[TR] Tower Mountain and Golden Horn- SW Gully/ W Ridge on Tower, W Gully on Golden Horn 10/2/2004

[Haydar]

Climb: Tower Mountain and Golden Horn-SW Gully/ W Ridge on Tower, W Gully on Golden Horn

 

Date of Climb: 10/2/2004

 

Trip Report:

 

 

Gear Notes:

50m rope, larger nuts and few cams up to 2.5’

 

Approach Notes:

10 miles but not brutal, views!

402513-Tower&GoldenHorn.doc

[slothrop]

Can you cut and paste the text? I don't have Word.

[ski_photomatt]

Here you go slothrop You don't have OpenOffice either?

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Coming from PDX a night rest at Seattle feels always good. Next morning drove to Rainy Pass on N. Cascades Hwy. Started hiking on PCT and it just got better as we went up to Cutthroat Pass with all the larches and great weather. PCT switched back down to Granite Pass with great views of our goals Tower mtn and Golden Horn. I guess too much stopping and admiring the views took us a long time to get to Snowy lakes at the base of Tower. As the sun was setting scouted out a bit the talus and scree ahead. After a chilly night with a bright moon got up and headed for the SW ridge first over heather then talus. Kept going up on the ridge staying high, where the rock was more solid. Once high up we could see three broad gullies, the farthest south was our route SW gully upper W ridge. To get to it had to side hill high the other gullies which are filled with ball bearings waiting to send you down. Once in the gully the rock got 4th class but clean and fun to climb, some more fun scrambling we got to the 60 feet high nice slab next to a wide crack rated 5.6. The climbing was fun and I was glad to have carried my rock shoes. There is a nice handhold in the block which is described as the awkward move in Beckey’s CAG, so not bad. Shortly after that enjoyed the summit just to see we were the first ones here so far this year. Unfortunately one of us could not go up the pitch with stiff boots. So as we came down, a brilliant idea how about doing the West gully, cannot give up so easily. So entered the first gully marked with a pillar and a rock sitting on top of it, filled with lots of loose stuff up to the notch. From there the route is straight up to the headwall marked by a white V, which can be seen from way below. There turn right over ledges and back left to the NW ridge, huge exposure there ok back on the black blocky rock and after few moves came up right underneath the huge summit cairn. Sun was setting so quick pics and down the same way arrived at camp at dark but satisfied, everybody made it! Next morning off to Golden Horn, stayed in the trees until the ridge crest to avoid the scree, then skirted bunch of gullies until we got to the west side of the summit pinnacle. There took the left gully once again filled with loose stuff once over and up the summit block is solid. Couple hard 4th class moves, a rope is good to have here, brought us to the top. Still long ways back to home, quickly surfed the scree down to Snowy lakes, packed up hiked out the 10 miles and drove back home to PDX after midnight, a looong day but worth it.

[Haydar]

Thanks for pasting the TR, here are few pics, let's see if I can get it right.

 

Here is the final pitch of Tower

 

West gully of Tower

 

Golden Horn summit pinnacle

Edited October 12, 2004 by Haydar

[slothrop]

Cool, thanks.