Slesse NE Buttress Conditions Update 8/7

[JasonG]

There is still snow at the major bivy spot where the Direct and Bypass routes meet, and it might even be there another week- no promises though. As has been said before, the Pocket Glacier is pretty much gone and it is really easy to get on the climb. If you are dropping off a vehicle at the regular route TH, you might want something that has more clearance than a CIVIC or a Golf (our off road vehicles of choice), there's some pretty big (for a 2WD) waterbars in the last few kilometers. And has been posted before, with 2WD you do about another 4K of walking on the Nesakwatch Creek side. The new trail to Slesse is obvious . . .but didn't seem to have a sign, just a cairn.

 

Hats off to Alex and Jens for a fine speedy ascent, it was cool watching them casually flying up the buttress. Thanks to everyone else we met (they aren't joking when they say 50 Crowded Climbs) for any enjoyable bivy (8 people shared the ledge!!) and a fun climb. Hopefully everyone had a good time on day 2 .. . and got through that hellishly steep descent in one piece.

 

Jason

[jshamster]

...and we thought we were all alone on the North Rib. Saw a party of two on NEB, that's it. Great couple of days out.

[JasonG]

That was us! The rest of the parties showed up much later in the day. You guys were cruising the Rib! Nice work.

[jshamster]

It was cool seeing where you guys were and remembering it from last year.

[Winter]

Good job guys, glad you had a good climb.

[curtveld]

Check for a PM, Jason

[mvs]

highclimb, DerWanderer and I had a great time on the buttress Sunday and Monday. We started Sunday morning from the car and mosied up to the nice bivy ledge around 3 pm Sunday. We didn't see anyone until reaching the ledge and exchanging a "whoop" with a party topping out on the buttress. The climbing to there was fantastic, we especially liked the "crux" 5.9+ pitch which felt considerably easier, but had awesome exposure threading the roof(s). We also liked the 5.7 steep corner with the fixed cam near the ledge.

 

It was fun lounging around for many hours, thinking about the huge drop to the bypass glacier. The night was warm enough and didn't test our ridiculously light bivy set-up.

 

Monday we started kind of late but had a fun climb often on the crest for the final pitches. The summit was strange, as bizarre flying ants were massed there. It was cool to have such solitude after a busy weekend!

 

The path down was well marked, the "Alpine Select" description makes it very easy. Nonetheless, from the knoll overlooking Slesse Creek we began to hate life due to heat and steep dusty trail. One of our cars was "wimpy", requiring miles of extra road walking . Finally got home to Seattle 11 pm.

 

Great climb with friends. BTW, don't be tempted to take a big rack because of fabled stories of hard climbing or whatever. A medium cragging rack will do fine (no doubles of some cams needed, etc.). Also, we don't know why anyone would do the bypass pitches to avoid the 5.9 roof pitch, as climbing above the bivy is just about the same difficulty. It was one of the best pitches anyways. Thanks to great partners!