[TR] The Snout's Deviated Septum - WA Pass

[Blake]

Trip: The Snout's Deviated Septum - Cutthroat Lake Basin at Washington Pass-

 

Date: 8/2/2007

 

Trip Report:

On Thursday I talked Trogdor_the_Burninator (Jason) into going for a little climbing adventure up at Washington Pass. We ended up at the base of a rad-looking castle of dark granite that is called "the Snout" in the Cascade Alpine Guide, and has one route on it, the Golden Ramp route. We spied some cool looking features from the ground and climbed a route a couple hundred yards to the East of the Golden Ramp. Jason insisted on continuing the nasal theme of the area, hence the strange route name. Not very many pictures...

 

 

P1 was 75m, mostly easy... maybe up to 5.7ish to the base of the corner.

 

p2 was short up the obvious corner to the cool saddle-shaped belay tree 5.9+

 

p3 was short but sustained 5.10 climbing with balancey face moves out left from the tree, then up good cracks to the mantle atop the headwall. Jason had a good lead on this pitch and it was the best of the route. You might want to protect the crux moves off the belay by clipping the leader into a cam high above the belay for a few moves.

 

 

 

p4 was ~75m and again basically 5.fun We unroped a bit short of the top and soloed to the summit.

 

We left rap slings in place skier's left of the big corner. Make sure to TR the awesome splitter cracks on the way down (felt like Rebel Yell), or just bring along some big cams and lead them on the way up.

 

If someone cleaned up the finger crack from the base, and linked it through the fist-O/W splitter up high, it'd make a great route. Might need a couple pins though down low.

 

There's also a free belay device and locking 'biner somewhere around the base, and maybe a green TCU as well.

 

Approach Notes:

45 minutes South of the Cutthroat Lake TH.

[layton]

Nice Blake! Did you see the Golden Ramp's supposed "best 5.8" pitch in all of Washington?

[Blake]

yeah, Golden ramp is about 4 minutes to the right of our route... just walk along the base. We didn't do it so I can't comment, but you could climb up a couple routes to the top in a day cause it's more of an alpine "crag" than a mountain. It is a prominent peak with a summit and cairn.. but no register which was disappointing. I was intrigued to see who had been up there!

[tyree]

Nice guys! looks like a fun day out!

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Ton's of fun! The crux pitch was on of the more mentally challenging leads I've done. Pulled off some portable holds down low and almost puked as I pulled onto the down sloping lichen covered lip at the top while climbing above two cams in marginal rock.

 

A #4 BD stopper protects the start moves on the crux pitch surprisingly well (while the cam placed overhead in the corner adds some extra security).

[Telemack]

Is this the formation you briefly look at straight ahead while driving W from Mazama?

[TrogdortheBurninator]

I'd be surprised if it could be seen anywhere from the highway. I think we got a brief glimpse of it from the abandoned access rd that forks off before the bridge on the cutthroat lake trail. Otherwise, I think it is pretty well hidden from the valley bottoms.

[Billygoat]

Fern, Julie and I have been up there on the Golden Ramp. Definitely the "best 5.8 in Washington"! (on a rainy day at WaPass in the early '70s when you didn't want to drive anywhere else and wanted to try some adventure climbing in a seldom seen area....and you had a three finger bag of Columbian red)

 

Blake, I knew you would do it