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bubblehead Member
Joined: 17 May 2021 Posts: 8 | TRs | Pics
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Looks like it's finally my turn to write up a trip report! Selena, Trace and I got Overcoat and Little Big Chief this weekend. The original plan was to go for Chimney Rock north face, but we burned most of our tat getting down off of Overcoat. LBC was not a bad consolation prize, though.
We met up at the Mailbox parking area at 0530. We got a good chuckle about the five cars that were already in the lot. Bikes and packs were loaded into the bed of my truck, and soon we were headed down the middle fork road to the Dutch Miller Gap trailhead.
Two hours of biking up the old road led us to Hardscrabble horse camp, and the start of our hiking. Boy, was it hot and smokey.
some local wildlife
We had all day to get to high camp, so we took it nice and slow
Camp Pedro Wild rock formations on Iron Cap Giant's chair
Camp Pedro was our last break spot before heading off trail. We found easy bushwhacking through blueberry and huckleberry bushes. Crossing the Middle Fork is trivial, as there aren't many drainages that far in. There is a steep, brushy rib just east of the waterfall that leads up to what should be called the Valley of the Chiefs.
Pleasant bushwhacking Large Boulders LBC and Summit Chief dominate this spectacular valley
Lots of rocky terrain took us to the large snowfield, and 6140 pass.
Little Big Chief Me on some snow Middle Chief Water break/time to get the cramps on Selena working up the snow Trace at 6140 pass with Chimney Rock
From there, we started a rising traverse towards the crux of the approach. The ledges Matt aptly termed "unpleasant". We later saw in the register that Mark and Seth found a pair of underpants at the start of this section and coined it the "underpants ledge." I'd love to see that on a map someday We scrambled up about 15' on solid rock to the upper ledge, then down and across on some compact dirt and scree.
The traverse The upper ledge was exposed, but pretty easy. The lower ledge looked horrendous from both sides.
Now that we had that behind us, a short bit of scrambling lead to high camp and the end of a long first day. Views were breathtaking.
Lovely little water source before camp Looking over the Overcoat Glacier North Peak of Chimney Rock Finger of Fate on the left and Chimney Rock Sunset over high camp Chimney and Overcoat
After a long, windy, buggy, restless night (at least Selena slept well), we began day 2. A short scramble down from the tarn and we were on the glacier. Interestingly, the crevasses were more like vertical drainages. Water was flowing down through every one we passed. There were moulins all over the glacier as well, these hazards were easily avoidable.
Moulins Selena and the Overcoat Glacier
We were at the base of the East Face in under an hour. The only beta we had on this route was Beckey's great description that basically says climb to the summit. Gotta love it. Trace and I swung leads, I had pitches 1 and 3, he had 2 and 4.
Setting up the first belay The climbing is runout, but easy enough. Me leading P1.
Our rack was small to medium nuts, single cams 0-0.75, and an assortment of slings. I would've liked to have a #1 where I set up the belay at the top of P1, so I had to stack two nuts to make this work. Trace brought his rock shoes and ended up completely regretting it, as there is some compact dirt and heather on the route which made it nice and slippery for him. Selena and I climbed in approach shoes and had no problems. A few hours of climbing had us standing on the summit with big smiles on our faces and enjoying the beautiful views. The smoke was mostly blown back from whence it came, which was a very welcomed sight.
Chimney Rock Very intimidating New lake forming Tarn Camp from high above Overcoat Lake Big snow without the snow North Peak Chimney rock Summit Chief Glacier Seemed like a good spot to stand Hibox, Lemah, Chikamin, Huckleberry, Thomson, other snoqualmie peaks Crawford lake(I think) SC with Stuart to the east Summit smiles
The next part was getting down. We had ditched our snow gear at the base of the climb, so that meant we couldn't go down via the standard NE snow finger route. We had tat for about 5 rap anchors, but would that be enough? Luckily, the answer was yes. 3 hours of playing "find the least bad rap anchor" had us back at our gear, smiles still intact. I think it was about 7 raps to get all the way back down.
The route
Back on to the glacier for a short time and then to camp. We packed up and headed down to camp Pedro for the evening. The ledge was much less unpleasant on the way up.
Back at our gear Descending the glacier Back down into the Valley of the Chiefs Glacial remnant below Middle Chief Summit Chief with less smoke LBC Close up. That face is pretty incredible. Clear skies
Day 3 started like this...
What a sight to wake up to
We were on the trail to Dutch Miller Gap by 0800, and to the gap in no time at all.
Almost at the gap
We began scrambling up through the cliffs to get to the large basin above. On the way, we found a neat cave with a key hole in the back of it. Totally unnecessary, but Trace and I thought it would be fun to squeeze up through this.
The cave with the key hole The basin Selena and I ascending above the basin Beckey's 3rd class NE face route... sure. We did the north ridge variation.
It was pretty obvious where we needed to go to get to the north ridge. Through the basin, past a waterfall and a fun 3rd class scramble to gain the ridge. There was an easier way to get on the ridge that we found on the way down if you stay to the east a bit longer instead of going straight up. On the ridge, an exposed downsloping slab lead to the infamous notch. Talk about exposed! Wish I took a good photo of it, but alas, I didn't. The moves look way harder than they actually are, but the step across is AIRY. I lead across and brought Trace and Selena over.
Heading over to the notch Waptus Camp Pedro Malachite, Baring, Gunn and friends Natural cairn. Sloan and friends beyond The notch is directly below me to the left. Bears Breast looking foreboding beyond Action shot
From the notch it was heather and rock hopping in a rising traverse over to the area below the summit ridge. The heather ledges up there are nice and flat, which was very comforting. We began to look for the route to the summit. Beckey says the scramble is at the south end of a snowfield directly below the summit. We picked the route that matched this description (and looked climbable), but we were all in agreement that there were some 5th class moves in there. Beckey 3rd class strikes again To be fair, this may not have been the right route. This pitch was probably about 100' and we solo'd it. Above was some wet heather that lead to the 4th class summit block, which was trivial compared to what we had just come up.
Ramps heading up Summit ridge. Route up continued left. Quick summit selfie
We tagged the summit and retreated, as we were mentally pretty worked by then. There was a large boulder above the pitch, so we slung it and rapped off. It almost got us back down, so we just downclimbed from there as it was easier terrain down low.
Bears Breast Williams Lake, Hinman, Daniel Middle and Summit Chief Stuart and Waptus
Looking back up the route, the rope is draped over the notch.
The way down remained adventurous for longer than we bargained for, as we chose to try out the direct descent to the trail as opposed to the basin that we had come up. It looked like it would go from above
Initially, it was easy terrain for awhile before we ran into some trees above cliffs. I had this funny feeling that we would be alright if we just kept trying to work our way down, so that's what we did. I veggie belayed my way down to the lowest trees and popped out on a nice bench in the waterfall. I peeked over and it looked like I could get a bit further, as Trace was asking if we should find a tree to start rapping off of. I gave the downclimb a chance and it just kept looking like it would work. Down we scrambled, somehow picking our way down the most improbable terrain. We couldn't believe that we had just strung that whole descent together. Trace said we should call it "Rap Refusal." I guess all of that sketch on the upper mountain had it's benefits! Sketch tolerance +1 that day.
Here's our improbable line down Selena below our descent route
We made our way back down to camp Pedro, packed up camp, and blasted back down to Hardscrabble in less than 2 hours. From there, bikes got us all back to my truck in an hour. As we were driving down the less than stellar middle fork road, it began to drizzle. Luck was on our side for this totally epic adventure, no doubt in my mind.
Thank you, Trace and Selena, for being awesome people to climb with. You made this trip all the more rad.
We clocked in around 45 miles and 10K vert, my biggest trip yet.
zimmertr, rstoddard24, Pef, mosey, Slim, RichP awilsondc, Bluebird, Tom
zimmertr, rstoddard24, Pef, mosey, Slim, RichP awilsondc, Bluebird, Tom
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Tom Admin
Joined: 15 Dec 2001 Posts: 17851 | TRs | Pics
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Tom
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Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:59 pm
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Awesome report and welcome to the site (even if you've just been lurking). Brings back some great memories!
bubblehead
bubblehead
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neek Member
Joined: 12 Sep 2011 Posts: 2336 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle, WA |
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neek
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Wed Aug 18, 2021 2:18 pm
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Very nice. Conditions look way more serious than when we did it early season.
bubblehead
bubblehead
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Bluebird suffering optional
Joined: 22 Jan 2014 Posts: 199 | TRs | Pics Location: United States |
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Bluebird
suffering optional
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Wed Aug 18, 2021 4:12 pm
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Thanks for the trip report! I'll try to add a few of my favorite photos soon. It was such a good trip, burly and interesting... just how I like my mountains
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awilsondc Member
Joined: 03 Apr 2016 Posts: 1324 | TRs | Pics
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bubblehead
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rstoddard24 BBQWingz
Joined: 30 Dec 2016 Posts: 74 | TRs | Pics
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thanks for the TR!
what would y’all rate the tech difficulty of Overcoat E Face? (low 5th, 5.x ...?)
Also any idea what the N Ridge of Chimney rock goes at? That final step before the summit area looks difficult
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Backpacker Joe Blind Hiker
Joined: 16 Dec 2001 Posts: 23956 | TRs | Pics Location: Cle Elum |
Nice work guys. Great pics.
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide."
— Abraham Lincoln
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hapemask Member
Joined: 17 May 2021 Posts: 29 | TRs | Pics
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hapemask
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Thu Aug 19, 2021 6:52 pm
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Awesome shots! I was on Hibox 8/15 admiring the view in your direction.
bubblehead
bubblehead
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7220 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Thu Aug 19, 2021 7:49 pm
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It's great to see a report of a different and rare route on Overcoat. And the alternate route down Little Big Chief?
I hope "Underpants Ledge" sticks
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bubblehead Member
Joined: 17 May 2021 Posts: 8 | TRs | Pics
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rstoddard24 wrote: | what would y’all rate the tech difficulty of Overcoat E Face? (low 5th, 5.x ...?)
Also any idea what the N Ridge of Chimney rock goes at? That final step before the summit area looks difficult |
Overcoat E Face was low 5th, mostly 3rd and 4th. Pretty run-out, 2-3 pieces of pro per pitch and belays were tricky to set up for the first 2 pitches. Lots of tiptoeing over looseness, as the route is a funnel for rockfall, but the underlying rock is solid and very enjoyable to climb on!
N Face of Chimey supposedly goes at 5.4. Check our GB's comment on Fletcher's Chimney Rock post. It's what inspired us to do this trip!
rstoddard24
rstoddard24
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