[TR] Chiwawa Mountain- Fortress-Chiwawa Saddle 10/23/2005

[zoroastr]

Climb: Chiwawa Mountain-Fortress-Chiwawa Saddle

 

Date of Climb: 10/23/2005

 

Trip Report:

Sorry for the big pics...

 

Yesterday, in an act of shameless peakbagging, I headed up

into the Buck Creek area to hike up Chiwawa Mountain. A week earlier, I was at a certain well-known purveyor of used climbing stuff located in Ballard, and I'd picked up some used boots and a pack, and wanted to try 'em out on a longish day trip. The climb went well, and took exactly 8 hours, 15 minutes.

The area's gorgeous, and earlier trips this season took in Fortress and Red Mountains.

 

Last week EJohnson and I visited Red Mountain. Here's a shot of Chiwawa from the Red approach trail--same path I used for yesterday's solo climb of Chiwawa.

 

Ejohnson on the S. ridge of Red, just above the old mine entrace.

 

Yesterday, the summit of Chiwawa was shrouded in mist for my summit bid. In fact, there was a low ceiling all day. Close to the summit, the fog suckered me into a short pitch of exposed, 4th-class rock on the very edge of the basin-side ridge. No big deal, except for the wet lichen that covered the rock. Of course, once I neared the summit I could see easier ground to the left. Actually, the whole route can be kept to a 2nd-class scree hike, with occasional bits of 3rd--alot like to final climb up West Mcmillan Spire in the Pickets.

in an effort to confirm my position in the fog, I walked along the narrow, flat summit ridge until it started to fall away in a series of towers--this was definitely the top.

 

The overcast was stable, and actually kinda kewl, since you could always look down the approach valley and see Trinity in the sunshine. Can you pick out the trail down the valley?

 

Fall colors on the pretty but interminable hike out. Stats for the trip: aprox. 20 miles and 6000 ft. gain.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Boots and an axe.

 

Approach Notes:

Trail clear, route lightly snow-covered toward the top, summit ridge has 2', consolidated snowpack.

Edited October 24, 2005 by zoroastr

[magellan]

Nice work, John. I'd been hankerin for one of your trip reports. 8:15 for 20 miles and 6k is motoring! I know, it was poptart-powered.

[zoroastr]

Hey, Mag! Glad to hear from you. Actually, you called it: for food I took exactly eight choco' chip P'tarts [a.k.a. "The Staff of Life"... Had two left at the end of the day--they went down a treat with the free rest stop coffee on the way home.

[roald]

Nice work! After scrambling up your route one year, Eric W. and I began gauging trip distances and difficulties in "Chiwawa days." E.g., Lemah is a bit more than a Chiwawa day, and Kaleetan is about half of a Chiwawa day. Of course, nowadays Eric chomps off a Chiwawa day-type effort before breakfast.

 

Two things: If you came up the Red Mt. trail, I don't think you were in the Fortress-Chiwawa saddle. Is that right? Also, as I recall there are two knobs at the top that are of almost equal height. The register is on the west one, but moving a couple of rocks would elevate the east knob to the top.