West McMillan Spire - West Ridge - Day Climb

[zoroastr]

Partner Erick Johnson and I decided once again to probe the outer limits of our light-n'-fast peak assault capabilities this last weekend. All I wanted was a relaxed hike up Cashmere Mountain to see what's at the end of Eight-Mile Road and to take a look at where they're trying to put that research tunnel thing. But EJ came up with the idea of trying to snag WMS in a day. Goofy, I thought, but we'd heard at least one rumour of some friend of a friend of an aquaintance who'd maybe done it once before in a day, and that was good enough for me, so off we went. Times were as follows:

 

Left Redmond @ 5:30 am.

On trail at 8:07 am.

Topped out @ 2:40 pm.

 

Took it kind of easy on the way out, but still made it back to car well before dark, wishing we'd spent more time in that unique and amazing Terror Basin. I posted a report and some pics at Summitpost.com:

 

http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/5209

 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2005 by zoroastr

[Snafflehunter]

Cheerist did you guys run up that thing? 12 hours RT with over 8000' of gain is moving. Certainly I won't scoff at the assertion of W. Mac being done in a day anymore. Nice work EJ and Zoroastr.

[zoroastr]

We did actually jog a bit. This was not really "climbing," but a kind of ultra-light alpine cheating. My small cyclist's pack probably weighed less than five pounds and contained exactly the following:

1. [1] box smore's-flavored Pop-Tarts.

2. [2] bananas

3. sunglasses

4. sunscreen

5. crampons

6. a light shell layer

7. camera

...that was it. No water or water container, no headlamp. It was actually kind of stupid, and I have to say if anyone is considering doing the same thing, make bloody sure you're out of the upper wooded section before light starts to fade--even with perfect visibility, we lost the trail three times up and three times on descent. Still, I think our strict turn-around time policy was conservative and kept us relatively safe.

 

--cheers

Edited July 21, 2005 by zoroastr

[EJohnson]

[EJohnson]

[EJohnson]

[EJohnson]

[olyclimber]

i need to be there. thanks for the pics.

[Alpinfox]

 

Wow! Nice pics. That one of Triumph is especially

[EJohnson]

John took those with Canon Powershot SD200. That was our first trip to the Pickets, the views.

Its kind of a shame that we only spent a few hours in such alpine splendor, but I won't want carry over-night gear up that trail.

 

Erick

[Alasdair]

Sweet! This really is a pretty reasonable day climb. We did the loop last year leaving the car at 6am hiking up the trail and traversing below the pickets over the barrier and climbing the chopping block. From there we descended the barrier to terror creek and back to the car by dark. Great day out. This year I would like to do Terror in a day from the car.

[EJohnson]

Alasdair, Where do you cross the barrier at?

 

Edited July 22, 2005 by EJohnson

[Alasdair]

You cross the barrier in a orange looking gully just below the glacier. If you look at the barrier from below the McMillan Spire it is an obvious left trending gully that splits throught the barrier. there are some trees at the top of it. If someone has some photos I will mark the gully on them. You do not have to loose much elevation, and the climbing is probably no more than class 2.

[Alasdair]

Ok I cant tell for sure in your photo, but I think it is the gully that has two very small patches of snow in it. It bypasses to the left side of a small peak on the ridge, and it definatly has a red color to it.

[Alasdair]

I could also be the gully about 100 yard to the left since I see the trees in the top of that one. It is one of the two.

[AlpinistAndrew]

Does anyone have more info on the Barrier crossing into Terror Basin, I'm headed up that way in a few days and am wondering what I should look fro going in that way

[mvs]

What kind of post-processing did you do on the photos? They are absolutely gorgeous. Nice!!

[zoroastr]

Thanks for the nice comments 'bout my snaps. Of course, I cropped and shrank 'em way down--the originals are huge res [1600 X 1200] shots that whould never fit a screen. The images are tweaked for gamma, color saturation and sometimes contrast, using ThumbsPlus, the greatest file editor/sorter ever, IMHO.

--thanks again