[TR] SEWS, NEWS and Blue Lake Peak - 8/11/2007

[spotly]

Trip: SEWS, NEWS and Blue Lake Peak -

 

Date: 8/11/2007

 

Trip Report:

Carl and I made plans to head up to the Liberty Bell group for some relaxation with a bit of climbing thrown in - we were armed with a plan to avoid the major crowds...and heavy packs. We had a rough idea of which routes we wanted to get on but there was no great drive to get in as much as possible so we were gonna just wing it.

 

We left Spokane around 9 am on Friday and arrived at the busy Blue Lake TH with tons of time still available to scurry upwards and grab South Early Winters Spire before dark. I'm always surprised by the diversity found on busy west side trailheads. There were people of all dress and physical attribution. Some gearheads who were loaded down with the latest in electronics and some poeple who were nearly devoid of any articles. Such as the chick we glimpsed right next to the john, laid out on a rock....half naked. And more importantly, right at the start of the trail, which enabled her to get maximuim effect. We were impervious to her antics as we quickly walked by, more interested in catching a glimpse of the rock we knew was just ahead.

 

The trail towards Blue Lake was very gentle. I like starting out that way. It helps get me warmed up before I get worn out. The intersection with the climbers path is very obvious and we stopped there so I could spend a few minutes duct taping the huge blisters on the back of my heels (from an earlier hike with new and quite suck Go-Lite shoes). The climbers path wasted no time gaining the rock above. There were several trails that shot off to the left towards Liberty Bell. We stayed right at these intersections and within 1.5 to 2 hours, arrived at a nice location for a bivy near the base of South Early Winters Spire. That was our great plan for avoiding the crowds - bivy high then climb late in the day on Friday and real early on Saturday. As it turned out, other than SEWS, our chosen routes were not highly desirable and we found no competion. As an added bonus to biying near the rock, we expected this to be an excellent spot to enjoy the meteor showers. Carl quickly grabbed the level spot and I was left to eek out an area in "The Cratered Region." We had a bite to eat and lazed around for a bit. In the quietness, we could hear water running nearby. A quick search revealed a virtual fountain springing from the rocks. The joy of carrying up 3 plus liters of water each was overshadowed by the knowledge that we could now drink as much as we wished.

 

The South Arete route is mostly just a scramble but it makes for a good warm-up. It's the tallest spire in the group and has a great view of the other spires from the top. Since it was so late in the day, the route was all ours and we took our time reaching the top, exploring and posing for the camera here and there. The climbing was fun and uneventful. At the top, we bouldered up onto the tallest block and took in the views. The tiny cars on highway 20 looked really small from up there. We were fortunate to have a really clear sky so the surrounding peaks were all visible. I'm sure Carl was impressed that I could name off many of them. The only ones I really knew for sure were Black Peak, Corteo and Golden Horn. I jumbled a bunch of letters together and came up with some realistic names for all of the others. On the way down we took our time crossing the short little slab pitch in order to get some glamour shots. There is a bolt protecting the traverse but it's an easy few moves with solid hands and feet so if you didn't see it on the opposite side of the edge, you'd hardly miss it. The pictures I've seen of this pitch make it look like the ends of the earth are on each side. It would be a suck fall but the feeling of exposure isn't that dramatic. In the pictures we took, it's obvious that we were doing our best to add to the illusion.

 

We touched down at the base right at dark and headlamped our way to the bivy spot. I was fast asleep before very long, not having seen a single meteor. The stars were glorious though. During the night it became painfully obvious that a 40 degree bag was inadequate. I got very little sleep but still managed to sleep in on Saturday. A huge goat scampering around in the rocks above us finally got us rolling out and brewing up some breakfast.

 

We wound up following the goats over towards Blue Lake Peak and before we knew it, we were scurrying up the most haneous choss pile on the planet. As is always the case, it looked so casual from the base. Spur of the moment decisions usually result in lack of desired equipment. As I watched a basketball size rock zing by I realized that even though a helmet would have been insufficient for that, it sure would be nice to have on just the same. With what must have been saucer sized eyes, I thought I could just glimpse the shiny white helmet back at the peaceful camp far in the distance...why wasn't I there right now, sipping on coffee and playing with butterflies. Another rock brought me back to the current reality. Every move up the pile was painstakingly deliberate and semi-solid holds could be found here and there. Once we gained the ridge, the rest of the scramble looked like a cruise. We searched real hard for 2 or 3 seconds and found the loosest 5th class trough available. That must be the way. At the summit, Carl lifted me up off my belly and we took in the awesome views! I proposed abondoning the rack, rope and all of our bivy gear back in camp in favor of taking the huge and safe scree slope down the backside, which led to some place I didn't know and didn't care. Carl won out and kicked me towards the abyss. The downclimb wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I believe my nerves were pretty fried by then and I'm sure that help alot.

 

Back at camp, we relaxed some more. Voices below brought up the first people we'd seen since Friday afternoon and got us up and throwing gear together. We'd been warned about the poor quality of rock on the South Face route of North Early Winters Spire but we headed over that way anyway. The first pitch was a 5th class scramble to a gully then up that to a giant chockstone. We stowed our gear here and Carl took off for the first belayed pitch. This pitch held the crux traverse move onto the top of the chockstone and Carl finished it off in good time. We then scrambled up the higher gully to a second chockstone. The route climbed up "ok" quality but very runout 5.4 rock to the left of the gully onto the top of this second chockstone. Some people had told us that the route was actually the descent route but other than the gully scramble, the remainder of the route is quite destinct from the rap route. The rap route is 2 or 3 crack/chimney systems to the left of the route. I led the 200 foot pitch off the top of the second chockstone as it followed a dike then eventually wound its way into a large chimney. The rock features made the pitch look simple but pulling on the holds and jamming the cracks showed that the rock was all very fragile. Some intuitive holds had to be avoided for fear of sending the route down onto Carl and placements were sketchy for the most part. It was still pretty easy climbing though. Just not enjoyable. Carl took the last pitch to the top. Because his foot was bothering him, he decided to forego the tight rock shoes in favor of his new tennies. As he tried to pull the final few moves over the top, his foot kept skidding off the flakey rock. At first, I found it amuzing and hollered "I'll bet you wished you'd worn you're rock shoes now..ha ha ha." But after 5 or so minutes of floundering, I realized he had a pretty high potential for peeling. I could tell he was getting spent and he soon hollered down that he was going to take a break. Now, I won't pretend to understand the human mind under stress but if I were clinging to a smooth bulge with palms, forearms, thighs and belly and with no obvious rest stances avalable, and having to constantly inchworm just to maintain position and not peel...well, I'm not sure at what point in that process I would choose to "take a break." It took Carl literally 20 minutes to make that single move. A large crowd had gathered to watch the mini-epic from atop of SEWs. The smell of popcorn wafted in the air. I'm sure that Carl found the magnifying glass more intense that the move and so put forth one last herculean slither to gain the top. It took alot of gumption to push through it on lead. Even in rock shoes and with a top rope, the move was quite hard. We enjoyed the summit with a few other people then headed down. The rap from the top of the huge chockstone was a cool open air affair - the best part of the route actually - LOL.

 

We headed back to camp and ate a small meal before packing up and making the long drive back to Spokane. Got home at 3amish. We plan on heading back over in the future to grab the last 3 spires.

 

Carl on the super gnarly traverse on SEWS:

 

Blue Lake Peak from SEWS:

 

Our alarm clocks:

 

Liberty Bell Group from Blue Lake Peak:

 

Carl on Blue Lake Peak:

 

Heading up to 2nd pitch of South Face route on NEWS:

 

Carl on NEWS:

 

Carl on NEWS:

 

On top of NEWS:

 

Self-portrait. Rapping the large chockstone:

 

Carl rapping the large chockstone:

 

[Telemack]

Ah, the joys of semi-hard climbing in comfy, sloppy shoes....