[TR] Ingalls Peak S. Side-After Work Special

[verticalwanderer]

After several failed attempts at sneaking out of work early, we finally took advantage of a diversion caused by the carpet cleaners and were out the door at 3:20 in the afternoon, heading for Ingalls Peak. Nick & I had ticked off a few “work-night” adventures, the tooth, aid at index, etc, but this would be the most ambitious yet. The usual recipe entailed leaving our boring-ass 9-5 office job, climbing something, bivying somewhere interesting, and rolling into the office stinking the next morning. Its our “white collar” version of the dirt-bag climber scene.

 

After picking up a “homeless” teenage hitchhiker who talked on his cell phone most of the way to Cle Elum, a quick stop for supplies and gas and a few wrong turns, we were on our way up the trail towards Ingalls pass at about 6:30. I started to worry a little bit about time and daylight as the sun started its slow creep toward the horizon, but despite Nick’s gazelle pacing, I refused to set any land speed records and got to the lake around 8:15. We quickly dumped the few amenities we had on hand (the heaviest of which were the PBR tall boys,) and headed towards what we were pretty sure was the base of the climb.

 

Lucky for us we guessed right and at a little after 9 we were roping up as the sun was setting. Nick lead out, and between the 70m rope and a bit of simul-clibing we quickly reached the 3rd belay where our meager rack finally gave out. I joined Nick at the belay, quickly passed the gear back to him for another lead citing my wet approach shoes as the excuse d’jour. He jumped on the last pitch and I was surprised when he ran out of rope. I yelled up and when I didn’t receive a response, I started climbing. It turns out that he had missed the last belay and was tied into the summit block, where I joined him at about 10:15. After spending a few seconds enjoying the bright stars of the moonless night, we stared our decent planning to down-climb to the 3rd belay. Fortunately, just after coming off the summit slab, I ran right into the last belay (I am not really sure how we both missed it on the way up??) and we started our pitch black rappels.

 

After making our way down the route, we got a little “off route” in our decent back to camp, but eventually found the lake, and after a little more searching found our gear cache. The cold PBR was a pleasant welcome back, and we drifted off for a few hours before waking up at 5am to start our hike back so that we could make our 9:25 meeting this morning.

 

As for the route, it was all in good shape, with very little snow, but still plenty of water to drink all over the place. There is certainly no need for boots or ice axe, and sleeping without a tent was quite pleasant as the temperature dropped enough to keep the mossies at bay during the night.

 

Lastly, we are now in search of our next work-night adventure, something moderate that we can fire off after work and get in at a reasonable hour the next day. The drive to Ingalls was a bit on the far side (we work in Woodinville) but the length of the route was about right. Anyone out there have any ideas??

[slothrop]

Nice TR. You could do the Improbable Traverse on Guye in no time after work.

[fgw]

that after-work stuff is top notch!

[catbirdseat]

NE Buttress of Chair is another one you could do after work.

[verticalwanderer]

Thanks for the suggestions......I think Improbable is going to be the mission for next week........How is NE Buttress of Chair in the summer? I climbed it last Feb. and it was great, but seemed like there was a lot of loose rock then and that is when everything was frozen? Keep the suggestions comming. Cheers....