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There were several options for a climb this weekend but we finally settled on
the West Face of Sloan Peak. Sloan Peak's west face ended up involving all
sorts of travel, a really diversified and fun climb! The trip involved a
shorter approach than the standard route but a harder technical climb. I
left my house at 4:40 and met Michael at his house at 5. We decided to
take his car and wisely so since the road up to the Bedal Creek trailhead is
pretty bumpy (for Washington). I got my first view of Vesper Peak through
the trees along the way - looks great! We headed out around 7:30 in the
morning. The trail was reputed to be brushy. It was, but at least
there was a trail. So, it was easy to plow through the brush but having
hundreds upon thousands of leaves (mostly rasberries) brushing against us left
us quite soaked. The trail went in and out of no less than nine brushy
patches, the longest and thickest being the third. We passed a small trail
branching off to the right, apparently the old trail that headed down to the
creek, and we continued straight on. The trail died and we suspected that
perhaps we'd missed another turnoff. Michael went back down the trail and
I continued up through trailless terrain looking for a spot that the trail
perhaps picked up. I spotted what looked like was a potential trail about
fifty feet above and sure enough it was. We were back on our way.
The west face comes into view The rest of the trail was quite straightforward though in a couple of sections we were forced to become penitent men and crawl our way under some fallen trees. Shortly after, we followed a tributary streambed upstream for a while then turned right back into old forest and then into a lovely but waterless Bedal Basin underneath the huge west face of Sloan Peak. We never found the ruins of the cabin that the old timers say is still up here. We weren't sure exactly where the route was initially. I thought the bleached section looked good but it turned out this section of the face was super smooth and steep. Maybe it's an aid climb? We then settled on a rib coming off the face to the right. The indented section of the face to the right of the rib had clouds collected in it. We then headed up talus and gullies to reach the ridge. Again, this section was much longer and tedious than it looked. I headed off in a gully on the right (Michael continued straight) hoping that easy ledges would lead me to higher ground. This turned out to be a big mistake. I ended up making delicate moves on loose, sloping ledges before arriving at a loose and very steep wall. No way I was trying that alone. I decided to take the time hit in favor of safety and climb back down and head up Michaels way. Even when I got back into the original gully, it still took forever to get up on the ridge.
Michael on the climb At about 11:30, we began the climb. Michael headed up easy 3rd class with an occasional 4th and 5th class move. We trended right then back left, which signified the more difficult climbing. The face is quite steep and the exposure was really nice. Michael began making his way up one of the cruxes, a steep 40-foot dihedral. After belaying him up, I headed up as well. I arrived at the base of a smooth wall and began starting up. I soon realized that Michael must not have come this way, the next moves would be at least 5.10 so I decided to back down and get into the chimney on the left. I had to make an exposed step to get into the chimney, which was exposed itself. Then I realized my beloved bulky camera was making this climb too hard! My bulky camera case sits on the front of my pack and really hinders climbing because I can't press my hips into the walls. Michael preferred if I did not hang on the rope to adjust my case so I made a little more difficult moves and then popped up to the belay. It was my turn to lead out. The next pitch was comfortable 5th class with fun air behind and below us. I reeled Michael in at another ledge then headed up a more exciting pitch featuring a vertical 5.7 step to get to a narrow ledge leading off to the right. I was able to protect it nicely with a cinched sling around a rare rock horn. The traverse was fun, one section being a hand traverse on a bomber ledge with very little for feet. I then turned left and up and arrived at a rocky ledge and belayed Michael up.
At the top of the technical climbing At this point, we could either go left or right. Right looked a little easier but left looked potentially more fun. Michael headed left. He ended up on a nice solid ridge (there was some black lichen on it). Following, I found the ridge the most fun part of the climb. The climbing was easy (I think we rated it 5.4) and was nicely exposed! At this point, we unroped and scrambled up easy 3rd class terrain. We intersected a nice trail, obviously the Cork Screw Trail (the standard route). We took a short break and changed into boots. Michael, getting ready faster than me, headed east on the trail to get a view from the ridge above and then reported that we needed to head in the opposite direction, which obviously led to the summit. The remainder of the climb reminded me some of Mount Pugh, though it the scrambling is easier there. Along the way to the summit, we entered thicker clouds which swirled around us. We still had good views although there were many sites blocked from. Bah, no matter! The clouds made for the distinct Cascades alpine feel. Looking down to the Sloan Glacier was awesome.
On the summit We headed down after maybe 40 minutes on the summit. We needed to descend the shelves on the southern side of the peak to get to a small glacier. That would then lead us to a ridge which we would cross into a basin where we would descend to a second ridge above slopes that would lead us back to Bedal Basin. We found a rappel station about 50 feet below the trail that led us down to the lower shelf on the southern side of Sloan. This shelf sloped down and we continually looked for a rappel point down to the glacier, finding nothing. It also looked too far to make one rappel to the glacier. So we continued to head down and eventually the grass turned into glacially polished slabs which apparently led down to the glacier. Because it was so smooth and sloping though, the going was slow. Near the end, I suggested we rap the remaining section down. I found a rare block where I could use a sling. The problem was that it wasn't very deep and there was a chance, though nominal, that the sling would slip out. So, to allay our nerves, I found three granite shards and a round granite rock and hammered the three shards into the wedge. That sling wasn't going anywhere now! We putt on our crampons and rappelled down to the glacier.
The south ledges of Sloan Peak (we down-climbed the second one towards the glacier) The glacier was really a snowfield. I did see a crevasse or two from above but we didn't have to negotiate any. The snow was steep though and it was slick (That's one thing I miss from Colorado - the hard Colorado snow). So, it was slow going since we had to traverse laterally for most of the way. We made good time when the edge of the moat was level and we could walk along that. Eventually, we were back on ground. We scrambled up to the ridge and then hiked down to where we found a rock wall shelter at the saddle. At this point, we down-climbed delightful tundra making our way to the saddle on the next ridge. Of course, being a Cascade traverse, the easy stuff ended all too soon and we were on steep grassy and sometimes steep loose scree. The chlorophyll got much thicker at the next ridge! It was so steep that instead of risking the perpetual tumble down the slope we opted for the grass glissade! I'd never had to do this for, much less even thought of doing this! But, it turned out to be the easiest and safest way to get back down to Bedal Basin, though it did grind some serious green into our pants.
The scary west face We were a little worried about hiking out in the dark so we wanted to move quickly. We certainly wanted to be pass the stream crossings before dark. Not because of the water, but because the trail entrances are hard enough to see in the light! It turned out that we did not have a problem at all with the dark catching up with us. We hiked out really quickly (the rasberries were a nice treat on the way down) and were back at the car at 8:30.
Cool yellow flowers with Bedal Peak in the background |
