I've wanted to climb East Willman's Spire ever since I saw the picture in the Beckey guide.  When Mark called to ask me if I wanted to climb Cadet Peak I said let's do the spire instead.
 

Sunrise in Seattle*

The dirt road to the Monte Christo ghost town is gated so we brought out mountain bikes to ride up and start hiking from there.  The plan was to take the 76 Creek approach to the Spires.
 
 

Biking up the road to the old Monte Christo town site.
 

One of the few remaining buildings.
 
 

The Royal Hotel isn't what it used to be.  Or is it?
 
 

At the entrance to an old mine.
 

While the approach up 76 Creek was relatively straightforward, the climb towards the Spires was enigmatic and hazardous.  We climbed one gully but were blocked by a waterfall.  Then we climbed one gully over.  It was the right route but it was full of teetering loose rock.  Towards the top the rock was so rotten you could pull chunks off with your hand.  When it looked like it was getting worse rather than better we decided to turn around.  Descending was even worse.  If you even looked at at rock too long it started rolling down and setting off a small rock slide.  We down climbed close together to avoid hitting each other with rocks.  We stopped at a large pillar called the Count of Monte Christo for snacks.  People used to mine up here.  It was a large scale operation with a system of wide slung cables to carry buckets of rock down to the concentrator in the town.  The last mining stopped in 1907.  While the climb left a lot to be desired the sense of history was awesome.
 

The gully a little below where we turned around.
 
 

The "Count of Monte Christo".  There were massive rusted cables and other remnants of mining equipment lying around.
 

When we got back to the car we met a couple guys who had been trying to climb Sloan Peak but turned back for lack of visibility I think.  When we told them of our adventures for the day they nodded in agreement.  It turned out they had tried to do the same approach a year or so earlier, continuing up the gully but turning around higher up.  Apparently most people going for the spire approach it from the Glacier Basin side.
 
 

* This photograph was not actually shot the morning of the climb.  It was shot another morning from my apartment while sipping tea before going to work.  Here at Greg's Web Page we want you to enjoy the best outdoor photography.  From time to time we may intersperse other photographs for dramatic effect because we feel it more fully conveys the story we are trying to tell.  We may also use staged or doctored photographs, or even tie wild animals together with fishing line so we can get really cool fight scenes.