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Fletcher Member
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 1870 | TRs | Pics Location: kirkland |
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Fletcher
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Thu Jul 07, 2016 9:24 pm
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John and I climbed Sherpa in a long day yesterday. We had gotten rained out of an attempt back in 2013, then I was spooked off the east ridge with Heather and Mike back in May by fresh snow and wet lichen. John and I met at the barricade on Teanaway Road ~2 miles before Esmerelda TH Tuesday night for a single day push Wednesday. We got up at 5 and were hiking down the closed portion of the road at 5:45.
first light on Esmerelda East
We made good time up to Longs Pass, down to Ingalls Creek and then down to the junction with the Turnpike Creek Trail. I don't recall what time it was when we turned up the climber's trail through the meadow then forested slopes below the Stuart/Sherpa Col.
zoom of Sherpa summit as seen from just above Ingalls Creek Trail
The route is straightforward from Ingalls Creek, up and over the rib, and into the basin below Sherpa. Not much snow remaining in the basin, which would have aided our ascent.
approach, just before hopping over the rib Sherpa! Sherpa Peak 7-6-16
After realizing that our crampons and gaiters weren't needed, we ditched them on a rock around 7600 and made our way up to the base of the West Ridge. Around 11:30, we were roped up and John was leading the first pitch.
Sherpa Peak 7-6-16 nearing the base of the West Ridge John at the bottom of the first pitch
Once John got to the first rappel anchors, he brought me up. Then we got a bit confused about which way we were supposed to go. Neither of us had brought a decent route description for the west ridge. Big mistake! I belayed John from the rap station as he explored options above but came to a spot that was extremely committing. Not sure if this was it or not, we didn't think it was a good idea to proceed (since getting home and checking it out, we think this was the way to go). I suggested that we bail off the west ridge and go climb the east. I had just been there this spring and knew much of the route well. John agreed as long as we didn't have to lose too much elevation. I remembered reading that a key gully climber's left of a tall, prominent black pillar leads to a high traverse below Sherpa's south side.
John rappelling off the west ridge
Luckily, we really nailed this traverse and made great time to the east ridge. We cairned the route to avoid confusion on the return. Having lost a ton of time on our west ridge attempt, we arrived at the base of the chockstone gully that is mentioned in other TRs around 3:30. We knew we would get out late, but we still had time to summit!
general terrain on the south side traverse chockstone gully John ascending toward chockstone gully
We both free-climbed the chockstone gully with relative ease. Much easier than the last time I was here now that it was snow-free. We scrambled over a minor rib and arrived at the base of the rightward slanting 4th class gully/chimney feature. We both free-climbed this as well. Now I was where I turned around in May. We put on rock shoes and roped up here.
4th class stanting gully/chimney thing John climbing
There are two variations that get you to the summit area from here, puzzlr's left option and Matt's right option. We chose puzzlr's way because it avoids some very exposed and scary moves needed to get onto Matt's lower traverse route. John lead this next 4th/low 5th gully, brought me up, and it was just a short scramble to Sherpa's iconic Balanced Rock.
4th/low 5th mini-pitch to the Balanced Rock John below the Balanced Rock Enchantments
We had to poke our heads around for a few seconds to locate the correct way to drop down onto the class 2 ledge that crosses over to the summit access gully. The moves are easy, but the exposure is extreme. We protected this short section.
Sherpa summit from The Balanced Rock traverse to summit access gully looking back across the ledge traverse
John kept me on belay as I crossed the ledge to make sure it all went. Its all easy class 2 but, like the rest of the upper route on Sherpa, it is exposed. I stopped at the base of the summit access gully, and brought John over. Almost there!
at the base of the summit access gully upper summit access gully
John once again lead this portion and anchored into the rappel station at the top then belayed me up. Like other parties have reported, you must belay one another over to the summit and back from there, as there is nowhere to anchor into on the summit proper. The slabs leading to the summit definitely provide the pucker affect! From what I thought was the summit, I was surprised to see the register on a small depression in the rock even further out toward the Balanced Rock. Although there were some nerve-wracking moves to be made to get over to it, I went over there and signed the register. Wish I had more time to read through past entries!
slabs to the summit Sherpa Register our register entry Balanced Rock from the summit a little nervous for the Sherpa summitshot John's belay
John brought me back to the anchor and I belayed him over to the summit.
John on Sherpa summit
At this point, it was 5:30 and we figured it was time to get the hell off this rock! We rapped the summit access gully and scrambled across the class 2 ledge. Then we set up a belay and John lead the super exposed moves back up to the base of the Balanced Rock.
John rapping summit access gully back at the class 2 traverse Balanced Rock again easy but super exposed moves to the Balanced Rock Rainier
We scrambled back over to the top of the next rap station and rappelled down to where we had ditched our boots. From here, we spotted 2 climbers coming down Stuart.
climbers descending Stuart John throws the rope getting off Sherpa Sherpa Peak 7-6-16
We put our boots back on, rapped the 4th class slanting gully/chimney thing, and hiked over to the top of the chockstone gully. There was a goat hanging out there.
John and goat goat paying no mind to us.
We also rapped the chockstone gully, and began our traverse back along Sherpa's south side to our gear cache in the basin. During our traverse, we made a 5th and final rappel off of a small tree to avoid down climbing a dirty gully filled with large loose rocks that we had climbed up.
2 labels end of traverse back to the basin, note the big black pillar on the left, to the right of this pillar is the key class 3 gully Teanaway Peaks in the evening
We took a food break at the gear cache, packed up, and began our descent back to Ingalls Creek, utilizing snow when it was present. We got back to Ingalls Creek around 9.
Balanced Rock alpenglow last look back
The slog back up to Longs Pass took less than an hour, but the slog back down was a bit painful. The last ~2 miles of road dragged on and on. We got back to the car at 12:15. Feels great to finally get this much wanted peak!
~16 miles
-8,666 feet in gain (per John's GPS)
~18.5 hours car to car (although we lost 3+ hours on our failed west ridge attempt)
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cartman Member
Joined: 20 Feb 2007 Posts: 2800 | TRs | Pics Location: Fremont |
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cartman
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Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:07 pm
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Very strong day and good decision making. Well done!
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ONELUV1 Member
Joined: 24 Aug 2008 Posts: 292 | TRs | Pics Location: On the HILL |
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ONELUV1
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Thu Jul 07, 2016 10:38 pm
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Distel32 Member
Joined: 03 Jun 2014 Posts: 961 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, WA |
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Distel32
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Fri Jul 08, 2016 6:41 am
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jcocci Member
Joined: 16 Jul 2009 Posts: 483 | TRs | Pics Location: Longmont, CO |
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jcocci
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Fri Jul 08, 2016 2:06 pm
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Damn that was a much longer day than planned. Still can't believe neither of us brought the route description. Oh well.
When fletcher first suggested that we head down and go the east ridge I thought he was crazy and I was thinking no f'ing way. However, neither of us wanted to come back for this again if we didn't have to. So I was in and all thoughts of getting back to the car at a decent hour were out the window.
Fletcher pretty much summed up the route and details. We did get the rope stuck on one of the rappels. Luckily it was in a spot that was easy to climb back up and we have to leave a cam behind that was stuck and wouldn't budge. Maybe someone will be able to get it out and get some booty.
Here's a few more photos.
Glad to have this one of the list. Even though not as planned it was a great day and climb.
Rainier from Longs Pass From the bottom of the meadow. Fletcher heading up the meadow Iron and Teanaway Peak in the distance Approaching the basin Fletcher eyeing the route to the base. Making our way up. Scouting the traverse route to the east ridge. To find our way back Up the loose gully. On the east ridge More east ridge More east ridge. Argonaut in the background Balanced Rock Enchantment Peaks Fletcher on the summit Fletcher on the summit Hello goat Sunsetting on Teanaway peaks
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contour5 Member
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 2962 | TRs | Pics
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contour5
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Fri Jul 08, 2016 8:42 pm
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Cool trip report; nicely documented. Thanxfer postin!
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Magellan Brutally Handsome
Joined: 26 Jul 2006 Posts: 13116 | TRs | Pics Location: Inexorable descent |
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Magellan
Brutally Handsome
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Fri Jul 08, 2016 8:44 pm
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Sounds long and tough.
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Matt Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 4307 | TRs | Pics Location: Shoreline |
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Matt
Tea, Earl Grey, Hot
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Fri Jul 08, 2016 9:19 pm
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Glad you persevered and were able to make it. Also agree that's an awfully long day.
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
“As beacons mountains burned at evening.” J.R.R. Tolkien
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7216 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Fri Jul 08, 2016 9:57 pm
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Congrats. A classic central cascades peak.
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