[TR] Sherpa Peak - West Ridge 7/31/2011

[Gerhard Schneide]

Trip: Sherpa Peak - West Ridge

 

Date: 7/31/2011

 

Trip Report:

The hike across Long’s pass went fairly quickly (2h). The trail gains about 2000ft and then drops down to 4800ft for an elevation loss of 1400ft. We camped right after crossing Ingalls creek.(Beverly/Turnpike trail is another option that is supposedly mellower - never done that though).

 

The next morning we left camp at around 6:30AM. Hiked for about 3/4mi along Ingalls Creek trail towards the junction with Turnpike Creek trail. The climber’s path starts outside the forest and is pretty easy to find and mostly in good condition. The only tricky spot is where it goes into the forest as it is a bit overgrown there. Once we got to 5800ft, we made an ascending traverse onto the ridge between us and Sherpa basin following a much less obvious and sandy trail. Once on top of the ridge (~6100-6200ft), we dropped down on the other side about 200ft and contoured around the edge along the rock walls. From that point everything is really straight forward. We climbed left of the waterfall towards table rock at roughly 7200ft. Then from there west of Sherpa towards the col between Stuart and Sherpa.

 

Once we got up to the ridge, the wind was really strong and clouds had started to drop down on us. I almost got thrown over by a wind gust when I started out on the gully. We discussed the situation for a bit and then decided to move ahead while keeping a really close eye on the weather. We climbed following the path of least resistance. First on the North side of the ridge, and then dropping over to the South side. Three pitches of low 5th class climbing put us onto sandy ridges which we simul-climbed to the base of the south face. The south face is somewhere in the low to mid 5th class and two and a half pitches put us onto the summit.

Overall really nice rock, though there were some sections were we had to take care not to drop any loose rocks. Overall the climb went really smooth, no rock fall, no dead-ends.

 

Raps are straight forward. Further down, there is the option to go back an airy traverse on the south side or rap down on the north side of the ridge. Both work, though the south side is a bit more straight forward.

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Gear Notes:

We placed BD #2, #1, #.75 cam, a few large nuts, and a 60m half rope (doubled over). Two to three medium to large size hexes might have been nice to have. Also two smallish cams would be good. There is lots of natural protection that can be slung, so bring a good number of double lengths runners.

 

Approach Notes:

Approached via Long’s Pass. (Drive I90 West from Seattle to Cle Elum (exit 85), then turn on US970. Drive about 7mi and turn left onto Teanaway Road. Follow Teanaway Road for about 22.5mi to the parking lot at the trail head).

 

Registration at trail head. NW Forest Pass.

[Phil K]

Sehr Gut.

[ira]

Hey Gerhard, nice climb. i just did argonaut on sunday and am heading to sherpa at the end of this month. For argonaut we took the beverly creek trail which by my friends GPS is 5.1 miles to Ingalls creek. we set up camp there and then climbed the peak getting back just at dark. only 3 hrs into the camp and then 5 hrs to summit.