[TR] SEWS - Direct East Buttress 9/3/2011

[Val Zephyr]

Trip: SEWS - Direct East Buttress

 

Date: 9/3/2011

 

Trip Report:

Jasmine and I climbed the Direct East Buttress of South Early Winter Spire on Saturday. It was Awesome.

 

My plans to be a good grad student and get something done this weekend after a long string of trips were quickly thrown aside when Jasmine mentioned Washington Pass with a perfect forecast. The shoulder season is approaching…. Perhaps my weekends can wait until then to mellow out? I immediately began thinking about the Direct East Buttress of SEWS. I’ve gotten a good look at this clean piece of rock every time I’ve driven over Washington Pass. It is long, steep and beautiful. The exposure from a place like this would be greater than anything I’ve done. Jasmine was up for the challenge too.

 

We drove over the pass Friday night and met up with a few of Jasmine’s friends who also had plenty of plans to climb over the long weekend. After getting to know everyone a bit around the campfire, we divided into teams for the following day. Two would climb the SW Rib of SEWS, three would climb the East face of Minuteman tower, and Jasmine and I would have a go at the Direct East Buttress of SEWS.

 

We got going a little later than we should have for the long day ahead, but still felt that we’d have time to complete the climb. By 8:45 we were hiking up to the route. The approach is 2 hours and fairly straight forward; there’s a climber’s trail up the main gully just the south of SEWS, then some brush bashing and navigation between small cliff bands to reach the base of the route. To our surprise, we found Jasmine’s three friends descending from near the base of our route. They were a ways from Minuteman Tower… Rather than hiking down and fixing the botched approach, they joined us for SEWS. Unfortunately for them, this climb was a carryover (unlike Minuteman would have been), so they ended up hauling their big packs full of boots, crampons and ice axes up this long route, never once touching snow.

 

Two easy pitches (low/mid-fifth) gain the central left-facing dihedral on the face (the crux of the climb if you do not plan to free the later bolt-ladders). This 165’ pitch goes at 5.9+ with a small, but intimidating, roof. We figured we’d eat up some of our daylight on this one. Similar to our Squamish trip last June, Jasmine and I tag-teamed this pitch. Jasmine led up to about 10’ below the roof. Low on gear and nerves, she lowered and I regained some gear and finished the pitch. We’d love to be better climbers with nerves of steel and do pitches like this in style, but for now this seems to work. Meanwhile the guys patiently waited below and passed the time by interviewing each other about why they had chosen to spend their long weekend stuck at an awkward belay in a tree.

 

We were burning daylight and needed to speed up now. Jasmine styled the 5.8 and we arrived at the bolt ladders at 4pm (I am still amazed that we were this slow until this point). Luckily we had only 2 hard pitches ahead of us, then 3 cruiser pitches to the summit. Unfortunately for the guys, who were just along for the ride, they did not know that the final pitches eased up considerably and thoughts of epic-ing on this steep exposed face were ever present. I see now how this could be quite stressful.

 

I began up the first bolt ladder: 14 bolts, followed by a fun flake, then a three bolt traverse to a final 10a crack. The bolts can be freed at 11a. We freed as much of this as possible to save time, but anything goes on these aid pitches and there was plenty of draw yanking. As was the theme with this climb, this pitch was another surprisingly long one! Bring a good selection of small/medium gear for the final 10a crack. The pitch ends at a small ledge with a gear belay (I stuck in a #3, #4 and a yellow TCU, luckily these fit as they were pretty much all I had left at this point). Jasmine continued up a little further on 5.8 terrain to an intermediate belay to free up the small ledge for the guys. From there, Jasmine continued up another, shorter, bolt-ladder or 5.11 free climbing followed by two awkward 5.9+ mantels on good bolts with minimal gear needed. We reached a nice ledge and the end of the difficulties. Three enjoyable pitches of mid-fifth gained the summit at sunset, beautiful (though a little close for comfort).

 

Jasmine and I were on the summit at 7:30, joined by two others (from a different party) from the SW Rib, and the guys at 8pm. I botched the descent, following boot tracks and rap anchors into the wide gully (I should have traversed south passed the top of the wide gully and down a small gully of the South Arete route). Sooo… the now seven of us spent a cold and tedious 4(?) hours making our way down the rappels in this chossy gully. We couldn’t even save time by leap-frogging the several ropes down because anyone rappelling below someone rappelling from above would be in the path of plenty of rockfall. Seven of us, one at a time, was the only way to go. I believe that at some point that night, another interview about “why did you choose to spend your night huddled under a giant chockstone at the base of a chossy gully?” occurred. To top off our night, two ropes got stuck on a double rope rappel halfway down the gully. If anyone finds themself in this nasty place and is feeling generous, we’d love to get the ropes back!

 

Jasmine and I thoroughly enjoyed this route. We were looking for a challenge and a little adventure (we got it). I found out later, that the guys were looking for a mellow weekend after a long string of their own adventures and long nights….. sorry guys, thanks for coming along though!

 

Photos!

 

The Direct East Buttress of SEWS mostly follows the line between sun and shadow here. The crux (if bolt ladders are aided) is the middle left-facing dihedral (I’d draw a line, but I’m borrowing a MAC and don’t really know how to use it).

 

Happy climbing on P2:

 

Jasmine finishing the 10a finger crack on P5:

 

Someone still owes this guy a beer for freeing the first bolt ladder!

 

I watched the shadow of the Washington Pass crags as I creeped up the hillside across from us. It’s time to speed up!

 

The guys coming up the tricky, hard to protect 5.8 section after the first bolt ladder:

 

One easy traverse pitch to go!

 

A fine end to an exciting climb:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Lots of draws, alpine draws and a few longer slings to minimize rope drag, medium rack up to one 4" piece. We brought a #5 too (because I suck at offwidth), but this section is very short, protectable by smaller gear and big pieces are unnecessary. Save some weight!

[wayne]

Cool, thats one to repeat.

[mountainmatt]

Great outing! There is some fantastic exposure on that route for sure!

 

 

[Sandeep]

I am one of the "guys" mentioned in the report; also a good friend of Jasmine. My impression of the day was a bit different: Reaching SEWS summit in dark, rapping down in an unknown chossy gully, leaving two ropes behind, getting back at the campsite at 2:00 AM isn't success for me. I think it was poor planning on our part.

 

Other than that, we really enjoyed the route and were pleased to on-site the cruxes-- such an amazing area.

 

Thanks for letting us tag along behind you, Val. Those pictures turned out great!

[Val Zephyr]

I am one of the "guys" mentioned in the report; also a good friend of Jasmine. My impression of the day was a bit different: Reaching SEWS summit in dark, rapping down in an unknown chossy gully, leaving two ropes behind, getting back at the campsite at 2:00 AM isn't success for me. I think it was poor planning on our part.

 

Other than that, we really enjoyed the route and were pleased to on-site the cruxes-- such an amazing area.

 

Thanks for letting us tag along behind you, Val.

Those pictures turned out great!

 

I agree, I slightly underestimated how long the route would take me. Next time (and there will be a next as this is definitely worth repeating), I will get an earlier start. Luckily, we only had a late night of moderate discomfort. It was still an enjoyable trip for me.

[mountainsloth]

looks like a great route! (read added to my list)