Blaszka

Chair Peak North Face Solo + Tooth South Face Solo I woke up at 5am in Seattle, made coffee, and drove over to Alpental. I parked in A7 (which sucks) and headed up at 7am. I got to the base of Chair Peak around 9:30am. Took a few minutes to warm up my hands as the wind had cut through my skimpy fleece layer and I had removed my gloves during the hike. NE buttress looked like it was getting a conga line started and one other soloist went up that way. I was pleased to find no one had started up the North Face yet. After making a delicate move from the snow moat onto the start of the route I started up. The first pitch has a cruxy move where an icy smooth rock bulges for about half a body length. This felt slightly committing to make solo because I felt I wasn’t going to be down climbing that move (I had rope for rapping). But it was easy enough and I was soon under way. The ice felt good with my sticks although it was thin in some parts and I dulled an ice pick by accident. The route had some interesting steep snow traversing on what felt like hollow snow but it was over rather quickly. I summited the North Face around 11am. I got back to source lake around 12:30pm, where I sat around wondering if I should head back to Seattle or make the day more epic by soloing the Tooth. I decided to head to the Tooth to check out my friend’s (Danny Schlitt, Ben Fusel, and Jaro Novak) alpine highline rig and snag the Tooth South Face. I got there around 1:45pm. The booting was chill, with minor post holing. I was stoked to see Danny and Ben each send the highline that they had poured a ton of effort into scouting. Nice work, boys! Such an epic line! The South Face was mostly dry with snow in pockets and sections. I climbed in my boots without crampons and gloveless hands. I summited the South Face of the Tooth with plenty of light to spare. I got back to the car around 5pm. 12.5 miles, 10hrs, 8hrs moving time, 4787ft elevation gain Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFm2yetj960&ab_channel=DavidBlaszka I forgot to turn my GoPro on until after the 1st pitch of climbing (and the crux), but at least I have this footage. Looking up the 2nd pitch. Looking down from the North Face pitch 3? Summit of Chair Peak. Danny cruising on the Tooth highline. Another angle. Ben making the send in socks! Looking down the Tooth. Me summiting the tooth in my heavy bag. Top of the Tooth

Super inspiring! Seems like you left some other lines to be explored up there.

Nice work! One comment is the metal on metal on metal below Tom in that fifth picture.

The Falls were very much in yesterday! I rapped down some route on the left most chains and broke all the death daggers I could before climbing back up. It was fat!