Mt Constance - S Chute

[Meray]

3.5 miles to the Lake Constance Route from the Dosewallips Washout. Initial elevation is 600'. Lake Constance Route starts on the old road @ 1300'. Parking permits are not required as of this trip. Restrooms and water on approach are at Dosewallips State Park 1 mi south of Brinnon. 24 hr gas at Brinnon Store on Hwy 101. Lake Constance Route is 2 mi, 3400' gain. Water is available from Constance Creek for most of the way. Losing the trail is easy sometimes. Watch for route markers on trees from about 1/2 hr up. Route ends at Lake Constance, 4700'. Continue along east margin of lake to talus/scree slopes. Traverse up and ahead to find variety of way trails toward Avalanche Canyon. Camping quotas by NPS at Lake Constance. Bear cans not required due to bear wires in place. Continue into the mouth of Avalanche Canyon to just south of South Chute. Camping on snow is generally possible. Water obtained from creek descending from west side of canyon or melting snow. Time to Avalanche Canyon camp from lake is about 1 hr.

 

Start up slopes above Avalanche Canyon camp before actual South Chute. Traverse up and east toward Cat's Ears on steep dirt, talus, and scree. Enter gully and climb to its head at Chute's Notch. Traverse left and down about 300 yds to next major gully. Followed moat next to rock until blocked by steep rock and hard snow/ice. Used ledge system back left, then up and right to circumvent snow. (Crampons later in season may be useful at this point.) After regaining moat, steps cut across narrow section of ice to gain access to scree and dirt of gully system. Stayed generally left against rock slopes for better footing. Climb to head of gully trending to east near top. At top of gully system, turn left and find a short steep chimney which accesses the correct notch in the ridge. Descend 50 yds to snowfield or slopes. Turn left/west and cross low angle snow or rock to upper slopes. After descending from the notch the route to the Terrible Traverse is directly north across a steep gully and climbing on to a ledge. Access to the Finger Traverse and alternate by-pass is higher and west. To find the route to the Finger Traverse, look for the large block perched on a ledge above and west of the snowfield. The route to the Finger Traverse goes right by the right/east side of this large block on easy ledges. After going around the side of the block, follow easy ledges straight ahead/west to near the ridge crest. Where a down-sloping ledge turns to the right, find the anchor boulders for the actual Finger Traverse. After descending the sloping ledge, locate a solid piton in the face of the rock buttress that defines the beginning of the exposed moves on the FT. Slide around this small buttress to find an ascending slab with a large hand crack next to the face. This is the FT. Follow the slab to its conclusion (100') and another good belay station. May be useful to rig a safety line for prusiks. Alternate to Finger Traverse is to follow ledge to ridge crest. Turn left to a notch, down-climb right and find a short, steep chimney. Down-climb the chimney to a ledge and turn right. Either of two ledges will gain the snowfield north of the FT. Cross the snowfield and walk up rock slopes to the left and find a gully that descends toward the large basin. Down-climb the dirt and loose rocks until able to gain rocky ledges on the left. Continue across ledges or descend to the head of the basin heading north. It is unnecessary to descend 200 yds to the obvious ramp and ledge to gain access to the summit plateau area. Descend 50 yds down north side of basin margin until a low angle ledge system can be accessed that aims toward the top of a gully. Follow this 3rd class ledge system to the head of the gully until it intersects near the top of the gully. Be able to locate the ledge system from the top of the gully on your return. Don't descend the gully to the basin. Once on the summit plateau, follow the ridgeline north on easy slopes and rock ledges. Follow the ridgeline around to the west side of the summit block. Continue around until scrambling up to a small pillar and step-across to a sloping face that accesses a platform 20ft below the actual summit.

 

 

Permits required? Yes

 

National Park permits required to camp at Lake Constance area. Camping at lake has a quota during summer season.

 

 

Driving / parking notes:

Washout is about 10 mi from Hwy 101. Parking permits not required at this time. Some may wish to ride bicycles up road to Lake Constance route. Definitely would save feet/time on return trip.

 

[Drederek]

Nice trip, I never made it up that way this year, how did the burnt areas look?