Trip: Roosevelt + Kaleetan + Chair Peak
Date: 9/10/24
Trip Report:
tl;dr: Alpental -> Roosevelt standard route -> Kaleetan White Ledges -> suuuuper roundabout way to access the NW ridge of chair -> standard Chair descent -> Alpental.
Having scrambled up all three of these peaks independently, I had some suspicion that a linkup was possible that started and ended at Alpental. The intention was to make this a similar-feeling neighbor to Climber Kyle's CURL -- not a pure circumnavigation of a basin, but a fun peakbagging romp with more than enough no-fall terrain to make things interesting. I met up with Marc to realize this goal, thinking that we'd scramble up Roosevelt, then follow the North Ridge of Kaleetan (5.2?), and then go up the West Face of Chair (Beckey 4th, no TR's that I can find). Emphasizing again, this is a scramble, so no ropes allowed. We did bring rock shoes and are both glad we did.
We started up towards Snow Lake at 7:20AM, and enjoyed the easy trail until maintained trails gave way to social trails as we approached Mount Roosevelt. It was great to meander around Snow Lake with none of the weekend hordes. Mount Roosevelt, is an easy class 3 dirt slog, with a few fun rock moves towards the top -- certainly interesting enough to make it into the linkup. From here we descended the standard route, and then cut south to enter the gulley just SSE of Roosevelt, setting our sights on Kaleetan.
We ascended the loose dirty gulley to gain the notch of N Ridge Kaleetan, enjoying a short low-fifth step to access the notch. We then followed easy ledges and scrambling on the west side to gain the ridge proper and take a gander at the knife-edge of Kaleetan. My head game has been out of whack lately, so as we both eyed up the knife-edge and the true start of Kaleetan's North Ridge, both Marc and I decided that it looked a little too spooky for how we were feeling that day. We revised the plan to instead take Melakwa Pass to the White Ledges of Kaleetan. So back down the dirty approach gulley and over Melakwa pass we went.
The White Ledges are truly a joy -- definitely a much more fun way to get up there than the standard route, and much faster, too! A quick jaunt up let us sight what seemed to be a viable line up Chair Peak. Foolishly, I ignored everything written in the Beckey bible (route description, topo, etc), apparently forgetting that I had taken photos of Beckey the day before. Turns out the White Ledges also make a stellar descent route, too!
Instead of adhering to the West Face 4th class description, we opted to take an easy left-leaning gulley approximately 0.5mi north of upper Melakwa lake. The plan was to ascend this gulley and then zig to the south, eventually gaining enough elevation to traverse south along what we spied as a ledge system near the summit and eventually suss out a route up the summit block. We reached the base at 4:30PM and started up the gulley. The initial going was easy third class slab, and at a junction of two ascending gulleys, we opted to go up and right with some fourth class grassy sidehilling. We ultimately probably ascended too much and found ourselves very close to the NW ridge. Continuing to traverse underneath the gendarmes seemed exceptionally treacherous, so we took our chances and peered over a notch in the ridgeline. The east slope seemed like much easier going but offered minimal promise of regaining the ridge. There was some discussion of bailing since we were explicitly trying to avoid sustained class 5 travel and were running the risk of losing the light.
We dropped off the notch onto the east side and were sighting possible exit opportunities, when an easy-looking gulley/couloir presented itself, one gendarme to the south. The time was now 5:20, and we had roughly 2 hours before headlamps would have to come out. Wanting to give the summit the old college try, we decided to regain the ridge and see what we could see. I was thoroughly sketched out so I paused to don rock shoes while Marc ascended the gulley in his approach shoes. Stemming up this dihedral felt slightly committing and definitely something I didn't want to undo. I caught up to Marc who was perched on a ledge beneath a chockstone guarding the ridge. He was a little stuck and wanted to see if I had any ideas. I stepped out to the right, doing a short sequence that felt mid-5th class with serious consequences.
Back on the ridge, we were still flummoxed by a line of gendarmes. We were generally pretty unhappy here, since this no longer felt like scrambling. I vaguely recalled that the NW ridge of Chair goes at 5.7. Faced with the option of trying to find some unknown cliff-free descent to bail or just to solo the 5.7 route to unlock the 3rd class South Shoulder descent, we reluctantly decided to keep ascending. We traversed under the next gendarme on the W side and then regained the ridge proper in a chimney with a chockstone. Here Marc switched to rock shoes and we started up the 5.7 NW ridge. Most of the moves were low-fifth on rock of dubious quality, but aside from a move or two that felt slightly harder, everything felt fairly easy and it was a really pleasant climb! Maybe above my pay grade for a solo, but very attainable. It was comforting to be back on a "known" route -- we even saw a few pins at an obvious belay stance! Taking our time, we reached the true summit at 6:30, with ample time to descend the circuitous sections of the standard scramble route up Chair.
Headlamps came out at some point, talus was hopped over, we made it back to the cars around 9:40PM for a 14h20m c2c.
Photos:
N. Ridge Kaleetan
Best guess of the line we took up Chair
Better topo I stole from the internet somewhere showing the NW ridge of Chair.
Gear notes:
Rock shoes were really nice to have. If early season, I'd want to bring an axe and some traction. Rope and rack not necessary.
roosevelt-kaleetan-chair-91024-71853-am (corrected).gpx
