Mt. Washington 7,794' - North Ridge (08-19-12)

Mt. Washington from Big Lake

One of two Chemeketan climbs I did in 2012. This Mt. Washington climb was led by Mike Niemeyer. We left the Big Lake campground around 7am. It was a beautiful clear summer day. Started out with sunscreen on. Being able to see the summit of Mt. Washington was both exciting and daunting at the same time.

We stayed on the south side of the lake and made our way through the freshly burnt areas until we reached the PCT. Once on the PCT we made our way to the cairn indicating the climbers trail. We headed east up the climber's trail which was pretty well maintained. There was only a few spots where downed trees led to new paths. Once we reached the North Ridge some of our team stashed their trekking poles. We refueled and made our way up the ridge.

Right around this time I had come to learn that the BUTT of my pants was completely ripped. Luckily the mesh inner lining and my boxers prevented permanent blinding of my fellow climbers. This was unfortunate but not enough to stop me from wanting to summit. :)

Looking at the Summit Block on Mt. Washington

Once we got to the notch we left our packs, put on our helmets and harnesses and carried any gear we would take to the summit and back. We went up the second ramp, which is supposed to be easier. Mike led the climb up and protected the route where he could. Two mindless climbers who had ran past us earlier on the ridge were already rappelling back down over our heads. It was definitely terrifying to hear and see rocks coming down over top of you. Luckily due to the exposure above us the rocks just flew past us.

Three Finger Jack and Mt. Jefferson from Mt. Washington

The crux of the climb was about 50' up the ramp where there is a chimney. We had heard advice to "not get sucked into the chimney". There wasn't an easy way up if you get in too far so it took me a second but I stood back and looked at what needed to be done and did it.

Mike protected 3 pitches to the top, which I am sure was conservative, but it was some nice insurance. I was more worried about kicking rocks down on my fellow climbers then I was about falling. Shortly there after we reached the summit. We noticed a fire East of Mt. Hood that had grown quite massive by the time we reached the summit. It started creating it's own thunderhead.

Chemeketan Summit Team

Mason and Mike setting up a rappel

After high fives, and filling out the summit register, we started back down. Mason and Mike set up 3 rappels to get us back down to the notch. The last rappel was the most fun as it was exposed and over-hung a bit. I actually didn't really feel scared, it was a fun experience.

Once we made it safely back to the notch we slogged all the way back to the trailhead. After wading through the dusty PCT and being sun-cooked the people on Big Lake taunted us by playing in the water with their boats. I really wanted to just jump in the water but we were short on time and it was getting late.

This was my first alpine rock climb and I can certainly say it won't be my last.






Final Stats:

Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: 3100'
Round Trip Distance: 11+ miles
Round Trip Time: 12 hours

Broken Top 9,175' - NW Ridge (08-08-12)

Standing on the summit block of Broken Top

Broken Top had been on my "list" ever since seeing it while hiking up South Sister in 2011. It was so unique looking that I even posed in a picture halfway up South Sister pointing at Broken Top calling it out. "I WILL BE BACK". Of course at the time I wasn't fully sure how I would manage to climb it, since I was just starting to get into mountaineering/climbing.

View from Cascade Lakes Scenic Highway heading West

We decided on doing an "up and back" of Broken Top, leaving the Salem area really early and being back late. It was a day of extremes for us. We hadn't noticed since we were inside the car, but it was a cool 34 degrees outside at the Green Lakes/Fall Creek trailhead. We weren't expecting this at all and by the time we returned to the car that afternoon it was a very hot 80 degrees.

Sunrise over Broken Top from Green Lakes

The green lakes trail was beautiful, and we bombed through it rather quickly. I think it would be a nice trail to take the family on and overnight camp at Green Lakes. After getting small glimpses of Broken Top from the Trail we were delighted to get this view of the mountain near green lakes just before the turn out to the summit trail.

Northwest ridge of Broken Top

I figured the trail leading up to greenlakes would have warmed my body up enough for the ascent to the ridge, but then I slowed down quite a bit and felt winded. It was a reminder that we were in fact gaining elevation again and couldn't continue the pace we had done on the trail. Reality slapped me hard and I handed over a couple pounds of weight to make my ascent easier. Before long we had acquired the ridge.

The dad helping his kid climb the crux

 Making our way up the ridge was fun and exciting. There were a few times where the "path" wasn't obvious and we definitely did some class 3 scrambling to make our way up. After about an hour and a half we came up to the "crux", which is a 10-15' nose of solid rock. Here we encountered a dad with his two sons, and an older gentlemen who had already scrambled his way to the summit. The dad seemed to be a bit in over his head with the kids and so we offered to help. We weren't worried about time and figured it would be better to lend a helping hand then hear a bad story later or worse, have to assist in a rescue. I belayed Mason up the nose and he didn't have time to set protection. For his comfort level it wasn't necessary. Once on top Mason belayed the kids and then the dad up. I followed shortly after.




After the nose climb we traversed along the exposed ramp and over and through the exposed catwalk. The dad decided to clip his kids into his harness (not sure how I feel about this, but I guess it was safer then nothing...unless he slipped of course). At this point there was a really nice exposed class 4 climb up to the summit. This portion was actually the most puckering to me, but it wasn't bad.

At the summit of Broken Top with the Sisters photo bombing us

Down climbing from the summit block

  

Walking back across the catwalk

Thumbs up!

After a successful summit we down climbed from the block and returned back to the nose. Mason set up a rappel off of a sling. There was a HUGE rock to use as a rap anchor. We let the dad rap down first then we tied the kids in and belayed them down. I rapped down and Mason followed closely behind, stopping for a minute to pose. We gathered up all of our gear and made our way partway down the ridge. We quickly realized it would be MUCH easier to skree ski all the way down the mountain so we did. It was a little nerve racking but I went with the flow and we got down in record time.

We refilled our water at green lakes and marched back to the trail head.

Broken Top in the afternoon from Green Lakes after a successful summit

Final Stats:

Summit: Yes
Elevation Gain: 3700'
Round Trip Distance: 12+ miles
Round Trip Time: 8.5 hours