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| Featured Trip: Chief Six: A dream no more |
| Author | Doug Daniell |
| Date | October 19, 2008 |
| Report |
Full disclosure: I have never actually seen a Chief Six pin, have never attended an award ceremony, or even seen any proof that it actually exists. But I have looked at the flyer on the wall at Guye Cabin many a time. Ever since my first glimpse, I knew I had to have it. It required climbing a series of fearsome alpine summits. The Tooth, Guye Peak, Snoqualmie Mountain and Chair Peak are the monarchs of this list. Lesser (but not easier!) summits fill out the optional component. Each requires an approach involving literally the better part of your morning. From some of the summits, you can't even hear the interstate! Eventually, after many trips, and some heart-breaking failures, I had stood atop each lonely peak that I would need except one: Chair Peak.
In the interest of completing the list in good style I suggested to Andrew that we tackle a bold, high-quality route to the summit. We chose the Northeast Buttress, an excellent ice- and mixed-climbing line. To increase the challenge we chose to tackle this line in very mixed conditions indeed. The conditions were so mixed that we left the crampons and ice tools at home and climbed in sneakers instead. Winter climbers ascend atop a layer of snow and ice, unaware of the beauty of the underlying rock. Fools. They miss out on several hundred feet of amazing rock: slabby, mossy and fractured. Miraculously the rock has fractures in every possible direction but is without cracks. No problem... placing protection would simply detract from the purity of this climb. For a final touch, we payed homage to the early climbers that pioneered this route: Andrew photocopied only part of the route description, allowing us to experience the same feeling of exploring the unknown.
Often with alpine climbing you are fighting against not only the mountain but also the weather. This outing was no different. Temperatures hovered below 50 degrees for the entire day. Occasionally, wispy clouds would block out the sun for up to 15 minutes. A relentless 5-10mph breeze sucked the heat from my body. We knew that Chief Six wouldn't give up without a fight, but this was ridiculous!
But against all odds, we fought our way to the summit. In a common Northwest experience the summit views were extremely limited. We could only see the Olympics, Rainier, Adams, Stuart, Daniel, Glacier and Baker. Our food supplies depleted, we only had meager rations to help us enjoy this proud moment: 2 beers, a slice of pizza, a sandwich and a couple of chocolate bars. Sometimes alpine climbing is all about the suffering!
Photographic evidence:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewjohnsullivan/sets/72157608198848231/
Submitted to the WACAJ (Washington Alpine Club Alpine Journal) on 20 October 2008
-Doug Daniell
Appendix A: The infamous Chief 6 list:
Required: The Tooth, Guye, Snoqualmie, Chair
Optional peaks climbed: Red, Lundin, Kaleetan, Denny
Optional peaks still to climb: Silver, Kendall
Appendix B: You want beta?
Overall impression: the NEB in summer conditions is a pretty pleasant route to a cool peak as long as you are aware of the potential for a bit of loose rock and some runouts.
Approach: we climbed directly up talus and gullies from Source Lake. Faced with a row of cliffs below Chair Peak basin, we traversed right on a forested path for a couple hundred feet before emerging in the basin. A 30 foot 4th class gully takes you to the base of the route.
Climb: a small rack was fine, go for pieces below 1". Smoot calls it "class 4" and that's about right though a few moves are arguably 5.0ish. We didn't mind having the rope. The runouts aren't great but the climbing is easy and where the angle steepened we could find pro.
Rappel: 3 double-rope rappels get you back down the route with a small section of easy down-climbing. You could get by with a single rope and some more down climbing.
Descent: We followed a faint track down the Snow Lake Divide. The ridge-running is pleasant with great views. However, the divide eventually gets cliffy and we had to scramble and bushwhack down and across the saddle before reaching the snow lake trail.
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WASHINGTON
ALPINE
CLUB
