[TR] Chair Peak - North Face

[ddg316]

Trip: Chair Peak - North Face

Date: 2/6/2010

 

Trip Report:

Since some of you have no doubt seen the news in the last couple of days and heard about my friend Bret and my experience at Chair Peak and subsequent cold night at Melakwa Lake, I thought I would post a quick trip report to fill in some of the details and so other people may learn from our mistakes.

 

Bret and I started from the upper parking lot at Alpental at about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, February 6, with the intention of scouting around to see which climbs were in. We brought ice gear with us in case we found anything interesting, but we were not even sure whether we would climb. I suppose you could say it was to be sort of a fact finding mission and possibly climbing if conditions were right.

 

As we were putting our boots on in the parking lot, we bumped into another cascade climber, Wayne, who told us that he was planning to solo Chair Peak. Neither Bret or I had climbed Chair Peak before, and really were not all that familiar with the area; however, we were both interested in doing it. We asked Wayne if he would mind if we tagged along with him. He was gracious enough to let us follow him up.

 

Because Wayne had heard there was a boot pack all the way up, we left our snowshoes in the car and proceeded to boot our way up past Source Lake. Wayne was nice enough to point out a number of the climbing routes along the way. There appeared to have been some new snow and it was somewhat difficult to locate a boot pack above Source Lake. We did see another party ahead of us on snowshoes, however, so we stayed in their tracks and the post-holing was kept to a minimum.

 

I don't recall exactly at what time we reached the base of the route, it was probably somewhere around noon, or maybe a little before. At the base of the route, we bumped into Dane, another cascade climber, who also was planning on soloing the north face. It was determined that Wayne would lead the first pitch, followed by Bret, who was tied into Wayne's rope, and I would bring up the rear and be tied into a second rope. While I was coming up, Wayne would solo the second pitch and we would move up the route in that fashion.

 

The plan was running smoothly until I reached the first belay station. I had not eaten enough and was feeling really light-headed and was not sure that I would be able to complete the climb. At that point, Bret, who was tied into Wayne's rope, untied himself and told Wayne to go on ahead. I was able to each a Pro Bar and a power gel and began to feel much better so Bret and I decided to continue the climb. Bret would lead and I would follow. We continued on and at one point as I was belaying Bret at the second belay station, Wayne had completed the climb and hiked around to the base of the route to make sure that we were okay. Although communication was somewhat limited, I was able to tell him that I was okay and we were going to complete the climb.

 

The rest of the climb went smoothly, we completed the route in three pitches and a short solo to the summit. The conditions were really good, plenty of ice and firm snow made for a great day of climbing.

 

The "fun" really began when we reached the summit and began the descent. Since neither Bret or I had climbed Chair Peak before nor were we super familiar with the route, we were not sure exactly where the rap station was to begin the descent. We attempted to follow some other tracks on the summit, presumably they were Wayne or Dane's, and we figured that they would lead us to the proper descent route. We, however, found two sets of tracks and we could not find any evidence of someone having rappelled. So we picked one of two gullies that appeared to be the most likely route down and we began to rappel. We used trees, rocks and even a makeshift deadman anchor, which I fashioned out of a thick tree branch as rappel anchors and began to rappel down what we would later find out was the southwest face of Chair Peak.

 

As we descended, the angle of the slope became more gradual and since it was getting dark fast by this time, we opted to save time by downclimbing instead of rappelling. We down climbed for approximately 400 vertical feet. The angle became increasing steeper and the route went from firm snow to waterfall ice as we neared the bottom.

 

I don't know if it was adrenaline or simply the lateness of the hour, but Bret and I climbed way above our normal ability level and made quick progress down the gully. I was in front and Bret was some ways above me. When I neared the bottom, I reached a spot where it appeared to not only be vertical, but also, it appeared as though the rock was bare. Fortunately it did not appear to be that big of a section of rock. As I was a little bit ahead of Bret, I decided to sink a screw and simply rappel down the rock section. the ice that I put the screw into was sketchy at best, but I knew that it would not be a long rappel and the landing appeared really soft if I was to fall.

 

With that in mind I began to rappel. I got about halfway down the section and, sure enough, the screw pulled out of the ice and I did fall. As I anticipated, the landing was soft and although I was a little shaken up, I was not hurt except for a small cut in my chin, where I would imagine my ice tool hit me. The only other unfortunate thing about the fall was that I lost one of my ice tools--I was using a wrist leash and it flew off my wrist despite that I had it nice and tight (I still have not figured how that happened).

 

I yelled up to Bret and told him that I was okay and by that time, I could see that there was an ice line over the section that I had been concerned about. I also told him that I had only fallen about 10-15 feet, which I think gave him more confidence in knowing that even if he fell, it would not be that far. Bret, being a more experienced climber than me, found that line and downclimbed the rest of the route.

 

At this point, we thought we were home free and could simply retrace our approach and get back to the car. However, as we began walking away from the face, something did not look right. As we continued to descend, I began to recognize the basin as the area above Lake Melakwa. I had hiked to the lake one time a couple of years ago and I looked at my GPS to confirm that in fact that was where we were.

 

By this time it was totally dark. Although I was somewhat familiar with the trail out, we were not very confident in our ability in our abilities to find the trail around to Denny Creek in the dark. It was at this time that my GPS began really acting up and I began to get all kinds of strange readings, so I did not really trust that either.

 

We knew that we needed to wait until daylight to be able to find the trail out and so we proceeded to hike through the snow for the whole night to stay warm. We had some food with us that we rationed so that it would last through the night and we were able to refill our water bottles in Lake Melakwa--normally not a good idea because of parasites, etc., however, in this case, it was better than the alternative.

 

When daylight came, we were able to find the trail from Lake Melakwa down to Denny Creek, where we were able to contact our wives and tell them we were okay and where we were. As we got closer to the Denny Creek Water Slides, we met up with a Search and Rescue team who had been sent out to find us. We walked the rest of the way out with them and they gave us a ride up to Alpental where my Dad and brother were waiting.

 

Sorry if the story is kind of long, but as I reflected back on the events of the last couple of days, there are a number of things that I could have done differently to avoid some of the problems that we had. By including a lot of detail, I hope that those who read the story will learn from our mistakes and be more prepared for their own adventures.

 

Also, I am pretty new to CC and I have not figured out how to post pictures into the body of a TR, if anyone is interested I would be happy to email the pictures or perhaps someone could enlighten me on how to post pictures into a TR and I will put em up.

 

Gear Notes:

standard ice gear. Would have been nice to have a picket or two for the snow up there.

 

Approach Notes:

booted in. snowshoes or other flotation would have been nice though--especially for the LONG hike out.

Edited February 9, 2010 by ddg316

[RokIzGud]

It didnt happen if there are no pictures... Im totally kidding! Im glad you made it back safe! I got back from a climb late last night and heard the news. When i woke up i saw that you two were back with no major injuries. I thought i saw a bandage on one of your chins, is that all good? Glad you made it back safe!

[ddg316]

the chin has a little cut on it, took a couple of stitches to close it up, but it is fine

[Bug]

Epics are part of climbing. If you never have an epic, you aren't in adventure mode. You guys did everything right to stay alive.

Nice work!

Thanks for posting the TR too.

[Dane]

Bret and Dave,

Glad you guys made it home OK. Stuff like this happens to everyone sooner or later. Easy to get confused on the top of Chair in failing light and the fog. Which is why Wayne and I first started down the same gully as you and had to retrace our steps to go one gully to the east. I felt some responsibility for your well being because of it.

 

Well done in any event and way to get yourself up the hill and out of what could have been a bad bind as well. Good on ya.

 

For your veiwing pleasure Not a lot of pictures with you in here but a few. I have the full size jpgs if you'd like any of them. At least some of them might help you remember the fun time you had

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[keenwesh]

when I did the N face we descended that wrong gully and managed to realize our mistake and traverse to the notch and make the raps, no matter that we ran out of daylight.

[ddg316]

Thanks for posting the pictures Dane. How did you post them into the body of your reply? I would have posted my pictures, but I could not figure out how to do it.

[Dane]

You have to host the photo somewhere first...CC.com has a gallery to do that in. I use an off site hoster. Left click and copy the properties line of the hosted photo then paste in the link with xyz.jpeg on either side. Add a back slash in the last one like this /img and the photo should show up in the preview.

 

I have almost no clue on this stuff so someone else might have a faster/easier answer for you.

 

 

[jcp]

Thanks for the beta. I'm headed out there tomorrow, and will definitely have the skis. Hopefully I won't make the same mistakes. I try to learn from others! Very detailed report though, much appreciated.

[Pete_H]

I indeed had my share of epics when I started climbing. I'm just glad there wasn't a tv crew or even the internet around then.

[Bug]

I indeed had my share of epics when I started climbing. I'm just glad there wasn't a tv crew or even the internet around then.

Yeah, just Sabertooth tigers and neandrethal (No that's not a form of Meth).

[ckotke]

Hey there guys!! Glad to hear you made it out alright. I was actually part of the group you guys ran into wearing the snowshoes. We made an attempt on the Northeast buttress that day but turned around due to the lateness of the hour and the conditions of the route. Were you guys also the ones we saw just at the base of the climb. We passed 3 climbers that were heading for the north face, was that you guys?

 

Man, the hike out that night was pretty rough. It was pretty when we got down but then the clouds rolled in and it was total white out conditions. We luckily had our own tracks to follow out.

 

Also BTW, on the way up we had stashed our snowshoes just before starting up the ridge. When we got back, we noticed someone had built a cairn out of snow balls and had placed a couple of pieces of pro on it that they apparently thought were ours. It was late as heck so we took them with us but I am wondering if it was any of y'alls.

[wayne]

Yes thanks, Please get them back to jcp.

[ddg316]

ckotke,

 

thanks, we were happy to make it out too. We thought that you had summitted before us. we were two of the three climbers that you passed. the pieces of pro were mine that wayne112 left for me to pick up on the way down--of course I did not make it.

[ckotke]

Cool!! OK, well, I would like to get that stuff back to you then. How about sending me an email with your address and phone # and I'll either drop 'em off to ya or mail 'em. My email is belayon@rocketmail.com

 

[ddg316]

email has been sent, thanks