[TR] Inspiration Peak - East Ridge 8/18/2012

[LukeShy]

Trip: Inspiration Peak - East Ridge

 

Date: 8/18/2012

 

Trip Report:

Short Version: We climbed the East Ridge of Inspiration Peak in 18 hours camp to camp. Starting off with a simul-climb from the glacier to the ridge, then we pitched out the rest of the climb. We brought one pack per team with the follower carrying the heavy loads/pack hauling on harder pitches. Descent was via the west ridge in 3 double rope rappels, followed by 4 more down the south face.

 

Detailed Version: This was Brandon and Cody’s BOEALPS ICC grad climb, where they were responsible for all of the logistics and planning for the climb. Lindsey and I were the instructors that they ‘convinced’ to come along to the magical Picket Range.

 

We started out Friday morning from the very nice trail head just before the Upper Goodell Creek group campsite. The trail is in good shape and the creek crossings mere boulder hopping this late in the season. We arrived at the turn off 4 miles in and found the appropriate way to head uphill. Cody had some issues figuring it out but he eventually got it. He claims it was the heat that got him confused…

 

Now for the uphill super awesome fun climb! Up, up, up, and more up we went and luckily it wasn’t too hot in the forest as most of the climb is in the shade. Multiple breaks helped cool us down too. We broke out of the main steep part at about 4800’ and once at the main creek crossing (2nd one you’ll pass) we found, after a bit of searching, that the trail goes up the creek bed for a while. Don’t follow the trails directly across the creek, just follow the cairns up and the trail will appear on the left side of the creek.

 

Approach views

 

We continued on the trail as it continued up and headed for the 6245’ saddle. Once we arrived we saw the north side was a steep snow slope that surprisingly required crampons to get down.

 

Steep snow to camp

View from camp

 

We arrived at camp at 3:30 PM, set up or tents, chilled out/napped, than ate some well deserved dinner. As we scouted the approach and glacier route and discussed what our plan was for the morning we were treated to an amazing sunset over the Pickets. 8:45 PM bed time for the big day ahead of us.

 

 

3:30 AM came too early but we were all amped to go and rolled out of camp by 4:20 AM. We made our way down the broad ledges that took us to the outlet gully of the unnamed snow covered lake at ~5400’. We crossed over and worked our way up the slabs/snow to the Terror Glacier.

slabs

 

We’d picked a conservative line out the day before, hoping for a quicker line to appear once we got closer. Luckily we found one a solid ramp leading up towards the peak.

 

terror glacier approach

 

Once we got below the south face we could see the snow moats were huge, but there was a nice ramp that lead down to the start of the route. We picked the right of two green/dirty ramps to start some hot simul-climb action.

 

start of the route

workin' the moat like a BOSS!

 

P0: (low 5th + short 5.7 moves) Brandon lead out and we simuled a similar route to what is shown in this picture from Steph Abegg's TR. There was little pro on the start and some loose stuff to contend with. Once we got higher, the route got a bit harder; unfortunately the rock quality stayed the same – loose. Careful climbing is advised for the whole way up. We kept climbing up the ridge left of the left most notch to the base of the 5.8 lieback pitch. I had the pack on following Brandon and with the boots, axes, water it was a bit more awkward. Cody and Lindsey did about the same route, just left our our line to avoid any rockfall.

 

P1: (5.8, 140’) I took this pitch and it was really fun! (Not awkward IMO) There were lots of great spots for gear, hand jams, and rest spots. The lieback flake part is easy if you’re tall – I stemmed/humped my way up it with style and grace up to the base of the steep wall where P2 starts. I was glad to not have the pack on for this pitch.

 

P2: (5.9, 110’) Money Pitch time! Brandon chose the right hand crack system and styled up to the top. A few big cams and a few delicate moves got him up in no time. There were a few loose blocks in the crack to contend with, just be ready for them. Cody took the left crack and confirmed its 5.9+/5.10 rating. He got some extra stoke mid pitch from the climbing teams cheering us on from the summit of West Mac, very cool!

 

Brandon gettin' after it

 

P3: (5.6, 100’) I lead out on this pitch which basically went up to the ridge crest from the belay and to some nice belay platforms in the shade, just below the false (east) summit.

 

 

P4: (5.7, 70’) Brandon lead this airy traverse around on the south side of the false summit and could have been extended out further. The more you go the more rope drag you probably get. Cody and Lindsey chose to go around on the north side and said it was similar in grade and they made their belay at a similar spot.

 

P5: (low 5th traverse, 200’) I lead out and walked down a ramp on the north side of the ride. After which I traversed along until close to the final summit. We simul-climbed for about 20’ until I found a good boulder to anchor myself to and then belay Brandon in.

 

P6: (low 5th, 100’) Summit Time! I gave Brandon the final pitch (could have easily simuled to the top) and he lead out to the summit. Got some photos than I came up and headed over to the first rappel station about 50’ west of the true summit.

Lindsey on the summit

 

Summit Views

 

Descent: Steph Abegg's decent photo shows it best. We did 3 double rope rappels down to the west ridge. There is one shorter rappel station you can see from the summit, don’t use it, you can rappel to the next one down. From the end of the third full double rope rappel we found the start of the south face raps. The first one is nearly a free rappel and has got a bit of pucker factor to get going. From it, you can see the next rap station, rappelers right and is easy to get to. The third anchor is hidden from sight, but was easy to find. This is where we got messed up. Brandon went to rappelers left from the third rap anchor and found the next station but realized that there was a massive snow moat that was probably impassable. So Lindsey went next, and traversed rappelers right a bit more and found another anchor more towards the start of the south face route, it was a short rap down to it. She could even see a nice snow bridge to cross back onto the glacier, ding! Now we had to get Brandon, who was down at the other rap station back to where the three of us were. Luckily he wanted a bonus pitch to climb in boots and he still had the end of the rope so we belayed him up to us. The final rappel brought us to the big snow bridge and in no time we were headed back down the glacier.

 

It was 7:45 PM when we started down, which meant we didn’t get back down to the slabs till about dark, this took some time to navigate, but we figured it out. By the time we crossed the outlet gully, found the snow ramps, and headed back to camp it was 10:30 PM. Stoke was still high from such an amazing climb, so we ate dinner and Cody busted out a huge tube of cookie dough (win!) and we proceeded to feed our faces as we watched some distant flashes of lightning north of the pickets as we recalled the days adventure.

 

We awoke the next day and headed out of camp at 9:30 AM, but before we left we took some group photos and Cody just had to get in a quick snow boulder session.

 

Climb Stoke

 

Snow Bouldering Action!

 

Hike out was uneventful, got back to the car at 3:00 PM, and were cooling off in Goodell Creek by 3:30 PM, beer in hand. It was an amazing climb, with some awesome climbing partners!

 

 

 

Fri:

7:00 Marblemount for permits

8:30 leaving TH

3:30 got to camp

4:30 nap

6:30 dinner

8:45 bed

 

Sat:

3:30 wake up

4:20 moving

~8:30 base of route

9:00 started climbing

3:00 topped out

3:30 all summited

4:00 begin rappels

7:30 end raps

8:00 back on a rope, glacier time

10:20 camp

 

Sun:

9:30 leave camp

3:00 cars

3:30 drunk cooling off in Goodell Creek

 

Flickr Set Slideshow

 

Gear Notes:

Rack to #3 we brought doubles of #1 and #2, with a surprise 3rd #2 that we accidentally brought too. Lots of double slings as most pitches aren't vertical.

 

Approach Notes:

New parking area and a proper TH! The trail is in good shape and easy to follow to the notch. We had to use crampons to down-climb from the 6245' notch to camp. Lots of water flowing at camp from the snow patch above.

Edited August 23, 2012 by LukeShy

[ajpederson]

Nice work.

[OlympicMtnBoy]

Cool, sounds like a well planned and executed trip! Hopefully they passed you for it. ;-) I still need to get up there and get that one since I got weathered out a few years ago.

[LukeShy]

Thanks! Ya the students passed!

Congratulations Brandon and Cody!

[keenwesh]

descending the glacier in the dark seems to be a common theme in this climb. Good work!

[bcrook]

descending the glacier in the dark seems to be a common theme in this climb. Good work!

Actually we got off the glacier with dwindling daylight, but we did have to pick our way back across the slabs to camp in the dark.

 

Thinking back, everything worked out well for us, but doing this climb a bit earlier in the season would give a bit more daylight to work with and probably less moat and crevasse navigation. And I imagine picking your way through the slabs back to camp would be quicker with more snow cover (and with more daylight!).

 

Food for thought for future parties I suppose. In any case, what a climb!