[TR] Vesper Peak - Ragged Edge 7/3/2015

[Devin27]

Trip: Vesper Peak - Ragged Edge

 

Date: 7/3/2015

 

Trip Report:

Having Friday off for July 4th weekend, Sarah, Laura, Jim and I climbed the Ragged Edge (5.7 6p Grade II) route on Vesper Peak. This route was just put up in 2013 and it was well worth the effort they put into it. The result is one of the finest moderate grade multipitch alpine climbs near Seattle. The 5.7 rating felt spot on to me and the exposure is amazing.

 

After a quick stop in Granite Falls for Jim’s Sandwich, we hit the trail at 8am and moved well until we lost the trees and found the sun. Even in the mountains, the heat was brutal and slowed us down considerably. Two years ago I attempted the North Face route on Vesper only to find deep snow still on route in late June. With the lack of snow and heat from this year, the entire approach and climb was completely snow free except for a small and avoidable patch near the Vesper-Sperry Col. We made it to the Sperry-Vesper Col in decent time (about 4 hours) but with the hot weather we were taking it pretty easy.

 

 

 

One note on the approach, we were drawn down from the lower col between Vesper and Sperry on an obvious looking class 3 heather ledge only to find we were in the wrong place and climbing out onto an unnamed bump on the ridge between the peaks rather than on Vesper’s North face. From the lower col, continue uphill until you find the upper col which has an excellent view of the dramatic North Face of Vesper before starting to traverse.

 

The correct ledge

 

The traverse was easy but exposed as advertised. We decided to climb the variation start which features more technical climbing but requires a very exposed step down on the heather ledges to reach the base of the route. Jim and Sarah racked up first and took off on the 5.6 lieback start on pitch 1. The climbing is stellar on great rock and very good protection. There are a few slab pitches but bolts/pins are well spaced and protection is always there to be found. Pitch 2 was a slab pitch with a small amount of runout to rejoin the standard route. Pitch 3 and 4 featured fun low-mid 5th climbing with a spectacular view up the North Face of Vesper. Pitch 5 and 6 is where the action is. I have no doubt these pitches inspired the name “Ragged Edge” as you first traverse out onto the face and over to the summit ridgeline on 5.7 climbing. The rock ends just below your traverse with stellar exposure but the protection is solid. Then on the main ridgeline, you complete the climb with the huge North Face to your left and a drop long drop to the slabs of the old North Face climbing route to your left. I drew the traverse and found the pitch a ton of fun. I felt like the technical crux of the route was the move to the first bolt, but there was a cam placement just prior and it was more mental than anything since you needed to step out onto the edge of the rock for an easy foothold. Made the summit after five hours of unrushed climbing since we were the only ones on route. Snacks on the summit and an only slightly cooler hike out followed but was uneventful.

 

 

 

All in all this is a fantastic route. Get on it before the crowds find it.

 

Some notes for future climbers. There are still a few loose rocks on the route but that is to be expected since this is a new route and it is still being cleaned up. We chucked off a few loose rocks we found that posed a danger to future climbers. Fortunately the route largely climbs a slightly rightward traverse, so the fall line for rocks usually doesn’t mirror the route. Caution is still advised. We did not find the heather on route to be an issue as all, it never got in the way or proved a hindrance if we stayed on route.

 

 

Pitch 1 of the variation start

 

 

Looking up at pitch 3

 

 

Looking down at pitch 3 from the belay

 

 

Laura following on the pitch 5 traverse

 

 

Looking up at pitch 6

 

 

Check out this majestic thing

 

Gear Notes:

We brought full rack of nuts, X4's and C4's from .1-3 with doubles of .3-1. This was way overkill as most pitches are short and protected with pins and bolts. I think I only used the big gear on pitch 1 and mostly used small gear for the rest of the climb. Most of the belays are bolted, so bring extra slings.

 

Approach Notes:

Totally snow free. Blueberries are coming into bloom

[genepires]

photos are awesome, especially the rainier / marmot shot.

[zoltani]

Nice report. We were up there this past weekend as well, and ran into you as you were hiking out. The route is definitely getting some traffic, there was a party of 3 or 4 above us. It is indeed a nice route and is likely to continue to see traffic, I think the word is out!

 

We too spied that ledge from the lower col and thought it might be the route, but looked at the beta again to see it mentioned that the correct col for the ledge traverse is at 5800'. Future parties that want to attempt the route take note, this is the correct col for ledge traverse http://caltopo.com/m/4A52

 

 

[RaisedByPikas]

I think the way we took to get to the upper col was much easier than what is on the summitpost map but I haven't tried the summitpost approach.

 

Basically we stayed on the hiking trail until the ground became about 50/50 rock and heather. By this point we thought we were too high and were almost at the same elevation as the upper col. We trended up and around the ridge to the right and it was a short hike down (maybe 50 vertical ft) some easy slabby boulders to the col. Don't be tempted to climb into the gully to climbers right of the hiking trail, you should be above it.

Edited July 19, 2015 by RaisedByPikas

[chris m]

That marmot pic is GREAT!

[climbaround]

Thanks for this TR which was part of the beta for our climb on the 29th. I'll piggyback here with a link to my TR over at NWHikers.

 

[img:center]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/419/19959970349_33a4342f2c_b.jpg[/img]

Stellar 3rd Pitch