak. I was amazed and frustrated with our situation. After several awkward minutes, our path blocked, Jon agreed to head down with the ranger and drive to Marblemount for a stupid piece of paper that we had tried desperately to get in the first place!! Jenny and I decided that we’d haul Jon’s pack up to Boston basin, to save some time. With creek crossings, downed trees, rocks, etc. this was not an ideal trail to carry two overnight packs with glacier and rock gear. But we did. I actually think that Jenny and I had the better of the two options; one can’t waste energy being angry while exhausted. Jon stayed mad until the Marblemount Ranger Station. End Rant. We were reunited at Boston Basin. Jenny and myself and later Jon had all run into a group that had just done the NW ridge. We were surprised because we hadn’t seen too many TRs on this climb. They used the west ridge col rappel descent to reach the base of the ridge. We got some beta from them and decided that we’d do this approach instead. This committed our group to the NW ridge and not the possibility of the NR instead. The couloir was still in, but barely. The snowbridge is solid, but only a couple footsteps wide. With good snow for kickstepping, we soloed the couloir. It was spicy. Finally we arrived at our camp. This is an incredible place to spend a night, one of the best bivies I’ve had and that is saying a lot. After melting some snow for water the next day, and eating dinner, we decided to test out climbing as a team of three (as Jon and I have only cragged with Jenny before). We grabbed headlamps and climbed the West Ridge for a sunset summit. We only pitched out the 5.6 crux and simulclimbed the rest in large blocks. We moved fast, it was wonderful, like a playground of rock in a wild setting. Jenny is a strong technical climber, but this was one of her first alpine climbs. She was satisfied by our sunset climb (she’d actually always wanted to do the west ridge). She decided to hang out and camp and watch Jon and my progress up the NW ridge instead of joining the following day. Jon and I were up early, we had several rappels and some scary downclimbing to do to reach the base of the NW ridge. We ended up doing 7 rappels from camp to get over the huge bergschrund, this included two bollards. I’ve learned about these anchors in my mountaineering class many years ago and hoped to never use one. It is not comforting to trust your life to snow, but they work. We backed up the first rappel, Jon, with a picket. Then I’d pull the picket and go. The final rappel ends in a free hang over the lip of the ‘schrund . NW ridge at sunrise (left skyline): The rappels: Some careful downclimbing on a lesser angle, but still a definite no-fall zone brought us to the base of the climb. We were very happy to be on rock! The first simulclimbing pitch was ugly, Jon had to be very careful not to take me out with rocks. After that though, the ridge is super solid, “like a mini NR of Stuart”. Why don’t more people climb this? …. Oh yeah the sketch-fest approach. Early on the ridge is a little dirty: Another simulclimbing pitch brought us to the ridge crest and the beautiful knife-edge that I’d have to say rivals Stuart’s NR. The setting here is unbeatable. Once the wall steepens, traverse left and up. Don’t go up these inviting cracks: After another pitch up and left, we arrived at the crux pitch; a 5.8 chimney which was protectable, and actually pretty fun (more stemmy than chimney). After this, the wall remained just steep enough to make us pitch it out, but it was mostly mid-fifth, that we could cruise up. Near the top we simulclimbed again to save some time as the climbing had gotten easier again. The west ridge route that we had cruised up and down the night before seemed a lot harder this time. Exhaustion was finally setting in. Luckily, camp was near. Several rappels just west of the gully brought us back to the snow, then the trail by dark. A long, but amazing two days in the mountains. Gear Notes: Ice Ax Crampons Full rack to 2" Approach Notes: West ridge couloir will not be in much longer

Seeing a TR with Boston in the title got me pretty excited. It is rare to hear of anyone else trying to climb this one. Here's my TR from a few years ago. We followed the route description listed in "Summit Routes". http://students.washington.edu/climb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=4336 Additionally here's a photo of the improbable ledges that gain the Boston glacier: the glacier looks like it is a long way down from the ledges, but it goes!

Yeah, there is a surprising amount of snow there still. We did find a small island that had melted out with two tentsites and running water. Great spot!

There are mosquitoes, but they weren't bad; mildly annoying, but I've seen much worse. We brought crampons, but didn't need them (the snow was really soft). I'd still carry them just in case. No rope is needed for this climb, just some exposed class 3 scrambling. Thanks! Things are finally in shape for a very late start to this climbing season. Get out there. We have a ton of missed weekends to make up for.

Trip: West McMillan Spire - Date: 7/24/2011 Trip Report: Doug, Frank, Nathan and I climbed West McMillan Spire last weekend. This was the first summit in the pickets for all of us and the first time into the Picket range for all of us except Frank who has scouted the approach to Mt. Triumph before. I’ve heard that the Picket range is a wild area with no real trails, demanding approaches and big rewards. Though West McMillan is said to be the easiest summit in the Pickets, the route lived up to what I have heard about the range. We covered 20 miles and 9000’ of gain to bag this “easy” peak. We hit the trail shortly after 9am on Saturday. Trails are hard to come by in the Picket Range, but this climb had a surprisingly good climber’s trail. The first 4 miles are on what appeared to be an old road that followed Goodell Creek for 4 miles. The trail was pretty easy going here except for two creek crossings. Being a high snow year and this being one of the hottest weekends that we’ve had all summer, the creeks were running pretty high on the way in on Saturday morning required some searching and some careful rock hoping, the way back Sunday evening would be a different story, but we weren’t going to worry about that now. Easy going for the first 4 miles: The easy creek crossing before the major melting of the weekend took place: Things are about to get steep: And then things were steep: But we finally had some good views, so it was OK: At 4 miles a branch of the trail turns sharply uphill (marked by a rock cairn and arrow). This gains 3500’ in 1.5 miles. The climber’s trail here is still very good, easy to follow, and direct! We were gaining 10 meters/min at times! After the grueling uphill, we broke out into a long snowy traverse northward, gaining a notch and dropping into Terror Basin with a good view of the McMillan Spires and much of the Southern Pickets. The basin is mostly full of snow now except for a small patch with a couple of tent sites and some running water. We made camp and rested up for the long day ahead. McMillan Spires from camp: At 7 am (we slept in..) we started out toward West McMillan Spire. Some snow slogging brought us to the final, exposed class 3 scramble and the summit at 10:30. We enjoyed the views for about 20 minutes (which were pretty good!!) and descended back to camp. Starting out towards west McMillan from camp (route is the left skyline of the middle peak): The final scramble to the summit: This is why we hiked all the way up here! Descending the summit: The rest of the descent went mostly smoothly, finding the beginning of the trail after the snow traverse took a little bit of searching (if you missed it, you’d rapidly be cliffed out). As expected, the creek had swollen a lot since Saturday morning. The first, easier, creek crossing required either: longer legs for jumping (Frank), a better tolerance for wet feet (Nathan) or some shenanigans on some rotten, mossy logs (Doug and Myself). The second, more difficult creek crossing just required everyone to get wet. After some searching we all just gave in, removed our shoes (except Nathan who was already soaked from the creek before) rolled up our pants and carefully make our way across. We arrived back at 9pm, too late for a stop at the Birdsview Brewery, but still not bad for a long weekend out. It is impressive just how remote this range is. I have a good feeling that I’ll be back one day for some of the technical climbs that the Pickets have to offer. Approach Notes: Snow free until the beginning of the traverse, then solid snow.

Nice! I just checked out Banks Lake for the first time this spring. I've been wanting to go back with a boat ever since. I love the relaxed pace of your trip (especially the onsite cooler). For me, that was what Banks Lake was all about: Sun, beach and climbing. Thanks for posting!

Nice onsight! I think that I would actually have to climb the whole pitch in order to judge how classic it is. The clean corner was aesthetic and the gear was good, which are things that I look for in a "classic" pitch. Leading 5.10c trad is a bit of a stretch for me though (I'm more of a 5.9/10a leader now), so my favorite pitch of the day was Memorial Crack.

Dave- Thanks for the alternate start suggestion. I didn't know that there was also a 5.9 option here. We saw a group go up the 5.10c start. It looked sweet! Jon- Wow, a waterfall! I guess we had it easy!

Trip: The Chief - Calculus Crack/Memorial Crack/Squamish Buttress Date: 6/4/2011 Trip Report: Jasmine and I climbed the Chief: taking a line up Calculus Crack, Memorial Crack and Squamish Buttress. This line combined 14 pitches of great climbing to reach the first peak of the Chief. Route shown below in green: We had been planning this trip for over a month. After climbing at Leavenworth with Jasmine we decided that we’d make a good team for a longer outing such as the Chief. We set aside the weekend of the 4th and 5th of June as our climb date, being weather contingent of course. I had little hope of this actually working out, being June in the PNW, but figured we’d give it a shot. As the date approached the weather seemed to be lining up perfectly for the weekend, the only problem was the lingering rain on Thursday. Worried about seeping cracks on the Chief, I became a little obsessed with the web cams in the area. Here’s what the Chief looked like just before we left on Thurs. Eeew. We drove up and hoped for the best. Friday was morning was wet, really wet. We tried the “fast drying crags” only to find them slimy. We hiked up the Chief via the well-maintained tourist trail instead. There is quite a view from the top. It was cool thinking that we might be able to gain this much elevation in one day by just pitching out rock. Trail up the Chief is very well maintained! Top of the Chief Finally the sun was out and Squamish was about to have the warmest weekend of the season. We climbed at the Neat and Cool area of Smoke Bluffs warming up on a few classic 5.7 and 5.8 climbs, then having a go at “Flying Circus”, a 5.10a finger crack. Great climb! Interesting to be cragging almost in someone’s back yard With the warm weather, the crags were drying out fast! We readied ourselves for the Chief the next day, with the plan to bail at Broadway ledge after Calculus Crack if things got too wet. We arrived at the Apron to find several parties planning to climb the Chief, one of which said that it had been climbed on Friday afternoon. It was a go! Calculus Crack has an entertaining start, “yard your way up trees roots and the occasional crack for two pitches”. 5.8. tree climbing! Finally we broke out of the vegetation to a 50m 5.6 twin crack. This long pitch leads to a very small, exposed ledge with a gear anchor in a finger crack. Two nice pitches of finger and hand-sized cracks bring you to the 5.0 granite slabs and the top of Broadway ledge. Tree climbing on P1 and P2 Long 5.6 More good climbing From there, we scrambled up a nasty wet gully and over to the base of Memorial Crack. The base of Memorial Crack is a huge rock ledge with four plaques installed into the wall. I am now curious what they said, but I avoided reading them at the time in case they were similar to the plaque by Air Guitar in Vantage, as that would have been a little unsettling right before my first 5.9 lead on the day. The party ahead shouted down that the crack was wet. Eew. “How wet?” “How comfortable are you leading 5.9 trad?” This was, in fact, a little worrisome. I watched closely as the follower climbed. It looked like it had good gear in all of the wet spots, so we decided to give it a go. Amazingly, Memorial Crack is SO good that it was still a fun lead even when wet! Memorial Crack We had now gained Memorial ledge. A 10 min hike brought us to the base of the 7 pitch Squamish Buttress Route. As is to be expected, the base of the route had a line, nothing too bad really, but about 3 parties ahead and three behind by the time we left. One party included Jenny Abegg. I had run into her when we first arrived at camp on Thurs, Neat and Cool on Fri, and would see her again at Upper Malamutte the next day. I think that the world is trying to tell us to climb together or something… Jasmine strung together P1 and P2 which saved a lot of time and gave us a good lead ahead of the other groups (we’d need this later). Two enjoyable pitches of 5.7 flew by, then the 5.9 (a little wet, but reasonable). We now were staring at the crux 5.10c pitch. Holy shit, it looked hard! The face was steep, smooth and worst of all the shallow groove beneath the fixed piton at the crux was oozing. Interestingly the guide book had claimed, “by pulling on gear on the sixth pitch, the route can be climbed at 5.9”. I didn’t expect this to mean that one had to pull on ALL gear on the sixth pitch… Nobody was behind us for a little while, so we had time to work this out. I had a go at it. I surmounted the first difficulty after a small fall during a bear-hug like move and was pumped from the simultaneous squeezing and stemming, I backed off and gave Jasmine a shot at it. She got up several more feet and had good gear up to the middle of the final cruxy corner. At that point it became very difficult to place gear on lead (no rest and stemming opportunities lost because of the ooze), she made a dash for the fixed piton doing a tiring fingertip layback. With the piton almost in reach, she took a fall of her own. Because of her layback position she ended up upside down. Needless to say, it was frightening. But her gear was good and the fall was clean, so she was fine except for rattled nerves. My turn again. At this point we had another group waiting. They were supportive, but did tease us a little, “Never trust a guidebook!!” I aided the final 15’ of the pitch with generous profanity, “This is not fucking 5.9”, “Yeah, it’s a 5.10c!” they replied. Those who know me realize that swearing by no means indicates that I am not having fun! It was great fun! (type 1.5?). We finally finished the pitch, asses fully kicked. And we were not the only ones, as Jasmine set off for the final 5.6 ledges, I heard heavy grunting from below, then a yell and a “Fuck” that echoed down the South Gully, followed by more aiding. Be ready for this pitch, have lots of small gear (TCUs are perfect!!), and leave some time. We topped out at around 7:30 and were back to the camp at about 8:30 for a full 12 hour day. We met up with Jon, Lisa, Frank, Wendy and Nathan at camp, had some food and promptly fell asleep. Slab pitches 1 and 2 of Squamish Buttress P5 (5.9) on Squamish Buttress Crux pitch Sunday was a lazy day, and lucky too that we were not set on climbing too much because the lines for climbs were horrendous. We did High Mountain Woody at Upper Malamutte, a 45m pitch of 5.9, super classic. Then went over to Up among the Firs at Murrin Park were the joke was “take a number and get in line”. After 2 hours (no kidding!) Jasmine put up a nice 5.10b slab climb in great style. We took a lap on that, got some dinner at Howe Sound Brewery (don’t miss this place if you come through Squamish!) and headed home. High Mountain Woody Thanks Jasmine for being a solid partner, and a very strong climber!

Trip: Leavenworth - Castle Rock and Chumstick Snag Date: 5/22/2011 Trip Report: What a treat it was to have the UWCC campout in Leavenworth this year, one of my favorite places. Leavenworth isn’t only a great place to push one’s limits with its friendly, grippy granite, but it is also a place to explore with miles (both horizontal and vertical) of terrain dotted with crags of all sorts. We got a good share of both tagging steep, classic routes and a little exploration for new (to us at least) crags. With the threat of rain later in the day, Jason and I got an early start up to Castle Rock on Saturday. This was Jason’s first multipitch climb, and he would be following most of it, so I picked a line that would keep things spicy for both the leader and the follower on this trip. We began with the Fault (5.6), a necessary annoyance that gains the next two high quality pitches of lower Castle Rock. Next was P1 of Catapult (5.8.) a corner stemming pitch that gains Stoner’s Ledge, directly below the Bone (5.9). This was my first time climbing the Bone. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks pondering how one gets around the short roof and on top of this imposing structure. The answer was an exciting hand traverse away from the wall, then throw a leg over the bone and you’re up! There were options for pro under the roof and I stupidly used them creating enormous rope drag. Oh well, bonus pitch! Jason followed, a fall at an inopportune spot left him dangling ~5’ from the wall (like I said, we kept it exciting for both parties here!). Luckily, Jason’s long legs came in handy and hey was able to kick away from the wall, swing back and grab the rock once again (one may consider prusiks for the follower, just in case you don’t have the same build as Jason). Jason got to lead the bonus P2 of the Bone and finish up to Logger’s Ledge (the start of upper Castle Rock). Keeping things spicy for both leader and follower, we chose Scary Canary (5.8/9) with the infamous step across. I’ve followed the exciting P2 twice before, but this was my first time leading it. So fun! We ran up to the top, came back to loggers ledge for lunch with Adam and Amelia and pondered how slippery P1 of Angel (5.10b) was going to be. For my first attempt, I went straight for the obvious foot hold. Not the answer here, I slipped right off, catching myself, a little too well, on my solidly jammed fingers. Ouch! Take two, go for the second generation holds, they are a little smaller, less obvious but still have some grip left; at least for now they do. It had been drizzling on and off all day, but right as I got to the top of the 20’ finger crack it was clear that the rain was here to stay. Crunch time. I finished P1 and we headed back to join the rest of the UWCC at camp. Catapult The Bone Canary Top out on P1 of Canary (never a graceful moment) The step across Adam leads Damnation crack (1/2 in the rain!) After a lazy morning, I got back on some more rock. I wandered up to Ski Tracks Crack (5.9) with Nathan and Ethan and got my own Welty photo shoot. Next we joined the rest of the UWCC at Playground point for some more photos (including Sarah’s first lead on gear!). I met back up with Jason, Jasmine and Dylan for a final adventure to end the weekend. Ever since purchasing the new Leavenworth guide, I’ve wondered about Chumstick Snag. An interesting looking sandstone formation without a detailed description of how to locate it. We quickly learned that locating this formation is half of the fun, so I will not leak out any additional information other than what we had in the guide book and on the IPhone. While searching, we were spotted by one of the locals. Local: “I’m just checkin’ you guys out” me:“We’ll perhaps you can help us out, we are looking for Chumstick Snag” (I showed him the photo in the guide book). Local: “that looks like a good way to die. Where are you guys from?” Us: “Seattle” Local: “You came all the way from Seattle to climb a damn mountain?!” He shared stories with us of horseback riding in the Stuart range in the ‘60’s and encountering other crazy mountain climbers with picks, ropes, axes and lanterns! He then told us that he was Ok with us poking around his land in search of the crag, though he had never seen it himself. He just asked that we left a stick on the water truck if we were successful. Some detective work led us to beautiful wild flowers and an open ridge and finally to the crag! The crag itself is similar to Peshastin in rock quality, a little unnerving, but so fun just because it surely is something that you don’t see every day. We all climbed the 5.8 route on the short side of the formation, a bolted wandering route that takes you through cool pockets and past some scary remnants of old pro. We headed back in alpenglow light and left a big stick on the water truck. Classics are classic for a reason, but keep searching for obscurities and you will be rewarded!

Hello, I have a few days off next week (probably my last spring break ever, as I am a first year grad student). Anyway, I am hoping to make the most of it, so Im looking for bc skiing or cragging partners (day trips or more ambitous overnight trips). I can be best reached by phone 360-471-9227. Give me a call and we can bounce off a few ideas for next week. I am up for just about anything, but was really hoping for a three day ski trip mon-wed in either the leavenworth or winthrop area. I have a car , all necessary gear and experience.