Category Archives: Central Cascades

Ingalls Peak

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Robert and I made last minute plans to climb the East Ridge of Ingalls Peak. I hadn’t been out since Vesper Peak three weeks earlier and was ready to do something. I spent that time catching up on non-climbing activities. At the trailhead, I was surprised at how cold it was. It was in the upper thirties and much colder than it was three weeks earlier. Fall was definitely on its way. Robert set a pretty quick pace on the way up to Ingalls Pass. I lagged a bit behind not really feeling to speedy today, but speedy enough I s’pose.

I recall my ears being really cold as we hiked up on the shadowed west slopes. I didn’t feel like getting out any head gear though and there were other potential climbers for the east ridge; wanted to stay at the front of the line. Before hitting the pass though, the sun came out and did its work warming up the surroundings nicely. From the pass, we had crystal clear views of Mount Stuart. Ingalls was dwarfed by it to the left.

Making quick time, we arrived at the lake and took a short break to grab a little food. I was struck by the beauty of the lake – a still gem of a lake that’s quite big. Mount Stuart reflects in it nicely too. The hike up to the gully that would give us passage to the East Ridge started out easy enough among smooth and polished glacier slabs. But these gave way to a lot of talus hopping. The gully itself is quite loose and unpleasant. Fortunately there was no one either above or below us. Rockfall can be quite dangerous here. At one point we came to a perfect fork in the gully…the left one looked only slightly more “correct” and we took it. It turned out we were right.

We came to a blocked section of the gully were we figured the climb started (it does). Above easy 5th class terrain, we had the option to either go left up a face or straight ahead up a chimney. Robert was leading and took the chimney. He called out that it was a pretty tough little chimney to get up. I suggested maybe trying the face if it was too hard but he kept at it. I followed up and thought it was pretty hard too – we both thought 5.8. Chimneys are just hard when it comes to alpine climbing in my limited experience. Your pack gets caught on things and it’s hard to turn around and so on. On top of that, one wall of the chimney was pretty slick thanks to the serpentine rock. Robert had placed a came way up underneath the roof of the chimney that I had to go fetch. I then had to do some minor acrobatics to end up facing the correct way (thankfully, I’d placed my giant camera case in my pack before climbing the chimney). I thought I’d have a hard time exiting the chimney and was a little sketched out but it turned out to be quite easy.

Up on the ridge, I took over the lead and started up easy 5th class ridge running. I had to wend between towers though and soon the rope drag became a little silly. So I brought Robert up and he led up the next pitch which turned out to be really a really cool face climb up more easy 5th class terrain. We made good time up this pitch. I then took over and led over a thrilling but sadly short knife ridge to 4th class face/ridge terrain. I had to do more tower wending and the rope drag became pretty substantial again. I was determined to make it to a notch though that looked to be the obvious place to start the next and final pitch. I dragged my way up and built a little gear anchor and brought Robert up.

Robert got the last lead. This was the crux of the East Ridge route apparently. I remember Robert said, “I think this is the crux here!” and I asked, “Is it harder than the chimney?” “No way, this is cake compared to the chimney!”  And it was!  The crux is rated 5.7 but it feels easier than that.  It’s also very short.

Soon after we were on the summit.  We had plans to rap down and climb up the south ridge as well, the much more popular route.  It turned out that there were several parties on the south ridge and we had to wait a while while rappelling.  Once we got down, I took off for the summit again.  Overall, I think the south ridge is a more classic route.  It’s only problem is that it’s too short!  Anyway, Robert and I simul-climbed our way to the top in about 15 minutes.  We then had to wait almost two more hours before we could rappel down again!

We hiked out and discussed fun topics such as Dungeons and Dragons and video games.  We were back at the car before dark for more Man ‘o War and Therion tunes!

Vesper Peak

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I was planning to rest the labor day weekend after the spectacular but laborious Ptarmigan Traverse the week before, but Aidan invited me to go climbing with him and Colin.  So, I naturally couldn’t turn that down.  After various suggestions, we finally settled on the north face Vesper Peak.  We left from my house at five in the morning and had a strangely hard time of finding the correct turns to make.  We were at the trailhead soon enough though and were underway.  Colin set quite the aerobic pace and we made great time up the trail, though Aidan and I were breathing really hard.  We took our first break in the talus beneath Headlee Pass.

There’s a great trail the whole way and Headlee Pass is actually off to the right in the valley, not at the head of it.  The steep switchbacks led us to the pass where we had our first views of the golden slopes of Vesper, though the slabs of the north face were out of view.  We played around up here for a while on various ridges and then headed out.  We traversed over to another basin below Vesper with a small alpine lake in it that still contained large chunks of ice in the water.  Off to the left up more talus led to the notch were we would descend to start the north face climb.  The notch is to the left of an unnamed point between Vesper and Sperry.

We stashed our trekking poles at this small pass and then scrambled down to the base of the snow where we put on our crampons and got out our ice axes.  The snow is actually pretty steep here and there are indeed crevasses but the snow featured sun-molded cups that made for easy walking.  Once on the other side, all we had to do was find a place to exit the glacier on to the north face (Colin was turned around at this point for that very reason a couple of years earlier).  After shunning a very thin snow bridge, we opted for a very reasonable step over the moat to a small ledge on the face.  Then we had to downclimb in to the moat and back up on to the face where we put up our crampons and got ready for the rock climbing part.

The climbing at the base of the snow near the gullies is low 5th class, mostly 4th class I guess.  We started out on a small buttress and ended up in one of the gullies though I think it would have been better to stay on the buttress the entire way since the upper portion of the gullies is a bit loose.  On exiting the gully, we were on grassy, blocky, 3rd class terrain.  We followed this for about a hundred or more feet to the base of the giant slabs of the north face.

We couldn’t decide who would lead.  “I don’t care.”  “Do you want to?” and so on.  Eventually, Colin headed out.  We were simul-climbing the route so it was almost as if we were all leading it anyway.  The first part of the slabs was the most challenging, I thought.  There was one fairly steep section with small holds…maybe a short 5.7 move.  The rest was delightful and sustained 5.0-5.4 climbing up to the dihedral the marked the final pitch to the summit.  We had spotted another group from before we had even crossed the snow who were on the north face and we’d caught up to them by now.  Aidan wanted to lead the last pitch but wanted to wait until the others finished their climb.  Spurred on by Colin and I, he headed up and quickly made his way up the dihedral, which is indeed mostly 4th class and low 5th class.  It was much fun.  At the top of the slabs, we were but a short stroll to the true summit where we hung out for a while and enjoyed the views.  The other party we’d seen in the parking lot who also wanted to do the north face showed up on top but had gotten turned around somehow and ended up on the standard route.  All in all, there were probably about 4 other parties.  We beat it down the trail and were indeed back in time to watch the Simpsons!

 

Sloan Peak

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There were several options for a climb this weekend but we finally settled on the West Face of Sloan Peak.  Sloan Peak’s west face ended up involving all sorts of travel, a really diversified and fun climb!  The trip involved a shorter approach than the standard route but a harder technical climb.  I left my house at 4:40 and met Michael at his house at 5.  We decided to take his car and wisely so since the road up to the Bedal Creek trailhead is pretty bumpy (for Washington).  I got my first view of Vesper Peak through the trees along the way – looks great!  We headed out around 7:30 in the morning.  The trail was reputed to be brushy.  It was, but at least there was a trail.  So, it was easy to plow through the brush but having hundreds upon thousands of leaves (mostly rasberries) brushing against us left us quite soaked.  The trail went in and out of no less than nine brushy patches, the longest and thickest being the third.  We passed a small trail branching off to the right, apparently the old trail that headed down to the creek, and we continued straight on.  The trail died and we suspected that perhaps we’d missed another turnoff.  Michael went back down the trail and I continued up through trailless terrain looking for a spot that the trail perhaps picked up.  I spotted what looked like was a potential trail about fifty feet above and sure enough it was.  We were back on our way.

The rest of the trail was quite straightforward though in a couple of sections we were forced to become penitent men and crawl our way under some fallen trees.  Shortly after, we followed a tributary streambed upstream for a while then turned right back into old forest and then into a lovely but waterless Bedal Basin underneath the huge west face of Sloan Peak.  We never found the ruins of the cabin that the old timers say is still up here.  We weren’t sure exactly where the route was initially.  I thought the bleached section looked good but it turned out this section of the face was super smooth and steep.  Maybe it’s an aid climb?  We then settled on a rib coming off the face to the right.  The indented section of the face to the right of the rib had clouds collected in it.  We then headed up talus and gullies to reach the ridge.  Again, this section was much longer and tedious than it looked.  I headed off in a gully on the right (Michael continued straight) hoping that easy ledges would lead me to higher ground.  This turned out to be a big mistake.  I ended up making delicate moves on loose, sloping ledges before arriving at a loose and very steep wall.  No way I was trying that alone.  I decided to take the time hit in favor of safety and climb back down and head up Michaels way.  Even when I got back into the original gully, it still took forever to get up on the ridge.

At about 11:30, we began the climb.  Michael headed up easy 3rd class with an occasional 4th and 5th class move.  We trended right then back left, which signified the more difficult climbing.  The face is quite steep and the exposure was really nice.  Michael began making his way up one of the cruxes, a steep 40-foot dihedral.  After belaying him up, I headed up as well.  I arrived at the base of a smooth wall and began starting up.  I soon realized that Michael must not have come this way, the next moves would be at least 5.10 so I decided to back down and get into the chimney on the left.  I had to make an exposed step to get into the chimney, which was exposed itself.  Then I realized my beloved bulky camera was making this climb too hard!  My bulky camera case sits on the front of my pack and really hinders climbing because I can’t press my hips into the walls.  Michael preferred if I did not hang on the rope to adjust my case so I made a little more difficult moves and then popped up to the belay.  It was my turn to lead out.

The next pitch was comfortable 5th class with fun air behind and below us.  I reeled Michael in at another ledge then headed up a more exciting pitch featuring a vertical 5.7 step to get to a narrow ledge leading off to the right.  I was able to protect it nicely with a cinched sling around a rare rock horn.  The traverse was fun, one section being a hand traverse on a bomber ledge with very little for feet.  I then turned left and up and arrived at a rocky ledge and belayed Michael up.

At this point, we could either go left or right.  Right looked a little easier but left looked potentially more fun.  Michael headed left.  He ended up on a nice solid ridge (there was some black lichen on it).  Following, I found the ridge the most fun part of the climb.  The climbing was easy (I think we rated it 5.4) and was nicely exposed!  At this point, we unroped and scrambled up easy 3rd class terrain.  We intersected a nice trail, obviously the Cork Screw Trail (the standard route).  We took a short break and changed into boots.  Michael, getting ready faster than me, headed east on the trail to get a view from the ridge above and then reported that we needed to head in the opposite direction, which obviously led to the summit.  The remainder of the climb reminded me some of Mount Pugh, though it the scrambling is easier there.  Along the way to the summit, we entered thicker clouds which swirled around us.  We still had good views although there were many sites blocked from.  Bah, no matter!  The clouds made for the distinct Cascades alpine feel.  Looking down to the Sloan Glacier was awesome.

We headed down after maybe 40 minutes on the summit.  We needed to descend the shelves on the southern side of the peak to get to a small glacier.  That would then lead us to a ridge which we would cross into a basin where we would descend to a second ridge above slopes that would lead us back to Bedal Basin.  We found a rappel station about 50 feet below the trail that led us down to the lower shelf on the southern side of Sloan.  This shelf sloped down and we continually looked for a rappel point down to the glacier, finding nothing.  It also looked too far to make one rappel to the glacier.  So we continued to head down and eventually the grass turned into glacially polished slabs which apparently led down to the glacier.  Because it was so smooth and sloping though, the going was slow.  Near the end, I suggested we rap the remaining section down.  I found a rare block where I could use a sling.  The problem was that it wasn’t very deep and there was a chance, though nominal, that the sling would slip out. So, to allay our nerves, I found three granite shards and a round granite rock and hammered the three shards into the wedge.  That sling wasn’t going anywhere now!  We putt on our crampons and rappelled down to the glacier. 

The glacier was really a snowfield.  I did see a crevasse or two from above but we didn’t have to negotiate any.  The snow was steep though and it was slick (That’s one thing I miss from Colorado – the hard Colorado snow).  So, it was slow going since we had to traverse laterally for most of the way.  We made good time when the edge of the moat was level and we could walk along that.  Eventually, we were back on ground.  We scrambled up to the ridge and then hiked down to where we found a rock wall shelter at the saddle.  At this point, we down-climbed delightful tundra making our way to the saddle on the next ridge.  Of course, being a Cascade traverse, the easy stuff ended all too soon and we were on steep grassy and sometimes steep loose scree.  The chlorophyll got much thicker at the next ridge!  It was so steep that instead of risking the perpetual tumble down the slope we opted for the grass glissade!  I’d never had to do this for, much less even thought of doing this!   But, it turned out to be the easiest and safest way to get back down to Bedal Basin, though it did grind some serious green into our pants.

We were a little worried about hiking out in the dark so we wanted to move quickly.  We certainly wanted to be pass the stream crossings before dark.  Not because of the water, but because the trail entrances are hard enough to see in the light!  It turned out that we did not have a problem at all with the dark catching up with us.  We hiked out really quickly (the rasberries were a nice treat on the way down) and were back at the car at 8:30.

Guye Peak

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After Mount Triumph, I wanted to do another big climb in the North Cascades.  But it was not to be; couldn’t find a party to go with.  So, it was good to catch up at home.  Michael and I, however, took advantage of a Sunday morning and went to do the “Improbable Traverse”, 5.8 grade III, on Guye Mountain.  There’s nothing hugely aesthetic about Guye, being so close to I-90, but that meant that we didn’t have to languish in the hot July sun on a long steep trail (good thing we weren’t doing the standard walkup route). 

We started up the talus field that is actually much longer and tedious than it looks.  At the top of the talus, we were still pressed to find a nice level ledge to put on rock shoes so we ended up having to stand on the down sloping, pebble-strewn ledges.  It’s easy enough finding the gully to start off on and we followed 4th and 5.0 ledges unroped until we got to a prominent tree with lots of rappel slings around it.  I started on the first lead trying to go up to the right through a little passage way created by the low hanging branches but found myself at a steep wall with talus strewn on top.  No good.  So, I came back down and went to the left hand side of the tree, back in the gully.  The traveling was easy 5th class and very blocky, though tough to protect.  This was Exit 38 style rock which is generally just weird.  I got creative with a nut, cam, sling, and a fixed piton (well, not much creativity there).  Right above the fixed piton is a solid crack system that led up to what I thought was the “Lunch Ledge” (turned out it was).  I was about 3/4ths the way out on the rope and headed up the crack but I didn’t feel quite solid enough so I backed down and went around to the left.  This was tricky as well – vertical face climbing.  After much pondering and time-wasting, I decided to build an anchor in the crack and bring Michael up.  Michael led the next short pitch up the crack to Lunch Ledge and I followed, no problem.  It was quality 5.8.

The “Improbable Traverse” was next and Michael led out on this pitch.  From where I belayed, it definitely looked exposed but not as exposed as when I was out there!  He led superbly around a corner then yelled that I was on belay.  The guidebooks say this next section was 5.8 but it didn’t seem that hard to me.  However, it was quite small and the holds were teeny.  This was by far the most exposure on such small holds that I’d ever encountered and I found it pretty scary!  The traverse is no joke about 2 inches wide and only gets shorter.  When it is wider it is down-sloping so this was basically a lesson in composure in the face of giant exposure (500 feet *clean*) and tiny tiny holds, none bomber.  I had to hug the wall quite closely.  It’s just as scary to follow a traverse as it is to lead it!  The scariest part was at the section where there are two fixed pitons – one high, one low (use the higher one, more comfortable and looks to be better).  I basically had to step up about two feet on tiny footholds (an inch) while using tiny finger holds (a half inch).  It’s just as you’re slowly lifting up, I felt I didn’t have all the control I wanted and there’s nothing but air an extra inch away.  It was also a little tricky exiting to the 4th class ramp.  There’s a white kermantle cord here functioning as a fixed sling.  The climb was steep and again on small holds, though these were much bigger than the ones before.  Soon enough I was up on the ramp and I continued through all the way up to a tree-covered ledge.

After a short break here, we followed a wide forested ramp up looking for passage to the left.  Shortly after (after trying a cliff that was too hard), we found an easy 5th class gully system again that led to a vertical 5.7-ish climb.  This part of Guye (in fact almost the whole thing minus the couple of solid pitches around the traverse) was deceptively loose and I had a foothold give out under me.  I bashed my knee but did not fall as my other three points were solid.  I continued up and met Michael at the top.  I then took over the lead and started up a vertical and grassy dihedral that got me nowhere.  Had to come down – again!  I moved left and followed a dirty path to another set of cliffs – the first with a downed tree with a sling around it which I used as protection.  The next cliff was easy 5th class protected with a nut.  Finally, I popped out on the ridge and we were at the top.

The scramble over to the other summits was easy and we decided to make one last pitch getting to the north summit.  It featured a short, say 20 feet, with a nasty roof/overhang in the middle.  Michael led out intent on the left hand side.  I thought the right looked easier.  Indeed, Michael’s route was a bit sketchy and the dried lichen didn’t help any.  I wouldn’t recommend this way at all (he rated it 5.9+) a few times he was crouched down as to not bump his head on the roof above.  He set up a belay and I headed over to the right side which indeed was easier (5.6+ – strenuous).  There’s basically a solid hold above but you have to lie back quite a bit and heave yourself up, step up, then finish the move, all laying back a lot.  Not bad though.  It can be protected by placing a tight sling around a horn on the right that’s used as a solid handhold.

Yay, on the top.  Good views all around.  Mount Rainier was awesome.  The hike down was super steep and my knee had a big lump in it from where I bashed it on that vertical crap rock.  I was pretty slow on the descent (we also had no trekking poles this time) and Michael went ahead.  Man, it was hot out here and we also didn’t have any sunscreen.  We got to the car at about the same time in the end…guess I caught up as we walked the road back to the car.

Del Campo Peak

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Getting started with this climb was really weird.  At first, I thought I would do an overnight but it turned out that I had so many things to do so I made it a day hike at the last minute.  Even on the day of the hike, I didn’t get up until 7:00 or so and didn’t start the hike until 9:30am, which felt so late.  However, I ended up being the first person on the peak!  More on that later.  This was the first time that I had driven up this part of the mountain loop highway.  I was eager to see “Big Four Mountain” which I had only recently heard about.  As I approached Big Four Campground I started looking through the trees trying to get a glimpse.  Then I saw it:  a monstrous and terrifying north face with hanging glaciers and snowfields feeding the numerous falls cascading off of it.  What a giant peak!  I can see why that peak has the reputation it does.

The beginning of Del Campo Peak and other Monte Cristo Peaks involves a hike down a level road to various trailheads.  Many people like to bike this.  But for this trip, a bike wasn’t necessary because the hike in is only 1.5 miles.  When I arrived there were some others getting their bikes ready.  I was able to head out first and I moved quickly.  Within 15 minutes, the cyclists passed me, but in 5 minutes, I was at the trailhead!  Easy hike.  The trail up to Gothic Basin starts out nice and mellow but becomes, surprise surprised, very steep with lots of switchbacks within a mile.  I continued to move fast and passed two parties.  Soon after, I arrived at the first open space high up at a set of falls.  There’s a whole lot of falls on this hike!  I suspected I was pretty close to the basin but checking my altimeter brought me back to reality.  Ug, another 1500 feet to go.  I didn’t keep up with the number of creeks and falls that I passed but it was a lot.  There’s one set of falls pretty close to the trail called “The Shower of Mighty Kong” or something like that.  I took a break here to put on sunscreen.  It’s also nice to stand close to the falls and let the cool mist massage your tired and hot body.

More falls, more falls until I finally arrived at a steep snow slope that apparently led to the base of the basin.  Sure enough, I was at the snow-filled basin and there was a small lake below me.  But, I didn’t recognize any of the features.  Nothing from what I recalled from the pictures and nothing on the map.  A little more study of the map revealed that the trail had deposited me well to the south of the lake and peaks.  So, I headed north.  Soon enough, Del Campo started to make an appearance.  However, within a few minutes, I realized this was Gothic Peak since a much bigger peak was coming into view on the right.  Then I saw the lake:  Foggy Lake, or, as Beckey’s book calls it, Crater Lake.  Hmmm…what to do first.  I started to head over to Gothic but then decided to head for Del Campo since it was the major peak and probably had better views.  Also, I wasn’t sure how tired I’d be on the way down too.  There was still lots of snow up here.  The topology really undulates up here…hills and little frozen pools everywhere.  There was too much snow though, really, to appreciate what it probably is like in late fall.

I crossed near the lake and started heading up heather slopes mixed with snow.  I’d been hearing voices in front of me and finally spotted an army of hikers heading up Del Campo.  Must be Mountaineers.  Studying their tracks revealed the pack mentality:  all using ice axes and holding them in their left hand, now the right hand.  I decided to get some food and let them get a little further in front of me.  I started back up maybe 10 or 15 minutes.  I ascended the standard route, following the boot path in the sloppy snow.  Within minutes, I was in sight of the Mountaineers again.  They took a break at the base of the snow where a 3rd class gully leads northward and up to a notch.  They were indeed a Mountaineers party and were nice enough to let me head out first.  I resolved to climb quickly and not knock any rocks down on them.  At the notch, there’s a small trail that heads up another 50 feet.  At this point, though I didn’t feel it, I knocked a small rock down!  Arr!  It missed them easily but smacked other small rocks and sent 3 or 4 down.  Man, I felt bad and careless.  My quick apology was accepted and I resolved to stay off the trail and on the very solid rock on the lefthand side, which was pushing 4th class with some fun exposure.  Soon enough, I was on top.  It was 1:10pm, 3 hours and 40 minutes after setting out.

Looking to the west revealed nothing but fog!  I guess this is why they call it “Foggy Pass” (the pass between Gothic and Del Campo).  There were zero views west but plenty of excellent views to the west.  The tops of Glacier, Pugh, and Sloan were capped with clouds.  I still haven’t gotten a good look at Sloan.  Keyes (which they pronounced “Kies” rhyming with “Fries”??  Is that right??), Columbia, and Monte Cristo were easily visible.  I was also able to pick out Mount Forgotten to the north.  The top was a little noisy with all of us up here but I couldn’t complain.  After about 50 minutes on top, I bade the Mountaineers farewell and headed down.  I thought they would start down about 10 minutes after me but after getting down the gully and boot glissading nearly all the way to the lake, I looked back and saw that they were still on top!  I continued down and took a slightly different route back over the knoll that blocks the lake from the valley.  The sun was quite intense as I hiked and I went to get my hat out of my pack and I realized I left it on top!  Arr!  I am so forgetful sometimes.  Ah well, it was a rather heavy hat and I didn’t feel like waiting on the off chance that one of the Mountaineers would have picked it up.  So, I put on my bandana and headed down.  The steep trail forced me to move quickly.  I took an Aleve to keep my knees happy and marched on.  No time for breaks!  I was back at the car at 4:45.  The drive out was pleasant enough as I got more views of Big Four Mountain.

One annoying feature of the drive back was a goofy camper that kept everyone (at least 10 cars) at about 40 mph.  Did the driver realize he was breaking the goofy Washington Five Car Stack law?  I guess not.  We passed a cop on the side of the road.  He just sat there…hey go study the books, Officer Doughnut!  :-)

Argonaut Peak

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Michael concocted the idea of climbing Arognaut Peak over the weekend and I was definitely up for that being my first trip into the Stuart range and for a climb of one of the seldom climbed peaks of the range.  However, I did have to talk Michael into leaving later in the morning (I had to work on him in 30 minute increments).  We got out to the trailhead around 11 am or so and I was quite excited to get started after getting a good look at Dragontail and Colchuck from the road – very alpine!

We started out on the nice trail with snow right away; there were only a few patches here and there of dry ground.  For the most part, the hike up was pretty easy.  At the turn off to Colchuck Lake, the trail became much dirtier featuring lots of post holes.  At one point I was crossing, what looked like a solid crossing over a creek when the bridge broke and soaked my left boot.  A few moments later we arrived at the lake with the fabled fantastic views of Dragontail and Colchuck Peaks.  Pictures never do the mountains justice and Dragontail looked a whole lot bigger than I had imagined it from the various pictures I’d seen.

At the lake, we stopped for a brief lunch.  Of course, at this moment, the clouds moved in and covered the tops of the peaks.  A wind picked up and it started snowing.  The food buoyed our spirits though and we headed off across Colchuck Lake to the base of the Colchuck glacier.  The view was so stupendous that I asked Michael to take a picture of me.  Michael wasn’t able to take the picture so I asked him to unlock the camera and advance the film.  Well, he’d done all that.  Unfortunately, my fully manual camera had locked up!  It hadn’t done this in a long time, don’t start now!  To make a long camera story short, I finally figured out how to make it work, I had to either breathe on it for a while or generate friction heat by locking and unlocking the shutter, then slamming the button with my finger to take the picture.  I’m sad to say, that though this worked, my pictures *stunk* for this trip!  All my high altitude extreme shots had a dark band through them.  Bleeh!  What to do…

We began the long long slog up to the top of Colchuck Glacier.  I don’t recall how long this took but it was at least a couple of hours.  We didn’t move that slowly either though I did frequently stop and fiddle with my camera (I hadn’t unravelled the mystery at this point).  At the top of the Dragontail-Colchuck col we had to descend a few hundred feet and then ascend that distance back up to the Argonaut-Colchuck col.  Argonaut was pretty impressive from this angle although it kept fading in and out of clouds.  The snow was swirling around us as well adding to the fantastic alpine mood.  I was pretty beat at this point.  In fact, at the Dragontail-Colchuck col, I nearly napped while leaning on a rock!  Finally, we made it up to the second col and we were really excited to see the fantistic views.  The top of Mount Stuart peeked out above the highest clouds.  It seemed so high and far away.  We were actually very close to the summit of Argonaut from our camp directly on the ridge.  We just needed to climb the east face to climb most directly to the summit, but our route was the more ambitious Northwest Arete.

We set up Michael’s new tent – a lightweight job consisting of no floor!  We used my trekking poles for tent poles and ice axes and Michaels poles for stakes.  It was a bit tricky to get up in our confined location but we got creative and worked it out.  Then it was on to checking out the route and getting food going.  Our route required us to downclimb steep snow for 1000 feet and then climb up another steep slope to the northwest arete.  It was really cold up here so it was good to get inside the tent with the warm tent stove.  My old tired gloves with the duct tape weren’t doing a great job of keeping my fingers warm.  Can’t blame ‘em really.  However, for your information, those gloves have now been honorably discharged – they were the first pieces of technical clothing gear that I ever bought!  After a hot meal, we turned in.  We talked for a while but I was fading fast.  Pretty soon, my responses to Michael’s commentary was “Mmm hmm”, “Uh huh” and so on.  As soon as we stopped talking, I was out – I think it took about a minute…literally!  We both slept great!

The next morning was not unlike the previous day – unsettled clouds with a light wind.  We started out down the ridge a ways before finding a slightly less steep place to get onto the primary slope that would lead us down to the bowl.  The climbing was indeed steep but nothing too extreme or strenuous.  At the bowl, we angled back up the steep snow field that hugged the base of Argonaut Peak.  We took turns kicking steps through shin to knee deep snow.  My water, though inside my pack, had frozen already.  I was able to break the ice seal on the top but it was so cold and ice that it was hard to drink any decent quantity.  At the top of the col, we were able to nestle next to a small gendarme and set up the rope.  Michael led out first around the corner where it was very hard to hear him.  Both of our voices suffered from echoes and we had to speak very slowly in order to be understood.  It took a while for us to get our bearings but eventually I felt Michael tugging the rope and putting me on belay.

I headed around the corner and, to my shock, saw the rope ascending a vertical chimney.  Hey, I’m wearing crampons and a large backpack here!  And my legs are cold since I’ve been belaying for the past few minutes!  Anyway, I started up…this was really hard stuff!  What would be comfortable and enjoyable 5.6 climbing in summer was a serious proposition with snow all over the route.  I hooked my crampons on small nubbings and pushed my way up.  After pulling out a cam I arrived at a tight hex placement.  The damn thing wouldn’t come out and both my foot holds were on crampon points.  I tugged hard and it came out hard…straight into my forehead.  I yelled disgustingly, not out of pain but out of…frustration.  OK, so then I headed up again.  My face felt a little “itchy”, sort of we, so I rubbed it with my glove.  Taking the glove away, I notieced the happy red stains on it.  So, I closed an eye and looked inward and saw blood streaming down my face.  Great.  Then I popped out and gave Michael a bit of a scare but I let him know what happend and that I was OK…no pain, just an annoyance.  But, I wondered how big the cut was.  I figured if the rest of the pitches weren’t as hard as that damn chimney, then this would be doable.  But that chimney was damn hard…I was panting for breath at the top.  The second pitch was easier, taken as a whole, but also featured a tough move that required the camming of our ice axes to get up.  Jeez…ok, what’s next? 

The next pitch was even harder.  It featured an exposed, snow-covered slab, then an extremely difficult move to get into another hard chimney.  Michael was taking a while to figure this out and I was starting to get pretty cold.  It didn’t help to have blood all over my face either.  When Michael tried one way and couldn’t make it work, he tried traversing over a mossy, snowy slab.  That didn’t work either.  At this point he was forced to make an aid move with a sling and a nut.  At this point, my instincts were telling me to call it quits.  Eventually, Michael asked me what I thought and I frankly replied, “I think we should turn back”.  We did.  It was definitely the right thing to do for it also had started to snow quite hard as well and as we rappelled, it snowed even harder.  We backed off some and were able to see most of the rest of the route – it looked hard, if not harder, the rest of the way up.  1000 feet below in the snow bowl, we were faced with the tedious climb back up to our camp.  We were reassured again as the snow and wind picked up.  Up on the ridge, we noted spindrift avalanches pouring off of Argonaut’s north face.  We got back to camp and had a little more food, packed up, caught a second wind and headed out.  The climb back up to the Dragontail col wasn’t bad at all…we even spotted a white ferret on the way up!  He popped out to see if it were really spring yet.  No, not yet, back in the hole!

We had a great glissade back down to the lake.  Well not quite to the lake.  The last 100 feet consisted of some serious postholes in the late afternoon melting snow.  I got lodged pretty good at one point and had to dig my boot out.  I felt pretty good though beginning the climb back down Mountaineer Creek.  The hike down, however, sapped my energy as we postholed and slipped our way down.  Finally, at the creek, we shared a stupendous ham sandwich.  With that jolt of food, we marched really fast back to the car…record time according to Michael.

Well, there was no summit for us this weekend.  But there was 8100 feet of elevation…I guess that’s good!  No, this was a great trip…a lot of fun and some great experience!  Thanks for the suggestion, Michael!