[TR] Chair Peak - West Ridge 5/24/2014

[Stollen]

Trip: Chair Peak - West Ridge

 

Date: 5/24/2014

 

Trip Report:

The climb took us 14 hours car to car because we had trouble with route finding on the rock. The pitches were short and so took some time. We are hoping this will be some more beta for everyone. There is definitely some fun climbing on this route before the rock gets very loose at the end.

 

Pitch one: The gully was covered in snow so we had to start to climber's left of the gully and make a couple moves that were hard to protect. The climbing was 5.7 to 5.8 up to a couple fixed nuts and a pin. About half the rope.

 

Pitch two: Up out of the gully and to the other side of the notch. 5.8 climbing with a tree on the other side for an anchor.

 

Pitch three: Head climber's left across a simul-climb traverse with some protection and loose rock. The traverse continues up a ravine to below an obvious chock stone over a notch. Maybe one 5.6 move with ample protection at the top for an anchor.

 

Pitch four: This is where the climbing started to get fun for several pitches. Follow the crack up climber's right about 15 feet to a ledge to the base of some flakes and cracks. 5.7 climbing.

 

Pitch five: Climb up the flakes and cracks to the bottom of a 10 foot slab below an obvious 10 foot headwall. This is not much for anchor possibilities, but enough to keep you from falling off the mountain. 5.7 climbing.

 

Pitch six: Climb up the slab to the bench and headwall. The head wall can be poorly protected with two small pieces. There are two fixed pins at the top of the head wall. Keep climbing up the ridge to the top. There are some spots for an anchor. Climb down the 10' section of rock to some trees. The hardest move is 5.7.

 

Pitch seven: Traverse broken but fun rock with ample protection to a class 4 gully to climber's left. There are some trees for an anchor. (From here we kept going up the class 4 gully to climber's left to the false summit. We found lots of loose rock and minimal protection on the north face. There might be possibilities going to the climber's right of the false summit.)

 

Rappel: We rappelled down the gully from the ridge instead of climbing the knife ridge. There was loose rock all over the false summit with minimal possibilities for an anchor. We rappelled down the gully to where it met another gully which lead to the notch below the summit.

 

Pitch eight: Head up the gully to climbers right that connects to the notch below the summit. There is one 5.7 move at some rocks, but otherwise the gully is class 4 to a notch just below the summit.

 

Pitch nine: Loose but climbable rock to the top with some spots for an anchor.

 

We came down the standard descent. Two 60s would have been nice here, but one 60 worked.

 

Some of the climbing is really fun, but the end has lots of loose rock and high consequence terrain. We might be able to do the route faster now that we know the route.

 

Gear Notes:

Medium alpine rack, 60m rope, picket, sacrificial gear, should have brought climbing shoes.

 

Approach Notes:

Conditions were good for the approach. Lots of snow to get us to the base of the climb. The start is the far gully on the north side of the west ridge.

Edited June 25, 2014 by Stollen

[mountainsloth]

So did you climb the ridge to the right of the north face? More like the SW face?

Sounds like one hell of an adventure but far from esthetic.

Way to get out there and explore.