[TR] Cathedral Rock - SWFace 9/27/2008

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Cathedral Rock - SWFace

 

Date: 9/27/2008

 

Trip Report:

 

My friend PG and I took two newbies on an easy alpine outing on Saturday. We opted for Cathedral Rock, located near Mt. Daniel. The forecast was excellent and it can easily be done in a day.

 

 

The climb involves a pleasant and easy 4 mile approach via Cathedral Pass. You then turn onto a climber's trail - the left option leading to class 3 scrambling with a few exposed moves, and class 4 variations. Finally there is a dirty gully, which you can mitigate by staying on its edge lower down, and then avoid higher by scrambling on mostly solid rock on the climber's left. The gully is short, and no worse than, say, the approach to the Liberty Bell/Concord tower notch.

 

We roped up at the top of the gully for the single pitch of 5.easy climbing.

 

 

We then set up a fixed line on an exposed ridge with some loose rocks. This is mostly class 2 and 3.

 

The summit consists of three interesting blocks, with the pointy one appearing to be the highest.

 

Looking down between two of the summit blocks:

 

Views from the summit are quite nice - Mt. Daniel, Hinman, the Cradle, Stuart, Ingalls, Rainier, etc, etc.

 

Mt. Daniel from Cathedral Rock:

 

The hike out was pleasant as well. We arrived at the cars at dusk.

 

Gear Notes:

Small alpine rack. Two ropes for rappel.

[AlpineMonkey]

Thanks for the nice TR. That makes me want to do that. If you weren't a "newbie" would you need a rope for the ascent or descent? How hard/exposed and how long is the short 5th class section you mention? How about a 30m rope and a few nuts and slings?

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Thanks for the nice TR. That makes me want to do that. If you weren't a "newbie" would you need a rope for the ascent or descent? How hard/exposed and how long is the short 5th class section you mention? How about a 30m rope and a few nuts and slings?

 

The low 5th is probably about 50m. It's in the 5.0 to 5.4 range - I can't say exactly. I wouldn't do it unroped. If you had a 30 m you might have to set up a hanging belay, but I think I passed a couple spots where you could stand comfortably on the belay. The problem would be the rappel. It is a double rope rap. You'd need to leave some gear or find a chock stone for a double part way down. Or you could down climb it and set gear and clean it.

 

You don't need the rope for the ridge run, that's for sure.

 

[mikebell]

There is a scramble route starting on the west side above Peggy's Pond which includes a crawl through some large boulders which form a tunnel just below the summit to avoid the need to rapell. Where the climbing goes from 4th to 5th class it is on the left and if you go right you need a rope to descend. I've also gone from the SE bringing a rope for descent.