cactus Posted June 30, 2004 Posted June 30, 2004 Has anyone climbed/enjoyed the 1968 route Becky mentions on the east side of Challenger? Some buddies and I have plans to be in the Perfect Pass area for a few days early this August. We’d like to traverse the Challenger glacier to get to this route. Does anyone know how open the glacier is likely to be by then? Is the glacier generally passable that late in the season? Thanks! Quote
Heavy_B Posted June 30, 2004 Posted June 30, 2004 I was in there early August in '97 and it was a cruise across the glacier. It wasn't near as broken up as many pictures show. From Perfect Pass it was a cruise of a traverse with few crevasses to navigate around. Not sure what conditions would be like now. Quote
king_buzzo Posted July 6, 2004 Posted July 6, 2004 Don't miss the climbers trail that breaks off from the Whatcome Pass trail, it's not well marked but an obvious trail. If you end up at the cable car crossing you've gone 2 to 1.5 miles too far. Imperfect Impass gets harder when there's less snow on it later in the year. Quote
Timcb Posted July 7, 2004 Posted July 7, 2004 Wow- well whadya know.. someone else is thinking about that route. A buddy and I climbed the E face of the NE spur of Challenger two weeks ago or so during a 9-day trip from BC to the dock at the end of little beaver. Also climbed the NE face of Redoubt enroute. but anyway, when we were there, the Challenger glacier was in fine shape, really excellent, and we were able to cruise easily from perfect pass across to challenger arm. on the east face, I can't really say if we climbed the 1968 route. We were intending to, and certainly climbed parts of it, but also got in a good bit of route finding trying to get through a more challenging pitch near the top. watch out for loose rock- it's abundant (I actually got hit by a softball sized rock just beneath my eye- had a good shiner for a week). We actually ended up bivying on the route, about 80' from the top of the face, after wasting a Lot of time trying to figure out which way to go near the top. Got swept over by a pretty intense thunderstorm up there- that was exciting to say the least. Anyway, the 1968 route is a good way to make Challenger a more difficult climb if you don't have time to get around to other objectives, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it. the finish on the 5.5 quarter pitch is fun though. kudos to those that continued on to crooked thumb! Now the NE face of Redoubt? There is a truly excellent route. good times. Quote
Dru Posted July 7, 2004 Posted July 7, 2004 Wow- well whadya know.. someone else is thinking about that route. A buddy and I climbed the E face of the NE spur of Challenger two weeks ago or so during a 9-day trip from BC to the dock at the end of little beaver. Also climbed the NE face of Redoubt enroute. but anyway, when we were there, the Challenger glacier was in fine shape, really excellent, and we were able to cruise easily from perfect pass across to challenger arm. on the east face, I can't really say if we climbed the 1968 route. We were intending to, and certainly climbed parts of it, but also got in a good bit of route finding trying to get through a more challenging pitch near the top. watch out for loose rock- it's abundant (I actually got hit by a softball sized rock just beneath my eye- had a good shiner for a week). We actually ended up bivying on the route, about 80' from the top of the face, after wasting a Lot of time trying to figure out which way to go near the top. Got swept over by a pretty intense thunderstorm up there- that was exciting to say the least. Anyway, the 1968 route is a good way to make Challenger a more difficult climb if you don't have time to get around to other objectives, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it. the finish on the 5.5 quarter pitch is fun though. kudos to those that continued on to crooked thumb! Now the NE face of Redoubt? There is a truly excellent route. good times. Quote
cactus Posted July 7, 2004 Author Posted July 7, 2004 Thanks for the info folks! Timcb, I also thought it was quite a coincedence we're looking at the same route, but then I noticed from your profile we have the same birthday. All makes sense now. Thanks for the account. Quote
daylward Posted July 7, 2004 Posted July 7, 2004 Jeez, it's getting to be a crowd in the northern Pickets these days! Haven't done the 1968 route, but Forrest and I just did what we believe to be a new route on the E face of one of the southern pinnacles of Challenger over the 4th of July weekend (trip report composed and waiting for pictures, hopefully will be ready tomorrow). We managed to find a line that had great, solid rock nearly all the way to the ridge crest that provided plenty of interesting and "challenging" (5.9) climbing. When we were there in '99, we saw another party do the 1968 route (we were camped just below it). When they came back down they didn't seem very impressed with it... sort of crappy rock, if I recall correctly. Right now the impasse has some snow in it, but it is already melted out enough to where it is of little help in crossing. On the way in, we did some sketchy soloing up one wall of the impasse, into the moat, and actually crawled underneath the snow before climbing up the other side. On the way out, we crossed the impasse above where the snow ended and then traversed onto the buttress climber's left of the impasse, which was slightly technically easier, but longer and more exposed. Dan Quote
Timcb Posted July 8, 2004 Posted July 8, 2004 Timcb, I also thought it was quite a coincedence we're looking at the same route, but then I noticed from your profile we have the same birthday. All makes sense now. Ahh, yes. It's all coming together now.. On second thought, the route's really a must-do for those with 7/21 birthdays Quote
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