[TR] Mixup- East Face - with SE Ridge Finish 8/8/2006

[goatboy]

Climb: Mixup-East Face - with SE Ridge Finish

 

Date of Climb: 8/8/2006

 

Trip Report:

Mixup Peak seems to be the climb du jour this month....

 

Gaston, the great French Expatriate, and I climbed the East Face of Mixup yesterday, finishing via the left skyline (upper part of SE Ridge). I would highly recommend the East Face as a very do-able and enjoyable dayclimb in the Cascade Pass area, but do not recommend the SE variation with which we finished.

 

The beta provided by Mtnfreak in his recent TR was very useful and much appreciated.

 

Woke up at 4:05 AM, made coffee, and left Seattle at 4:50 for Cascade Pass. I was astonished to arrive at Marblemount Ranger Station at 6:20, much faster than anticipated. This was by far the only part of the day during which I moved faster than anticipated...Gaston showed up early as well, and soon we were off for Cascade Pass. We left the parking lot for the million-switchback trail at 8:00 AM.

 

Neither of us had ever been up the Mixup Arm, and were surprised by the high quality of the "trail" that leads towards Cache Col. Here is Gaston with Cache Col at left, and the Gunsight Notch visble at right.

 

 

After moving through the moat problems at Gunsight (via some cornice chopping and straightforward thought exposed down-climbing) we arrived at the base of the route, climbing an easy pitch on solid, down-sloping rock. One more pitch brought us to the top of the "knife-edge section, where we unroped and started soloing towards the East Face proper:

 

 

Gaston moves through the heather towards the East Face proper:

 

 

Our route went up to the notch just below and left of the summit, then straight up the left skyline for a pitch from there on marginal rock. We did not go directly up the SE Ridge over the prominent Gendarme.

 

Gaston soloing low on the route....East Face, or Staircase???

 

Another look at the East Face Staircase:

 

 

At this point, Gaston and I veered left towards the left skyline, which appeared aesthetic from below....until we found that the rock quality deteriorated appreciable over there. Nonetheless, the climbing was quite easy and Gaston made quick work of a creaky pitch, without sending too many bombs my way at the airy belay on the S skyline next to the huge gendarme.

 

Goatboy very near the summit:

 

 

Final pitch to summit:

 

 

Summit views were excellent, under crisp blue skies and slowly building clouds:

 

 

As often happens, wildlife sightings continued at the summit:

 

 

As my partner is a Frenchman, we devoured some very fine summit treats including brie, prosciutto, and dolmas (stuffed grape leaves). After eating them, I concluded that dolmas are aid!

 

 

As mentioned in previous TR's, it was great to see Beckey's name in the summit register:

 

 

Finally, after rappels and downclimbing, we returned to Gunsight Notch for one final rappel down the steep loose dirt and gravel into the moat...

 

 

Times: 10.5 hours car to car. Our times closely approximated those of Mtnfreak, though we had the luxury of an earlier start and perhaps an hour or so on the summit taking pictures and eating....

 

THANKS to Gaston for a great day "dans les montagnes." What a great day with a great partner.

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons and Ice Ax useful.

 

Small rack to #3 Camalot useful.

 

One 60-m 8 mm rope worked great for raps and simul-climbing pitches.

 

Approach Notes:

Gunshight Notch presents moat problems, but can be surmounted. We went up and down the "U" notch at Gunsight rather than the "V" notch.

[catbirdseat]

Nicely done!

[Weekend_Climberz]

Nice pictures

 

That is a great area