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Kris Haskins Staff Webpage |
Chair Peak Attempt |
| December 6th, 2009 |
On Saturday night, Evan and I decided to make an attempt on Chair Peak on Sunday morning. We were a little bit worried as Cascade Climbers had a TR about it being in good conditions, so we though that there might be a few other parties. We decided that we would at least go up and check it out, and agreed on meeting at my house at 6:00AM
Dark and early, Evan showed up at my place and we threw my gear in the car. We were off a little bit before 6AM, and I was pretty excited about the prospect of getting out for the first time since my accident. The weather forecast was clear, cold, and windy, but about 20 mins from the summit we drove into driving snow. We were a bit worried about what it would mean for the climb, but since we were so close we decided to go check it out anyway. By the time we got to the parking lot, the snow had eased up a bit so after a little bit of organizing gear, we were off.
Evan at the parking lot
me at the parking lot
As we started on the trail, we ran into a group of three who said they planned on doing the NE butress and the North face. This was the first group we saw heading for the same objective, and it wouldn't be the last. We made pretty good time along the trail to source lake I had negelected to bring trekking poles as one of mine had broken on Hood, so Evan gracioulsy let me use one of his which was a huge help. Once we got to source lake, we saw another couple of parties heading up towards chair. It was starting to look like this was going to be a very crowded day, but neither of us had any expectations about having to do the route so we headed up to the basin. After making good time up to the basin, we say numerous others putting on harnesses and crampons. It wasn't looking good for us, but we geared up (and unfortunatley roped up due to some advice from a guy we met there who said there was no where to rope up at the notch) then climbed up to the notch. Once there, we saw numerous parties ahead of us, and decided that waiting around for a few hours in the cold sounded pretty unpleasant. So, we revered our step down the notch and decided to head back to source lake for a bite to eat.
Lots of parties at Source Lake
A look up at Chair
On the way in, we had spotted a few interesting looking gullies, and decided we could just go tool around on those for a while. On the way out, we spotted an interesting looking pitch of ice that we decided to go check out. The water was flowing pretty well underneath it, but most of the ice looked pretty thick so Evan decided to give it a go. We found a bomber anchor right next to it in the form of a large tree frozen into the ice. After setting up and racking, Evan was off over the first step that had a 15 foot drop into the base of the fall. He immediatley got a decent screw in, and was off up the first ice flow.
Evan heading to the ice
A look down the 15 foot hole
Evan starting off
Evan leading midway up
The second part of the climb was some more moderate terrain, and Evan was able to put in a good cam on the side before heading up to the meat of the climb. About half way up, he dropped a tool and had to down climb a bit to retrieve it. This turned out to be fortunate as he was able to recover some screws that were needed later on. Evan stemmed and worked his way up the heavily featured ice on some pretty marginal pro. I was super impressed by the lead and was anxious to give it a go (on top rope), after he was through. He anchored into a tree about 55m above, and put me on belay. Following this pitch was a treat with great sticks and hooks. The feet were also great as you could find little ice balls and ledges all over the place. About half way up the pitch was the crux with an interesting move to the right around a bulge. I ended up having to place both tools around the bulge in some good ice and then really trust them as I kind of matched my feet and pulled around. There was some more fun ice above that, then on to some crappy sugar snow to reach Evan. We set up a rap anchor around a large tree and did a double rope rap to the bottom. We packed up and headed back out the trail to the car.
First section of the steeper midway ice
Second section of ice
Top section of ice
Looking down the pitch
Evan at the rap anchor
Me at the rap anchor
We didn't end up doing our orginal objective, which was probably wise since I watched a party on the NE butress knock a bunch of crap down the first pitch. Waiting and then going with parties above us may have ended up going poorly. And, even though we missed out on chair, we had a great time on the ice pitch thanks to Evan's impressive lead. All in all, a great day BACK out in the mountains.