Category Archives: Snoqualmie Pass

McClellan’s Butte

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The weather wasn’t terribly cooperative this weekend, but that may have been a good thing. I’d wanted to climb the north ridge of Forbidden Peak and so and planned to that this weekend. I know I would have come back from that trip utterly exhausted since I’ve grown soft living in China and wasn’t in good physical shape. Plus, the Cascade River Road was closed at Eldorado Creek – another 6 miles to hike! So, instead of jsut doing good ole Mount Si, we (Kevin, Ari, and me) opted to climb McClellan’s Butte, which was the very first climb I did with Michael at the end of 2002, man that seems like so long ago. I guess it was – 4.5 years.

Well, there’s not too much to report about this trip. I was slower than both Kevin and Ari and they enjoyed racing up ahead and taunting me as they’d wait for me, looking down the trail at my panting form doggedly plodding up the mountain. We made our way up to the final ridge and were greeted by a welcomed blast of cool air and a sweeping view down the valley. The final scramble lay in front of us which was an easy scamper. We lounged around on top for about an hour, nearly falling asleep on some smooth slabs down the ridge northeast from the summit. The hike out was pretty uneventful except that my new hiking boots were hinting that they were going to be pain to break in. This proved to be true the following week.

The Tooth- South Face, II, 5.4

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Daniel’s idea:

After work, drive up to Snoqualmie Pass, hike in to the Tooth, climb it, sleep on the summit, rappel down the following morning and go into work.

Dang that sounded cool to me.  That’s almost like a free weekend.  We headed out around 4:30 or 5:00 on Wednesday, stopped for some food at Subway in North Bend (saving part of the sandwich for the summit), and continued up to Snoqualmie Pass.  From the parking lot, we hiked up the trail on snow.  Well, I hiked; Daniel brought his skis and skinned up.  Now, it was way back in November on Sperry Peak when I was last on snow and that was a postholing Hell.  This Snoqualmie Spring snow was perfect, well-consolidated, and sturdy.  I think I punched through once, and only then up to the thigh of one leg.  Pshaw.

We made quick time up the valley, passed an open slope, where beyond we turned leftward past a waterfall and made a steep ascending and curving climb to Great Scott Basin.  Within approximately an hour and a half we were near the Tooth.  The snow climb beyond the small tower which Michael and I dubbed “Baby Tooth” was straight forward.  At the very end, however, we did encounter a descent bergeschrund that required careful negotiation to safely squeak up and through in order to reach the small pass.  A few minutes later we were at the base of the Tooth.

I’d never led the Tooth before so Daniel gave me the first pitch.  One long simul pitch later we were on the summit.  The climb itself was good easy fun, solid the whole way, consisting of easy climbing with sprinkled 5.4ish cruxes here and there.  The summit was surprisingly warm – mid to low 50′s, I suppose, with no wind.  After enjoying the second half of our subway sandwiches and some evening photography, we bedded down on two good bivy ledges and stared up at the stars.  Occasionally, I would turn my head slightly and look down on the cars travelling on I-90 far below.

I fell asleep fast and awoke sometime in the early morning hours to a bright three quarters moon hanging in the southern sky.  Sometime later, at 5am I heard Daniel moving about.  We lazed around and leisurely had a small breakfast and took more pictures and video.

We made one rappel off the summit and then decided to explore around the area.  Daniel led back up looking around for the “Catwalk”.  With no immediate pro available, we decided to just rappel all the way down and solo up “Baby Tooth” for some more photo opportunities.

Daniel skied out.  I glissaded and plunge stepped my way out.  We were back to work around 9:30.

The photos here were taken by Daniel.

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.

The Tooth- South Face

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The original plan was to climb the northeast buttress of Chair Peak but it was too warm lately and had recently snowed a good bit.  So the steep North Face of Chair was not in shape.  Michael and I switched our plans to “The Tooth”.  Either way, I was happy; I hadn’t climbed either and was looking forward to a technical climb be it snow, ice, or, in this case, rock.

We arrived at the trailhead at a little before 6am and ran into Dan Smith and his climbing companion Chris who had ideas of climbing either Chair Peak or the northeast slabs on The Tooth.  So, the four of us began hiking up the valley heading towards Source Lake.  The morning was quite overcast.  Actually, in reality, it was forecasted to be a great day.  We just happened to be hiking in legendary Snoqualmie Ice Fog.

The hike up to the Tooth was really pleasant, especially in these winter conditions.  Upon arriving at tiny Source Lake we ran into another party of four who were also heading up to the Tooth.  Beyond the Lake, a broad open slope appears.  This is the area that guidebooks warn of avalanche danger.  Everything seemed in decent shape today and we continued up.  We eventually turned hard left and began heading back south in the opposite direction ascending rapidly.  At another high slope we ran into at least two other parties.  Dan and Chris began heading off in their other direction and Michael and I, moving pretty fast, past the other parties nearby. 

After crossing a small ridge and hopping into a gully with a creek running through it, we finally came upon Great Scott basin at the base of The Tooth.  As we crested the lip of the basin, we passed the first party that set out to climb the Tooth.  This was a group of four of the “Mountaineers” club with whom we had some interesting conversation throughout the day.

We were nearing the edge of the fog as we looked up and noticed the blue sky breaking through.  I had never been here before and Michael was wondering exactly where Pineapple Pass was through the soupy fog.  He asked the leader of the Mountaineers group who replied, “Not gonna tell you.  You should have studied the map before coming out here.”

Well, we were both incredulous at this response and only after a few moments realized that he was serious!  Anyway, there’s a lot more to this story but too much to go into for this trip report.  Well…anyway, that didn’t really help the reputation of the Mountaineers.

Finally, we indeed broke out of the fog into brilliant sunshine and were able to see the route.  A sun warm wind blew down on us – in contrast, it felt like we were suddenly in the Bahamas!  We had passed the Mountaineers group and soon the trail ended and we began breaking trail up to Pineapple Pass.  We worked really hard to break trail trying to stay in front of the group of Mountaineers knowing that we could move much faster up the route than they could – two people verus four! 

Pineapple Pass is a tiny little pass.  We stopped here to take off our snowshoes.  We continued down the other side and then began climbing up the final snow slope to the base of the rock climb when suddenly one of the Mountaineers, taking advantage of our broken trail, began racing us up the slope for the rights to start first.  Well, we won!

Well, this was the first rock climb I’d done in over a year but it felt pretty good.  The Tooth is not a hard climb at all.  We climbed a little corner (for lack of a better word) on the upper part of the face that Michael rated at 5.5; the standard route is 5.4.  There was one step on the first pitch that was the hardest for me and I had to commit the faux pas of using my knee to get me up and over a particular move – I just couldn’t bend my leg far enough to reach a step and the lower ones were just too small for my heavy leather hiking boots.  Oh well – at least I wasn’t wearing plastic mountaineering boots!

The second pitch was an easy, somewhat airy pitch.  Pitch three can be done without rope completely – it’s 3rd and some easy 4th class.  But, it’s more work to take the rope off.  The crux pitch is the fourth and final pitch.  This pitch was easy for me; I guess I was getting my climbing legs back!  We ended the pitch at a little crux bouldering move that I led to short third class scrambling to the summit!

We spent plenty of time on the summit eating, drinking, and taking pictures.  We then rappelled down the entire route to the base of another little spire we decided to climb “Baby Tooth”, or so we called it.  It’s the little spire right next to Pineapple Pass and the one directly behind you when you’re climbing up the Tooth.

We climbed the little point in a single pitch that consisted of only steep snow and a little bit of 5.0 rock right at the summit.  The summit was really cool – very small, just enough room for two people.  This was a great place to take pictures of the Tooth from, although you’re so close to the Tooth that it’s hard to frame the entire peak. 

While sitting on Baby Tooth, we heard a loud crack and then a rumble – a small avalanche broke loose across the basin to the east.  I was surprised how much noise was generated by such a small amount of snow!

Anyway, this was a great day in the mountains:  a fun climb on a cloudless, warm day in January!