Cathedral Peak

[Jake]

I am heading up the Pasayten Wilderness soon and I am thinking about climbing Cathedral Peak and Ampitheater Mtn. Has anyone done any routes on these mountains that are especially good?

[wayne]

Yea! Cathedral is a great mountain to climb! The S.E Butress is a classic for sure. It is much like the high Sierra, with a long-ass approach. We went in through Canada and got lost for a day and a half till I climbed a tree and saw a hill that we could see the peak from 10 miles away . Beware the Becky beta it is out of date . Dont drive to the end of the ashnola river road . Head up the trail before that. lots of off trail . What a route though the O.W. is hard and great position too ,have fun.

[Dru]

Grimface Matriarch traverse is one of the 10 best routes ive ever done. take 1-3camalots, two long slings and a few nutz.

[Jake]

Hey thanks a lot for the beta. It should be a good trip.

[Mr._Natural]

did the Se butt of cathedral with bobbyperru a few years ago. approached from the chewuch rd. approach was very straight foward and included a bivi at an old cabin stocked with beer. anyone else ever crash here? got off route low down but regained it higher. highlight of our variation included full on chimney with hard roof exit kinda thing. bp led it in style. upper route was pretty fun, didn't do the OW though.

[erik]

we atayed at the apex mine a last summer...we elected stay slep outside the hanta virus testnig cabin....the amount of scat there was unbelieveable.......

 

the hike into casthedral from chewuch is prett mellow with the only real threat is from the elev/. gain leaving the chewuch river up to the mine/cabin....granted our climbing trip was turned into a backpacking trip with climbing gear.....

 

we hiked out in one day........

 

and mr goodtimes margarita's ruled

[sayjay]

the hubba and i went into cathedral, also from the chewuch rd., a couple of years ago in late august. stayed at the mine the first night. woke up on day #2 to rain so we hiked up to a lake above and across from the mine -- gorgeous -- and caught some wee small trout.

next day did the short hike over to the cathedral area, which like erik said is not very far. but if i were you i'd bring lots of water 'cause you'll loose it all to DROOL as you view cathedral and surrounding rock on the way to the lakes!

woke up the next day to cold, wet weather and the day after that to a snow storm.

so spent the time catching an eatting trout and hiking around the area. really beautiful.

one hell of a long way to haul climbing gear and not use it, but worth the trip anyhow.

hiked out via rampart lake, running into one crusty old dude on a horse with a shotgun looking for his lost horses along the way. it's a longer way out but even with all the extra weight it was worth it. stunning high country.

 

HAVE A GREAT TIME and don't forget to post a TR when you get back!

[Dave_Schuldt]

Tehe east face of Ampateater has many posibilities for new routes.

[mneagle]

The SE buttress is a really great route with consistently difficult climbing most of the way. Getting on the route can be a little confusing from Becky's topo. Head up the ravine between the buttress and the monk and start on top of the table sized boulder into the slightly left facing corner crack. From there it's mostly straight forward, following good cracks with a few sections of class 4 and low 5th stuff. On the last steppe, the 5.8 is pretty stiff and ends at a hinging belay just left of the off-width crack. It was wider than I had anticipated, needing a #5 camalot to be done safley, so I was glad to find a sweet 10a finger crack about 5 feet to the right. After 15 feet of good finger locks, there is a good hand jam to the right and up to where you can traverse back to the top of the offwidth. The descent is straight forward, just follow the Cairnes. Good luck.