dberdinka

OK, a poor choice of words. How about runout, marginally protected slabs. If I came across a good crack I stopped and belayed as that was probably all I would be getting...

Climb: Slesse-North Rib Date of Climb: 8/9/2004 Trip Report: About six years ago I climbed the Northeast Buttress of Slesse. Like many other climbers, my dreams of Squamish quality crack climbing were quickly replaced by the reality of mossy, metamorphic funk. A lot of belay time was spent looking down on what appeared to be the high-quality granite of the North Rib, another moderate grade V climb established by Jeff Lowe about 30 years ago. I put it on the list of things to do, were it has patiently been waiting. My friend Monkey is a mountain guide. Unlike many mountain guides he actually climbs for himself on his days off! Unfortunately his free time rarely coincides with my own. About a month ago we put plans together to climb the North Rib on Sunday and Monday, August 8th and 9th. After a wet beginning to the weekend we were fortunate to have great weather for the climb. The Approach The approach to the north side of Slesse has gone to hell, plain and simple. We parked just before the first waterbar, only a 5 minute walk from the major washout at 2 miles. The once benign Nesakwatch Creek has ripped out an enormous new channel, crossed on a skinny alder. Beyond here the trail, while still navigatable, is full on thwackage for the first couple miles. With time this approach will only continue to get more suck. At the official Slesse Memorial Site we dropped down into the basin below the Northeast Buttress via more thwackage then crossed the avi’d remains of the pocket glacier to steep forest on the other side. A lot of aircraft debris is still in evidence in the basin, unfortunately we did not find the Chinaman’s Gold as we had hoped. The forest is STEEP! Monkey busted out his little north wall hammer, and I considered putting my crampons on. We nailed the approach and soon broken out into happy marmot-infested meadows where we got our first good look at the North Rib. AAackkk!! We reached the edge of the pocket glacier in about four hours from the car and quickly crossed this to the toe of the rib. A table-size rock went crashing down the glacier behind us, and scattered rock fall could be heard coming down either side of the rib. Not a good place to loiter! The North Rib The route started with 40’ of unprotected 5.8 slab on clean compact granite. This was followed by another 1200’ of unprotected 5.8 slab on somewhat dirty compact granite. A total of 8 pitches got us to the edge of the large snowpatch midway up the rib. We spent about an hour tiling a rough ledge with flat boulders until we had created a rather deluxe bivi site. Water was easily collected from the base of the snowpatch. As night fell we watched a party get lost and eventually bivi on the bypass variation of the northeast buttress. They seemed quite calm about the whole affair. Monkey following the granite slabs low on the route Monkey at the bivi site While the lower part of the rib was more of a broad, rounded face, above the bivi it became a very aesthetic arête. While we were occasionally forced onto its right side, for the most part we followed the rib crest all the way to the notch. In total the North Rib itself took us 20 long pitches of continuously difficult climbing. This is serious business with hard route finding, oftentimes-sparse protection and some scary loose rock. On the other hand the granite is generally solid, there is a ton of great crack and slab climbing and the position is outrageous. I can’t emphasize how sustained the climbing was, almost every pitch was 5.7-5.8 with a 5.9 crux and only a pitch or two of 5.6. Looking up the rib Looking down the rib The Summit Arete It was 1:30 PM by the time we reached the notch, both feeling pretty damn cooked. It would be real easy both mentally and physically to bail down the southside from this point. Yet somehow we managed to suck it up and continue to the summit. The camera batteries were cooked as well so I got no more shots. The arête is steep, sustained, clean and for the most part solid. The exposure down the north face is gut clenching. Three pitches of 5.8 and a pitch of solid 5.9 got us to low angle terrain a pitch below the summit. We topped out around 5:30 PM on Monday after twenty-five roped pitches. I estimate at least 3500’ of sustained rock climbing, making it what must be one of the longest rock routes around these parts. Incredible! Just Freaking Incredible! Getting back to the Car We had originally planned doing the Cross Overpass descent. After coming up the lower part of it on our approach, I’ve decided I’ll go down that way just as soon as I dip myself in pig shit. Instead we took the knee-destroying south side trail. We reached the trailhead and our bikes around 10:30 PM. A long, not as horrible as anticipated, bike ride back to the car commenced which was reached at 12:30 PM. We made it back to Bellingham by 2:30 AM, fuel tanks fully emptied. Gear Notes: A complete set of brass nuts and a nut tool will be your best friend. Medium rack to 3.5”. Pins not necessary.

Awesome! Pics?

That's a little too late and a little too early in the game to be bailing!

I hear that route rocks! Best looking line on Shuksan IMHO.

It's just amazing what great advice you can get on the Internet! So lots of peeps have used the pull cord system any reason to get 6mm instead of 5mm?

Summit boulderfield on Amphitheatre Mountain

Anyone ever done this? I've heard of people justing tieing a really big knot in the main rope so as to jam up against the rappel ring. Rapping then pulling the rope down using a much thinner cord. Sounds like a method fraught with potential disasters. I'm thinking of getting a stretch of 5mm or 6mm cord for light hauling and emergency rapping, per above. (60m by 5mm weights 2.1 lbs! 6mm weights 3 lbs!) Any experience or thoughts on the subject?

You can interpret his reaction in plenty of different ways. please, Please, PLEASE! share with us your interpretation of GW's reaction. PLEASE! "If I don't finishing reading "Little Goat eats a Tulip" the terrorists will have won"

I commend Moore for including real footage of the horrors of war in Iraq. Footage of both Iraqi civilians and American soldiers. It's a shame and disgrace that the major media networks refuse to show the reality of what is going on over there. How do you debunk the tragedy of Iraqi civilians and young American soldiers being blown to bits over there?

You're going to die............

I cam off that peak about a week ago. I don't think we took the easiest way down, however just below the summit is an unavoidable "gap" you'll need to cross. In fact it's more of a crevasse. Really a truly amazing feature. We jumped down it, there is a wedged chockstone that you could cross on then do a move or two to get up. Looked Class 4 with MAJOR exposure into the bowels of the mountain. Have fun. While there I would HIGHLY recommend hiking up to the North Summit of Amphitheatre Mountain (Class 1) from Remmel Lakes. An incredible spot with good energy. Drus option is a bad one. From the summit you move west to the first gap then a good trail leads down to Cathedral Pass.

devilish 5-yr old

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." How True! Sometimes I almost want to give that retard a hug!

That actually looked like a good route, following nice systems of WIDE! looking cracks. There aren't a whole lot of good looking lines on the south sides of those peaks considering the amount of rock. The buttresses of Matriarch are quite slabby and any route would need to wander. Hi scree to rock ratio as well, I'd put my money on Amphitheatre! And yes thats the border...make sure to receive permission first from the nearest offical crossing before wandering across the swath...

So if you can get up the road (got some mileage to the start? or is it kilometerage?) is this one of those climbs with effectively zero approach? You're just on slabs from the car? Looks sweet!

The approach is sweet, almost all on slab! Shouldn't take much longer than the hike to 3 o'clock rock. Bring some beers to stash in the pools part way up. IMHO Dark Rythmn is a good but not great route as it lacks variety, just lots of slab padding. Rain Man is excellent with jamming, laybacking, roofs and slab. Jacobs Ladder is even better. Longer with all the above and some genuine face climbing. The 11c pitch is easily french-freed making the route 10b C0 Westerward Ho is an abomination. Descent is involved the first time you do it. Have fun.

I finally put some of the photos through the splicer. This is the view of Grimface, Matriarch and Macrabe from base camp in Wall Creek. The traverse is dome from right to left. The SE Chimneys of Grimface begin in the dark cleft just right of the white face. South Pillar of Matriarch is the biggest buttress just right of center.

on your trip! However........ thats about the lamest TR ever.

After a spectacular trip to the Pasayten last week I'm putting togehter a trip tob Castle Peak just south of Manning Park. Anyone been there or more particularly done a north side route? All beta and hearsay appreciated!

Do I see the unmistakeable Schnozz of Jason Henry?

I've been pretty disappointed with PT in general. It might be useful for people who don't do jacks&*t, "My knee hurts when I need to get off to couch and go get more soda" but I think it's very difficult to rehabilitate someone who's more like "my knee hurts when I pound out 3000' vert on rough terrain with a 30lb pack". On the other hand I'm really bad about sticking to the stretching and strengthing routines they will give you. With all that said..... Don't know what your problem is but Clare Jones at Bellingham PT seemed to really know her stuff with biomechanics. Ted Molaski at Performance PT has an excellent reputation as well.

A scraggliy looking deer hung close the entire time we were at Cathedral Lakes, just waiting for us to urinate. A mountai goat passed by looking for the same. Other than that no, I was little surprised considering the amount of game trail we followed. Maybe it was too hot out?

Climb: 6 Days and 6 Routes in the Pasayten Wilderness-Part 2 Date of Climb: 7/28/2004 Trip Report: Part 1 Day 4 continued, Monday July 24th ...after passing through the strange clearing in the forest we wandered through more open meadows, huge larch trees and beautiful flowers. Good game trails made for fast hiking and with careful route finding we stood on the shore of Upper Cathedral Lake less than four hours after leaving Wall Creek. Cathedral Peak above Cathedral Lake This area is popular with horsepackers and we saw several such groups. The typical approaches are at least 20 miles and seem to keep out those who choose to walk. We observed only one backpacker and no other climbers during our stay. Camp was established in a larch tree and boulder strewn meadow on the east side of the lake and we celebrated our arrival by breaking out the horsecock sandwiches and Jaigermeister we had so carefully horded during the first half of the trip. While Cathedral Peak was the big draw to the area we were amazed by how close the north-facing buttresses of Amphitheatre Mountain stood above the lake. Unfortunately the rock had significant hues of red and stood above slopes of talus and dirt. Both indicated less than spectacular rock. We decided to at least scout the creatively named Left-Side Route of Middle Finger Buttress. At 3 PM we shouldered our gear and hiked around the lake and up to the route in about 10 minutes. What we found was no less than spectacular. Middle Finger Buttress - Left Side Route Owen standing at the base of Middle Finger Buttress – Left Side Route The climb starts in an obvious right-leaning chimney near the left side of the buttress. After our practice on Grimface I quickly led the classic chimney and established a belay on a nice grassy ledge. The rock was perfect. Owen climbed up, shoulder the rack and proceed to fire off the single best pitch of mid-5.10 crack climbing I have ever done - anywhere. It is that good. After 30 meters he established a belay on a sloping ledge and hauled the pack. As per the Red Beckey Guide, from the belay we moved left, then up a steep crack system to another ledge. Rather than move left again we stepped back right into the continuation of the crux dihedral and climbed a very nice hand crack to the upper low angle ridge. Described as 4th class we discovered that 1970’s 4th class rock is more like 5.5. Regardless the position was excellent, the rock was solid and a good time was had by all as we tossed the occasional perched block into the abyss. On the “4th class” ridgeline The route is CLASSIC and deserves far more attention. It alone is worth the long approach. Once on top make sure to hike to the north summit of Amphitheatre Mountain, it is as sublime a place as I have ever been. To descend head east until you can drop down the obvious scree gully below a wide col. With a little bit of scree surfing it is no more than 20 minutes back to camp. Day 5 July 27, 2004 Southeast Buttress of Cathedral We woke up early and headed out on the extremely tiring, essentially flat 20 minute approach to the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak. The route looked stellar and proved not to disappoint. Using beta posted years ago on CC.com we started from the top of a table size bolder located in an alcove maybe 150 feet up the gully between Cathedral and the Monk. We climbed nine long pitches to the summit. All but one featured great crack climbing on steep solid rock. The headwall of pitch 7 and 8 was impeccable. We bypassed the crux offwidth by a perfect 5.10a finger crack just to it’s right. Approaching the Headwall On Pitch 2 of the Headwall A recently placed summit register recorded no other ascents in the previous three weeks. Slightly shorter and with a lower level of commitment it’s sort of the kid sister to the Beckey-Chouinard on South Howser Tower with perfect granite, steep moderate crack climbing and a white headwall to boot, except the climbing was higher quality. A confusing descent to the west and another long scree-surf brought us back to camp by early afternoon. Ka’aba Buttress “Pilgrimage to Mecca” After swimming and sunbathing for couple hours we still had a long chunk of the evening to kill. It wasn’t very hard to convince Owen that we should climb an obvious series of cracks and dihedrals on the left side of Ka’aba Buttress. It helped that the base of the route was no more than five minutes from camp. Owen starting up Pitch 1 Owen following Pitch 2 After climbing four pitches of great crack climbing on more perfect rock we were back in camp maybe three hours after we left. The third pitch was particularly good following a great finger crack up a solid dihedral before stepping left and climbing steep twin hand cracks. At any crag this would be an extremely popular **** pitch. There was no sign of previous ascents and to our surprise the description of the Doorish Route on the buttress did not match what we had done. On the other hand it’s hard to believe that such a stellar, obvious and accessible line has never been climbed. Regardless I claim the FSTA (First To Spray Ascent). If you’re in the area it makes a great half-day climb and a good warm-up for the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak. Route Description Ka’aba Buttress “Pilgrimage to Mecca” Grade II 5.9 P1) Start from top of large block at buttress toe. Follow L-trending dihedral then cross low-angle slab split by triple cracks. Belay below L-side of obvious roof (170’ 5.7). P2) Traverse left then undercling obvious wide crack into L-facing dihedral. Climb a steep corner at the dihedrals top and step left to a large grassy belay ledge (130’ 5.9). P3) Climb the beautiful R-trending dihedral for 80’ then move left to steep, twin hand cracks. Stay with the right one to another large belay ledge, a **** pitch (160’ 5.8+). P4) Climb the L-facing corner just left of the obvious offwidth on the crest. Near the top move right to stemming moves and easier terrain (130’ 5.8). P2 var) A much better looking second pitch would layback the right side of the block vs underclinging it then follow a L-trending ramp/dihedral to the same belay (5.8?) That evening we ate our last supper by a small tarn and reflected on what an amazing trip we had experienced. The last day July 28, 2004 The hike out went far to quickly. More stunning meadows, beautiful vistas and a complete lack of human impact. We made it back to the car in less than six hours. In the last mile of hiking we met a stocky, powerfully built man of at least sixty years in age. He was excited to hear about where we had been and knew the area well. Turned out it was Bob Cuthbert! We had just climbed some of the routes he established thirty years prior. What a great way to end the trip, meeting one of the legends that first realized the area’s potential for climbing. Gear Notes: Medium Rack to 4" for everying. An extra 0.5 and 0.75 Camalot for MFB - L Side. An extra 2.5" piece for Ka'aba Buttress.

Last night I'm swimming in a nearby lake with my mother. She's 60, has climbed Rainier a couple times, still follows me up 5.7 and backcountry skis more than Skykilo. She looks at me and says.... "Who's that crazy guy from Seattle, who's put up all those routes?" I look at her and say, "Huh?" So she adds, "You know, the one who likes all those young women?....Fred Beckey!" Woman cracks me up!