E. Wilmans Spire

[Kyle_Flick]

While the Glacier Basin area of the approach is stunning, the final approach gully is unsavory. It is free of snow, but loose. After completing the climb we opted for descending the opposite side to the southwest to the valley for the '76 Creek trail. Not recommended. It took six hours to reach our bikes at Monte Cristo. The descent is vaguely described in Becky's alt. approaches to the Spire, but it is more involved than described.

[bobinc]

Wasn't there an avalanche up there recently (in the approach gully from GBasin?) What did it look like?

[Jens]

Have the locals made a drive-in route to bypass the gate that blocks access to the Monte cristo area, or is there just a lot of bootleg keys out there? When I climbed E. Willman's, on the way out tons of locals had cars very close to monte cristo. Were talkin' little cars too. They were out beer drinkin' and picknincing. The gate was locked when I went in and rode out.

 

[bobinc]

As far as I know, MC is still private property so the owners control access to the road. It has been this way for a long time. They've struggled over the years to keep the road drivable, as washouts are frequent.

[Kyle_Flick]

We talked to some folks who mentioned a permit could be purchased/obtained from the ranger to access the gate/road. While the gate isn't always locked, it goes without saying fines are meted out if caught in there without a permit. The bike ride in and out is just fine.

[nolanr]

I was out at the Monte Cristo CG Memorial Day weekend, and I saw a bunch of cars out there all along the road, most of the way out to the CG. Not sure how you get a key, it would save a boring 4 mile walk, but you can schlepp thru that in an hour. I didn't know whether to be jealous or feel sorry for the bastards 'cause they can't get anywhere on their own 2 legs.

[nolanr]

Oh yeah, anybody else run into the hermit out there? I see him every once-in-a-while. He pretty much can't stand all the tourists out there running thru his backyard, but if you have climbing gear visible he'll actually talk to you.

[Colin]

Yes, there was an avalanche up there recently. That is why the gully was free of snow Kyle, and it was loose because that rock has been buried under snow for several years.

[Kyle_Flick]

The talus field below the gully is dry. There is only a remnant of dirty snow left just below the gully. It's just dirt, loose rock and wet in places in the gully itself.

[Bronco]

cool little photo album from JayB's and my trip up the spire August 9th.

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?showSlide=true&Uc=5nd7ma5.eofk8kt&Uy=-hwzx8e&Ux=1&UV=302484648758_53042699405

[Jim]

Nice photos - I like it up there.

[Bronco]

note the sequence where the photos are taken way below me on the snow finger then from way above me after Jay ran past me as I crawled up the slushy mess.

[JayB]

Give The People what they want Bronco! Write up a TR so that all can hear about the most gratuitous pin placement in history, the records we set for party-inflicted rockfall, and our salvation by Fern (the plant)..........

[rbw1966]

Pretty nice photos fellas. You encountered a lot less snow than we did when we were up there about 3 weeks ago. Lot of work for 2 pitches of 5.4 but spectacular scenery.

 

When I tried it in octover of 99 we got all the way to the base of the rock and it started snowing. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts. We bailed off the west side thinking we could avoid that talus slog.

 

Oh how wrong we were.

 

Thanks for posting!

 

[catbirdseat]

I get the sense that it is an unusual occurrence for the approach gully from Glacier Basin to be free of snow and ice. Two years ago it had 15 ft of neve in September. 1998 and 1999 were pretty big snow years, though. Since we had no ice screws or pickets at the time, it made for an interesting trip.

[Bronco]

JayB said:

Give The People what they want Bronco! Write up a TR so that all can hear about the most gratuitous pin placement in history, the records we set for party-inflicted rockfall, and our salvation by Fern (the plant)..........

 

Alrighty:

 

On a whim, I emailed Jay friday afternoon to see if he wanted to do some shwacking saturday. He did so we agreed to meet at my house the next am.

 

We left the truck at 7:30am, rode bikes to the town of Monte Cristo, unnecesarily riding through the Sauk river, (the first bridge is good, it's at the second bridge you must cross through, dummy ). Jay and I hiked up the trial up to Glacier basin and admired all the water falls and potential for ice climbing if not for the super dooper avalanche terrain. Jay re-enacted several scenes from "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". He does a fair impersenation of the character Jay, go figure. We also detected the scent of woodsmoke on the breeze and hoped it was from Darrington and not closer. The weather was clearing and we looked forward to a dry climb, as I had been rained and snowed out at the gully twice already.

 

We clawed up through the choss to an old mine shaft where we stash treking poles and took a quick break. Clamber up to the start of the snow finger, passing a water fall on the left through some "overhangin" 4th class dirt/choss. A small gust of wind dislodged some rocks from high on the spire, now directly above. Helmets on, we ascended the snow finger (some faster than others) on slush over very firm snow. A short "catwalk" and verticle step midway made it a little more interesting than I felt was necesary, but, the choss filled moat to either side didn't look like good upward progress would be easy so I crawled on. I found a good ploy for taking a break was to request a photo from my more fit partner Jay, and he seemed to fall for it more often than not. "Look at me Jay, better take a picture, this is sweet rock/ice/snow/dirt etc." and "Hey look at this ore".

 

Anyway, we stashed our pons and ice axes at the top of the finger and clambered up the remaining 200' to the small col. More choss groveling ensued to the base of the route. Took a quick break, did combat with a rope that was still in the factory coil, and racked for the climb. If I were doing this again, I'd take an 8mm x 60m rope, rack of nuts, 3 cams #1, 1.5 &2, and a set of tri cams. And a couple KBs.

 

The first 2 pitches were uneventful except for monsterous rope drag, and as Jay led up the final 30' of the last pitch he found a perfect KB placement and couldn't pass it up, we didn't want to have to bivy after all. While he was placing the pin, we noticed another party had reached the col, now directly below us. They snapped some photos and rigged a rappel to descend back down the gully. Jay shouted "I'm a little tea pot!" thus requiring a little simuclimbing to get Jay to the top. I followed, after a brief strugle with a stuck tri cam. The veiw is awesome off of the top of the spire. The rap off the top was kinda suck and lot's of loose rock made it a little more than interesting and another rap station only 30' down confused me. I did realize why the lower rap station was there when I came to the end of my rope 30' above the final rap. Both rap's are overhanging and self induced rockfall is something to keep in mind, especially when pulling the ropes. I knocked crap down all over the place. While up on the spire, I did scope out the direct descent down the "76 Gulch" and breifly entertained descending that way. Fortunatly, we didn't.

 

We grabbed our packs and made it down to the col before the other party pulled their ropes, so we used it as a handline to hop down the gully to our ice axes. We decided to take the opposite moat than the party below us as we had aready tormented them enough with flying rock. Using an ice axe in the side of the snow finger, we were able to maintain a controlled fall/slide and ride the rubble to the water fall. We were down and out of the gully before the other party could get the next rap set up, including me stopping for a photo op. Back at the mine shaft, I discovered the thermos of coffee that had been riding in the bottom of my pack and we guzzled some caffine for the rest of the walk out. In the midst of a great story, tragedy struck and accidentally I kicked my wicked helmet off the lip of the mine. Figuring I would pick it up when we left, I forgot about it and there it lays, to this very day.

 

On the trail out to Monte Cristo, while descending a short slab, I pretended to slip on a pine needle and do the old trick of falling flat on my back with a loud grunt. Jay found the act quite hilarious but was unable to get his camera out before I recovered.

 

Upon returning to the bikes, I noticed my front tire was flat. No problem, that 's why we have them trusty old pumps. We screwed around pumped the tire for 1/2 hour before realizing this was a job for a patch. Well, let me tell you, this was a big hole, right at the base of the valve stem that no patch job would fix. I recalled reading about an organic solution to the problem, stuffing the tire full of ferns and weeds and moss and stuff. This was equivalent to approximatly 10lbs of air so it was slow going, but, slightly better than walking. The poor old ferns got me to within about 1 mile of the truck before turning to complete mush, so, I pushed my bike the rest of the way. Reached the truck just before dark, enjoyed a cold moose drool and headed out after chatting with a couple females planning to ride to Monte Cristo with large packs in the dark. Looked like an epic to me.

 

Oh yeah, I got another ticket for not having a trailhead parking pass as did about 1/2 the vehicles in the lot. LOOZA!

 

I have bought a spare tire and small pouch for carrying it with me at all times. Veggie filled tires are suck.

[Bronco]

In other words, a long way to go for 2 pitches of 5.4.

[klar404]

The cat I talked to last year said that it was a some kinda miner group that anyone could join. It was 35 bucks a year. And you got the key to gate. So if three people chiped in that would be..... You gotta love coming outta there on your bikes though.

[catbirdseat]

The bike ride is fun. I wouldn't skip the bike ride for the the world. It's what makes it a "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" type climb.

[rbw1966]

catbirdseat said:

The bike ride is fun. I wouldn't skip the bike ride for the the world. It's what makes it a "Trains, Planes, and Automobiles" type climb.

 

I couldn't agree more with this! The bike ride was a nice finish.

 

 

If I were doing this again, I'd take an 8mm x 60m rope, rack of nuts, 3 cams #1, 1.5 &2, and a set of tri cams. And a couple KBs.

 

I'm no bold climber at all and I felt the set of hexes and stoppers I had was excessive. There's so much fixed gear on that route--especially the second pitch--that you could leave the pro at home. Especially no need to nail. YMMV of course but thats a lot of weight to lug up that thing.

 

When we went up in Oct of 99 the gully was almost snow free.

 

[Bronco]

We might've had to bivy without the pins! Seriously, the piton was just for fun, no need for screamers or pins.

 

Even considering the 4 fixed pitons over 2 pitches, I don't think I'd leave the rack at home all together.

[JayB]

I guess we shouldn't tell anyone about the perfect crimper and mono-pockets that I chiseled out to make the crux section go at 5.3 either.....

[rbw1966]

Was that red metolius still fixed? I almost had to bail from it as I was pumped.

[JayB]

Still there. It was so fixed that Bronco and I used it as an anchor for hauling our supplies and hanging our portaledge.