[TR] DEB SEWS- EF LEXINGTON 8/12/2006

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Climb: DEB SEWS-EF LEXINGTON

 

Date of Climb: 8/12/2006

 

Trip Report:

Aaron Z (zman) and I drove up to washington pass for the weekend to do some climbing. We arrived late friday and bivied at the blue lake trail head. In the morning we drove to the last pullout before the hairpin to climb the direct east buttress on SEWS.

We werent quite sure which gully to head up, and we ended up cruising up the gully separating NEWS and SEWS. We questioned our choice early on due to the looseness of the gully and we actually started heading down. Unfortunately we changed our mind and continued up. Tons of looseness and a few scrambling sections later we found an exit left to the treed rib which forms the lower buttress of news. This provided very easy hiking and made our earlier decision seem only mildly dumb. We arrived at the base of the climb soon and aaron headed up the first pitch.

We hoped to simul the first two pitches, but the rope hooked behind a flake and the drag forced aaron to belay. The next pitch started over similar easy ground, and ended with some fun mid fifth climbing to a tree belay. Next aaron led up a rotten slightly runout crack which quickly improved in quality before pulling a small 5.9 roof.

The next pitch started in an awesome 5.8 dihedral with fun moves, good rock and perfect stances. The topo labeled a loose block at the top of dihedral, but it didn’t seem too dangerous. Again the climbing eased off to 4th class before arriving at a nice comfy belay.

Aaron led the next pitch which started with some 5.8 moves before gaining the bolt ladder. I was amazed at how heavily bolted the ladder was, with another bolt often in reach when the current bolt was at or above your waste. Aaron led the pitch pretty quickly by French freeing the bolt ladder and mixing free and aid on the fun flake and crack. I was able to free the pitch cleanly until reaching the crest of the buttress at which point the climbing seemed to get difficult so rather than waste time I pulled on a few bolts. The flake and crack at the finish were really fun, although the move linking the features seemed pretty hard. Aaron set up a rather uncomfortable semi hangin belay, but it seemed to be the best option.

The next pitch heads out right with somewhat challenging poorly protected climbing. Beckey calls it 5.8 and Kearney calls it 5.10. I’m not really sure because I was more concerned about the pro than the climbing.

After reaching easier ground, the pitch moves back left to another bolt ladder. The first bolt is easily skipped via moderate free climbing. I dint bother trying to free the next couple of bolts and yarded my way up to the nice crack above. This crack ended at an awkward mantle. The mantle felt pretty hard and after pulling it I hoped that it was the 9+/10 mantle on the topo. Unfortuneately an even more awkward mantle existed further up after another fun steep crack section. The next mantle took some thinking, but after figuring out the best holds it felt relatively secure. This pitch had a super comfy belay, so I was happy. Aaron followed quickly and was soon leading off on a fun and enjoyable 5.6 pitch. I led a 5.4 pitch to the top of the buttress and some bolts.

I belayed aaron up and we looked all around for the supposed 5.4 step down to the main formation. Not sure it was really 5.4, but aaron led down the stepdown, then threw in a cam, and give me a little shoulder stand lift to the ground. Next we led off to find a comfy spot to lounge around and eat and drink. It was still relatively early and we weren’t in much of a hurry. Plus the S. Arete descent isn’t really something to dread, as it is pretty fun. Some paragliders put on a cool show for us.

The downclimb went smooth until the raps at the bottom where one of the ropes managed wrap itself fifty or so times around a small tree.

Eventually we got the tangles out and soon were on the ground and plodding down the trail. We found the early cutoff from the regular trail and made our way back down the highway to the car. About a ¼ mile up we were picked up by a nice guy in a truck who gave us a ride back to the car. We spent the evening reading guidebooks, eating pasta and playing cribbage at the cutthroat lake trailhead.

 

This was a cool climb, but I kind of agree with a lot of other comments out there that some of the pitches aren’t great. The exposure and views on the other hand are awesome.

 

The next morning we slept in a little later before driving up to the first pullout to climb the EF of Lexington. The approach was way easier than SEWS, following a perfect trail up to generally solid talus, with only a bit of crappy scree. I got my first close up look of liberty crack and now want to climb it even more than before. There was still a bunch of snow blocking the regular start of EF Lexington, so we started up the obvious gully/weakness to the climbers right of the face. The gully afforded decent protection, relatively solid rock, and was actually pretty enjoyable. An move left brought me to the 3rd class ledge shown on the topo. Aaron led the next pitch which starts with some fun cracks before turning into sparsely protected face climbing. The Beckey topo shows the line passing between three small but obvious roofs, however aaron found enjoyable easier looking climbing just to the left of the “regular” line.

Next I linked the mid fifth 3rd pitch with the awesome 5.8 fourth pitch. The 5.8 fourth pitch starts in some fun finger cracks before moving into a corner that ranges from fingers to offwidth. The pitches linked well with a 60m rope (leaving maybe 10ft of excess to pull up). Aaron led the next pitch which skirts a large roof (not shown in topos) on the left via very enjoyable 5.7 wide hands crack. We had some brief discussion about where the route went because the prominent roof in the topo was supposedly skirted on the right. Aaron’s intuition was correct however as a larger roof was ahead.

The next pitch is really spectacular. It starts in an easier than it looks chimney, then moves right via a vey narrow foot traverse.

The route is supposed to go up a flake above the traverse, but I was more concerned about the exposed traverse and I completely missed the flake. This mistake was exacerbated by the topo which clearly shows the flake at the end of the traverse. Anyhow, as soon as the traverse was hand size, I dropped down and hand traversed all the way to the end. The next finger crack is one of the best finger cracks I have ever I climbed. I think it is part of tooth and claw, but I’m not certain (anybody know). It starts right above a bolt anchor/rap station. I noticed my mistake about halfway up the finger crack, however correcting at the point would require a difficult looking unprotected face traverse 10 ft to the left.. Instead I continued to the end of the finger crack where I found a reasonable downward traverse directly to the alcove belay bleow the wide cracks.

 

I was happy that Aaron had drawn the crux wide pitch. A #6 friend borrowed from TomTom kept the pro overhead, and aaron pushed through to a belay after a runout chimney and a trickey move past a chockstone.

Contrary to the guidebooks, the bolts on this pitch appear to be fine. Following this pitch with our pack was a bear. After pulling through the offwidth, aaron hauled the pack while I climbed the chimney. I arrived at the belay tired and dehydrated from two days of climbing, and slightly trepid about the dirty offwidt ahead.

Right off the belay, my triceps started cramping pretty bad.. I made it to the end of the offwidth section, but my arms kept going dead. After repeated offers from aaron to finish the pitch while I drank some water, I finally took him up on it. Much rope shenanigans ensued and many many minutes later aaron was TRing up to the end of the first offwidth section. More thuggish chimney and offwidth climbing eventually lead to a good sandy belay ledge. I was feeling better after drinking some water, and soon met aaron at the belay before leading off on the last long easier pitch. Fun, but somewhat dirty 5.6-5.7 climbing interspersed with easier ground brought me to a belay at the top of the east face. I belayed aaron up and he set off on the easy 5.low pitch which traverses a cool easy exposed slab before ending at a treed ledge below the summit of Lexington. Aaron was a bit nervous about the unknown descent as all the beckey topo and description says is walk off. The main gully ahead looked way too steep, so we worked down and left eventually reaching a sunny spot with a view of easier ground. We sat down here and ate and relaxed. Soon we were back on well traveled ground cleaning the sand out of our shoes. Aaron left his helmet here on accident, so if anyone sees it shoot him a PM (http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/594797/an/0/page/0#594797).

Again we repeated the walk down to the highway. Aaron left me with all the gear and he jogged most of the way back to the car before getting picked up. He picked me up shortly thereafter and we were on our way back to seattle.

 

I think EF Lexington is the best climb I’ve done wa pass. Almost all of the pitches had some merit, and many were exceptional IMO. I had mixed feelings about the off widths, but that is probably because I suck at climbing them.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Double set to #3 for sews was more than adequate

 

#6 Friend on EF Lexington is really nice. #5 is probably not as useful, although there are a few spots for it.

[Alpinfox]

For DEB SEWS, it is a very easy approach if you park at the hairpin and go straight up to the base.

 

Thanks for the pictures!

[DirtyHarry]

You don't need any big gear for the offwidth b/c there's two big fat new bolts protecting it.

[catbirdseat]

Nice work guys! Take me with you next time.

[Mr_Phil]

You don't need any big gear for the offwidth b/c there's two big fat new bolts protecting it.

 

Bolted crack?

 

Chop em.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Nice TR and pics. Sounds like a lot of fun. I've been neglecting WA Pass this year.