View of the mountain from Heather Pass, Lewis Lake at the bottom.
Black Peak, Northeast Ridge
Solo, July 15, 2004
It's a tedious drive. In Vol 2, Nelson says that it's an easy peak to get to for a fun day outing. Well, the access is certainly easy once you get to the trailhead, but that drive is challenging. It's hard on the soul to wake up at 4:00 AM, and not be at the trailhead until 8:00.
At the trailhead I immediately began the bug repellant dosing. The mosquitoes are pretty enthusiastic up here this time of year. The hike in is very pleasant, the nicest wilderness trail I've been on in Washington, as easy to hike as the wheelchair accessible Big Four trail. Since I hadn't decided on a route before leaving the house, I didn't have photocopies of the route, so I hauled along the whole "Selected climbs vol 2" to consult on the hike in. Still, I had a brain fart and took the wrong branch of the trail to Lake Ann, and lost half an hour.
You get to Heather Pass and the effect is like getting to Longs Pass when approaching Mt. Stuart: the route and the mountain loom before you like a panorama. Then you have to drop down and pick your way through a long talus field. You can follow a slightly longer trail around the the right, and miss most of the talus, or drop straight down and pick your way through the rocks, optionally following cairns, but it's no problem to find your way, since the mountain is looming right before you.
The little trail contours around the right of the first lake, Lewis Lake, which is that shocking turquoise blue, like Ross Lake, that comes, I'm told, from suspended glacial silt. I went around the left on the hike in, and followed the trail hike out. I recommend the left, through the talus field, since it's shorter and you stay out of the trees and the bugs.
Then you continue up, following the trail, to Wing Lake, which was mostly frozen. I stopped here for a snack, but the bugs, mostly mosquitos, kept me from enjoying it too much, so I pressed on.
I passed a party of three on the way out, and aside from that, I was the only person up there. It's a weekday, so maybe that's not surprising, but the solitude was kind of cool.
I continued up to the right, to the base of the NE Ridge, up a long snow slope, where there were remains of a number of bootprints in the snow, as though a ghost army of climbers had come up here in the night. I saw the new Harry Potter movie with my son last week, so that sort of imagery comes pretty readily to mind.
I got to the base of the actual climb (at 8000') by about 1:00. The route is described as "low fifth class" and similar to the West Ridge of Forbidden, so I figured it'd be within my abilities unroped. I'd brought my rock shoes, and put them on, and re-read the route description. I almost bailed after reading the "low-to mid fifth class for several pitches" that Nelson describes, but decided that going over to the SE ridge, which is easier, would be too much slogging, and I'd regret not giving this route a try. (Afterwards, I read Beckey's route description, which characterises it as "class 3 and 4 (exposed) with one 5th class pitch," which matches my impressions much more closely.)
While I was piddling around, a hummingbird buzzed by. It's always surprising to see those little high-octane guys up high, but I guess they feed on the pentstamons that are all over around here.
So, I headed up, slowly, eying the east face, figuring I could bail onto it if I needed to, but the most interesting climbing proved to be right along the top of the ridge.
It went pretty quickly, despite my "deliberate" climbing style, not having to mess with ropes, rigging belays, and all that. I was at the summit in about an hour. The rock was plenty good, lots of holds, lots of features. It's a lot like W. Ridge of Forbidden, or the W. Ridge of N. Twin in character. It is a bit loose in places, you do have to pay attention, but it's not a real problem. I suppose if it was on the "Classic Climbs" list it would be climbed more, and all the loose rock would be gone. The name "Black Peak" appears to come from the black lichen that covers much of the rock, giving the whole thing a blackish look.
In honesty, there were a couple of places where I would have liked a rope, or some sort of protecton, or at least a partner to test the route, but otherwise, aside from the exposure, it wasn't problematic at all. It's such a gas to be out there, climbing, feeling your body rising, almost levitating, up the mountain, pulled by the sheer pleasure of the day, the beauty of the surroundings, the easy, exposed, rock. It feels easier to climb upwards than to stand still.
There's a functioning summit book up there, and so I read over the previous entries before adding my own. The people I saw hiking out had signed it as "the old guys," one was in his 60s. Someone (I forget who) claimed the first nude ascent last year, and I saw Lee and Josh's entry from last Father's Day. I was glad I'd added a short pencil to my first aid kit, since there was no pencil or pen in the tube.
I descended the s. ridge, following, for the most part, the descent route described by Nelson. The descent really sucks; it took me longer to get down than up. Like with Thomson, you want a rope for rapelling over the garbage.
I did manage to crampon down a couple of steep snow slopes, and was glad of having packed along my aluminum crampons. Unfortunately, since don't bicycle the way I used to, my feet aren't as happy about front-pointing as they used to be. Further down, I was able to glissade part of the way to Wing Lake, and hike out.
The trail goes more quickly than I'd feared, partly because it's in such good shape, and it's pretty scenic. There are a load of wildflowers along the way, and I snapped photos of more of them than I needed to.
tufted saxifrage
And, of course, common red paintbrush.
I'm starting to wonder if maybe I really like rock climbs more than glacier climbs. I've not yet been on a rock climb where I thought, as I sometimes do on climbs like Rainier, "geez, isn't this thing ever going to end?" it's always more like "what, that's all? I was having fun!"
Equipment notes: I used this organic insect repellant called "All Terrain natural Herbal Armor" which I got last time I was at Dan Page's shop. The bottle says it lasts four hours, but I was having to reapply it about once an hour. It did seem to work okay when applied that frequently. It is biodegradable and cruelty-free, so you should at least try it.