[TR] Bald Mountain- South Ridge 4/9/2005

[klenke]

Climb: Bald Mountain-South Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 4/9/2005

 

Trip Report:

Taxes. I hate doing taxes. So here's a nice respite for the desperate.

 

Last Saturday must have been Mountain Loop Highway Day. Several people I know and have climbed with headed up that road that day to climb something. Mike Collins and I had either a Long Mountain-Bald Mountain loop, Gordon Ridge, or Wiley Ridge in mind. I had received an invite from John Roper and his party to do Pk 4513 just west of Barlow Pass. John called Pk 4513 "St-auk Mountain." Here is his trip report. The next day I would get an email TR from Greg Koenig of his solo climb of "Beaver Peak" (Pk 5113 west of Stillaguamish Peak). In the end Mike and I opted for Long-Bald. But if the bunch of us had coordinated correctly we could have saved all that pricey gas for our lawnmowers. Oh well, I suppose the grass will have to grow wild this summer.

 

Joining Mike and me was Mike's cardiologist friend Peter. I had thought about an approach to the Bald-Long saddle from the west via Marten Creek but seeing how far we could drive up Deer Creek Road, the latter became our route.

 

We managed to drive to about 2,600 ft at the western foot of Devils Peak at where a spur road goes right. With modest blue skies at about 9:00AM we set out hiking the road to the first switchback half-a-mile east of Bald. The skies would not remain so blue. Here is Bald from the road:

 

At the switchback we took an old overgrown road straight west to its end then went through nice woods for a hundred yards or so. The conifers ended and the alder began. We traversed too high on the way in and this took us straight through the worst of it. The bad news was it was thick. The good news was that it was without foliage. The better news was that there was just enough snow to make the route through easy to locate. The worse news was all the air holes under the branches under the snow. All of the recent snows had not sifted through the branches. Instead the one to two feet lay on top of the laid-over branches. So when we stepped through the snow we invariably continued down through the branches another foot to the ground. This happened all day but I'll not belabor the exasperation.

 

Once we crossed the avalanche-alder slope and negotiated two minor ravines we climbed up through a gully to pass the lower cliff band. To our left were the Viking Horns and behind us were Devils Peak and the road we had come up from. We could also see an easy way off of Long to get back to the car. Meanwhile, our up-gully was not so bad but the snow covering was wet and minimal over steep grass and heather. Fortunately there were ample green belays as the top of the gully was pitched up at 45 degrees.

 

We then crosses westward for another 100-200 yards and found another gully going up and right through a propitious gap between Swauk Formation slabs. It is amazing to think Brian Hench (catbirdseat) soloed these slabs in January 2004. I suppose with more snow they might have been easier and/or more fun. Our gully was a shortcut to Bald. The going was sometimes steep but this was all the better for the snow had sloughed off leaving a firm avalanche track to climb up through. Where the avy track was lacking it was knee-deep. Eventually, in about 150 minutes from the car, we reached the ridge crest and followed the ridge north to Bald. The snow was nice and firm on the crest. Here's Mike on the crest (Helena Peak in the distance at right):

 

Things were going well until we got to a 12-foot notch. It wasn't quite jumpable but also not formed in such a way to work down by green belays or otherwise. There was an "easy" way down to the left but it was frightfully exposed (at least for the drop in to the notch; for the climb back out it would be easier). At any rate, I was glad we had brought harnesses and my 30m rope.

 

Peter opted out of the summit bid (he's not a peakbagger) while Mike and I did the shortest rappel we've ever done: 12 feet! Once past that "crux" the rest of the ridge went pretty easy. Here's me at the summit of Bald Mountain (4,760+ ft, 680P):

As you can see, the mountain's head isn't completely bald. More like Homer Simpson bald.

 

It had taken us just about 3.5 hours to make the summit. Here is Mike at the summit. In various reports the summit has been described as a precipitous spine of rock or snow. For us it was the latter, kind of a weak attempt at Eldorado Peak's narrow snow arête.

 

The weather was moving in. Dark clouds to the west. We had already been snowshowered on once and it looked like more of the same advancing. However, we did get some views...

Gordon Ridge (Pk 5050) to the WSW looked cool:

 

Exfoliation Dome to the north:

 

Helena Peak from Bald (with Jumbo Mountain in the distance at left):

 

And what was to be orphaned by us--Long Mountain (5,113 ft) to the south:

 

Due to the advancing crap and the steep, wild nature of the final spine to Long's summit, we decided to leave it for another day. Since we had scoped the route from Deer Creek Road from the switchback, we feel it would be an easy climb in the fall. Mike and I got back to the notch and did the shortest belay we've ever done (20 feet) using the easy bypass we knew we could use for the return. After that, we followed our route back for the most part except we swung low to the valley bottom to avoid the alder traverse. We arrived back at the car in just about 7 hours round-trip with 4 miles and 2,200 ft of gain.

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe.

30m rope (or shorter)

Rappel gear or prussik for possible technical sections.

 

Approach Notes:

Take Deer Creek Road off of Mountain Loop Highway (turn off is about a mile past Silverton). Drive DCR to the prominent switchback at 2,834 ft. Hike west from the switchback (at first an old overgrown road but then brushy) into the head of Deer Creek.