Chair Peak in mid-May. The NE Buttress is the ridge closest to the camera.
I took the day off work to go climbing, since the weather was supposed to be stellar, but none of the usual suspects were available. I thought about going to Leavenworth and hiking up to Little Annapurna, but that would be a lot of driving, a lot of snow slogging, and probably a lot of snowshoeing.
So, I decided to make it easy on myself, and just head up to Snoqualmie Pass, and do a redux of the NE buttress of Chair Peak, and maybe even tag The Tooth on the way out.
I took Peter and his trombone to school and talked to his teacher, then headed out, where I learned, once again, that you can't get from the soutbound express lanes on I-5 to I-90 without a tedious exit at Columbian Way and back around. Sheesh.
The parking lot at Alpental was completely empty, but for one guy who asked me if the Snow Lake Trail was 'open.' I told him I didn't know, and headed out onto the trail, with my new trekking poles from the Outdoor and More garage sale.
The trail was MUCH snowier than I'd expected. I really should have brought snowshoes. The day was gorgeous, though, not a cloud in the sky.
It took me a few hours of slogging through the snow to get to the base of Chair Peak (I still don't see why they named it that; perhaps it looks like a chair from a different approach?) and the closer I got, the less promising the route looked. I didn't want to bail, since I'd done that last year, but it was clear that the route was really sloppy and wet, and there was lots of snow up there. I maybe could have done it, but I was worried (among other things) about the rappel anchors being buried in the snow.
In the mean time, I'd been watching a couple of skiiers and a dog heading up to The Tooth, and I decided I might as well head over there. I've thought that it would be an easy jaunt from one to the other, but in fact, you have to descend almost all the way to Source Lake before you can get across to the approach gully.
Turns out that they were just skiiers, climbing up to ski in the bowl below The Tooth, and not climbers at all. There were a couple other skiiers there too, and an arrangement of half a dozen pairs of snowshoes stuck in the snow, from a group that was up at the Tooth.
By now the snow was 2:00 PM and the snow was pretty sloppy. I was pretty frustrated and annoyed with the whole thing by the time I made it up to Pineapple Pass, and not too far from wanting to call the whole thing off. I was convinced that the party up there must be Mountaineers, and they'd be hollering at me about the unsafety of solo climbing.
The group was rapelling as I headed up. The Tooth is a fun, easy climb; every place you want a handhold, there's one right there, all incut and reassuring. Whenever things look alarmingly difficult, you know you're looking at the wrong route, and you can easily find the proper one. The one tough spot was on the last pitch, the 'catwalk' pitch. The catwalk looked a little to exposed to me, and so I went up the direct slab route, which involves laybacks and hanging your butt out disconcertingly.
It took about 45 minutes for me to do the whole thing; a good deal less than last time with Alex, when we had rope management issues, belaying, and waiting for the other groups to go.
The group was NOT Mountaineers, and they were pretty friendly as I passed by them.
At the summit I called home, to let Heidi know I was fine, and took a few pictures, and then headed down. I'm never very comfortable with rappels, and I'm out of practice with rope handling, and I got it pretty tangled up a couple of times.
Summit Pix - Mt Stuart.
The obligatory summit shot -- see, Heidi, I'm wearing my helmet!
Back to the notch, I got my boots back on, and rapelled down the gully, then headed out, sinking knee-deep as I plunge-stepped. The backs of my legs were sunburned, and so the crust on the snow was uncomfortable.
On the descent, out of the bowl, I saw something odd in the snow. A helmet? I got closer and saw that, no, it was a pair of lavender snowshoes! Dropped, obviously, from the party of eight that had preceeded me. So I picked them up and carried them along. It was actually a bit easier to keep my balance with the weight of the snowshoes in one hand or the other.
Close to the bottom of the slope, I met the folks heading back to find the snowshoes, and handed them off. She was extremely grateful, and I felt pretty good about myself.
The hike out on the west side of the creek is much nicer and quicker. I need to remember this, even when I'm doing Chair. And, there are more parking lots, including one a good quarter mile closer than the one I park at.
A nice day, but lots of sunburn. I didn't use nearly enough sunscreen on my face and neck, and not at all on my arms.
Equipment notes: Titanium trekking poles are alarmingly light, but they don't lock very well. I guess titanium is slicker than aluminum. You have to cinch them down much tighter than I'm used to, and even then, it doesn't seem like they hold very well. But I really like the cork handholds.