[TR] Easton, WA - Old Mans Nose 2/14/2010

[RokIzGud]

Trip: Easton, WA - Old Mans Nose

 

Date: 2/14/2010

 

Trip Report:

So after making obligations to be in Kittitas County all weekend on standby for SAR. I headed over the Pass Friday night. The next morning I got up made coffee and spent the day looking at the mountains from my “weekend home”. The search and rescue mission turned into a recovery so I ended up having nothing to do the on Sunday which in my case “Single Awareness Day”. I made plans to climb a peak the locals call Old Mans Nose. I set my alarm clock to 7am, woke up to rain beating down on the roof and went back to bed. I finally came out of a coma at 11am packed my s*** and drove the 8 minutes to the base of my hill.

 

 

 

I could not see much of the peak due to a heavy fog so I figured I couldn’t go wrong if I started going uphill. After getting drenched bushwhacking I came across many elk track but I never saw any… I saw some bands of cliffs so I headed up those. It quickly became steeper and the snow levels increased. The cliffs were fun. Some chossy 3rd class scrambling and some steep snow. I was in the fog and there was a light mist so I continued to stay frackin wet which wasn’t very fun. About 2 hours of scrambling and route finding led me to a band of trees that I knew existed below the summit. The slogging through those trees sucked hard! I didn’t bring snowshoes and at many places the snow was up to my waist and I’m 6’5’’. Due to the rain there was a frozen layer of snow on top of the pow which I would think could hold my weight but every other step I would sink through.

 

As the weather got warmer, walking through those trees made me feel like I was in a rain cloud. It was so wet in there and as I got higher there became more snow in the trees. Bombs of wet snow was falling everywhere. I wanted to get out of there ASAP. Finally I reached the ridge. As a 15 minute walk along the ridge led me to a forest of frozen trees. They were the coolest things I’ve seen in awhile. All frozen a shaped by the wind. A little bit further I could see the summit. This is where it got steep. To my left a almost vertical section towards Lake Cle Elum and too my right a steep avalanche chute witch I know was ready to slide. I got to about 10 feet of the summit and decide to stop there because I did not want fall down this fringin thing. I still felt like I accomplished the climb though... I made quick time climbing down singing every Easy-E and Lil Wayne song I could think of. The 3rd class rock was sketch balls climbing down but I made.

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa2hF8lOuRI

 

At the bottom I found a sweet cougar track. Two years ago I worked with a biologist to track and collar cougars in this same area so that was kinda cool.

-Collin

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe and i recomand you bring snowshoes...

Edited February 16, 2010 by RokIzGud

[wayne]

Nice tree picture