[TR] Little Chief Peak Attempt - SE Ridge 7/25/2009

[Pilchuck71]

Trip: Little Chief Peak Attempt - SE Ridge

 

Date: 7/25/2009

 

Trip Report:

The idea was to help my buddy finish off his quest to climb all of the named peaks on the 110 Green Trails map.

 

Little chief peak being hardly mentioned in the Beckey guide other than "Rough,brushy,low peaks stand NW of Vesper:Little Chief is 1.6 miles distant." gave me the feeling that this was not going to be a "classic" line or even a super desireable peak. Maybe that's why it was one of Rod's last three on 110? I did want to get a good view of Copper Lake though as well as the South side of Big Four, and it had been two years or so since I scrambled Vesper so I was in.

The idea was to go lite (new mode: lite and slow) as we knew we would be doing some vertical schwacking and that the heat was not going to be kind to those venturing up Headlee Pass with heavy packs. There was some talk about some memories of rather steep and sketchy looking gullys on the connecting ridge from Vesper so it was decided to bring along at least some 9mil rap line and a small rack (seven nuts to 2").

I left Bellingham at 3:30pm to meet up at Jeff's house in Lake Stevens for beer and some rest before the 4:00am meet time on Saturday.Jeff and I discussed gear options and once the beer had kicked in starting deciding that eachother was carrying too much gear and the elimination of non essential equipment began.At the end my pack including a pint of Glenlivet and 2 litres of water and 1/2 the rap line was 25#. There ended up being many beers drunk and little rest but 4:00am showed up on time none the less.

It rained hard Friday night and thoughts of crappy ridge bivy's soaked and cold ran through my drunken brain as I tried to catch at least a few hours of shut eye.

I was relieved Saturday morning to find it clear outside and was eager to be on the way.

Rod and Ian showed up on schedule and the four of us hit the road with much enthusiasm and great expectations around 4:45am.

We reached the Headlee Pass TH around 6:00am. We made ready and hit the trail at 6:20am. The hiking was easy and familiar and as always the first creek crossing brought with it some cool air from up on Lewis and reprieve form the already muggy heat.

It was odd to not turn off the trail at Manley's Cabin and head toward Del Campo as usual but an easy crossing of the Stilly was quickly found and a small break was taken before making the switchbacks into Wirtz Basin.

We reached the pass around 8:45am and took a fairly lengthy break enjoying the fact that we had the basin and the trail all to ourselves for the time being.

Clouds were starting to build a bit but there was only mild talk of regret for having left the two 5x7 nylon tarps at the car.

We hit the traverse and worked our way over to the frozen tarn/lake between Vesper and Sperry. We decided that another break was in order to eat and watch the weathert for a few moments.

Fifteen minutes into the break and the weather became increasingly unpleasant first a little wind and more building clouds, then some light rain, then more rain. Now it was a scramble for who could find any kind of overhanging boulder and some shelter from the firehose. Twenty minutes of huddling under rocks and the sun returned, this time with some sweet humidity added to the mix.

We started up the East Face of Vesper making our way through easy scrambling and a right trending heather bench that leads to a small mine about 300ft above the lake. Rod and I remembered seeing this on our last trip up and it provided a good quick rest out of the sun.

Not wanting to waste energy on the way in by climbing to the summit of Vesper we made a leftward rising traverse to the saddle between Vesper and the false summit to the SE. We took a long break here and eyed our objective as well as watched what appeared to be a Mounties scrambling class or party or something (group of at least 10) summit Vesper. This was the third party we had seen since reaching the lake.

We started a NW trending descent across some moderatley steep snow and rock. This was some very fun scrambling and snow travel.

We reached the ridge proper after about a half hour of travel. We followed the ridge for about an 1/8 mile and found running water as well as a more than ample bivy/party spot. We dropped camp gear had a few libations and reloaded everything we would need to make our summit attempt.

We set of across the ridge and after another 1/8 mile came to our first roadblock. A deep rotten and rocky gully blocked our way after downclimbing the west side of the ridge. Some hmming and hawwing about how far it really was through the trees to the saddle.It was then concluded that rather than rap we should go back up and check the NE side of the ridge. We regained the top, stepped through some brush and trees and were delighted to find a perfectly scrambleable ramp leading into the notch. Success!

Well, not exactly. We made about another 10 minutes of travel through some extremely steep trees and cliff bands when we came upon our second major obstacle. A bigger, more rotten, taller and uglier gully than the previous. The ugliest facet of this gully was that, sure we could rap in to the notch, but the wall on the opposite side leading to a highly angled and vegetated summit looked damn near impossible to climb with our limited gear. Not to mention the fact that the clouds were steadily growing more and more ominous.

It was decided after much crawling around and peering through overhanging branches at ugly rotten rock as well as at the sky, that the rest of the day would be much better spent inbibing and looking for options than actually proceeding into the notch of unfathomable commitment.

The flask was emptied and stories were told of huddling out lightning and thunder on Sloan Peak many years ago as the same happened all around our little ridge, and the rain came down.

The morning brought better weather and renewed enthusiasm for reaching our objective. After some breakfasting and discussion about the plan for the day we set out.

It had been decided that we would drop down the W/NW side of the ridge to a point where we thought we may be able to cross the gully at a wider and less cliffy point and continue around the unnamed summit the stood between us and Little Big Chief. We made a right trending downsloping traverse on some seriously steep grass and heather slope and occasionally being lucky enough to get a stand of trees where the footing was not quite as disconcerting. We made good time and things were looking up for us as we turned the bottom of a 4th class rock butress and could see that the gully had gotten wider and maybe a little more open. We climbed another 300' or so to the edge of the gully and were then dissapointed once more. The walls of the gully at this point seemed to be at least 500' of rotten and loose rock. We gathered together looked over the map and discussed what to do next.

We had a total of two hundred feet of 9 mil (two seperate 100' sections and 7 nuts for pro. We needed to get 4 guys down across and out of this gully and the prospects were not looking good. After looking over the map I also noticed that we were still about 6/10 mile shy and two hidden from view gullies away from the summit. It was decided then and there that interest in getting the peak from this side was now at an all time low and that calling it a recon trip and summiting Vesper on the way would have to suffice.

We headed back to camp, ate some food and made our way back to the summit of Vesper.

The climb up Vesper from the ridge was equally as fun as the downclimb abd went quickly. We made the summit and found ourselves to be the only party for the time being, a rare occurence for this peak on a weekend.

The hike out was uneventful and the standing tele boot glissade off the summit was as fun as always.

We made it back to the car around 4:00pm on Sunday and even though we did not get Little Chief it was another good weekend in the mountains and the light show on Saturday night was pretty sweet, as were the views of Copper lake and Big Four.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

2- 100' 9 mil rap lines, 7 - nuts to 2", 2 long mountain runners, 5 regular mountain runners