slothrop Posted March 14, 2005 Posted March 14, 2005 Climb: Kangaroo Temple-NW Face Date of Climb: 3/12/2005 Trip Report: Eric Gratz and I climbed the NW Face route on Kangaroo Temple on Saturday (3/12/2005). Originally, Eric just wanted to go to Index or something because he had to study for finals, but all I had to say was "Washington Pass". We left Friday night. Things looked sketchy right away, as Eric wasn't diggin' the Zappa on the stereo, fell asleep, and started to snore. It rained. I worried about the rain. I worried about having climbed nothing but Coach's Crack in months. We laid out sleeping bags in the back of the Subaru and Eric conducted his snore orchestra, heavy on the bass and oboe parts. For breakfast, Eric shared his magical long-lasting burritos. Their effects lasted well into the approach, their taste returning now and then. We sidehilled ridiculously in our snowshoes through the trees after Kangaroo Pass. The mountain looked cold. We wandered to and fro near the base of the route, looking for the best start, finally settling in to belay at a tree partway straight up the first pitch of the summer route. Eric led in crampons with much scraping on the traversing, slabby bits, then was rewarded with some thin ice and mixed climbing to a tree. This first pitch had a little of everything: drytooling on slabby granite, moss/dirt, sticky ice, verglas. Really fun. Verglas was treacherous, collecting in the positive dimples on the slabs. Eric took a nice leader fall on pitch three, right as he was reaching for a piece of gear. I reeled in several armfuls before he scraped to a stop, upside down and saying "eff" in his inimitable way. I cheese-gratered off at nearly the same spot while following, swinging to a stop directly over a big smear of ice. We were in rock shoes at this point, which is really the best way to play "find-the-verglas". Eric after pulling the tree on p4 At the "Dance Floor", we went the way labeled "variation" in Beckey, belaying in a snowy, dark, windy alcove. The sun was on the face at this point and I chose the only dark spot to belay. For the last pitch, Eric led past in a shower of oatmeal granite, up the rightmost of three weaknesses. It was sunny and frickin' beautiful on top. What a day! We gaped at some skiers across the way (Kam, Chris, was that you?) and I looked in vain through my spy scope for climbers on the Liberty Bell group. We took four rappels to get down, leaving three runners, a pink tri-cam, a quicklink, and a dropped green Friend for you bootyhounds. Shoulda used the two short raps off the north side. NW Face of Kangaroo Temple Beckey doesn't list any winter ascents of this peak, but Steve House probably climbed it accidentally one day while finding "The Way". In any case, it was a fun climb in the conditions we found it in. Gear Notes: cams and nuts to 2", brought pins but didn't use 'em Approach Notes: Hey! The highway's open! Rode the slowshoes; hard 'n crusty near the hairpin, slushy 'n sucky on southern exposures Quote
dbb Posted March 14, 2005 Posted March 14, 2005 Wow, sounds like an adventure! I think that's a fab route. nice work! Quote
Alpinfox Posted March 14, 2005 Posted March 14, 2005 Some of them nubbins at the UW rock are so slick they might as well be verglas. Good training. Nice trip report Slothy. Quote
slothrop Posted March 14, 2005 Author Posted March 14, 2005 It was raining a little on the drive over and sprinkled slushy stuff on us in the Blue Lake parking lot. Perfectly clear in the morning, though. Quote
Dru Posted March 14, 2005 Posted March 14, 2005 It's funny that the rain shadow was the only place it rained Quote
Dru Posted March 14, 2005 Posted March 14, 2005 Actually, I could see down a long way into Washington on Sunday morning, and the clouds were definitly piling up south and east of Jack Mountain. Quote
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