[TR] S. Early Winters Spire- Southwest Buttress 7/20/2005

[AlpinistAndrew]

Climb: S. Early Winters Spire-Southwest Buttress

 

Date of Climb: 7/20/2005

 

Trip Report:

I have climbed S. Early Winters many times before, but never up this route. I really enjoyed it. The 5.8 crack was a bit awkward, but sweet. There were some runout easy slabby pitches that made me sweat a bit. Overall an excellent climb on good rock. It was a great day out. Saw some paragliders up there which was rad.

[Alpinfox]

Yeah! It is an awesome route. One great pitch after another.

 

 

You should post some pictures of it to "fuel my psyche and uncage my soul"!

[Rod]

The Spire is great, generally. I don't know which route we climbed a couple years ago, but the one with the gully can be dicy.

 

It's best to climb with snow in the gully b/c it's one of those dirty, loose cascade gullies. Some loose rocks came down on us as we were decending and they broke my leg. Pretty lucky accident, actually, if one considers what might have happened had the rock that took out my leg hit elsewhere on my body!

 

The rock climb at the top was fun. Great, airy summit. Nice area to be in the mountains.

 

Have fun and be safe!

[Alpinfox]

The SW buttress (really nice rock climb) is not the SW gully (loose choss fest when not full of snow). I believe the SW gully is how the goats get up to the summit.

 

Sorry to hear about the leg. I hope you are out climbing again?

[catbirdseat]

The Spire is great, generally. I don't know which route we climbed a couple years ago, but the one with the gully can be dicy.

 

It's best to climb with snow in the gully b/c it's one of those dirty, loose cascade gullies. Some loose rocks came down on us as we were decending and they broke my leg. Pretty lucky accident, actually, if one considers what might have happened had the rock that took out my leg hit elsewhere on my body!

 

The rock climb at the top was fun. Great, airy summit. Nice area to be in the mountains.

 

Have fun and be safe!

Rod, that was East Wilmans Spire, was it not?

[AlpinistAndrew]

Yeah, the gully on S. Early Winters spire is a choss pile, its a fun spring snow climb though. The gully on E. Wilmans Spire is awful. I climbed it a few years ago and almost died from a huge rock fall when descending the gully, fortunately the pile of choss nearly missed me. That gully sucks when dry.

[Blake]

Andrew, did you girth hitch that rad tunnel formation through the granite above the old bolt circa pitch 5? that's one of the coolest rock formations i've seen.

[AlpinistAndrew]

hmm, no. i remeber the bolt but not the tunnel, where bouts was it?

[catbirdseat]

There is only one bolt that I remember and it was at the very start of the fifth pitch, as I recall. You step up onto a left facing slab and make a bit of a traverse before going up. I don't remember the tunnel, unfortunately.

[layton]

that is the one of the world's most retarded bolts! someone should chop it.

 

the world's dumbest bolt is at the end of the last pitch of springbok arete on a flat summit after 16 boltless, and sometimes gearless belays. i wonder if the filmmakers for "K2" put that there for filming.

[Blake]

that is the one of the world's most retarded bolts! someone should chop it.

 

Scott Johnston and I had a discussion about that, and his thinking, which i thought was pretty valid, is that at the time of the FA (or whenever it was placed) that bolt protected moves that other gear of the time couldn't have protected. Although now a cam will do the job nearby, that bolt has become part of WA Pass history.

[luwayo]

fun climb indeed! drove down saturday night and had only 4hrs of undisturbed sleep @ blue lake trailhead. (i should know better!) this was my 3rd or 4th climb of SEWS this year, which makes me laugh. hey, who's done all the routes? i wasted some time at the start. somewhere it says start right at the chockstone. but i messed around on the left for a bit and found it supremely akward trying to wiggle up with the rack on despite switching sides (detest m's multi-loop gear sling). then i wasted more time on the lower traverse, trying to circumnavigate the short rap.

 

the rest of the climb went beautifully. route finding was thought provoking the whole way. fun mix of stuff.

 

several small tri-cam nuts on the "bolt" pitch. i think that's where the huecos and the flake with a hole (is this someone's tunnel reference perhaps?) are found.

 

#4Camalot saw numerous placements...including the bear hug, which i chickened out on found redemption on the airy crest though

[Blake]

The best start for this route if from the prominent twin-topped tamarack tree at the base. Head left along an obvious ledge/ramp until you get to a good spot to start pitching it out. One airy and easy pitch gets you to the base of the prominent wide crack seen from below. This is much nicer than traversing in from above and left in the chockstone gulley.