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Cathedral Peak


johnny

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Was wondering if anyone here had done any of the South face routes on Cathedral or the Monk? Is there a shorter approach than the Boundry trail's 20 miles or so?

 

I'm planning a visit in late August and have been drooling over the info in the Becky guide. Thought I'd ask you guys since you lucky bastards still live over there!

 

Thanks,

John

 

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the approach is actually a cake walk. going from the river to apex mine is th hardest part. it just seems to take forever. i think the appraoch from canada is unmaintained?? deadfall and what not. trail from 30 mile is seriously a horse trail.

 

well worth the effort.

 

though next time i am there, i want to use lamas and stay an extended bit. beautiful area.

 

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Erik's right, approach is not bad, just long and the walk to the mine is the hardest part simply because it goes onandonandon and doesn't even really go up much until the end when it really goes up. But there's a bathtub at the mine that you can fill with a spring-fed hose and light a fire under.

cool.gif

 

Tons of great climbing to do there... Or it least it LOOKED that way. My hubba and I were in there in late August 2 yrs ago and simply got snowed on wazzup.gif

 

Consider hiking out via Rampart Lake (I think that's the name...) rather than just going back out via the mine. Great scenery--

 

HAVE FUN! fruit.gif

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Yeah the approach isn't too bad - it just takes a while. I've been to the area twice and there is definitely lots of sick climbing. We wanted to climb the Southeast Buttress last summer in August, but nasty weather (snow storms and zero visibility) compelled us to take a easier route instead - the northeast ridge, which was still pretty cool. It was scary when we were standing on the summit covered in metal climbing gear when thunder and lightning starts flying right over our head. Needless to say, we weren't on the summit very long.

Check out Ampithearter too, good stuff over there.

By the way, has anyone climbed Teapot Dome? Climbed it last summer and was blown away by the flat pebbly, sandy area on top. It was kinda like being on the moon or something (though I can't say for sure, I guess). Pretty cool looking though.

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I did the cross-country approach from the north via ashnola river road a few years ago, which makes the approach about 8 miles (6 off-trail), and it is not too bad as bushwacks go, but it's still a 'whack. The worst of it is where you have to pass through forests of lodgepole pine, which is a real pain because there's so much downed timber that in places it's like pickup-stix. But it's east side, a lot of it is open timber, there are game trails to follow, and since you are following a valley, it's not like you can get lost. There's no slide alder or devil's club. It's mostly pretty mellow going, it's only steep the last bit climbing up to the lake (lower cathedral?) where you pick up the trail. We took two full days to get from Seattle to the base of cathedral (including the driving), only one going out.

 

On the way out, we decided to stay high on the ridge to the north of the bushwacking valley (sorry, the names have all faded out of my memory), which was incredibly beautiful, and let us do most of the distance traversing alpine meadows instead, but then we had to bushwack straight down the end of the ridge, which was pretty steep and densely wooded.

 

I have a strong sentimental attachment to that area, because it was on the top of amphitheater mountain when I was 12 years old that I decided that I wanted to learn how to climb mountains. I was on a backpacking trip with the YMCA, and the leaders were both climbers and had us bouldering all over the place. One of them taught me how to layback - it seemed like magic to move upwards with only a crack running up and down and no real "handholds". The far point of our loop trip was Remmel Lake; from there, we made a day hike up to the top of amphitheater and ate lunch sitting with our feet hanging over the edge. It was my first real taste of exposure, and I liked it.

 

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Good climb, just a long walk. We did it in two days and I was tired afterwards. I think that three would make the trip seem a little more fun. Have a good time and the topo in the Beckey book is dead on. You might want to bring a #5 camalot if you are as weak minded as I am when it comes to 5.9 OW (you can go around this as well). Have a good time. Chad.

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Hey, thanks for the info.... Erik, when you say Apex mine, is that close to Apex pass? All I have so far is the lame map in the guide and it shows a Tungsten mine across the creek from Apex pass, is that it?

 

Sounds like a pretty cool place to spend a few days! laugh.gif

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johnny said:

Hey, thanks for the info.... Erik, when you say Apex mine, is that close to Apex pass? All I have so far is the lame map in the guide and it shows a Tungsten mine across the creek from Apex pass, is that it?

 

Sounds like a pretty cool place to spend a few days! laugh.gif

 

yup

 

as a real real real old timer told us that apex lake has some of the best trout in washington, didn't check it out but it looks like a cool area.

 

 

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forrest_m said:

I did the cross-country approach from the north via ashnola river road a few years ago, which makes the approach about 8 miles (6 off-trail), and it is not too bad as bushwacks go, but it's still a 'whack. The worst of it is where you have to pass through forests of lodgepole pine, which is a real pain because there's so much downed timber that in places it's like pickup-stix. But it's east side, a lot of it is open timber, there are game trails to follow, and since you are following a valley, it's not like you can get lost. There's no slide alder or devil's club. It's mostly pretty mellow going, it's only steep the last bit climbing up to the lake (lower cathedral?) where you pick up the trail. We took two full days to get from Seattle to the base of cathedral (including the driving), only one going out.

 

On the way out, we decided to stay high on the ridge to the north of the bushwacking valley (sorry, the names have all faded out of my memory), which was incredibly beautiful, and let us do most of the distance traversing alpine meadows instead, but then we had to bushwack straight down the end of the ridge, which was pretty steep and densely wooded.

 

 

 

The ridge you refer to, has a trail rising up onto it from the Wall Creek trail. if you hike in from Ashnola River, you can find this trail and climb to treeline easily. Going along the ridge MUCH better than going in the valley (ive done both as far as the border) snaf.gif

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Here's a post I put in a year ago or so, hope it helps:

 

The SE buttress is a really great route with consistently difficult climbing most of the way. Getting on the route can be a little confusing from Becky's topo. Head up the ravine between the buttress and the monk and start on top of the flat table sized boulder into the slightly left facing corner crack. From there it's mostly straight forward, following good cracks with a few sections of class 4 and low 5th stuff. On the last steppe, the 5.8 is pretty stiff and ends at a hanging belay just left of the off-width crack. It was wider than I had anticipated, probably needing a #5 camalot to be done safley, so I was glad to find a sweet 10a finger crack about 5 feet to the right. After 15 feet of good finger locks, there is a hand jam to the right and up to where you can traverse back to the top of the offwidth. The descent is straight forward, just follow the Cairnes. Good luck.

 

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