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[TR] Castle and Pinnacle Peaks- South Face 3/13/2004


catbirdseat

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Climb: Castle and Pinnacle Peaks-South Face

 

Date of Climb: 3/13/2004

 

Trip Report:

JGowans, matthew and I drove down from Seattle and arrived just after the gate opened at 8 am. After a fair amount of fiddlefarting around at the Narada Falls parking lot we were off at 9 am. The snow was hard enough that we carried our snowshoes, but half way up the slope we started postholing and had to put them on.

 

Walked Stevens Creek road to Reflection Lakes and caught up with a couple of older gentlemen who were out to climb The Castle. They asked us to

 

Gear Notes:

Don't need a rope for Castle, you are confident at downclimbing. Most would want a rope to descend from Pinnacle. Brought crampons, but didn't really need them. Brought a picket and fluke- used the fluke once below the gully on Pinnacle. Brought a small rock rack, but didn't need it.

 

Approach Notes:

Need snowshoes or skis for the hike out on the road.

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Climb: Castle and Pinnacle Peaks-South Face

 

Date of Climb: 3/13/2004

 

Trip Report:

JGowans, matthew and I drove down from Seattle and arrived just after the gate opened at 8 am. After a fair amount of fiddlefarting around at the Narada Falls parking lot we were off at 9 am. The snow was hard enough that we carried our snowshoes, but half way up the slope we started postholing and had to put them on.

 

Walked Stevens Creek road to Reflection Lakes and caught up with a couple of older gentlemen who were out to climb The Castle. They asked us to kick a good set of steps up the snow slope for them. They weren't quite as fast as we, but made pretty good time. We reached the Saddle at 10:45 am and left some of our gear there.

 

We did a level traverse on soft snow across the south face of Castle and turned up a gully and onto some 4th class rocks for about a pitch and onto the slopes of the east face where the two older gents had caught up to us by taking the more direct route.

 

The five of us chatted a bit on the summit. Of of the guys was climbing with one lung and a heart condition. He told me he had 55 years of climbing experience. His partner Steve told me that he had been on the FWA party of Pinnacle with Ed Cooper. He said that Ed was the ropegun that day on the East Ridge. It was really cool meeting these guys. They were inspiring.

 

We downclimbed the 25 ft or so down to the snow and decided to traverse the snow slopes of the North Face to get back to the saddle (to avoid the postholing on the south side).

 

After a break at the saddle for lunch we traversed the south face of Pinnacle to a sort of gully where we turned up and onto a short section of fourth class rock. At the top of this we found a small tree with red slings around it. We continued up easy snow to the summit which we reached at 2 pm.

 

I belayed my partners half a rope length down from the tree and then rappelled myself. We were back to the car by 4 pm. Beers at Copper Creek Inn by 5 pm. Home for last supper.

 

Gear Notes:

Don't need a rope for Castle, you are confident at downclimbing. Most would want a rope to descend from Pinnacle. Brought crampons, but didn't really need them. Brought a picket and fluke- used the fluke once below the gully on Pinnacle. Brought a small rock rack, but didn't need it.

 

Approach Notes:

Need snowshoes or skis for the hike out on the road.

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Hi Catbird,

 

I'm pretty much of a newbie, so I'm not sure what folks consider a standard rock rack. But here is what we carried:

 

5 pins (1 KB, 2 bugaboos, 1 LA-sized, 1 baby angle)

2 SLCDs (#3, #3.5 friend)

5 tri-cams (#0.5 - #2.5)

3 hexes (#4, #6, #8)

6 nuts (small sizes)

 

We also carried some ice screws, which were totally useless, and some pickets which were marginally useful.

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