[TR] Mount Constance- Finger Traverse 7/23/2006

[MattBrown]

Climb: Mount Constance-Finger Traverse

 

Date of Climb: 7/23/2006

 

Trip Report:

Zosia Bornik and myself climbed Mount Constance on the weekend of the 22-23 of July (where is it?).

 

After cooking Kadai Paneer and Malai Koftas into the early hours of Saturday morning, we just about dragged ourselves out of bed to catch the 10:40 ferry to Bainbridge island. From there we drove out onto the Olympic Penninsula and the town of Brinnon where the Dosewallips River road heads out towards Mount Constance. Unfortunately it stops about 5 miles from the trailhead at an amazingly big washout so we had to get on our bikes and pedal the last bit.

 

(the washout)

 

We stashed our bikes in the trees and headed up the trail. The approach trail climbs 3400ft in 2 miles which by my calculations is about 30% gradient. Ouch. After making it to the top we found a nice campsite and jumped straight in the lake to cool off. Then we jumped straight out again because it was bloody cold. After dinner and a minor recce we put our heads down and managed to get 7 hours kip before the alarm went of at 4:30. We ate breakfast and drank as much of the lake as we could before heading out up the Avalanche Canyon.

 

(cats ears)

 

(The first notch)

 

(The second notch - rectangular thing on right)

 

With great views back to the Brothers we battled scree up to the Cats Ears and finally emerged into the sunshine and the long ridge of Mount Constance. After careful deliberation of guidebooks, trip reports and terrain we climbed up a gulley (the first notch), kicked steps down snow and up again to a rectangular notch (the second notch). We'd planned to do the "Finger Traverse" route which is supposed to be 3rd class, but the terrain looked nasty in all directions. Finally we spotted some pitons at a seemingly impassible corner which with a bit of Olympic 3rd class led to the aforementioned finger traverse. The traverse itself was pretty spectacular, a fine dihedral of suprisingly solid basalt, in contrast to the choss pile that was the rest of the hill. The back drop was a spectacular view into Puget sound and the ever present Mt Ranier in the background.

 

(start of the finger traverse)

 

(finger traverse)

 

Just after the traverse we met a group of climbers from Wenatchee who kindly pointed out the route ahead. This climb is fairly easy but the routefinding is tricky. Off down another snow face and up a scree ramp we reached the summit block and almost completley circumnavigated it before winding up on top. The very top was a bit precarious and strangely buzzing with flies so we dropped off a few meters to a sub-summit with fine views for lunch.

 

(notch 1 from notch 2)

 

(summit from finger traverse. We followed the scree ramp bottom right - better than it looks)

 

We ate a fine lunch of veggie ham and senf bagels and comtemplated the majesty of life from our vantage point on top of the world.

 

Well, I'd been carrying a diamond ring in my pack and it was time to use it. Here's what Zosia has to say:

 

"I was anxious to get going down the hill as a) it was roasting hot up there and b) I hate descents and knew this would be a tough one. But Matt had a different plan. In fact, he'd been carrying a diamond ring in his pack, and decided the time was now. He told me to take my sunglasses off... then, down on one knee, he asked me to marry him. I said yes, and slipped the ring over dirt-caked finger nails... it didn't matter - it was gorgeous. Unfortunately I had to take the ring off about 5 minutes later as we had the finger traverse to do on the way down.

 

Eight hours later (including much time for contemplation and cursing the descent), we arrived back at our bikes and eventually the car. Our engagement dinner was held at the Gooeyduck Cafe in Brinnon. We also managed to find excellent home-made pie at a bar about 30 min down the road from the Gooyeduck."

 

 

Gear Notes:

bikes, ice axes, 30m 8mm rope, a few nuts + hexes, we took crampons but didn't use them (warm temps)

 

Approach Notes:

take bikes for 5 mile approach, no snow until ridge of Mt Constance

[bremerton_john]

Congratulations to the both of you. For the ascent also.

[olyclimber]

very cool story. congrats!

[Freeman]

Congratulations to you both Matt and Zosia, and may you have many happy days in the mountains.

 

I haven't downloaded my pics yet but I took several telephoto shots of you on the traverse - if you PM me your e-mail addy I'll send them to you.

[MattBrown]

Thanks! will do...

[JayB]

Cool trip. Thanks for sharing the photos and story. I did sorta the same thing for a proposal, except I stashed the ring and a note in a fake summit register, which my wife promptly threw a coat over the nook where I stashed it and fell asleep. When it was time to go, she was ready to leave without giving the "register" a second look, so I had to pretend that I was looking for something else and then say "Hey - look what I found...."

[JDRodgers]

 

 

May a long and wonderful union begin for the both of you!

[alpinerack]

WOW!! Congrats to you both. I asked my wife to marry me on the summit of Pinnacle Peak in Mt. Rainier National Park. We climbed the North Ridge in February, it left a very memorable angagement!

[Huberific]

Looking to climb this on Memorial Weekend. Does anyone know if road bikes would work? That's all I have.

[Drederek]

The gravel road is in pretty good shape to the Constance TH. they must have just smoothed it out before the washout occurred. I'd guess it'd work.