Mount Kent, North Face

[philfort]

dbb and I went to climb the north face of Mount Kent on Saturday the 27th. We figured it would make a decent winter climb, and it probably would - with more snow cover.

The only beta we had was from blurb in an AAJ that Dallas Kroke had climbed the "obvious gully" in 1994. We're still not sure exactly what he climbed, since there isn't one most obvious gully on the face (Maybe it's detailed in his winter climbs book? Anyone know?)

It took us about 1.5 hours from the trailhead to reach the basin below the face - some bushwhacking, but not too bad with snowcover.

The bottom of the face is characterized by steeper terrain - there isn't really an easy way into the interconnecting snow gullies. We climbed two pitches of pretty desperate, kind of scary, vertical tree/rock/snow climbing in a stand of trees, before we were able to gain easier snow gullies. With more snow cover (e.g. a normal winter), gaining the gullies might not be too difficult - right now though, unless you take to the trees like we did, your only other options are about a full pitch of thin, rotten ice. If this ice ever fattened up, there could be some great climbing here! (we did spot one nice piece of ice, about halfway up the right side of the face - a nice fat-looking vertical column).

Once in a snow gully, it fortunately turned out to be easy cruising to the summit ridge, in a narrow 35-45 degree couloir. For pro we used mostly slung trees and pickets, with a few pitons and screws. We didn't end up taking the direct line we wanted, because it looked really nasty, and we didn't have the time or cohones. Steep thin snow with lots of cliff bands. But it might be a reasonable proposition with more snow.

All in all, took about 10 hours car-to-car:

http://praxis.etla.net/~philfort/Kent/Kent.html

Phil

South Ravenna

[This message has been edited by philfort (edited 01-28-2001).]

[highclimb]

thats awsome i read your trip report on your site, are there any other parts of the face that could be climbed? i was looking at you pic of the face and i was thinking of a direct route strait to the summit, is it possibble?

Aidan

[highclimb]

hi again,

sorry i am can't spell, to much school ...haha

[philfort]

There is a nice direct line to the summit, which we wanted to take - but it just didn't work out that way unfortunately. It looked like it would be quite technical climbing for the whole 1400ft with the current amount of snow cover. Lots of rock bands. The rock is really crappy. There was water ice bridging the largest rock band, but I bet it's thin.

Here's what the face looks like in a good winter: http://praxis.etla.net/~philfort/images/RSP1.JPG

There also appears to be a major gully on the right side of the face, with one large rock band. It was this rockband that had a big vertical column of water ice on it (probably a full pitch in length).

[highclimb]

thanks thats a cool pic!, yeah the central gully look long and STEEP! but really awsome. the right gully looks cool to!

Aidan

[none_dup1]

The much sought-after book titled "Winter Climbs" by Dallas Kloke (2nd edition) says this about Mount Kent's North Face:

"This broad 1,200-foot face is characterized by numerous ribs, gullies, and cliffs interspersed with trees. A route in the center of the face involves a lot of steep snow, some short ice sections, and a little brushy rock climbing. FA C. Weidner and D. Kloke, February 1993; Grade II Class 4. 5 hrs. on face."

Sounds like Chris and Dallas went during a year with more snow. Sounds fun.

John Sharp

Bellevue

[DPS]

Phil,

Good stuff! Nice to see folks getting off the beaten path!

Dan

[rayborbon]

Nice!=)