North Early Winter Spire - South Face 8.13.11

It was graduation weekend for the BRC class and they were headed to the Liberty Bell group at Washington Pass for some alpine climbs. I volunteered to instruct on Saturday so I was paired with Brandon to take on NEWS (North Early Winters Spire) via the South Face route along with Aaron Nash and Alex. Meredith's Aunt kindly let us use their cabin for the weekend in Winthrop so I got to sleep in a real bed the night before. We hit the road about 6AM to head for the pass, to get climbing by 7:30AM. Everyone was headed up to the same general area so teams took off up the trail as they were ready. It was quite a different scene from my fourth of July climb up South Early Winters Spire (SEWS). We actually parked in the parking lot and the snow was mostly gone (except a little up on the rock) so we followed the Blue Lake trail, and all of its switchbacks. Luckily it's a pretty mellow, well sustained trail. I was moving slow, not feeling the best that morning. We passed through the first meadow, and when we got to the second we took the climbers trail off to the left – up towards the rock. After a bit on that trail it forks and we took the right fork to head for NEWS and SEWS.

View of NEWS (left) and SEWS (right) as we made our way up the meadow

I was moving pretty slow, trying to get some GU and fruit snacks in me, hoping a little energy would help. I was just not feeling great. Despite my slow moving on the trail (which the team was really nice about – glad I find such understanding climbing partners), we still arrived at the climb about 30 minutes ahead of our anticipated schedule. We decided to scramble up the first pitch and set our packs up there. I vividly remembered the goats from my SEWS trip and was hoping to stash the packs up higher – although a goat came down from there as we approached.

Goat coming down the first pitch of NEWS. The tree towards the right side (left edge of the chockstone) is the one we used to sling our packs and our final rappel down at the end of the day. Our initial scramble up is just out of the picture on the right

I scrambled up the blocky rock in my hiking boots with my pack on – a little terrifying, but I made it up and found a good tree to sling my pack from.

Tree we slung our packs from, and our final rappel anchor down – it had slings and rap rings

The group followed, some of them much smarter and donning their rock shoes. The students were great, feeling comfortable with the scramble and no rope, which also helped us gain a bit more time.

I grabbed my shoes, put my food bag, water, gps, camera, and climbing gear on my harness (yes, I even had room for my climbing gear), and we set out. I decided to wear my fleece to help protect from the incessant mosquito attacks and to stay warm as we were shaded near the gully. However, I decided to zip it behind me in a cape like fashion so that I could still easily access all of my gear. Aaron was going to let me lead first but not feeling the greatest I asked if he would, so he and Alex were the first team up the route with Brandon and I generally not far behind. We continued up the grassy/rocky gully a little ways to the bottom of the large lower chockstone.

Alex and Aaron finish the scramble up the grassy gully of the first pitch to just below the lower chockstone, the start of the second pitch

Brandon putting on his rock shoes and Alex heads towards Aaron who is at the start of the second pitch

The second pitch included climbing onto the face climbers left to gain the top of the chockstone. The second pitch is the crux of the climb, rated at 5.7 with a slabby traverse. The traverse does have a rusty old bolt to help ease your mind (well that's the intention anyways). The climb starts up some nice blocky ledges and you know you're on route by the 3 or so pitons you find along the way.

The blocky start of the second pitch that gets you onto the face climbers left of the chockstone

The climb took protection pretty well, and based on a suggestion from Aaron, I placed a #2 above the slabby traverse in addition to the bolt to help protect. I did the awkward climb down to the top of the chockstone and belayed Brandon up. The slabby traverse had some flakes on it – one sounding very hollow and not providing the greatest confidence in its ability to support our weight. What fun things you find in the alpine!

The third pitch was a scramble up the gully to the base of the upper chockstone. Brandon and I just walked together up the gully to the start of the snow. A little short of the top of the third pitch but as good a place as any to start up the fourth pitch. After navigating along the snow in the moat between it and the rock, you gain the rock face climbers left again to reach the chockstone.

Alex making her way along the snow and rock to the start of the fourth pitch. The start is up some blocky ledges at the corner in the upper left, where the snow disappears left behind the rock.

The moat was an interesting adventure to say the least. I employed a sort of stemming technique, one foot on rock and the other in the snow – generally with a hip or elbow also in the snow to increase my purchase. I continued that along the snow until I reached some nice blocky ledges up again. It was solid rock to climb, just a little awkward sometimes to find places to protect. There were some random, bomber pockets for a #1 cam though so I was happy to find those. After a few ledges up, you start a traverse over to the chockstone, much less exciting than the second pitch. I placed a few nuts and cams, trying to provide protection for my follower, and gained the chockstone.

Looking back down pitch 4

After watching Alex and I struggle alongside the snow, Brandon decided to put his boots on (which he was carrying with him) and kicked steps straight up the snow. That wasn't the easiest either but he made it to the rock and soon joined me on the chockstone.

Alex belaying Aaron up the fifth pitch from the top of the upper chockstone

We had two pitches left before we reached the summit. The fifth pitch started up gully/low angle chimney and ended with a gear belay when you found a good spot or ran out of rope. I finally emerged into the sun and was really excited to find some trees to sling on my way. I soon caught up with Alex at their gear anchor and set about trying to find some spots to place three pieces of gear for my own anchor. Aaron had found a piton he used in his system. I found a good pocket for a #2 but couldn't find anything else great nearby. I did lots of gardening, trying to find cracks. I'd open one up, only to realize that the rocks would then shift. Just as Alex was about to start climbing, I finally figured out a gear anchor and brought Brandon up. After he transferred the gear back to me, I started up the chimney, tending left, for the sixth and final pitch.

The start of the sixth pitch, gear and rope from Aaron as he finishes his lead

I clipped the piton right out and ran the route out a bit before finding some more good placements for gear. I went left and over the rock into another little gully system. After figuring out which way I wanted to go, I was up to the rock near the summit where Aaron had left his cordelette slung around a big boulder so that I didn't have to set up another anchor. I belayed Brandon up, we made the scramble across some exposed rocks to the summit, and celebrated with Aaron and Alex.

Aaron and Alex on the summit of North Early Winters Spire

Brandon and I sporting our fleece capes on the summit of North Early Winters Spire

The views were of course amazing – it's always great to be in the North Cascades. We took some pictures and decided to hang out on the summit for a bit, enjoying the sun before we headed down.

View from the summit

We could see some of the other groups on Concord and Liberty Bell. Finally we figured it was about time to start heading down so we went back across the scrambly rocks (I did some stomach slides to find footing), and made our way to the first rappel station of a tree with slings. Brandon went down first on the single rope rappel and found a bolted rappel station for the next. A little bit of a fuster cluck around the anchor, we eventually set up a double rope rappel that landed us back in the gully of the third pitch. A little scrambling to the lower chockstone brought us to another single rope rappel, with a section of free rappel from the chockstone. We could see the groups from SEWS hanging out on a boulder down below, waiting for us and soaking up the sun on the nice day. Once at the bottom of the chockstone we made our way down the gully to our packs. We gathered everything up – no goat meals this climb! - and did one last rappel down to the base of NEWS. We made our way down the meadow, joined up with the other BOEALPers and headed for the parking lot for our target time of 5PM. On the way down we found Matt who was telling us of an ongoing rescue mission. A guy had fallen on his way down from Liberty Bell in the gully and broke his leg. He'd been hanging out since the morning, waiting for a rescue. We made our way down the climbers trail and met back up with the Blue Lake trail. On the way down we passed several rescuers heading up, and soon heard (and then saw) a helicopter overhead. We made it back to the parking lot a little after 5. Celebratory beers were passed out, everyone talked about their climbs a bit, and we watched the helicopter hovering over Liberty Bell. Finally it pulled away with a few people hanging below – glad they were able to get the climber. (Pictures of part of the rescue in this trip report on Cascade Climbers). It was another great day of climbing in the Liberty Bell group in the North Cascades.

Sunday many of the people went for another climb in the Liberty Bell Group. We opted for a more lazy day of breakfast sandwiches in Mazama, followed by some cragging. Sara and Alicia lead the long Drive by Nose Job, a 5.7/5.8 of 9 bolts on Fun Wall, while I cleaned. After that we joined Aaron P, Niki, Dan, Suzanne, and Cheryl on Sun Rock where they were getting their first leads in. I helped belay and cleaned the 5.7+ route, Cognitive Dissonance, before we called it a day. We left a note for the guys up at WA Pass and headed for Seattle, with a pit stop for ice cream on the way. Another great weekend of climbing near Washington Pass.

View North Early Winter Spire - South Face 8.13.11 in a larger map Map for this adventure

Our route up North Early Winter Spire in the North Cascades

The Blue Lake Trail has a few switchbacks before we headed up the climbers trail

Liberty Bell Group - GPS went a little crazy, we were not actually on the summit of SEWS at any point during the day - we were on its shadowy brother NEWS

North Early Winters Spire - South Face