I've had a little bug dancing around in my head. Ever since I climbed the Hitchhiker, he just wouldn't shut up. "Go climb the Passenger" he said. "Forget all those other spires, South Early Winter is all that matters".
"Oh, let's ride and ride and ride."
Fortunately for me Reed didn't even put up a fight when I asked him to climb the Passenger with me. Somehow I hadn't climbed with Reed in a month and a half. Somehow Reed had also never climbed at Washington Pass. I'm not sure which was more bizarre. At that, plans were made. Once I get a bug in my head it won't leave me alone until I do what it tells me. It hasn't led me astray yet.
SE Face of SEWS. Next up: The Southern Man (upper right portion of the wall)
This climb has actually been on my mind for quite a while, and was one of my summer goals that I was most eager to tick off. Although it is technically shorter than its neighbor the Hitchhiker, it is quite a bit more challenging, with rock quality that is as good or better than the Hitchhiker. While the two hardest pitches featured short, powerful cruxes, the 5.10 and 5.11 pitches seemed much more physical and sustained than those found on the Hitchhiker. In short it was a worthwhile challenge that I am stoked to tick off so early in the summer.
On Friday night we drove to the Blue Lake trailhead and camped in the empty parking lot. We were in no hurry the next morning and had a leisurely breakfast before starting the hike, which turned out to be a mistake as we arrived at the base of the wall just as another party was starting. This slowed our day down significantly, as the other party was hauling a large pack on every pitch (WHY?!) and we spent a lot of time waiting for them to progress ahead of us. Come on guys, fast is safe. Oh well, at least they were friendly.
A mist clung to the spires throughout most of the morning, and a high cloud cover remained throughout the day making the climb much colder than we expected.
Regardless, the climbing on this route is ridiculously good. The pitches are long but still each one left me wanting more. The line weaves its way through massive roofs which provide awesome exposure. Every time I am on this wall I get this weird floating feeling, sort of like a pleasant vertigo as I look down toward the highway 1500 feet below. It pushes me into that hyper-aware state that I have only ever found through climbing. The rest of the world disappears and I become so intensely focused on my immediate surroundings, noticing minute textural variations in the rock, the sound my shoe makes when I place my foot, how my protection interacts with individual quartz crystals in the granite. It's strenuous and meditative and exhilarating all at once.
Pitch 3, 5.11-. One of my favorites, it followed a splitter finger crack to a tricky pull around a roof on flared jams.
But I digress. We agreed to lead the climb in blocks, with me leading the first half of the pitches and Reed leading the second. We ended up swinging leads on the second half to save time so I ended up leading something like five of the pitches. If any of these pitches were located on the ground at Index or Leavenworth they would be ultra-classic four star routes. Each had perfect gear the whole way, with the exception of the crux pitch which had an exciting but safe runout on the 5.11 traverse. That section definitely pushed my comfort zone a bit, and made the true crux (a v5-ish boulder problem right by a bolt) feel relatively tame. There's plenty of beta online for this line so I won't waste time with a pitch-by-pitch breakdown. See the topo above.
I definitely suggest linking pitches 2 and 3 from that topo, as well as 4 and 5. The direct finish was enjoyable 5.10- crack climbing and is quickly becoming the standard, rather than the 5.7 escape to the left.
Reed's face should indicate how much fun we were having mid-day.
After the crux we worked our way through the remaining ridiculously fun 5.10 pitches and ultimately topped out quite a bit later than we were planning. Near the end I was starting to feel unusually fatigued, so we rappelled quickly and started the hike down. After half an hour of hiking I had to admit to myself that I had caught the cold that Stephanie had been dealing with last week. We talked about possible climbs for Sunday and I feigned enthusiasm, not wanting to ruin Reed's stoke. I think he caught on and we decided to sport climb at Newhalem instead (which we didn't end up doing either because the area is currently closed).
Reed's face should indicate how worked we felt by the end of the day.
Overall it was a good day and I feel fortunate that I managed to get through the climb before the plague took hold. Although a footwork mistake cost me the onsight I felt really good about my climbing and I am now looking toward the harder projects of the summer. But for now I am on a steady regimen of dayquil and spicy food to get healthy before I leave for Ten Sleep, Wyoming this weekend.
Managed to catch a great sunset between all my sneezing and sniffling.
I guess I have to kick this thing off at some point, and Saturday's smooth ascent of the Hitchhiker seems like a good excuse.
This summer almost all of my goals revolve around the world-class alpine rock that we are so fortunate to have in Washington. Last summer I was pretty busy getting married and stuff, so I generally could only make time for sport climbing. While I do love me some sport climbing, venues such as Washington Pass and the Enchantments are much more inspiring and generally bring out the best in me. I decided several months ago that the big objective of the year will be The Tiger at Washington Pass, but I have a long road to reach that point at the end of the summer. Fortunately all of the routes that will help me progress to that point are equally stunning and worthy objectives of their own.
The Tiger, possibly the prettiest climb in the PNW
With summer in full swing here in the Northwest I decided it was time to leave the lowlands and tick off the easiest of my progression routes: The Hitchhiker on South Early Winter Spire. Fortunately Lucas was available and psyched to get outside, so we made plans to leave at 5:00 AM on Saturday so that we could get home that night. Alpine start, right? After a couple minor hiccups on the drive we arrived at the Blue Lake Trailhead at about 8:45. Not quite alpine start.
Lucas nearing the top of the snowfield below South Early Winter Spire
The trail is still hidden under snow so we set out into the woods in what we were pretty sure was the right direction. An hour or so later we popped out into the meadow below the Liberty Bell Group. Following an existing bootpack up the snowfield, we encountered a few skiers but very few climbers. We took our time on the approach, enjoying the views of what is arguably one of the most beautiful regions of the entire country.
North Cascades Glory
Some shenanigans finding the right climb put us at the base at about 11:00 am, just in time for an early lunch. Okay, finally on the rock at 11:30 am. Definitely not an alpine start.
Lucas leading pitch 2
I led us up the first pitch (5.10d) through fun stemming and laybacking to a comfortable belay ledge. Having not climbed on granite much lately I expected this pitch to feel a bit more challenging but instead I found it to be fun and just hard enough to make a good warmup. Lucas continued up pitch 2, which involved quality slab and face climbing, capped by a left-leaning layback to a small belay stance.
Pitches 3 and 4 involved more entertaining mid-5.10 climbing. We moved quickly, wasting no time at the belays. Momentum and psyche remained high as we climbed through the following three pitches, which all fell somewhere in the 5.11a-5.11b range. Lucas dug deep and pulled off an impressive onsight of the cruxy pitch 6 finger crack.
Yours truly leading pitch 7
One more 5.10 hand crack and a pitch of 4th class scrambling put us on the summit of South Early Winter Spire after about 5 hours of climbing, extremely psyched to tick off the first climb at Washington Pass of the season with each of us onsighting the climb. We took in the view for a few minutes and then started the descent. A group of new climbers was rappelling the South Arete and were kind enough to let us pass them and rappel their ropes, which sped up our descent significantly.
We made it back to the car around 7:00, feeling much better than I expected to after the first climb of the alpine season. Well enough to fit in some 90+ degree sport climbing the following day at Little Si! Overall it was a very encouraging weekend that bodes well for the rest of the summer.
