[TR] Static Peak- West Ridge 3/21/2004

[chucK]

Climb: Static Peak-West Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 3/21/2004

 

Trip Report:

Static Peak (not Point)

 

None of my usual partners will ride with me to the mountains anymore, due to my habit of eating grapenuts and yogurt while driving, so I had to find a new face. I got Klenke, bushwhackin' peakbagger extraordinaire, to accompany me Saturday. I suggested Static Point. He countered with "Peak".

 

Here's a photo Klenke PM'd me of the Point and the Peak. We went for the left skyline ridge.

 

We drove up to the (closed until 4/15) gate at Olney Pass. While driving I ate granola with milk instead of the usual and Klenke didn't seem too upset with that. We rode bikes to the usual Static Point parking spot, stashed the beers in the creek and headed on out.

 

It started out pretty steep, with mild bushwhacking. Just a couple of cliffy spots to get through.

Klenke, in his element

 

After about an hour we were on consistent snow, then it got hard and steep enough for crampons. We climbed up through the trees right of the steep snow face in the above picture. It got pretty steep where an arrest would be unlikely, but it was good cramponing snow/ice and you just about always had a tree to grab.

 

We broke out onto a narrow ridge corniced on one side and steep granite on the other. Got to do some bomber handjamming with gloves to get over one steep spot. Cool!

fun narrow ridge

 

Very windy at the top, but killer views for such a dinky peak.

 

view South

view East

 

We downclimbed our ascent route. Then we were gonna go bag some blobby peak to the North at Klenke's bequest, but then we realized we left the rope up near the top where we had contemplated rapping. Good thing we brought that rope so he could have an excuse to climb the fun part again, and I could just sit by a tree and wait instead of bagging some blob. Also I found out Mojo bars have pretzels in them!

 

Descent straightforward. We did not get avalanched upon.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons, axe(1), rope not used

 

 

Approach Notes:

Gate at Olney Pass until 4/15. Road intact to usuall Static Point parking lot, but several trees down (two large) across the SP spur.

[Dave_Schuldt]

Cool, while climbing at the slab Iv'e always wondered about the peaks up the valey.

[mvs]

nice!

[klenke]

That second picture of me was just beyond my crux for the day: hoisting myself over that log as it hung over a 10-ft drop on mossy cliff/gully/slab. Mattp's ice tool came in handy (used as a dirt tool here). Thanks, Matt! Your ice tool has now been to the top of Static Peak.

 

A nice climb that included some new experiences for me. Try bushwhacking BW3 up a 55-degree timbered slope with hard, crusty snow under foot. It was so fun I purposely had a tree above it snag the 30m rope out of the top of my pack just so I could do it again.

 

"Blobby peak": (I thought it looked kind of neat, even if it was blobby.)

 

Other notables:

1.On the way up we ventured too far south through forest and wound up in craggy terrain. You can actually see these crags at about two-thirds up the triangular forest slope left of center here (note also "some blobby peak" on the left):

Near the bottom of this line of crags, we came upon a rappel sling (complete with rappel ring). It seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere and it was. Just above that, we had to solo a short Class 4 BW3 pitch (evergreen shrubs are great for green belays but harder than hell to squeeze past on a cliff). In hindsight, looking at the picture above, I now realize all we had to do was traverse back left to avoid the crags. But noooo. Well, at least they turned an otherwise uninspiring forest slog into a crag negotiation problem.

 

2. We chose not to descend off the top using the North Ridge (read: chickened out on the knife-edge snow) to get over to Greider Peak, aka "some blobby peak." Instead, we descended back down the West Ridge a ways before crossing north across the base of the avalanched north slope seen in ChucK's first picture. We scampered across the mouth of the avy slope while big blocks of precariously perched snow looked like they were ready to bowl us over. Of course, shortly after crossing the avy gully, I noticed my rope was gone. So we went back...across the avy gully. And of course my crampon decides to pop off right in the middle of the bowling lane. I've never restrapped a crampon so fast!

 

3. We managed to find a non-cliffy way down through the forest by descending about halfway between the aforementioned crags and the creek to their north. We kept crampons on as long as we could in the steep forest but we eventually tired of whacking them with our axes to knock the balling snow and duff off. A good idea in theory; impractical in reality.

 

4. Budweisers are better post-climb beers than MGDs.

[lancegranite]

Nice shot from the top of Stikney...too bad the road got all chewed up.

[klar404]

Cool trip report! I've never been up that a way to climb dem mountains! a buddy and I climbed a northern route on the blob noted about ten years ago.Approach from Boulder lake. Three pitch five easy.Cool slabs in the drainage toward Peak 5335(guess on elevation)

[klenke]

Boulder Lake is not near "the blob peak" (aka Greider Peak). You must be speaking of another peak. Pk 5335 is also known as Frostbite-Weber (the peak is actually only 5,240+ on maps; Beckey erroneously lists it at 5335). It's a cool horn on a high ridge. Not too many folks have climbed it. Have you? Here's a picture of Frostbite-Weber from the east (from Mineral Butte). Also visible is none other than Greider Peak at back right. Plus, the tip-top of Static Peak is visible just right of Frostbite-Weber:

[lancegranite]

Here is a picture looking east... the Ragged ridge looks nice!

Edited March 24, 2004 by lancegranite

[klar404]

Klenke, yeah when I said blob I ment another blob. We were goiing to climb frostbite but bailed when we saw the brush. I attached another file with an arrow showing the peak. Nice pics, by the way! If only they would log/ build a trail in that drainage. We thought of setting up a rap statioin off the peak I showed to get acces to the endless granite!

[lancegranite]

I have stared at that picture for years, it...haunts me.

If you survive the ten foot high brush and prehistoric ferns, pot farmers and the local Sasquach, a most heavenly reward awaits the faithful.

( the bigfoot part is true...)

[dberdinka]

You guys have peeked my interest. Looking at maps could you not hike into Boulder Lake, then schwack up to the ridge crest and wander along that to get into this Weber-Frostbite area?

 

And whats with the Sasquatch Mr Granite? Tell us more......

[klenke]

This is the view of the other side of Frostbite-Weber (from Static Peak last Saturday):

Pretty spectacular palisade!

 

Dberdinka: I won't speculate much on an answer for you (perhaps Stefan can give you some beta; Stefan?), but it "appears" that semi-timbered slope at far left (sorry, a little blurry) provides access to the ridge from the Boulder Creek drainage.

[Toast]

Klenke, in his element

 

[Stefan]

You guys have peeked my interest. Looking at maps could you not hike into Boulder Lake, then schwack up to the ridge crest and wander along that to get into this Weber-Frostbite area?

 

The hike into Boulder Lake is the standard approach for Frostbite-Weber. I think Beckey describes it that way too.

[klenke]

Some more photos from that day:

 

Views of the mountain itself:

Static Peak from lower West Ridge

Upper west side of Static Peak

Upper West Ridge of Static Peak

The Upper North Ridge of Static Peak

The North Face of Static Peak

 

Views of other mountains from Static Peak:

Mt. Stickney from the north

Columbia Peak from the west

Spire Peak from the WNW

Mt. Pilchuck from the ESE

Vesper Peak from the SSW

Del Campo Peak and Gothic Peak from the WSW

Gunn Peak and "Gunnshy" from the NW

 

And finally, ChucK's favorite:

"Some Blobby Peak to the north"

[JoshK]

Columbia peak has a somewhat canadian rockies look to it in that picture...with the horizontal banding of snow and rock.

[klenke]

True dat...except for one key difference: The Canadian Rockies are sedimentary rocks (at least those viewed in that striated form) where as Columbia is comprised of a sequence of lava flows of the Monte Cristo Volcanic Breccia. These flows were deposited in the Oligocene Epoch (25-36 million years ago) and are up to 2,000 feet thick in places.

 

The source of these lavas was from a now vanished volcano whose center was believed to be at Round Lake just east of Mt. Pugh.

[JoshK]

Good info Paul. We started learning about this in geology last quarter, and I found it very interesting. I'm sure you know this, but for the others on the board, an interesting Washington fact:

 

90% of the earths continental crust is limestone (is that the one?) where only a small portion is basalt. The oceanic crust is comprised entirely of basalt. Washington is interesting in that it's exactly the opposite of the rest of the continental crust. Something like 90% of the crust here is basalt, owing to the fact that a good majority of the state is on an old giant lava bed. Oregon and Idaho also have parts of this flow.

[PONCHO&LEFTY]

That peak across the valley and North of Whitehorse has that look to it also, sort of a tilted layer cake. Whats the deal? Haggen?

[klenke]

Lefty&Poncho: you're speaking of Mt. Higgins. Here's what Beckey has to say:

"metamorphosed sandstone shale has formed prominent SW-dipping beds, prominent from the highway"

 

The rock is related to the Swauk-Chuckanut Formation. These are a series of arkosic sandstones and conglomerates deposited during the Paleocene Epoch (58-63 million years ago). This deposition is estimated to be 20,000 ft thick in places.

 

It should be noted that these sandstones were themselves derived from erosion of granitic rocks deeper within the range.

[Dru]

Good info Paul. We started learning about this in geology last quarter, and I found it very interesting. I'm sure you know this, but for the others on the board, an interesting Washington fact:

 

90% of the earths continental crust is limestone (is that the one?) where only a small portion is basalt. The oceanic crust is comprised entirely of basalt. Washington is interesting in that it's exactly the opposite of the rest of the continental crust. Something like 90% of the crust here is basalt, owing to the fact that a good majority of the state is on an old giant lava bed. Oregon and Idaho also have parts of this flow.

 

the continental crust is not 90% limestone. 90% granite maybe.

[klenke]

Mr. Superduper Websearch Man comes through again:

Source

 

"i. Oxygen (O), with two shells and an atomic number of 8, is

far and away the most common element in the earth's crust,

making up about 47 percent of it by weight. It hangs out

the most with silicon, to form silica and the silicate

rocks that dominate the mantle and crust.

 

ii. Silicon (Si), with three shells and an atomic number of 14,

is the second most common element, making up about 28

percent of the earth's crust by weight. It hangs out with

oxygen to form silica (SiO2, which accounts for

just under 75 percent of the earth's crust!)

 

iii. Aluminum (Al) is a light metal with three shells and an

atomic weight of 13 (pretty light). It makes up about 8

percent of the earth's crust, often as a part of silicate

minerals in the upper continental crust (e.g., feldspars,

remember "felsic" rock?).

 

iv. Sodium (Na) is another relatively light metal, with three

shells and an atomic number of eleven. It makes up not

quite three percent of the earth's crust and is often found

in silicate rocks (notably the plagioclase version of

feldspar, a light mineral in the upper continental crust).

It can also create an ionic bond with chlorine to form

table salt (or "halite"), and there is beaucoup of

it in the oceans (and, heck, your blood, your own portable

ocean).

 

v. Calcium (Ca), with four electron shells and an atomic

number of 20, makes up just under four percent of the

earth's crust. It often hangs out in silicate minerals,

such as plagioclase feldspar, and it often associates with

carbon and oxygen to form calcium carbonate (major

component of limestone and marble).

 

vi. Potassium (K) is another light metal with four shells and

an atomic number of 19. It makes up less than three

percent of the earth's crust and, like aluminum, it hangs

out in feldspar (but in a different form called

"orthoclase"). So, it is more common in the upper

continental crust.

 

vii. Iron (Fe) is a relatively heavier metal, with four electron

orbital shells and an atomic weight of 26. It makes up

about five percent of the earth's crust (becoming more

common with depth). As we saw earlier, it completely

dominates the earth's core (with nickel). It is also a

very common component of the mantle rocks and the oceanic

crust and the lower continental crust. There, it is

incorporated (often with magnesium) in the silicate

"ferromagnesian" minerals (such as olivine, pyroxene,

hornblende, and biotite).

 

viii. Magnesium (Mg) is a fairly light metal, with three shells

and an atomic number of 12. It only makes up about two

percent of the earth's crust, and it hangs out with iron a

lot, though, and is found in the "ferromagnesium" silicate

minerals.

ix. The remaining 84 naturally-occurring elements, then, only

make up 1.4 percent of the crust."

 

Granite not 90%. What is granite?

Feldspar (50% or greater)

Quartz (25-40%)

Mica (3-10%)

[JoshK]

Sorry, thanks. I knew it was some rock that wasn't basalt. This was a 100 class

Edited March 31, 2004 by JoshK

[Dru]

hey klenke back of the class. granite is a rock not a mineral. your answer focusses on minerals glancingly, homes in on ELEMENTS which is pretty irrelevant, and ignores rocks almost completely.

[JoshK]