Guye Peak - Improbable Traverse

June 2008

Description by Evan Jewett

Yesterday (and a little bit of today), Kris, Obadiah, and I climbed the improbable traverse route on the west face of Guye Peak, visible from I-90 above Snoqualmie pass.

Our day started with a call from Brian as he and the group going to the Teenaway area were driving over the pass. He said it was raining lightly and socked in with clouds. Despite the news, we decided to head up to the pass and see what the conditions were like and to make our decision then. We got up to the Alpental area around 10:30 to find it very cloudy but dry-ish. The face was shrouded in cloud so we headed up the road and began the approach.

The first obstacle was clearly avoiding the massive amount of dog shit at the edge of the road leading to the steep talus and scree slope below the face. This done, we scrambled our way up the talus to the base of a small snow cone, which Obadiah (the only one with boots) kicked steps up, while using his nut tool as a self-belay. We were still pretty much unable to see the face, but could see enough lower down to determine that we were more or less in the right place. It was around 11:00, and as the weather was improving we decided to start climbing. Obadiah lead all day, and, while on the face, we used half-ropes.

The first 'pitch' is one that I think is normally climbed unroped as a difficult-to-protect 4th class pitch. As we weren't sure exactly where on the face we were starting, since none of the route descriptions we had read mentioned a snow cone at the base, and because the rock was still pretty wet and slippery, Obadiah protected it as well as he could, with about 4 pieces of gear for the 60 meters of rope. He found a stance and Kris and I followed up the slippery and very unconsolidated rock and dirt/grass. We knew from the route topo that we had to head up and left to find Lunch Ledge, the start of the actual traverse pitches, so Obadiah continued upward. Right as he started the second pitch he slipped on the dirt and fell a few feet until I caught him on the belay. He later said this fall eroded his confidence in his feet for the remainder of the day, which isn't so great when you're getting ready to do a long traverse pitch.

The second pitch though was uneventful, the most difficult aspect avoiding the still large amount of broken rock. We arrived below a short (maybe 40 foot) dihedral with an offwidth crack on the left up which we decided to go. We could see a couple overhangs above the pitch that looked like they could be lunch ledge, and I spotted with my binoculars two of the fixed pins on the traverse pitch we knew would be there, at about the height of the top of the dihedral. Obadiah lead up this, laybacking in several places, for one of the best pitches of actual climbing of the day.

For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, I started getting very sketched out about the entire climb and the idea of climbing while watching Obadiah lead this pitch, and began questioning what I was doing there and if I ever wanted to do it again. Nevertheless, I thought we should continue, so followed. There was a reasonably large and very sharp looking loose flake that was a particularly inviting hand and foothold to avoid. This avoided, there were some (in retrospect) very good face-climbing moves, as I avoided the laybacking. I think we agreed the pitch was probably 5.8/5.9, and a definite variation, as we discovered Lunch Ledge was about 20 feet to our left and below us when we topped out under a small and cramped roof for our second hanging belay in as many.

From here Obadiah began leading the traverse pitch to the right. There were I think 3 fixed pitons for some protection, and a couple spots for our two C3s. The hardest part about this pitch was probably communicating with Obadiah over the roar of the I-90 traffic, which increased steadily as we gained height. I followed without too much difficulty. There was one move that seemed very difficult without the use of a 'tall-person hold.' I didn't like to think much about what I would have done there if I hadn't been able to reach it. The end of the pitch required some scary and very exposed but not difficult downclimbing to reach the belay. Overall it was a fun pitch.

Above the belay was the high angle 4th class ramp, which we simulclimbed with limited protection. It was actually quite neat looking and easy, although at the top it became a little sketchier with large amounts of loose rock and dirt. This pitch complete, we thought we had finished the technical climbing, and packed up ropes, harnesses and rock shoes, and began heading up the obvious trail to the top. It was around 4 PM. Unfortunately we had forgotten the actual route topo, so we weren't entirely sure where to go. We quickly got to a section with another fixed pin that, after a couple abortive attempts, we decided should be protected and taken 5th class. After a change of shoes, Obadiah got up it and Kris and I followed, not without some slipping. We then continued up the grassy 3rd class terrain leading to the summit, and decided that, as we were already roped up, we would simulclimb this as well on shortened ropes.

Eventually we reached another snowfield and lost any semblance of a trail. We tried several directions with no success, and eventually realized our best bet would be to just climb directly over the top of the short cliff ahead of us. We remembered reading something about a possible final 5th class pitch to the summit, but thought it was supposed to be on the traverse from the summit to the North (?) summit. Nevertheless, we couldn't see any other way around, so began up, Obadiah leading, followed by Kris then myself. It turned out to be mostly easy fun climbing which, if it weren't getting late (it was probably somewhere around 6-7 now), we would have enjoyed more. We topped out and realized we were atop the summit, rather accidentally, as we had the entire time been attempting to find the hiker's trail down the north side. We continued simulclimbing several more pitches over the ridge between the summits and finally got to the low angled snowfield that signaled we had reached the north side. We knew we were to descend north and then west, although there was obviously not going to be a trail.

By now it was probably about 8:30 or 9, as we had some beautiful views of the sun setting over Chair Peak. We started plunge-stepping down the snow, hopeful this would take us to the bottom. Unfortunately it didn't. We eventually cliffed out to the south and kept going farther north until we eventually reach a steep rock-gully down which a waterfall was streaming. By now it virtually completely dark, and we had 2 headlamps between the three of us. The snow had long since disappeared and we were sliding down steep terrain using trees as self-belays. Due to the lack of a headlamp, it became very difficult for Kris to see and I did not feel at all safe. After some discussion we decided to start rappelling from trees on the south edge of the gully. Obadiah really earned his stripes here, as he began blindly rappelling down the gully, hopeful that as he reached the end of the rope he would be able to reach another tree suitable for an anchor. Fortunately he did each time and we we always able to retrieve the rope.

At this point, after several hours of very nervous up and downclimbing on my part, I was mostly just feeling an almost overwhelming urge to be anywhere but where I was, as we could, through the intermittent low fog in the Alpental valley, see the lights of the parking lot and 76 (I counted during one belay) buildings below, which seemed like a beacon I wanted very much to reach but could not. Fortunately, patience reigned supreme and we continued downward, through 4 rappels until we reached the snow beneath the gully. Since it was now around 11:30 or so, the snow had gotten a bit harder and it was steeper than previously, so Obadiah again kicked steps, this time down, and Kris and I followed. Kris said this was the most harrowing part of the day for him, as he had essentially to downclimb the steps by feel and the occasional directions from Obadiah, since he didn't have a light, and he could hear me every once in a while breaking a step and start sliding directly above him.

Eventually the angle lessened enough that we could start downclimbing next to the snow and then plunge stepping. After another half hour of walking through the continuously descending snow and bushwhacking slide alder we crossed a snowbridge over a stream and found ourselves in someone's back yard. We got to the road right at 1 AM.

Despite the long day, I don't think anything in particular went wrong. We didn't have the route topo, but in retrospect, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have really helped. We read it in the car and it didn't seem especially informative about the descent. I would say the biggest problem was that we went too early in the season and the trail down was obscured by snow. We definitely got very lucky with the weather, as there wasn't a drop of rain, it cleared up pretty well as the day progressed, and it didn't get that cold once dark. Obadiah and Kris did an excellent job of remaining calm and collected. I wish I could say the same for myself.

There was actually a lot of really good climbing. Some of the pitches we simulclimbed were definitely low 5th, but fun. That being said, I wouldn't recommend the route, as it's pretty loose and I'm not sure the couple good pitches make up for the rest, but maybe my opinion would be different if we hadnt taken twice as long on the descent as we did the ascent.