[TR] Washington Pass Goodness- Cutthroat, SEWS 4/15/2005

[kurthicks]

Climb: Washington Pass Goodness-Cutthroat, SEWS

 

Date of Climb: 4/15/2005

 

Trip Report:

 

4/14/2005 - SW Couloir, South Early Winter Spire

 

 

Conditions: A little soft, didn't use crampons. The lower half of the route would make a good ski right now. The route will probably stay 'in' for another week or so. the upper part of the couloir had ~1' of snow in it. Great ski conditions on the way down. 5 hours car-car.

 

 

4/15/2005 - East Face / Cauthorn-Wilson, Cutthroat Peak

 

 

Conditions: a fair bit of spindrift down low. some wallowing up high. Watch for rockfall in the dihedral, some of the blocks are quite loose. 8 hours car-car.

 

The route now has fixed rap anchors courtesy of the two teams of us (CKouba & me, Doug_Hutchinson & Travis) who didn't want to descend the N. Ridge in a white out. 4x 60m raps will get you from the ridge to the base of the couloir. I'll post a photo of their location when I can.

 

Gear Notes:

60m half rope

5 pins

6 stoppers

4 cams to 1"

4 screws (Cutthroat)

 

Approach Notes:

skis for SEWS

Good trail to follow on snowshoes for Cutthroat, skiing would suck. Good glissading to be had down the south ridge.

[dberdinka]

Route du jour! Nice work

[Doug_Hutchinson]

Route du jour indeed – two parties on a Friday! I’ll add a few cents to the TR regarding the East Couloir on Cutthroat (the last three photos). It was snowing very hard on the approach and again after we climbed the ice pitches, so the spindrift avys were pretty surreal. Wzzumountaineer and Ckouba did not really get hit, but Travis and I got pretty showered on on pitch 2. Thus, you can climb this route in a storm, but the descent via the north ridge would be dangerous = sugar snow cornices.

 

Under these conditions, the harder pitch was the first ice pitch – the ice steps above Wazzu in the third pic. With the way fat ice, the “crux” pitch (pic 4) was only about WI3 as has been reported previously. Granted, I doubt the ice typically gets this fat.

 

The avy conditions continued to rise through the weekend but we stayed alive for an awesome ski descent of Spire Gully on Saturday which was in incredible shape (Spire Gully = the finest short descent in the PNW?). Avalanches were crossing Hwy 20 below Lib Bell that day which was cool.

 

Great snow and phat ice, WA pass is where it’s at now.

[Juan]

Good job Kurt. You ready for AK?

 

Sharp

[layton]

nice work and great pics. can't believe how fat that looks. fun

[DPS]

Good job Kurt. You ready for AK?

 

Sharp

He better be, he's got to haul my fat ass up the big hill.

[kurthicks]

I'm getting pretty close to being ready to haul Dan's up the big hill. It helps that I broke trail/led almost the entire weekend.

 

Here's a rundown of the belay/rap stations:

1: 3 pins at the base of the 'crux' dihedral. 20-60m rap depending on conditions.

2: 2 pins on the left about 30' above the 'crux' ice pitch, on the left, with blue webbing. 40m rap.

3: slung tree, it's the only tree on the route that we saw. blue webbing. 55+m rap.

4: 1 bomber pin w/ a biner in a horizontal about 50' left (in a small alcove) of the summit ridge. could be easily backed up with another LA, bugaboo, or stopper. 55m rap.

 

as Doug said, "it's now a trade route".

[Dru]

Thats a lot of booty! 6 pins and a biner

[kurthicks]

2 of the pins are pretty old, so take them at your own risk. The biner was booty from a Smiff trip a few weeks ago.

 

I don't think rapping the route would be the recommended descent--it cut a little climbing out and some of the fun, but it was a reasonable option with the conditions we had.

[JoshK]

Now I feel pretty good doing this before it became the "climb de jour"

[Dru]

So did anyone find Mike Layton's "ghost writer" on the descent?

[layton]

i looked for it a couple years ago, but it obviously had moved on

[jordop]

I once came across a friend in Trio Creek that I had left behind three weeks previous. Poor little guy

[jordop]

Hmm, doesn't look like it's gonna last one more weekend, damn :

 

SNOW LEVELS--CASCADE MTNS

 

6000 ft N and S Tuesday morning

7000 ft N and S Tuesday afternoon and night

8000 ft N, 7500 ft S Wednesday

9000 ft N, 7500 ft S Wednesday afternoon and night

[ckouba]

I'd say Kurt's ready for AK. He did break trail basically all weekend. If he'd have been happy following my slowness, I would have gladly cut tracks. Just gotta slow down...

 

Seriously though, good times were had. Cutthroat was really enjoyable and my first alpine WI in over a year. SEWS was an enjoyable steep hike and good to get out. The skiing was awesome in the bowl too!

 

It's definately the flavor of the month, but if it's still in it's worth it.

 

Chris

[Juan]

Dan: I've seen your ass, and it's not fat. It's . . . well . . . it's tight, Dan. And I mean that in the best heterosexual kind of way.

 

Sharp

[John Frieh]

Couloir should stay in through weekend but do not attempt to climb unless you are there right at sunrise... climbing it in the sun wouldn't be a good decision at this point.

 

Fixed gear still there.

 

Lots of avy activity in the mountains... be careful out there.