Washington Pass

[Steamer]

If I were to head up to the Washington Pass area for a week in August are there enough to moderate Alpine Routes to keep us busy. I have read about Liberty Bell and S. Early Winters Spire. Is best to haul everything up to the base of this area or are there areas to camp in the locale and hike up daily? Which is the best perceived strategy? Any other suggestions? How about other "classics" in the general area?

[chucK]

I refuse to answer hypothetical questions .

 

Seriously though, there's a ton of rock up there. Those two spires you mention could keep you busy for at least a couple of days no matter what your definition of moderate is (many more if your version of moderate is > 5.8). Then there's a whole buncha other stuff up there too.

 

For Liberty Bell -> EW Spires area most people walk in from the car, but there's other stuff up there that many people like to bivy under before the climb, like the Wine Spires.

 

Hope that helps.

[mattp]

The only place where you would likely want to haul camping equipment to a base from which you could complete several climbs would probably be the basin on the west side of the Liberty Bell group, but this is only an hour and a half from the trailhead and it is a fragile and heavily travelled area that doesn't really need the impact. If you are looking for alpine rock routes, stay in one of many campgrounds nearby (Klipchuck would be a good choice) and check out Burgundy Spire, Big Kangaroo, and Black Peak. These and plenty of others in the area make worthy objectives, all of which can be climbed in a day from the road. If the weather turns sour, there are sport crags and Goat Wall (a moderately large wall with a couple of sport lines on it) in the Methow Valley, close to Washington Pass but drier.

[sayjay]

Along the same lines, I'd like to do a number of routes on the wine spires later this summer. I was thinking of setting up camp below Burgundy.

Is there a reason why you wouldn't want to camp there for a couple of nights?

[specialed]

Hey Steamer don't leave any steamers on the fragile alpine environment. We don't want any of your contaminated Cali dookie messing up our ecosystem up here bro

[goatboy]

The camp at Burgundy Col is pretty dry after mid-summer, though you can tromp down towards the Silverstar Glacier and get snow to melt for water.

 

It's pretty windy and exposed at the Burgundy Col high camp, though it puts you within spitting distance of some good routes (i.e. Paisano Pinnacle and Burgundy Spire).

 

Another, possibly better option depending on what routes you're doing, is to cross over Burgundy Col and descend to one of the rock islands below the silverstar glacier and camp there, closer to water, more protected from the wind, and still close to the climbing routes (such as Chianti and Chablis, Silverstar regular route, etc).

 

Whatever happens, please show more respect for the Burgundy Col camp than whatever genius pooped all over the col and left strands and wads of toilet paper all over the place up there last August!!!!!!!!

 

[Steamer]

Thanks for the beta. Mucho Gracias. With a little bit of luck I will be up that way in August.

[mattp]

The basin at treeline that you pass through before climbing that last slope to the col is also not a bad place to camp. Again, this will be dry after mid-season.

[Alex]

that col is a long long long uphill slog in with camping gear, sayjay, go really light!

[sayjay]

thanks, yall.

that's about what i'd expected. i've done the day trip up through the burgundy col to climb silver star but hadn't really scoped out the camping possibilities. i like the idea of going to the other side of the col and getting outta the wind and near snow -- just the beta i was looking for!

the hike up is a bit of a burner, but it looks like the climbing is well worth hauling the gear up for. and at least you get the altitude gain over quickly, eh?

 

sarah

[Off_White]

quote:

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Originally posted by mattp:

The basin at treeline that you pass through before climbing that last slope to the col is also not a bad place to camp. Again, this will be dry after mid-season.

---

If you mean the basin below the West Peak of Silver Star, before the grind up alongside the Wine Spires, we've found dependable water in a trickles at the toe of Silver Star, pumpable into a bottle with a filter. Good bivy at a big boulder near there too. You have to split off from the Burgandy Col approach a fair ways though. Better suited to climbs on that side of the Spires.

[nolanr]

SE Buttress of Cuthroat Peak is pretty cool, a lot less traffic than the other side of the Hwy (Lib. Bell/EW Spires). About 11 or so pitches, up to 5.8, some pitches are just picking your way up sandy ledges, some of the pitches are pretty sweet rock. If you leave gear at the saddle at the beginning of the rock climbing, get it up off of the ground. A bastard marmot ate the tops off of my boots and chewed up some of my packstraps.

[TimL]

Anybody up at WA Pass this weekend? Looking to find out the conditons of the East facing routes (Liberty Bell, Minute Man, Lexinton Tower) on the Liberty Bell group? Is there still snow on the top on to these route or are they dry. Thanks for any and all beta.

[Bronco]

Climbed S. Ridge of S. Early Winter this weekend. Entire approach was soft snow, route was entirely free from snow or water although there was some snow in the SW Couliar route. The steeper faces looked to be dry from our perspective.

[Bronco]

Here is my Gaper TR:

 

Wife and I drove to the Blue Lake Trailhead Friday night drank a beer to celebrate the first day of summer, and slept among 10 other climber's rigs in the back of our truck. Much to my surprize, there was still about 3' of snow at the trailhead! I spent most of the night worrying about not having ice axes, gaitors or crampons, in fact I only had my approach shoes.

 

At first light, (4:30am) most other climbers were loading up their packs and making too much ruckus for us to continue sleeping. So we hung out, ate, drank coffee and talked to the friendly guys who slept in the rig next to us, got some beta on our route S. Ridge of Early Winter Spire (SREWS). Helped push start a Vanagon to warm up my quads and we were off. Made it to the base of the route in a little less than 2 hours, wished we had ice axes and gaiters, but, no real problems as the snow was pretty soft.

 

A family of Goats hanging out provided entertainment while we were waiting for the 3 parties ahead of us to work their way off the first 2 pitchs. Started up the route, heard some yelling from below, noticed a guy chasing a goat away from the pack he laid on the ground, glad I put ours in a tree. First 2 pitches provide the only sustained technical climbing (5.4), after that, it was fun climbing/scrambling to the summit, although I kept my wife on a short rope the whole time as she was uncomfortable with the exposure. As we neared the top, we caught up to the party of 4 Tacoma Mountaineers who were very cool and let us use their handline across the exposed ridge crossing from the false summit to the main summit. Here was the lowlight of the trip.

 

Someone has placed a bolt on this easy fin, most people could walk across and anyone could hand traverse, it's hardly 5th class. The mountaineers were disapointed to see it as well. There is really no good reason I could see for it except I could see that someone may be uncomfortable with the prospect of taking a pendu-fall here, but this is mountain climbin and some risks are to be tolerated, bolts don't belong here.

 

On the summit we encountered Gary Brill, a notable NW legend of skiing and climbing. He's got a great sense of humor and always fun to talk with. We Down-climbed the entire route except the first 2 pitches which the Mountaineers had already set up a rap-rope on each and graciously allowed us to use.

 

We Glissaded down about 1500' of the 2000' descent to the truck, (8 hours round trip) drank a cold beer, stopped in Marble Mount at Clark's Eatery and had a great burger and the best Pecan Pie I have ever eaten.

 

Everybody on the route, (we encountered a total of 12) were very cool not one attitude in the bunch which made it a very enjoyable day and first climb in the Washington Pass area. I highly recomend this route to anyone who wants an easy "alpine" climb.

 

As it turns out, Mountaineers are very cool, I take back everything bad I have ever said about that organization.

 

If anyone knows of any other alpine climbs like this, (mid 5th) doable in a day, feel free to let me know, I'd be interested in checking them out.

[hollyclimber]

that bolt has been there for a long time, yo. at least a couple of years now. surprised that the mounties were surprised about that, since they climb it so much...

[Figger_Eight]

I'm surprised no one's taken a crowbar to it.

[forrest_m]

TimL - we did the direct e. buttress on SEWS on saturday afternoon. there was snow from the hairpin all the way to the base of the route, however not a speck above that. the route was completely dry and a lot of fun. there was still some snow visible on the big ledges on the e. buttress of NEWS, but the steep bits looked dry. we ran into some guys who did the passenger (on SEWS) who said that the top couple of pitches of that route were seeping, so maybe the face routes with snow patches above need a few more weeks but the ridges/buttresses are good to go? hope this helps.

[MattR]

How about conditions on the Beckey route? Is that where most of the crowds were heading? Could you tell if the ledges were snow free or if there was water running anywhere? Hoping to head up there this coming weekend...

 

[ 06-25-2002, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: MattR ]

[erik]

quote:

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Originally posted by MattR:

How about conditions on the Beckey route? Is that where most of the crowds were heading? Could you tell if the ledges were snow free or if there was water running anywhere? Hoping to head up there this coming weekend...

---

the onle place there is snow is on the approach to all the climbs....there is very little snow left on any of the towers and what there is of it will affect very few routes if any at all...

 

a little wet rock hasn't hurt that many people......

 

have fun and be safe

 

i'll be up there too, if you find my beta erronuous....y

[TimL]

Forrest - Thanks for the beta. We were going to climb at WA Pass yesterday. Instead we went to check out the NE Ridge on Kyes Peak and were served a fat slice of Cascade humble pie.

[TimL]

For anyone interested in route conditions at WA Pass, Clean Break, Chianti and Burgandy are snow free. Silver Star glacier is in great climbing condition witha little snow on the scramble. A car sized block and debris fell off Chianti and sits about 500ft down slope from the spire. Looks like it fell from the gulley to the left of the spire. As we were leaving this am it looked like Mondays snow was melting off the Liberty Bell group.