[Jamin Smitchger]

At class 5.2, Twin Peaks is the only technical summit in the Wallowas. Only one summit actually remains. The other collapsed down the side of the mountain in the early 1900’s. The spire of Twin Peaks is composed of basalt, which is harder than the broken underlying rock, but like much of the rock in the Wallowas, it is crumbling. A subpeak is currently slightly undercut, and it will probably fall down the mountain in the near geologic future. The rock is solid in some places and very loose in others, which makes this peak difficult to protect and at a high risk from rockfall. I decided to give Twin Peaks a try this past Saturday because it looked like an interesting summit. Because I was going solo, I only planned to attempt the summit if I felt comfortable doing the rock. I reached the Hurricane Creek Trailhead at about 9am after driving 3 hours. About a quarter mile up the Hurricane Creek Trail, I took the fork to the right up toward Falls Creek. I quickly began to sweat profusely so I ended up completing the climb in my long johns. No big deal since I didn’t see anyone on the trail the entire day. I reached the mine, a shallow drift at about 7600 feet, about 2.5 hours later. From that point the trail was completely covered in snow. I began an ascending traverse through scree and stunted trees toward a rocky 40-45 degree snowfield leading up toward the summit ridge. Along the way, I saw a small ice avalanche down an ice shute, and I was surprised to see that there was still a slowly decomposing pitch of about 100 feet of WI4. I will definitely try to spearhead an expedition to this area’s ice next winter.

100 foot pitch of rotten WI4 in upper right center of photo

ice

It was slow going once I reached the snowfield, and I had to negotiate my way around many areas of rock. At the top of the snowfield there was a level area at about 8900 feet, and I took a break on a grassy bench. After that quick break, I made a beeline to the summit ridge. After a quick look at the summit, I decided that it was doable. I took off my plastics, put on my rock shoes, and started climbing up the south ridge. The south ridge is knife-edged and very exposed. After a couple of scary moves, I was on top of the summit of Twin Peaks, which, at 9673 feet, is the 11th highest mountain in Oregon. This peak is definitely 5.2, and although I have dealt with worse rock before, the rock is still bad. Views were about 75 miles east toward the Gospel Hump Wilderness area and about 5500 vertical feet down to Joseph, Oregon.

Frances Lake and the Wallowas

Icy northeast face of twin peaks

Ascent Route

the other summit

Joseph, Oregon one mile below

The summit register / ammo tin was a bit soaked, but it was still interesting reading. There was a history of a group called the Mountaineer Knights as well as other interesting articles. It appeared that there was only one party that summited last year. I did not sign the register because it was wet. After taking in the views, my thoughts turned to getting down. I had brought a 50 meter rope and all my rock gear with me on this climb so I could rappel from the summit block. However, I could not find a secure place to put any of the 20 odd stoppers that I had brought with me. The rock was so broken that no piece of pro seemed to be dependable. It seemed like the only way to set up a solid anchor was to wrap a piece of webbing around the summit block. I had brought a piece of webbing about 15-20 feet long, which fit around the loose boulders on the summit nicely. The rap down was uneventful.

the summit

Frances Lake and the Wallowas

The glissade down the mountain was rather exciting. Snow conditions were very slick, and it was difficult to stop on slopes that were around than 45 degrees. There were so many boulders and small cliffs in the glissade path that it made things very interesting. Once I reached the mine, it was an easy walk down to the trailhead.

Ascent and descent route is on right.