Last Ascents in the Cascades

[dberdinka]

So with the north face of Joffre spontaneously collapsing, Supertopo shutting down and CC.com slowly withering on the vine  my mood shifts to considering the impermanence of everything.   What other peaks and routes have seen their last ascent in our lifetimes?    Gene Pires and I once made the possibly second and possibly last ascent of the IV 5.10+ east-north buttress of Castle Peak in the Pasayten wilderness.   A year or two ago someone posted pics where at least the first 5 pitches of the route had collapsed.

Off the top of my head

Anything on St Helens 1980

East face of main Gunsight.  A III 5.9 established in the early 1990s that had disappeared without a trace (except for a fixed stopper just below the summit) by the time interest in the area renewed.

East-north buttress of Castle Peak.  A good but flaky route on clean granite that fell off during the winter of 2016/2017.

Trigger Finger in Peshastin Pinnacles.   Someone on this site had a good story about recreating a clown-car on the summit shortly, as in day of or before,  it collapsed.

An impressive looking pillar on the east side of Mt Rexford just over the Canadian Border, with an unrepeated V on it, had a major rockfall event that erased the route.

What else peeps?

 

 

[Rad]

I climbed the iconic face of the Old Man on Cannon Cliff in New Hampshire about a year before it finally fell off the mountain.

In terms of famous routes, the NW Face of Half Dome is probably near the top of the list.

 

[dberdinka]

I didn’t realize those were in the Cascades.  Stay on topic dammit!

[Rad]

10 minutes ago, dberdinka said:

I didn’t realize those were in the Cascades.  Stay on topic dammit!

[needtoclimb]

Leaning tower at Vantage. Yeah, it's not alpine, but it is in the Cascades...kinda.    Was pushed over about 15 years ago.

[Rad]

CBR. Not sure what route(s) were lost.

 

[JayB]

Did the a lower part of the Girth Pilar on Stuart fall off ~10-12 years ago? Think the route still goes but the lower pitches changed?

[DPS]

11 hours ago, JayB said:

Did the a lower part of the Girth Pilar on Stuart fall off ~10-12 years ago? Think the route still goes but the lower pitches changed?

The giant piece of rock had already fallen off high, and climber's left when I attempted it on June 21, 1998.  I don't think it really changed the route????  It certainly still goes.

[seano-]

Many of the FA routes in the Northern Pickets, which followed glaciers from Luna Cirque that have retreated and broken up enough since the 1940s to make them completely different and possibly unclimbable.  The same probably goes for some of the less-common routes on the NE face of Johannesburg.

[JayB]

1 hour ago, seano- said:

Many of the FA routes in the Northern Pickets, which followed glaciers from Luna Cirque that have retreated and broken up enough since the 1940s to make them completely different and possibly unclimbable.  The same probably goes for some of the less-common routes on the NE face of Johannesburg.

I always wondered about those routes when I looked at them in the Beckey guide. Anyone know if there are any recorded ascents other than the FA's?

[genepires]

is UW rock still standing or did it get crushed for the new highway?

 

[genepires]

my bet is something on Mt Baring is the next to go.  or something on the black buttes/colfax/Lincoln  area.

 

[Rad]

1 hour ago, genepires said:

is UW rock still standing or did it get crushed for the new highway?

 

Still standing in a pile of pea gravel!

[DPS]

Mt Rainier is considered the most threatening active volcano in the contiguous US, so when that blows...

[glassgowkiss]

I don't know when classic Price Glacier was last climbed, but considering the shape it's in, it would be probably pretty suicidal at the moment. Last 10 years classic NF of Shuksan is basically falling apart, with large secions of rock being exposed by mid summer. So not a landslide, but glacial retreat due to climate change. 

Not Cascades, but Bugaboo/Snowpatch is usually too dangerous to be on by July. It suffered numerous large slides, with the biggest probably about 12 years ago. 

It would be interesting to study what caused this incredible demise of Joffre, and my understanding is that there were only a few slides of that magnitude in last several thousands of years.

Another rockfall nobody mentioned yet is the Chief-top of Zodiac, taking out a section of Northern Lights area. Probably second largest rockfall, after Joffre. 

[telemarker]

The Ice Cliff Glacier will eventually slide in its entirety at some point soon.  I hope I'm climbing the North Ridge when that happens!

[JasonG]

1 hour ago, glassgowkiss said:

I don't know when classic Price Glacier was last climbed, but considering the shape it's in, it would be probably pretty suicidal at the moment.

 

[glassgowkiss]

57 minutes ago, JasonG said:

 

That is exactly my point of being suicidal. And a comment "good job" should be replaced as "you are fucking nuts, and stay away from me". Paragliding has way different safety culture, and people who take unnecessary risks are being shunned. 

[Stefan]

Sadly the Renton sweet granite went away.  Or was it there?

[Choada_Boy]

Dodged a bullet on that one...on a geologic time scale.  We would have been obliterated.

Edited May 21, 2019 by Choada_Boy

[G-spotter]

On 5/17/2019 at 2:29 PM, dberdinka said:

An impressive looking pillar on the east side of Mt Rexford just over the Canadian Border, with an unrepeated V on it, had a major rockfall event that erased the route.

 

 

 

Naw, it still goes. Not unrepeated per se either, it got freed, just not to the top.

It's kinda like Robie Reid NE face, what was 10a before is 10+ R after

[G-spotter]

On 5/20/2019 at 12:48 PM, glassgowkiss said:

 my understanding is that there were only a few slides of that magnitude in last several thousands of years.

Another rockfall nobody mentioned yet is the Chief-top of Zodiac, taking out a section of Northern Lights area. Probably second largest rockfall, after Joffre. 

Bob in the mirror with his 4" measuring tape "PROBABLY SECOND BIGGEST DICK AFTER RON JEREMY"

[glassgowkiss]

3 hours ago, G-spotter said:

Bob in the mirror with his 4" measuring tape "PROBABLY SECOND BIGGEST DICK AFTER RON JEREMY"

I though it's climbing site, and we were talking rockfall on climbing routes. I think you mistakenly logged into cascadelimbers, but intended on some form of hiking site?

 

[JayB]

Hey, who's this guy?

"Hydrologist and geoscientist Drew Brayshaw, who has climbed extensively in the area, says it appears the first slide sent a flow of debris more than four km down Cerise Creek, east of Joffre Lakes Provincial Park."

https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/05/18/major-slides-rip-away-north-face-of-joffre-peak-near-pemberton-b-c/

[G-spotter]

17 hours ago, glassgowkiss said:

I though it's climbing site, and we were talking rockfall on climbing routes. I think you mistakenly logged into cascadelimbers, but intended on some form of hiking site?