chucK Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Climb: Columbia Peak-North Ridge Date of Climb: 8/29/2004 Trip Report: Jeff Hansel and I climbed Columbia Peak via the North Ridge yesterday. We biked then hiked up to Glacier Basin. Very nice up there. We came across a camp of bitter-looking people in the bog. They looked really wet. We scrambled up rocky buttresses then cramponed up for a bit of glacier right before Wilman's Gap. The snow/ice is quite hard. Actually had to cross a snow bridge at the bergshrund. At the top there were two choices of notch to ascend to. We took the left (poor choice?) since the right (lower) notch had about 20 feet of steep choss to get to it. The left was easier to get to, but it was very ugly getting back down the other side, 300 feet of so of slippery, wet, sandy, crumbly, steep gully . Not fun. Anyway, we finally made it down to the '76 Glacier by about 1pm, and were climbing the ridge by 1:30. We climbed a couple of short pitches up a face to gain the ridge. North Ridge route. Summit is upper left in clouds. The ridge was mostly pretty easy, sometime precipitious. The highlights were the constant views and a slab and crumbly towers about halfway through. slab and crumbly towers views We summited at 4:20 pm summit celebration We pored through the summit register and found this interesting note. history of spray We descended the standard (West Ridge) route, and took the Twin Lakes trail back. Back to the bikes a bit before 8pm. No headlamps required (barely). Pretty fun and adventurous day. Not a lot of technical climbing, more of a Klenke-type climb. Gear Notes: Single 50m 8.5 rope. Doubled for 2.5 short pitches to gain ridge. Small rack. Crampons, ice axes. Approach Notes: Don't do Wilman's Gap this time of year (probably much nicer when filled with snow). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Good job, ChucK. But who is the scraggly dude inhaling gel? Is that you or Jeff? God, that's an ugly sight. Sounds like classic Cascades mountaineering. Sharp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murr Posted September 3, 2004 Share Posted September 3, 2004 Hey, did you get a look at the snow conditions in the gully under East Wilmans Spire? Sounds like it might be kinda icy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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