Washinton Pass, WA - NEW Spire West Face

After my earlier excursion on the NW Corner I really had a craving for that fine looking line called the West Face. I have to say that this route didn't disappoint and delivered for me the finest crack climbing in the pass up on the upper pitches. For this route I hooked up with Kane from CascadeClimbers and who is working in Mazama at the North Cascade Basecamp. With a straight forward approach and a few pitches common with the NW Corner I was relaxed about the climb enough to allow me to concentrate on freeing the 5.11 crack section.

N Early Winter Spire - West Face, 6 Pitches 5.11a

Kane showed up early but his other partner Cricket/Randy bailed on him so it looked like it was just the two of us. I tried to get him to relax because the face isn't in the sun until later in the day and it is much nicer to do when it is a bit warmer. We headed out a little after 9am and started up the winding Blue Lake trail reaching the turn off from the main trail in about 1.5 miles with ~700 vertical feet being hiked. 30 more minutes and 1K more vertical feet brought us to the base of the route.

Official Timex approach time

Official Timex Base Elevation and Temperature

I geared up and made my way through the familiar first pitch linking it with the move of the belay thru the trees and into the little amphitheatre below pitch 2. Kane wanted to get more leading in since he has only been climbing a short time so we decided this could be his pitch. I mistakenly led this pitch when on the NW Corner climb and then stepped over to the tree on the other side of the buttress so I knew it is well protected and about 5.8.

A while later Kane brought me up to the belay, handed me the rack and wished me good luck on the unprotected flake. We didn't bring anything larger than a #3 Camalot so the flake had to be climbed unprotected. It was committing to lay back the thing knowing it would be tricky to step back out of it but it went well and the flakes above have slings to clip from a good stance. I scoped the traverse and saw the bolt, an old 1/4" time bomb. I thought this route had been fixed!?! So I got some gear in under the lip of the traverse and started out. It was only as I was part way thru that I noticed the shiny new bolt on the upper lip! The traverse is airy and wonderful with great friction until I was able to blindly lay back around the corner. A nice reach to a high right foot around the corner allowed me to work a nice Camalot #1 below an old fixed pin. Then I moved up and left to the base of the thin crack.

Young Kane looking excited about his lead

Kane finishing up his lead

A good belay setup is necessary at the base of the 11 crack

View from belay

Moi heading out on the crux and loving it!

Kane arrived at the belay and we arranged gear and got ready for my anticipated lead of the crux. I prepared the small gear and struck off on the good entry to the thin crack. Overall this section took small nuts very well and offered excellent finger jamming. Part way up is a small horizontal tipper edge that made for a great place to work gear in. My next goal was to get my foot up on that tipper edge so I laid back the crack and smeared hard. Another good stance here with my left foot on the tipper edge let me work a Metolious #1 Cam into the crack. I pushed on and up with the crack getting tighter until I could see a good flake edge. As I reached up for it my feet blew and I was off for some flight time. Damn! I blew the onsight! So at this point I realized that I climbed too high and that after I placed the cam I should have traversed left to the second crack system. Back on and in a few moves I was in the left crack system and ready to build the next belay after that short crux pitch.

The next pitch is the best on the route. It starts with a few gaston opposition moves in a crack to a small overlap that takes a .75 Camalot well and then up into another finger crack. The upper potion starts as an intimidating looking thin crack and then with awesome finger jams it just keeps getting better. I wished that this pitch could have just gone on and on and it is the money pitch on the route! Eventually it peeters out and one has to traverse right to a larger crack and a belay if your partner mistakens his 50m rope for a 60m! ;) A longer rope would have had us complete the pitch to the top.

The amazing 6th pitch finger crack

Final traverse from the last belay station

Kane taking the short 5.6 crack to the summit