[TR] Mt. Index, North Peak - North Face (NE Rib?) 9/3/2011

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Trip: Mt. Index, North Peak - North Face (NE Rib?)

 

Date: 9/3/2011

 

Trip Report:

Like most climbers who have driven over Stevens Pass I have ogled the inspiring jagged peaks of Mt. Index from the highway ever since I first set my eyes on them. For years I have scraped my way up the classic cracks of the Index Town Walls all the while glancing behind me at the majestic peaks towering above, wondering what might be found there and why it wasn’t climbed more often.

 

Lake many others I had pored over the North Norwegian Buttress topo and imagined myself (then a newbie 5.9 A2 climber) heading up what looked to be a fairly moderate route (jk). I even hiked up the base one spring to check things out where I was promptly turned away by fairly constant falling rock and the ugly looking start.

 

Yet the spark didn’t die. Somehow Beckey’s descriptions including words like “imitate a gorilla” inspired me further after my years of practice in the Olympics. So this labor day weekend with many friends heading off for 3 day trips further afield I decided to stick to my own backyard for a shorter climb and give the North Face of the North Peak a shot.

James was game, probably because he had no idea what the climbing was like. He even earned a climbing partner “gold star” by showing up the afternoon before with a cooler full of fresh tuna to grill.

 

We had various evening plans so finally made it to the Lake Serene TH at the alpine start hour of 11:30 AM. No problem, we packed light for a planned bivy and brought some extra water containers to bring up the dry face.

 

 

 

Hiking up to the lake was warm but quick so we chilled out and went for a swim and loaded up on water (5.5 liters for myself plus a can of Guiness and a Starbucks double shot, hey you gotta carry the fluid anyways). We started up the nasty talus field and soon found the beginning of the tunnels through the brush to the base of the ridge. We continued up the brushy steps, occasionally cursing and occasionally snagging a salmon berry until we reached the base of the exposed corner pitch and step around left. Here we roped up and easily negotiated the exposed bit and began the real fun (ie: immediately got off route).

 

 

(I think the sloping ledge behind James was the hidden path back right here)

 

We headed too far up the gully than negotiated some mid-5th slabby face with plenty of tat on it, missing the hidden sledge step back right. No problem, we continued upwards figuring we’d hit the north face bowl anyways. We kept heading up, fighting rope drag through the bushes, avoiding looser rock, and in general realizing it took a lot of energy to imitate a gorilla. We probably would have been better off unroped but every once in a while hit a spot where it was a nice psychological help while pulling on increasingly smaller plants.

 

 

We followed our ridge and brush patches (the first variation in Beckey’s description) until we eventually topped out on a small pinnacle. We had to rap 40 feet down the other side to a tiny saddle and then regroup. It was after 6:30 and after some reconnaissance we could see that we were just left of the top of the North Face Bowl, still below the “real climbing” on the North Rib and below the rumored bivy sites up there. We didn’t feel like climbing in the dark so decided to make the best of our tiny saddle in the daylight, have some good food and sleep, and continue in the morning.

 

The “best” as it turned out was one vaguely flat spot just big enough for James to curl up in the fetal position in with steep slopes on both sides right at the saddle, and one longer but narrow dirt ledge that sloped fairly steeply towards my feet. I did my best to pile up some branches and the rope to get my feet high enough to be able to sleep. The Guinness really hit the spot and before we went to bed the attitude had changed from “this sucks, we’ll think about continuing in the morning” to “we’re already this far, we might as well go up!”.

 

 

 

We woke a little while after the sun and packed up. Now we were faced with a short but crappy looking traverse to some rap anchors on the standard route, then some more ugly looking gully climbing with poor pro. After examining the options (and not having a good mental picture of the route), we opted to continue forging up the vegetated ridge we were on, thinking we’d hit the North Rib farther up. Thus commenced the steepest brush I have ever climbed. If it was rooted we pulled on it, if it had a branch we slung it for pro (sometimes several branches in the classic brush tieback). We flailed upwards in the nasty green streak passing the occaisional 20+ year old crusty sling in a tree, pushing through a loose 5.5 rock constriction, and finally reaching easier ground several pitches up.

 

 

Once we reached easier ground we quickly realized we had skipped most of the standard North Face Route, staying entirely to the left of the bowl and the North Rib (NE Rib?). We joyfully scrambled over the false summit and on to the true North Peak Summit, pleased to be done with the brush if only for a few moments. We had an early lunch and chilled out on top. No summit register was found.

 

 

 

 

 

After our brief respite from the brush we headed back down, picking up the correct route on the way down with several double rope rappels back in to the North Face Bowl. We scrambled down a ways, did a few more rappels, then made it back to our rope up point. From here we made a few more long rappels back down angling towards the lake and off the ridge crest which seemed a little shorter and probably the way I would come up if I ever venture this way again. A total of 11 double rope rappels and we were back on the ground, scrambling back down the loose talus to the lake to jump in once again.

 

 

 

(the pinnacle and saddle where we bivied)

 

 

We may have missed most of the “rock” on this climb, but it was still one to remember, even if I don’t go back for a while (maybe when it’s snowy next time). Now I know why gorillas are shaped the way they are. ;-)

 

 

Gear Notes:

Took a single rack to #2 and it was plenty, although we skipped most of the rock pitches so YMMV. Lots of slings for trees and some tat to replace rap anchors if needed. TWO ropes for the rappels.

 

Approach Notes:

Hike up to Lake Serene, head up the talus slope to the ridge crest and go up.

Edited September 26, 2011 by OlympicMtnBoy

[DPS]

Nice report, but I'd be lying if I said it brought back 'good' memories.

[crazedmaniac]

took my bro. 4 times (without ANY "beta"..aka climbing guide books) to find his way up north peak. by the time he found a safe way, he had the mnt. wired. when he took me up there, 2 others were doing just like you did. he told them that the way they were going was not safe and they will 'head wall out'. They laughed at us, withour gold line ropes and home made gear/harness's. About 2 hrs later, one of em fell a "whole rope length" then "snapped the rope" and he fell to his death only "bouncing off" the rock, 2 times. When we finally got to the lake, well after dark, we found out why the ch47 was flying all around the mtn. and the lake, which seemed like most of the afternoon, by the campers who saw it all happen. They were still wide eyed and freaked out that someone would want to climb. I fell off a log right by there camp, dropping 12ft between sharp sticks pointing up, by another snag. That totally freaked them out when they saw that, with their flashlights when they came running to my scream. it was one of my "close calls of death".

they said his harness was embedded into his body, as they were the first ones to him. Never really found out what happened, but was all over the news, before we got home, and of course, everyone who knew we were climbing N peak that day, thought it was one of us.

[ivan]

awwww, you were all the way up there, might as well finish up the traverse!!!

[mountainsloth]

looks like a vertical suffer fest.

[DPS]

I had nightmares afterward.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Hehe, sounds like our trip was a bit more fun than some of your's, that's quite a story Maniac. I think if we hadn't missed the hidden traverse back right it would have been much easier with less brush (basically the path we took down) although the brush has it's own glory in hindsight. ;-) I'm curious how much the line we took up holds snow/ice in winter.

 

A few more pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/104708573545176184583/MtIndexNorthPeakWithJames

[Buckaroo]

The traverse is not that hidden if you are looking in the right place.

 

Basic description of the start

 

go up the 2-3 slab pitches on the ridge till you hit the vertical wall with the piton/sling anchor, take the stepped dihedral up and left to where it goes up a short slab/ramp and then steps left into a face/gulley.

 

After you turn the corner left and are on the open rock face/gulley you go up about 100' where there is a 15-20' high steep chimney in the center of the face/gulley. Either climb the chimney or climb on the right side of it.

 

At the top of the chimney go straight to the right, that's where the brushy traverse ledge starts. It ends at the bottom of the north face bowl.

[Bronco]

We may have missed most of the “rock” on this climb, but it was still one to remember, even if I don’t go back for a while (maybe when it’s snowy next time). Now I know why gorillas are shaped the way they are. ;-)

 

You guys need to try this again, by getting off route that early, you should've encountered hard, unprotectable slabs and been forced to rap off of twigs back into the first "obvious bowl". Shame on you!

[DPS]

You guys need to try this again, by getting off route that early, you should've encountered hard, unprotectable slabs and been forced to rap off of twigs back into the first "obvious bowl". Shame on you!

 

That was one of the mistakes we made. We wasted quite a bit of time trying to find a way up the slabs, lured by the odd fixed piece of gear. We eventually rapped back down and found the 'hidden' right step behind a boulder wrapped in a bunch of webbing.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Actually, I think Buckaroo is describing what we did, except after passing that chimney on the right we continues up instead of heading far enough right to the bowl. I still think this route is different from the route DPS is describing (the "standard route" as you don't have to go up the slab past the fixed pins and tatty rope at all, you just sneak around right shortly after the left hand exposed corner. We found this on the way down.

 

We didn't want to rap off crappy twigs, we just kept heading up and tieing them off for pro. ;-)