[b00]

daniel, citadel, cathedral rock 7/3/09 - 7/5/09

daniel_route.JPG

a great weekend highlighted by our trip to the citadel. i am not sure why i enjoyed the citadel so much, but it definitely, along with primus, was the highlight of my summer so far! thanks to all for a fun weekend and thanks to big steve for his tips. modern had been helping teach climbing for a local club and the idea for this weekend was to take some of his students up an easy glacier and then the next day do a rock climb. for the students to get credit we needed to do the lynch glacier. so instead of heading up the easy southeast ridge of daniel or the daniel glacier, we need to do the lynch. normally the lynch is done earlier in the year as you usually need to walk over a frozen pea soup lake. since pea soup lake was no longer frozen, we had think outside the box. we had three possibilities: 1. find the notch in daniel's north ridge that we could descend to pea soup lake, 2. head up the n ridge and try to find a way down onto the lynch or 3. get to near the summit and descend and then re-ascend the lynch. fortunately we would make option 1 work. after camping at peggy's pond we headed ne up to an easy left to right trending ramp that led to a little 6300' saddle/bench and then proceeded to traverse between 6200' and 6400' on easy snow around the east side of mt daniel until we ascended slightly to the 6560' notch in daniel's ne ridge that gave access to dropping easily down the loose scree and talus to pea soup lake's se shore. we traversed easy snow/talus/scree to the base of the lynch glacier at pea soup lake.

modern and pea soup lake

pea soup anyone?

pano-15.jpg

we roped up and hiked the mostly crevasse-free lynch glacier

ascending the lynch glacier

looking down at pea soup lake from the lynch glacier

ascending the lynch glacier

ascending the lynch glacier

to its top ending up on the ridge between daniels middle and west(true) summit. we hiked up the ridge to the west summit and ascended a short bit of class 2 rock to its top.

a swarm on the summit of daniel (west peak, true summit)

on daniel, t-man nabs his 50th summit

we placed the the summit register dedicated to iron

IMG_8660.jpg

and enjoyed an extended summit break.

leaving daniel's west summit

we then headed over to the middle summit that t-man and hotpantz ascended. i had been up all three summits 5 years ago.

daniel's west(left) and middle(center) summits flanked by glacier and rainier

we continued on and traversed the sw side of the east summit to its south saddle. i talked all but two into scrambling the east summit(pt 7899) from the south which is the summit marked on the map and is also the high point for kittitas county.

leaving daniel's east peak

we then did a descending traverse on snow around the east side of pt 7662 and regrouped on daniels se ridge. here is where we split up. long before the trip started and all during the day i had been working for this moment. most club climb leaders, if any, would not allow a climb to be sidetracked to an extra, possibly scramble summit. but now that we could see our destination and how close it was, modern was all over doing it. t-man was had been up for it from the moment i first suggested it. hotpantz and thimble were now on board too. the rest, maybe a little tired, grabbed a radio and headed back to camp. the citadel had a number of unknowns, approach and the climbing route. there were conflicts in the t/r's about the climbing route. mike collins simply said it was class 3. where others said it was really scary and hard. my thinking was maybe they took two different routes. so my plan to just check it out. we would get up there and try to find the easy route that mike talked about. if we could not find that route and our only choice was something dangerous we would have to bail. i should admit that when we say check it out, that is code for climb the thing. but like a turn-around time, we talk about it, but almost never use it. we looked over at my two ideas for approaching the citadel. the first i had never heard of anyone doing - follow the daniel's east summit's s ridge. it connects right up with the citadel. it looked difficult if not more so in spots so we opted for plan b. plan b (which we had read about in t/r) was to drop down cross over circle lake and its outlet stream on its east side and then ascend the easy snow slopes on circle lake's south side. at this point i must say i am extremely mad at hotpantz. not only did she carry the rope, she kicked 98% of the steps up the snow and went so fast none of us coluld keep up as we headed for upper north side of the citadel. she is a monster! its terrible having a girl whip your butt. just below the citadel's summit block is a big patio. here we dropped our packs, harnessed up and grabbed out the rope. i was about ready to go scramble it, but modern beat me to the punch.

modern prepares to assault the citadel - his route heads up the class 3 rock to the notch/crack/dihedral on the left hand third of the ridge top

we belayed him as he hauled the rope up. we had no pro, so he rapped a few horns with runners and a cordelette and then tied off the rope. the rest of us followed him up one at a time using a prussic on the now fixed line. most of it was class 3 with a move or two of class 4 thrown in. the ridge was a lot easier than the trip reports i had read led me to believe. there was some loose rock, but no one in our party kicked any off. after getting to the top and looking around, the only realistic route to the summit was the route we had taken. maybe some of the previous parties had knocked off most of the loose rock we read about or maybe it is just a difference in perspective. anyway, i was overjoyed finally reaching this summit. the views were better than i had imagined and the relief that we were able to do this safely and easily increased the enjoyment.

the snoqualmie group and hinman from the citadel

looking back at daniel from the citadel

modern signing the citadel summit register

there was a lot of happiness on the summit.

the citadel summit ridge

the snoqualmie group and hinman from the citadel

since modern led up, t-man volunteered to do a belayed downclimb and grab the slings modern placed.

hotpantz smiling at iron on the citadel

we descended back down to circle lake, crossed the outlet heading north until about 6400' and then traversed ene on easy terrain, sometimes following a path and cairns,

modern returning from the citadel. our route up followed the snow on the left skyline

cathedral rock

until we met up with daniel's se ridge route and descended the ridge route back to our camp at peggy's pond. this has got to be the perfect time to do the citadel because the rock is snow free and the approach has great snow. the next day we broke camp and headed back to cathedral pass where we left our overnight gear and head up to do cathedral rock. big steve's notes on cathedral rock were awesome: SW Face on Cathedral is a nice route. I've done it too many times! It's not deserving of its reputation as a bowling alley -- although there is a bowling alley, and it can be avoided on the ascent. Routefinding is fairly straightforward, but here's a few tips: Take the trail to around the high point (i.e., before it starts to descend toward Deep Lake). Leave the trail and work your way up the SE spur. You might find a boot path or it might have some snow on it. There's a relatively tight class 2-3 gully with some trees in it. It's solid easy travel up the gully. (Actually, it might feel like two successive gullies.) Eventually, you will move right via few class 2-3 moves. That will get you to easy ground. Bear left and walk up the easy stuff to where the SE spur meets the steep rock. From there, you'll look down a few feet into the bowling alley gully, full of loose rock and sandy dirt. (Beckey talks about going up the steep rock here, but ignore him). I suggest that you cross the gully to smooth clean slabby class 3 climbing on its immediate left. It's nice clean scrambling for awhile on the slabby stuff until to reach a pretty big flat spot w/boulders at the top of the gully. The steep SW Face will be on your right. The flat spot is a very comfortable spot to hang out and set up your belay. Clean 4th class up the face -- stay right for the first 60 - 75 feet or so (if it's harder than class 3 - 4, you are off route) and then traverse left on a broken ledge (easy) and then up to a notch (the "rappel notch"). You'll see rap runners there. (We rope up only for that steep pitch on the SW Face, but a rookie might want a rope past the notch). From the notch, there's a somewhat exposed class 2-3 stretch to a low angle walk-up gully, then over a small hump, then down a few feet to gain broken rock. The broken rock looks difficult, but it's class 2 max to the summit. Reverse the route back to the notch. A single 60 meter rope works for the rappel. (A 50 meter rope will NOT). We sometimes rap down the bowling alley gully via a tree anchor. Reverse the route down to the trail. i have never met big steve, but after reading his tr's, i had a good feeling he knew what he was talking about. cathedral rock proved to be a classic example of club experience versus climber's experience. many on club climbs tend to just follow the butt in front of them and never gain an understand of the route they are doing. one in our group, b, had been up cathedral rock before at least two or three times on club trips. b led us to the approach gully and got up a ways ahead of the others and nailed me with a small rock :<( i am not a fan of rockfall, especially climber induced. a month and a half ago, i was hit by rockfall and suffered a fractured shoulder. sometimes i can get a little bossy and this was one of those times. i commanded b to stop and wait until we could all group closely together to reduce risks. i had to stop him over ten times. sometimes these club trips do not operate in what i consider a safe manner. it has to do with herd instinct and doing what you remembered worked previously. he (and others) may have been annoyed, but we all got up very safely. we entered big steve's gully.

cathedral rock's main gully and phallic symbol museum

instead of crossing over to the left hand side(like big steve had strongly recommended), b wanted to lead straight up the gully. here again i stepped in. although both b and modern(he figured b had been here before and knew what he was doing) wanted to go straight up this(loose rock and all). i sent someone up the solid left hand side to check out the route while i talked it over with modern. soon we heard that big steve was right and we all continued up the solid left hand side. big steve's info was solid.

scrambling on the side of cathedral rock's gully

the rest of the climb was fun and easy(although some of the students found scrambling unroped up to the summit a little hard).

descending cathedral rock

for the one pitch of rock climbing. we had the first leader place gear and all the others clipped into it. if i do this again, with more than one person, i would fix a line. it was a great first rock lead for one of our group. cathedral rock was another summit i had looked at for years but had never been to. so i got to two new and peaks on this trip thanks to modern and t-man.

rainier viewed from cathedral rock

we enjoyed a nice summit stay

hotpantz about to rappel from cathedral rock (this pics for iron :>)

exiting cathedral rock approach gully

and walked back to the cars. every trip with modern i have such a great time and learn something new. t-man too. thanks guys. and i hate you hotpantz :>) the scatter creek crossing was done in suv's. i would not have wanted to drive my subaru through it. the conditions for the route on daniel and cathedral rock were wonderful. great snow where we wanted it and the rock was dry where we needed it. :>) equipment: harnesses, rope, small alpine rack, helmets, ice axe, crampons(did not need), gps, radios references: https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7969570, https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3017, mike collin's tr on wta, pm from big steve (big thanks!)

[Magellan]

Great stuff b00! God bless you for teaching and leading some students.

[iron]

i'm green with envy hollywood. i was definitely looking forward to daniel et all. maybe in september... hotpantz is pretty dang quick. she doesn't like to admit it, but she's as fast as almost anyone i've seen.

[DIYSteve]

Nice TR and pics, b00. That's a very cool loop route -- including the Lynch in a trip to Daniel ups the adventure factor.

[yukon222]

[Dayhike Mike]

As always, a great TR, b00! Glad to see Hotpantz hasn't been left home alone during Iron's recuperation. And even cooler to see a nice new register placed on Daniel in honor of our fallen comrade ('tip of the hat to tmatlack ) -- can't wait til he's recovered and can go up and sign his own register.

[iron]

[Schmidt Alti-Dude]

Great TR - love the panos. I'll second yukon on no fair using ropes - it's just soo much more exciting without them .

[Jason Hummel]

Once my brother was hit by a number of large rocks on the Citidel (no ropes). We used to scramble up it whenever we stayed at Circle. Fun place. Thanks for the report. I love the area.

[the Zachster]

Our Mountaineer party almost got wiped out by a rockfall/slide in the "bowling alley" many years ago. Glad you found a better route and had such a great trip. I love your panos!