[TR] North Cascades - (SEWS) South Early Winter Spire 8/27/2007

[Jeepenfool95]

Trip: North Cascades - (SEWS) South Early Winter Spire

 

Date: 8/27/2007

 

Trip Report:

Bear with me folks, this is my first trip report.

 

An old buddy of mine used to do these, but he past away about two years ago doing what he loved. Anyway, this first report is dedicated to the memory of John Z.

 

Andrew North and I climbed the SEWS on Monday Aug 27. The weather was beautiful, though it was a little chilly in the morning. This made the rock a little chilly to the touch, but after the first pitch my hands didn't care anymore, there was plenty of blood running through them.

 

We made out approach via the parking lot and headed up to the South Early winter Spire, we met a few folks doing guided trips up the South arete (which we would later descend). We planned to climb the (as I believe) the south west rib (I think it is the classic route for SEWS). We planned a variation of the beginning, skipping the traverse out of the coular. The beta we had showed a 5.8 and 5.6 variation. Hoping to do the 5.6 variation, I began traversing across some low angle slabs up to an open book crack system just above and to the right of the tree. There was a small tree growing out of the crack that made one of the moves a little balancey. Above that, the rock steepened and my gear placements were less often. I was able to keep good hands in the crack with very sticky feet. However the crack ran out, and the slab got steeper than I had expected. I tried to make the move and slipped. Andrew came up behind me and was able to make the move. The top of the bulge had a descent location for a small sized cam as he prepared for the short traverse into an obvious crack/flake to the left. Andrew was able to make the move and get up to the bottom of the first real pitch of the climb the 5.8 crack. Compared to the rest of the climb the first pitch was the spiciest.

 

The rest of the climb was uneventful and I had the privilege of leading the 5.6 black slab. It was a little airy, but from everything I had read prior to the climb, I was expecting it to be more exposed. I felt really comfortable on it.

 

In retrospect we probably could have simul-climbed the last bit, but since it was our first time on the route we set up belays more than we probably needed to.

 

We topped out and traversed over to the South Arete where we made our way down. There were a couple of tricky spots that actually required some down climbing and then we were on on the rappel. I think we rapped off the wrong tree, as we started the rappel we could see a much larger tree off to our right (climbers right) that looked like it would have been much better.

 

We got to the bottom, and walked back to the big tree and put our shoes on. The hike was really pleasant, and to top it off we had a couple of cold ones sitting in the cooler in the car.

 

It was a great trip, and I can't wait to get back up there and do it again.

 

Charlie

 

 

Edited September 5, 2007 by Jeepenfool95

[curtveld]

Fun stuff! Thanks for posting.