[TR] Cutthroat - North Ridge 8/24/2007

[JasonG]

Trip: Cutthroat - North Ridge

 

Date: 8/24/2007

 

Trip Report:

With the weather forecast to crap out yet again on the weekend, dR and I snuck away on a Friday to check out the North Ridge of Cutthroat, a climb that I have not heard a lot about. Fred says the rock is "superb" so we had to at least give it a try. It is basically the right skyline in the picture below:

 

We opted for the approach branching from the normal South Buttress trail and climbed a loose 5.7ish pitch to gain the sharp notch in the north ridge. Bail slings midway up signaled that this was not a high quality pitch and the next one out of the notch didn't look a lot better (loose rock, poor pro, 5.7ish?). So we opted to drop into the basin to the NW and find the original route that Fred took to gain the North Ridge:

 

This was more like it! Solid, easy, and fun climbing got us onto the ridge proper and from there the climbing was generally good. Scrambly sections followed by short mid-fifth class bits, sometimes you had to look a bit to find the easy way:

 

other times it was obvious:

 

I think it took us around 2 hours to the base of the climb and maybe three hours on route. The last few rope lengths had some fun climbing on the airy ridge:

 

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Soon we were enjoying the views on the summit:

 

We descended the South Buttress via a bunch of single rappels and enjoyed a nice hike out as the light turned golden:

 

All together this is a recommended climb. I think the original start is better than the variation we took, but the approach is certainly quicker via the south side of Cutthroat. So I guess it probably is a wash . . . Anyway, if you are looking for a less crowded route in the WA pass area, it is worth checking out.

 

Cheers, Jason Griffith

[Alpine_Tom]

Alex Mineev and I did the west ridge last summer, and it is a fun mountain.

Did you find the summit register we left up there? Just curious whether it's still there.

[selkirk]

The west ridge is a good route For easy technical climbing it makes for a great alpine kind of day