Tod Posted August 11, 2003 Posted August 11, 2003 Did the SW Coulior/S Ridge of Tower. Pretty simple and straightforward and much better than the dangerously loose West Gulley. 2 hours from Snowy Lakes to the summit. The Coulior is Class 3-4 all the way up to the S Ridge. The S Ridge has a short (60-80ft) section of 5.3+ with an exit move of 5.6-. The 5.3 is a right facing open book crack that is mostly easy face climbing. No need for rock shoes on the route, but the exposure over the east face is enough that it warrants a rope for most. We could see thunder heads and dark stormy weather off over by the west slopes of the Cascades as we were climbing up. Even a few lightening strikes could be seen over by Eldorado or Colonial area. We descended the West Gulley which was completely rotten crap and not worth climbing. We also climbed Golden Horn from Snowy Lakes. Quick and easy and all easy scrambling except for one semi exposed move 5' below the summit. Snowy Lakes is pretty d*mn cool this time of year. A great place to hike into. We hiked in Saturday evening at 5:30pm and got there right at sunset (8:30pm). They are high alpine lakes/ponds right near treeline. The lakes are actually sort of warm since they are so shallow and the bottom of the lake is soft so it's easy to wade out into for a dip. Does anyone know why a helicoptor was hovering over the end of Straight Ridge for an hour or so on Sunday morning? Straght Ridge is the ridge due north of Tower where Tower Creek and the Methow River intersect. I didn't see any sign of Forest Fire and I don't think there is any logging in that area. Tod Quote
klenke Posted August 13, 2003 Posted August 13, 2003 May head up there soon to do these two peaks. Tell me more about that summit bouldering problem on Golden Horn. I've heard of a sling ladder being there in the past but that it is now gone. Did you do any of the summit boulder or approach with a rope or did you do it free? Thanks. Quote
Superman Posted August 13, 2003 Posted August 13, 2003 klenke, The summit of GH isn't really a problem .. it's a couple of fairly easy moves. Quote
Tod Posted August 13, 2003 Author Posted August 13, 2003 There are two summits to Golden Horn, they are about 10-20 yards from each other with the nw summit being the higher one (by about 2-4 feet?). The summits are really just two huge flakes of granite with the nw summit having two to three bouldering moves to get to the top. We climbed up the nw summit using the northern (left) most gulley. Once you reach the top of the gulley, go to the left side of the flake/summit and you are within 5-10 feet of the summit. It's a pretty easy scramble and traverse move with decent feet and hands. Two steps up from the starting stance and there is a long crack for your feet to traverse right across (5 feet of traversing). From there you can touch the summit ledge (or almost touch it) and pull yourself up with slopey feet and hands. It's pretty easy. The harder part is coming back down since it's slopey and the crack for your feet is hidden from above so you can't see where it starts or ends. Still pretty easy though. Tod Quote
klenke Posted August 14, 2003 Posted August 14, 2003 Another question: any need for an ice-axe. I'm thinking "hell no" but I thought I'd inquire anyway. I spied Tower and Golden Horn yesterday from South Spectacle Butte (SW of Mt. Maude) and saw no snow at all in the Tower vicinity. However, there might be a bit of snow in a nook or couloir that would require an axe. I doubt it though. Quote
Superman Posted August 14, 2003 Posted August 14, 2003 You definitely won't need an axe this time of year. Quote
Tod Posted August 14, 2003 Author Posted August 14, 2003 No snow on the scramble to Golden Horn or Tower from Snowy Lakes. Quote
klenke Posted August 18, 2003 Posted August 18, 2003 Did the SW Couloir/S Ridge Route of Tower on Sunday. A good photo of the 5.3 crack with 5.6 completion can be seen at Eric's Base Camp. 5.6 is what the guys ahead of us rated it at and they were wearing rock shoes. In our boots I would rate it a point or two harder. But it's only one or two moves (smearing on steep rock with boots is not a simple procedure). Even so, if you fall, you'd be apt to go off the East Face, whereupon you might not touch ground again until you've plummeted 1,500 feet. That East Face is frickin' stEEEEEEp! Quote
JoshK Posted August 18, 2003 Posted August 18, 2003 Cool pics. That's a neat looking crack. What is up with that summit carin!? It's gigantic. Quote
klenke Posted August 18, 2003 Posted August 18, 2003 You know, if we had had all day, I would have probably begun dimantling it (much to a lot of people's dismay, probably). You could see the damn cairn from Golden Horn some two miles away. From a distance, I don't like seeing some unnatural object on top of a natural one. It just doesn't seem right. It's like big crosses on summits in South America. But that is just me. Quote
Tod Posted August 18, 2003 Author Posted August 18, 2003 Isn't that cairn incredible?! Your picture doesn't give it just since you guys are in front of it, the perspective is off. It's about 7 ft tall and 3-4 feet at the base. You can see it from the PCT miles away... How did you guys get off route? Did you guys rope up for the bouldering on Golden Horn or just for the rapel? Quote
klenke Posted August 18, 2003 Posted August 18, 2003 Re: cairn: for a six-foot man, you have to stretch to your maximum overhead reach just to touch the top rock. We all made the ritual touching of the fly on the top rock. It might have been a flying ant. We were off route because we went up the prominent SW Gully which ends at the South Ridge. Beckey's description from my older red CAG is to "climb upward (right) to the summit ridge which is followed south to the summit." Well since we followed the South Ridge northward (by way of the 5.6 slab/crack), we couldn't have been on the route he is describing above. In hindsight, we should have taken this really narrow gully that led up to the NW side of the summit tower. Since the main SW Gully makes for a feasible downclimb, that must be why Beckey says to take a rope for a rappel. You can easily rappel back off the summit tower that way (the picture of me dangling is that rappel). On Golden Horn we took my 30m rope along. Since we had hours to dissipate, we decided to do an ad-hoc belay for the final moves along that tiny ledge. We figured you might as well be 99.9% safe if you've got the time to kill and not yourself to kill. Eric hip-belayed me by throwing the rope around the left (SE) side of the horn to give me a sort of top-rope effect. But once I got out onto that ledge and found the one semi-bomber fingerhold for my left hand, I realized it was totally easy. Since Eric did not have his harness with him, he did a arm rappel while I did a standard rappel. Just killing time, mainly. Still got back to camp with too much time to spare. Boredom. Took like an hour-and-fifteen to get from the lower lake to below the summitblock of GH. Since we figured Tower was even closer to our lower lake bivy than GH, we set a goal to get to the summit in an hour-and-a-half. We would have made it if it weren't for that 5.6 pitch. Luckily, Chris of Seattle and Tom of Wenatchee (we didn't know them before) were coming up behind us and they had brought pro for the crack. They graciously agreed to belay us up once they got up. Otherwise... Another interesting coincidence: saw my ex-boss from two jobs back that day in the western talus basin. I hadn't seen him since 1999. He and his two partners were doing the West Gully Route. This was after I was earlier that trip telling Eric about my ex-boss' and my nighttime bushwhack adventure in Stetattle Creek in May 1999. What a coincidence that I should see that same ex-boss up there on our Tower trip! Quote
Tod Posted August 19, 2003 Author Posted August 19, 2003 klenke said: We were off route because we went up the prominent SW Gully which ends at the South Ridge. Beckey's description from my older red CAG is to "climb upward (right) to the summit ridge which is followed south to the summit." Well since we followed the South Ridge northward (by way of the 5.6 slab/crack), we couldn't have been on the route he is describing above. Sounds like you guys were on route. If you went up the big bedrock gulley with the 15-20' step of Class 4 partway up and then continued up to the South Ridge and the 5.3-5.6 crack that you pictured, then you were on route. From there guidebooks say to rap down to the belay ledge like you did and scramble out. We ended up scrambling down the otherside down the West Gulley instead. We did it in boots also. The 5.3 slab wasn't that great in boots, but fun with the exposure of the east face (wow!). The 5.6 exit move was great with boots; too bad that it was so short. Freaky on the running into the ex boss. Funny how that happens sometimes. Quote
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