[TR] Mt. Washington- North Ridge 9/9/2006

[dinomyte]

Climb: Mt. Washington-North Ridge

 

Date of Climb: 9/9/2006

 

Trip Report:

Although I posted this TR on my personal website, I'm gonna post it here too, as there apparently are not nearly enough folks slogging up these crap heaps that we call the Oregon Cascades!

 

My buddy Kevin and I had planned on knocking off several summits in the Oregon Cascades during September. A couple of weeks ago, we had wanted to do Mt. Washington, but fire had prevented us so we did Three Fingered Jack instead.

 

This weekend, we knew that the fire was out, and a check on the Forest Service website indicated that the PCT was closed south of Mt. Washington. Since our approach was from the north – no problem!

 

Kevin had provided the beer last time, so this time I said I’d provide us with both beers and brats! I grabbed quite a selection of IPA’s – Hop Ottin, Immortal, Ruination, Stone Ten Year Anniversary, and some Dogfish Head 60-minute! To maintain the theme, I grabbed some Red Hook beer brats!

 

We loaded up and cruised to the PCT trailhead near Big Lake on Friday night. I set up the grill and tossed on the dogs. And, we tried several frosty beverages. After sampling all of them, I still have to say that Stone Brewing’s Ruination IPA is my favorite. Hard to go wrong at 100+ IBU’s. Anyway, we each had a couple of brats, and drank and bullshitted for a bit. We hit the hay around 10:30 pm.

 

The next morning we got up a bit before 7:00 am. The clouds had moved in overnight (we knew the forecast had called for the possibility of showers) and it was cool, but not cold. Still, we tossed shells in our packs and split up the gear (Kevin definitely got the short end of the stick carrying the rope), donned our packs and started out. Signs at the trailhead confirmed our understanding that the PCT was closed, but beyond where we were heading.

 

We cruised through the woods on the PCT, and in about 10 minutes came across a group of about 5-6 elk – all cows. We stood and watched, but they eventually caught a whiff and took off. They paralleled the trail for a bit and a few minutes later we saw a big bull through the trees. He was partially hidden, but looked to be a six-point with a nice spread.

 

In an hour, we were at the cairn marking the climber’s trail. We took that left and headed up toward a ridge that, due to the fog, we couldn’t even see. It didn’t really rain, though it spit on us a time or two. But, we got wetter from the fog drip than from anything else.

 

A bit later we gained the North ridgeline. It was pretty funny to look at, but as we looked toward where the summit had to be, to the east there was a bit of clearing where the sun was trying to break through, and to the west the wind was blowing and the fog was so thick you couldn’t see a thing. We headed up the ridge, climbed up or went around a number of blocks, and eventually came to the gully that we had to go up to approach the summit block.

 

It was at that point that the wind really seemed to hit us. I had on a Schoeller soft shell but I was freezing my ass off, primarily because my hands were cold. The sun had broken through but wasn’t on us at that point and the breeze was damn cold. We sat there for a minute and had a quick bite before tackling the summit. After a bit, we put on our harnesses, and prepped for the climb. Suddenly, a party of four appeared below us coming up the gully. We were kinda surprised, as we hadn’t seen anyone all morning.

 

Anyway, we started up. Kevin headed over to the second ramp. He had mistakenly taken the first ramp (which leads to nowhere) on a previous climb, and I had read not to on Summitpost. I followed and belayed him up through this chimney. He gave a yell to let me know I was on. I climbed up through and saw that he had set a cam (that neither of us were too confident in) at a point where he had to make a little move up a wall. I cleaned that up and cruised up to him. From that first pitch, it was really just a scramble to the top.

 

We hung out on the summit for a good 15 – 20 minutes, getting all of our summit photos done. The Sisters complex looked awesome, as did Jack and Jeff. Kevin pointed out the rock that he thought was the true summit. We took a look, and the thing was covered with fulgurites. We thought it was strange that this one rock had been hit so many times, yet we saw no signs of anything else being hit.

 

Finally, we prepped to head down. We had seen three rap stations on the way up although, as I said, downclimbing probably would have been fine. Still, we decided to rap, for practice and protection. There was one sling at the top station and it looked pretty good. We later agreed that a second piece would not have hurt. Anyway, we rapped down there and then from the second station, which had three slings.

 

A bit later, we came to the final rap station, where you actually have a vertical face to work with. We had a bit of difficulty with the wind blowing the rope, but Kevin cleaned that up as he went down. I had a bit of a problem getting my body over the edge of the face, but no problem on the way down.

 

At the bottom, we tossed our gear back into the packs and headed down the gully and down a scree slope to the exit trail. We cruised down the trail to the PCT, and out to the rig, where we found cold beers and leftover brats waiting for us. Both were quite satisfying.

 

We took off and were back in P-town by 8:00 pm. One more summit down!

 

My final thoughts on Washington: Although there was some exposure, it was not as constant as on Jack. You really only needed to protect the first pitch. But, I am happy to have completed this one!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

60M rope

The aforementioned symbolic cam.

 

Approach Notes:

One dusty trail

Edited September 11, 2006 by dinomyte

[Kevin_Matlock]

All praise the mighty IPA gods!

Oh, and the climb was fun, too. Good times, Jon!

 

Additional gear note: 60 meters is pretty much required to reach from the "main" rap point down to the saddle. Leave the 50M rope in the car unless you wanna down climb some. If you want to set pro, take pieces in the 1" range and don't futz with 'em much since they probably won't hold anyway.

[Mike_G]

Sounds like a great trip, thanks for posting! We climbed Washington a couple of years ago with a 25m rope, which was actually long enough (and light enough). I think we rapped 2 or maybe 3 times, but we also did a bit of downclimbing. I know some folks don't bother with a rope at all, so it depends on your comfort level. Also, for protection, you're probably better off just bringing plenty of webbing and slinging horns and other large pieces of loose cat litter. I don't think we even bothered bringing any gear. Just my two cents...