Cascade Pass Extravaganza

[ckouba]

The short story:

 

Spent a week with wazzumountaineer in NOCA NP and had a great time. We were able to tick off:

First third of Torment-Forbidden Traverse

South Early Winters Spire- SW Butress

Johannesberg- NE Buttress

WA Pass- Spontaneity Arret

Mount Triumph- first 30 min of the approach

 

And now the LONG story...

 

Good times were had this past week in North Cascade NP by myself and wazzumountaineer (Kurt). We had talked each other into a week of vacation and narrowed it down to stuff near the end of Cascade River Road.

 

After reviewing lots of possibilities, we started with the Torment-Forbidden Traverse 7/21-22. Things were looking good as we got our permits late Weds night and headed out Thurs am.

 

Kurt below the Taboo, Johannesberg in back:

 

We made great time to the Taboo Gla and ramped right up to the gully in the ridge where one is supposed to gain access to the ridge top. Instead, what we found was a large moat and crevasse blocking our way to the gully and the crevasse looked to extend completely from one side to the other of the glacier. We decided an end run was needed.

 

Kurt doing the end run:

 

There was however a very tentative looking snow bridge to cross after climbing into said crevasse, and it was getting to be mid-day and the snow was... uh, let's say "soft," so it didn't look too appealing. Of course we did it anyway, and me being the fat kid, I got to go first.

 

It held and I wallowed up the soft 6' step back onto the topside of the glacier and waited for Kurt. He too made it work and shortly we were heading up the gully for the ridge.

 

At the notch, we geared up and I sent Kurt off as rope gun. It had been over a year since I had climbed anything and I was being a big pansy over taking the sharp end. He put up a nice lead into the dihedral and off we went.

 

"Hey Kurt, why don't you grab this one?" Kurt leading off P1:

 

Kurt at the top of P1:

 

I eventually worked my way to lead dog and we simuled a bit of the terrain as well. We eventually topped out in the late afternoon and started back down for the traverse part.

 

We made the notch for the north side of the ridge and started down the opposite side, but the wall below the notch blanked out and had a huge moat (both deep and wide!!) blocking progress. I climbed back up to Kurt and we thought about options, deciding to push the south side of the ridge. We (Kurt actually) tried to traverse the gendarme on the ridge, then we downclimbed to find a better way to make progress... all this consuming time and daylight.

 

Around 5 or 6pm we decided we needed to think about where to spend the night and chose to rap onto the pocket glacier hanging on to the north side of the ridge and leave the rope hanging in case we needed to ascend back up it in the morning.

 

Turned out to be a good call. After a glorious sunset and a very mild night, we woke to VERY dark clouds moving northward from Glacier Peak.

 

Glorious sunset(1):_______________________Glorious sunset(2):

 

We debated as to what to do and I pegged the wuss-o-meter thinking that I didn't really want to be on such a sweet route in crap weather, convincing Kurt to bail. We jugged up the lines and rapped down the SE face of Torment.

 

This was a good decision as the skies let loose and we got SOAKED on our way out to the truck. We headed to the ranger station and spent the rest of Friday trying to find a place and way to get our clothes to dry.

 

Just before the DELUGE, on the traverse back to Forbidden:

 

We also hung out at Buffalo Run (don't ask for your own pitcher of water) and the ranger station (nice bunch there) and met a lot of people, including Kevin (Quasimoto) who turned out to be incredibly entertaining.

 

After much time-killing and offerings to the weather gods, we guessed that the further east we went, the better the weather would be for us. SEWS was selected as the next objective and we hoped for the best.

 

And we got it. We had bluebird skies at the pass and made great time to the base of the route. We socialized with another party of 4 who was chillin out at the entrance to the couloir and they graciously allowed us to jump in front of them. And so we did.

 

Tactfully manuevering around the mountain goat staring us down in the couloir, we scrambled up to the base of the route and started off. We ended up rapping down to the base of the first pitch and moving off the ledge just as the other party came down. I again stuck Kurt as rope gun due to the pansification of my mad skills during my hiatus (I broke my collarbone for all of you wondering people out there).

 

Kurt stuck it to the route and we moved up fairly gracefully, with one little route finding issue starting the second pitch. Seems we didn't quite go far enough left. The party behind us caught up and pointed us in the right direction and good times ensued.

 

We topped out in more glorious sunshine and, more importantly, as we looked to the west, it seemed the weather was breaking in the Cascade Pass area. SWEET!!

 

On our way back down (via South Arret) we chatted about the next possibilities. Johannesberg has always been on my list and I thought it'd be a cool check in the box. Theron's movie and his and Michael's TRs kind of sealed the deal for me and I was able to convince Kurt of the same. J'berg was next. Catch his TR here, including his pics.

 

Back at the ranger station on 7/24, we got our permits and headed up at a rather late-ish hour, leaving the car probably around 9 or 10, I can't remember... Across the stream at the hairpin, up the moraine, across the glacier... We had our whole route planned out. Except when we got to the first obstacle (getting off the glacier and onto the route), the mountain had other ideas for us.

 

The snow finger which looked so inviting and seemed like it should drop us right onto the first set of ledges for upward progress had REALLY BIG moat issues going on all around it. Time for "Plan B."

 

We explored a little and found a bridge, got the gear out and made the commitment. The next 10 hours would be 90% vert-a-shwack with the occasional dirty/wet/mossy rock face move thrown in. Highlights include multiple tenuous veggie belays, the jungle gym climbing amongst the hanging tree limbs, making our way *under* a snow finger which occupied one of the gullies and a dirty, loose, sketchy and very awkward chimney which I made Kurt lead (sense a recurring theme yet?).

 

About this time we realized we weren't near the Nelson route or anything which looked familiar from Beckey. So we just kind of sucked it up and headed where we though we needed to be til it got a little late.

 

With daylight going away and us making little rapid progress, we found a small ledge in the trees/heather/shrubbery which looked like it'd sleep two people. After a little remodeling, it did and that is where we spent the night.

 

The most surreal experience the next morning as I woke. I opened my eyes and saw the trees around us, Cascade Peak, the snow patch across the col, etc... and thought, "SWEET!! More clear weather." I closed my eyes and rolled over. Three minutes later, I opened them again and everything was GONE- replaced by a thick grey shroud so dense that I couldn't see much more than the trees within 20' of me. I wondered if I had dreamt the other stuff or where the hell it all went... But about 10 minutes later, it was all there and visible again. And I was much relieved...

 

A quick cold breakfast got us moving and after ~2 leads from our bivy, we gained the crest of the buttress about 30' above a kick ass flat spot which would have made an awesome bivy. Oh well, next time (yeah, right!).

 

On about this time or actually the night before as we settled in for the night, we realized that Kurt was now climbing without an ice axe attached to his pack. Bad news! I was not looking forward to that snow arret having a partner without an axe. Oh well, lots more to worry about prior to that event...

 

Onward and upward we went, up heather and brush, tree and limb, occasionally encountering actual rock to climb. I even warmed back up to the sharp end and put up a few nice leads. Somewhere around noon or one o'clock we moved across the catwalk near the gully and pulled up to the fixed pin.

 

Since Kurt was climbing without an axe and the snow was rather discontinuous in the gully (and we were getting the feeling there'd be a "moat issue"), we decided against the "rap into the snow gully" option. Back on the sharp end again, Kurt lead off to the left and found the infamous chimney.

 

He'll be commenting his TR soon so I'll let him speak to it there, but it's really NOT a 5.3 type of pitch. Kurt called it around 5.8, whereas I call it "5.hard-ish, especially if you're on the sharp end and the next level ground is thousands of feet below you, suckah."

 

Regardless, after setting up a cam he could believe in, Kurt plowed his way up the pitch, setting up a belay in sight of the snow(!). I cleaned it and lead past him, setting a belay next to the snow and brought him up to the bivy sight.

 

We melted a little snow here and took a nice break. It felt good to have (relatively) level ground for now and I am much more comfortable on snow than the rock. That said, Kurt had no axe, only a obelisk-shaped rock which he picked up along the way to serve as his axe. It was heavy and awkward looking, but it was *something*.

 

So after a few drinks, we set off. It was actually less intimidating than I anticipated and Kurt was doing fine with the ice rock. We had one crevasse to end run, until the end ran out over a very large drop and serac field. I found the most convenient locale with a floor across it and for the second time on three mountains was cllimbing into a crevasse.

 

It was only ~5' deep on the short side and had a floor which held the fat kid (me) so I knew Kurt would be no problem. I lead out til the rope drew tight with Kurt in the slot, sunk my axe, and then proceeded to haul him out of it as he kicked his way up the side. Good times, woulda looked a little strange to an outside observer though.

 

There was still one last, VERY STEEP face to climb, with two slots needing to be threaded. I kicked steps right through and between them and Kurt followed behind. About 3 minutes later we were hauling in rope on the south side of the summit ridge!

 

We ditched packs and scrambled to the summit. The end cap of the register was little loose, so the paper in there was wet and a little hard to read. Long story short is there were about 4 pieces of paper containing ascents back through '93. J'berg doesn't get a lot of traffic...

 

We took our pics and headed back to the packs. We knew the climb up would be strenuous, but the descent would be tricky. Thanks to Michael Stanton, Theron Welch and John Sharp, things went VERY well. We stayed 30-60' below the ridge top and kept traversing to the left, eventually finding the top of the gully system which deposits you at C-J col. We rapped and downclimbed (slowly, lots of loose crap to trundle on your partner) our way down the mountain. As we got closer to C-J col, it seemed like the terrain wanted to cliff out and we'd be stuck. For those considering this route: have faith, keep traversing to drop straight down onto C-J col and the rap stations and ledge systems WILL let you downclimb to it directly.

 

Which is what we did, arriving at the col around 9p. We melted some snow, ate like pigs and celebrated having the most taxing issues behind us. I slept like a rock star that night.

 

Up early enough, had a good breakfast and we were able to skip camp around 8a (I think). Regardless, it took us all of an hour and a half to get to the "Doug's Direct" crossing of the summit ridge of Mixup Peak. Very much worth the effort of the traverse and ascent as the C-J couloir looked incredibly UNAPPEALING right now. Took a break at the top, started the scramble down, got right down onto the Cache Gla and headed for Mixup Arm, arriving at Cascade Pass by 11 (I think).

 

Another quick break, chatted with some gapers, and off we went down the superhighway trail and back to the truck around 1p. GOOD TIMES!!

 

We spent much of the afternoon thinking of what's next while we hung out at the boat launch. We took a dip in the river (VERY brief) and washed some of our clothes which had taken on a life of their own.

 

The Laundromat:

 

 

We decided on Spontaneity Arret for the next day and had dinner at GOOD FOOD (which by the way, does have good food- albeit somewhat spendy...).

 

So Spontaneity Arret was interesting and had great views, but by this time I must confess the blisters I had developed on day one were becoming a little bit more annoying.

 

Spontaneity Arret:

 

I climbed the route in boots instead of shoes and it hurt a lot. We got down and out of there and I felt worked by my feet... It was an enjoyable route with great alpine feeling and awesome views of WA Pass.

 

Look, I *can* lead:

 

Kurt at the top:

 

We were down to our last two days and we weren't sure what to do next. Hell, after J'berg I wasn't sure I needed to do anything ever again, but since I was here, and so was Kurt, why not?

 

A lot of the people we talked to had strongly recommended Mt Triumph. The endorsement seemed so strong that it seemed obvious that was what we needed to do next. Unfortunately, my feet really didn't have it in them. We got about a half hour into the approach and I was done.

 

At the same time, it was the wierdest feeling. They were "just blisters" but they hurt like hell. It wasn't likely that they'd kill me (ever hear of death by blister?) but my feet wouldn't let me go on. My brain wouldn't let me turn back though. We stopped at a stream and talked briefly about it. I had a really hard time turning around but in the end I did and we headed back to the car.

 

For all the people who helped inspire and contribute to these climbs, thanks! The info from this site for J'berg was priceless. If that mountain would see more traffic and have a route established on it, it'd be a gem. As is though, it has a very gritty and robust alpine attitude to it which was awesome. The ranger crew at Marblemount was very helpful and sociable, especially when we were overdue back from J'berg- hats off to them as well. It was good times climbing with Kurt and I am looking forward to getting back out in the hills again soon.

 

Sorry for the long-winded post, but it was a really great week (except for the blisters!). Pics to follow (eventually).

 

Chris

[kurthicks]

amen! Thanks Chris for the week and TR. you summed up the trip pretty well.

[mvs]

Great TR! Sorry I missed it a few years ago...