Jump to content

Keyes Peak, Upper Pride Glacier


catbirdseat

Recommended Posts

Toast, Mudslinger, Suprglu and I met for breakfast at Sultan Bakery Sat. morning and then did the approach from Quartz Cr. TH on a pleasant sunny day. Made camp by 3 pm. Mudslinger and I hiked onto the glacier to scope out first bergschrund so we could get by quickly in the dark of the morning.

 

Left camp at Pt. 5779 at 5 am. Found the route in good condition with solid ice, but a bit brittle in places. Climbed lower half (ca. 35 degrees) unroped then simulclimbed steeper upper half (ca. 45-50 degrees) in two long pitches. Fun climbing. Partner did a Vertical Limit imitation to get across a crevasse. Reached Yellow Shoulder on NE Ridge at 9 am. Summit at 10 am.

 

Tried descending S. Ridge, which none in group had done before, and got discouraged with the tough routefinding, so went down gully to N. end Blanca Lake instead. Back to cars at 5 pm. A bit sore (okay, a LOT sore) this morning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 17
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Four of us got to the saddle on the extreme left edge of the picture linked to in my last post. It was basically cross-country ridge travel from Curry Gap to where we turned around (that's probably the part you remember). Not hard but difficult and dangerous at times on steep wet September heather. From that saddle it would be easy to get up the ridge toward the glacier by way of ramps and heather sections. But the terrain gets progressively steeper. There's a rock knob to the left of the upper glacier that looked like we could hike between and the glacier but we had no way to be sure. Since we hadn't brought crampons and it was getting late and we were unsure as to whether we could skirt the glacier (it bows out steeply there by that knob), we decided to turn around. Once around the knob, there is apparently a little bit of easy 5th to round the corner to the other side of the mountain.

 

Instead, two of us went over and scrambled to Goblin Mountain. This is a good diversion if you turn around. To get up the final bouldering moves of Goblin, you better have a rope. Its damn exposed on every side. You can use an upper pedestal to get your head as high as the crest of the top rock, but you can't touch it without doing something more difficult. All in all, Goblin's one of the more interesting summit blocks I've seen. Here's a picture of it: Goblin Mountain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Klenke thanks for reminding me of Goblin! It really isn't that bad to boulder to the summit... Did you find the plastic bag/register? Its been 10 years. If you want a REAL wild round trip go to Quartz lake then cruise around and down to Goblin lake and then out Goblin creek.Watch out for bees and canyons!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

klar: no, didn't see the plastic bag. Where would it have been? We were sort of in a hurry as it was about an hour before total darkness. I took the previous photo after I had climbed (on belay) to the top of the footstool. On my tip-toes I could basically get my head at the same height and that was good enough for me. If we had had more time I probably would have given the final cheval moves or whatever it would take more consideration.

 

We descended along the ridge to the east. This ridge turns left (north) then descends steeply to the stream that comes out of that lake and drains into Quartz Creek. Suzy and I fell on our arses many times on the wet ankle brush. Thank god for the green belays. Suzy literally irrupted out of the trees lining a stream at the base of the ridge and fell into the ankle-deep water...splash! (it was the most comic moment of them all). From there, we simply headed east across the many meadows and tree bands until we met the Curry Gap trail just about at dark. Decided to get the headlamps out on the trail when Suzy fell again. rolleyes.gif

 

What do you think? Maybe one party every other year goes to Goblin Mountain?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TimL said:

Has anyone done the NE Ridge on Kyes? it looks good. i approached it one spring but turned around at a late hour with mushy snow.

I have downclimbed it before. It has some fourth class sections and you have to go on snow/ice in places, so bring your crampons. From Pt. 5779 decend to the saddle where the pond is located. Drop down onto the glacier and skirt around a headland (lots of rocks lying on the snow below, so go fast). Once around climb back up rock and snow to another saddle and from there get on the ridge. I think that the Upper Pride ice route is better than the NE Ridge, though.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I suppose you could bivy there. It isn't completely flat, but I suppose it is flat enough. You'd have to melt snow for water, but there are small ponds of meltwater a short walk along a ledge on the SE Face. It only takes 30 minutes from there to the flat slabs below the summit block where you could also bivy. It takes 5 hours from QC TH to Pt. 5779 if you take the valley, or 6 hours if you take the ridge from Curry Gap. I estimate it takes 4-5 hours to climb from Pt. 5779 via the NE Ridge to the Yellow Shoulder. It takes 3-4 hours to get to Blanca Lake via the Columbia Glacier and about 3 hours to hike from the North side to the TH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...