[TR] Observation Rock- N. Face 8/16/2005

[Mark_L]

Climb: Observation Rock-N. Face

 

Date of Climb: 8/16/2005

 

Trip Report:

After spending all of July in SE Alaska, waiting for climbable weather,(It never came.) and then spending the first part of August on a never ending home improvement project, an opportunity presented itself when my wife headed off to Vegas with my mother-in-law and the weather cooled down slightly.

 

I left Seattle at 5 AM and headed to Mowich Lake, with hopes that the winter that never was would leave the N face of Observation Rock melted off early this year. After several nervous moments with South King County commuters, (they start early down there) as well as the drizzle in Buckley, I was on the trail to Spray Park under blue skies, leaving the fog and commuters behind.

 

Arriving at Spray Park, I could see that the face was not blue, but it did look slightly dirty, which kept my hopes up. Alas, when I got on the face, all I had was hard snow, with a couple of areas of firnspiegl. It was still quite pleasant snow climbing, with hard snow that got firmer as it got steeper. I arrived at the summit in time for lunch, lounging and gawking at Ptarmigan Ridge, but the clouds boiling up the N. Mowich Glacier eventually persuaded me to leave the summit and find my way down the remnants of the glacier under Echo Rock.

 

Rather than face the afternoon commute, I used the rest of the day wandering over to Knapsack Pass for some meadow sniffing, effectively avoiding the interminable trail back to Mowich Lake. I'll have to come back in the Fall.

 

Gear Notes:

ice ax

crampons

second tool optional for now

 

Approach Notes:

Objective Hazard: South King County Commuters who don't understand the workings of clover leaf interchanges.

[Squid]

I wouldn't know firnspiegl if it bit me on the ass.

[thelawgoddess]

you didn't want ice?

[Mark_L]

That's what happens when they don't offer German in most public schools anymore. Funny thing is, all of the German exchange students that I've had over the years speak perfect English.

[Norman_Clyde]

Firn = snow or ice of some kind

Spiegl = mirror

So, Firnspiegl must = "mirror ice" or water ice.

Or does it mean an ice catalog?

[rhyang]

Firn = snow or ice of some kind

Spiegl = mirror

So, Firnspiegl must = "mirror ice" or water ice.

Or does it mean an ice catalog?

Google is your friend.

[thelawgoddess]

That's what happens when they don't offer German in most public schools anymore. Funny thing is, all of the German exchange students that I've had over the years speak perfect English.

well ... i took lots of german in school (and some in college) and i was never taught "firnspiegl." i also met a number of germans through sailing at the uw who spoke excellent "everyday" english, but didn't know much when it came to sailing terminology.

[Mark_L]

Actually I misspelled it, should be "firnspiegel". I also took lots of German in school, but one thing that all of my German courses were lacking in was mountaineering terminology. You should be able to recognize the roots however, firn means "old snow" and spiegel means "mirror" (I'm disregarding the gender here.) "Der Spiegel" is also the name of a widely circulated news magazine in Germany, the equivalent to "Time" or "Newsweek" over here. Anyway, "firnspiegel" is the layer of ice that forms on the surface of old snow. (See "Climbing Ice" by Yvon Chouinard, p. 61.) It can be thick enough for good tool placements or handholds and footholds, or it can be thin enough to make steep unconsolidated snow slopes a total nightmare. The firnspiegel that I encountered was the former. Hope that helps.

 

Mark