KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Trip: Chair Peak - NE Buttress Date: 2/9/2010 Trip Report: A few friends and I took the day off to climb Chair Peak after reading all the great recent TRs about it. We opted to try the NE Buttress, rather than the North Face, however, which was apparently a mistake. The approach: The first pitch was a bit spicy with some runout and poor ice quality and protection. I was able to sink a picket, clip the rap anchor, place one screw, an alien, and tie off a dead log. Spin drift was wicket and I was completely covered in snow and ice particles as I got to the belay tree swearing in a manner that makes Ivan's cc.com TR's seem G-rated. The first pitch: The second pitch was more straightforward, although the snow quality was still not good. We went over a bump which turned out to be a snow covered bunch of short trees and rocks and set up a belay at a rock maybe 100 feet E of the ice waterfall. My friend CF attempted to lead the ice waterfall (we had two teams of two) when I arrived. The traverse was gnarly to the waterfall, and the quality of ice on the waterfall not good. CF was not able to get off the deck due to lack of footholds. He also was not that happy with the two ice screw placements he put in at ground level. After 20 minutes of thrashing it was apparent that he couldn't pull it off, and it was unlikely I or the two newbs we were ropegunning would. We decided to call it a day. The downclimb to the rappel anchor sucked, and we were all shivering cold by the time we got the double rope rappel all set up. By this time our bluebird skies were turning gray as well (1:30 pm). Hike out was pretty mellow. View from high on the route: Gear Notes: 4 pickets, 3-4 ice screws, green alien, 2 ice tools (no ice axe). Quote
YocumRidge Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Still, a nice attempt. Thanks for reporting the conditions. Quote
ckotke Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 We attempted the same route on Saturday and got shut down in the exact same spot. Reading your report, I was thinking I could of wrete it. The north face route is looking a lot better from the pics I've seen. Quote
Bug Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 It's barely been breaking freezing at night up there for two weeks. Anything in the sun will be deteriorating. Meanwhile the shaded north face ice is probably getting bigger and bigger. Nice try K. I did pretty much the same thing three weeks ago. Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 10, 2010 Author Posted February 10, 2010 It's barely been breaking freezing at night up there for two weeks. Anything in the sun will be deteriorating. Meanwhile the shaded north face ice is probably getting bigger and bigger. Nice try K. I did pretty much the same thing three weeks ago. I had been studying telemetry data which put temps between 25 and 30 degrees at that elevation. Still, the NF was the better bet. There is still time for that one this year, fortunately. :-) Quote
KaskadskyjKozak Posted February 10, 2010 Author Posted February 10, 2010 I've been using NOAA . What do you use? That as well as this: http://slum.dyndns.org:8090/plots/plots.html Check out the Alpental plot at 5400 elevation level. Temps have been well below freezing a lot up there. Quote
Bug Posted February 10, 2010 Posted February 10, 2010 Ah. Cool. The 4300 bar is what I have been inadvertantly tracking using the NOAA site. Quote
EastKing Posted February 14, 2010 Posted February 14, 2010 Great TR! Soon I will go for Chair and the Tooth. Quote
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