May 25, 2013 - Burgundy Traverse

Memorial day 2013 had long been planned as a time to try the Isolation traverse with Skye and Greg, who flew in from sunny San Diego. Skoog's sentiment that you can plan where you want to ski or when you want to ski, but not both proved true enough, as the weather forecasts consistently showed rainy weather, and even NWAC weighed in at the end of May due to new snowfall up high. As the isobars aligned themselves against a foray into the high alpine, we plotted our recreational weekend through the murky WA spring weather.

Movie shows a SilverStar Mtn heavy overview of the weekend:


Burgundy Traverse from Erik Turner on Vimeo.


Instead of a full on traverse we opted for rock climbing down low punctuated by ski day trips when the weather might cooperate. So it was that we headed off to Leavenworth on Friday after a half day of work ready to dial in our 3 man multi-pitch rock climbing system for a hopeful assault on something on WA Pass if the weather allowed. Catapult to Canary offered up 6 total pitches of excellent climbing and a kicked the weekend off in the right direction. We used 50m half ropes, with the leader tied into both, and the followers each on one rope. This seemed like a great idea until I fell a few times at the crux pullover on the top of Canary... everything worked fine - thin ropes with a autoblock ATC guide belay... but it felt a little odd to see that little rope drag along the rock edge above me! But before we got up to Canary, I led up a wet and awkward 5.6 chimney.... and I'm glad I did, as this allowed Greg to lead the money 5.8 crack pitch above. He cruised it, and Skye and I did our best to hurry up to the belay. A little mixup ensued here as we swapped ropes around for Skye to lead on. Worst of it was myself unclipping from the only rope that was holding me to the anchor for a brief moment - very stupid. I think our system worked well with everyone tieing in with lockers on fig-8s on bites to allow for quick changes (all 3 of us wanted to lead). The key seemed to be, like always, put all your personal connections to anchor below everything and flake the two ropes out on each side.

 Here's how we eventually settled into our pace:

• Leader leads up on twin 50s. Belays off anchor with ATC guide to allow two simul followers.
• First follower climbs up and cleans (leaving minimal directionals as needed). Once at belay takes all unused gear. The rope they are attached to is already flaked correctly. 
• Second follower comes up and attaches in with PA or runner. Then hands their tie in to the new leader, and takes a tie in from the old leader. Now all ropes are flaked correctly. The trick is to change the tie ins without further entangling anything. 
• Next leader is ready to climb on. 




Skye cruised the last pitch on Catapult, and we walked around to Canary. We again handed the sharp end to Greg for the money first pitch, as Skye and I have both previously lead it. Appreciative of the top rope on the runout textured start, I cruised up to the top, where I became a bit pumped when feet run out and you need to just heave it over the lip. My third heave allowed me to shimmy my way onto the ledge and begin to collect my nerves for the next pitch.... and particularly the step across. Once good hands are found, I stepped out into the void above the entirety of the last pitch... probably about 90' of air below your feet.... and a seemingly awkward fall, as the bolted belay is way off to the right, and you'd fall down and have to reclimb the muscly moves at the top of the crack pitch. It looks and feels exposed, but the climbing was easy. Not easy enough to just pull through, though, as I placed a #1 in the horizontal crack before pulling the remaining half move necessary to reach the bolt on the arete. From here the pitch was a maze of climbing up textured rock with more horizontal cracks. It was a bit confusing to me to be both looking for the next bolt or pin to guide you, but also seeking out places to place gear. Thinking I didn't want to get so high as to not be able to hear Skye or Greg as they did the step around (and risk pulling up slack and pulling them out a bit when they are over the void) I built an anchor in a small ledge overlooking the Tumwater and Skye and Greg both stepped out and followed up. Again Skye led the top out pitch as we came out on top of Castle Rock, took a few pictures of the now waning light, and headed down the approach trail down to the car. 


Since we weren't doing a traverse, or at least a ski traverse, we decided getting food in town instead of cooking that night was warranted, so we did the traditional Leavenworth thing and got some veggie brawts in town. Finding camping now was a bit complicated by nightfall and the holiday weekend. We found our favorite spots along Icicle canyon taken, and drove further and further out until we finally Subaru schwacked down a lightly used grassy road and collapsed just behind the rocks that barred further progress. Instead of the soothing gurgling of a stream, we listened to unseen neighbors camping elsewhere in the woods. 


Saturday. Classic flow day. 
We woke and climbed a few cracks at Eightmile rock before taking off for Twisp and the dry forecast for Methow valley. Classic crack lived up to its name, and I enjoyed the jamming immensely...It was the first time I really torqued my hand over in a crack and pulled down on it with full body weight. Exciting. The drive to the Methow took most of the afternoon, and we arrived just in time to eat at the Cinnamon Twisp before driving up the Chewuch River Rd East and finding a money spot along the creek. Some timelapses, beer, campfire, ICE, and we were off to sleep. The weather was looking good, and forecast to be decent the next day, so we opted to try and ski Silver Star, in keeping with the tradition of doing only things Skye had done previously.





Blue sky starting to poke through - time to head up into the mountains!



Sunday. Up into the alpine!
The alarm went off but I swore it must have been late - it was light out and birds were chirping... no, it's just June in the PNW, when the sun rises at 4:30AM, seemingly. We shoved in food, hastily stuffed our sleeping gear together and into the car, and off we drove up the road to Silver star creek. As we pulled in there was a bus with a trailer in the trail head - sweet! someone else thought this was a good idea too, and they travel in style! We walked up the heavily forested approach where we all learned and relearned exactly what size gap between trees you could shoot through with ski boots sticking off the sides of your pack.





Silver Star Creek and Greg finding some trail



A few miles and several thousand feet up we finally broke out onto a boulder field and saw the dreary gray clouds up above - not promising! But at least it wasn't raining. As we climbed further up in and out of the progressively thinner and shorter forest, we were passed by some fast moving Bellingham skiiers coming up behind us. The next few hours of routefinding in the gradually more alpine terrain was eased greatly by following their tracks, around left of the steep forested cliffband instead of right through the ramps of the main drainage. While the right hand variation looked good when snow was deeper, I think we choose wisely to follow to the left. We skinned up a finger of snow  and eventually below a waterfall before traversing over to the broad benches below the slopes leading up to the summit col. It began to snow and visibility dropped as we skinned up the steepening left gulley.





Greg gaining the bench






views up toward Vasiliki ridge



Our skintrack winding through the high alpine environment... just before the steep gully



Many larches were out - looking forward to looking down on them from the top of a tower in the fall!

After gaining the large bench above the gulley all 5 of us hung out for a while and threw down some food and water while we waited for the visibility to improve. It didn't, so Skye plodded on upward anyway, seeking out the col, while I followed, skinning along and checking the GPS to ensure we didn't walk up to the col and a possible cornice.



poor visibility for the upper part of our climb




Skye leading the way up into the mist




First winter ascent in May.




Some final steps up to the summit




off-width...... arm bar, chicken wing..... ski boot!

Turns out the col was very mellow and we popped out, ditched skis and then transported ourselves back to January to wallow through ~ 1' of fresh powder to reach the summit block. A fun off width move led to a short traverse and Greg alone made the exposed move to throw him self saddle style upon the summit. I relished in the surroundings, and was satisfied enough with touching the summit rock. Back down at the notch below the offwidth we enjoyed some whiskey, remembered friends, and then walked down to our skis.



looking back down on the ski depot



Patagonia?



The skiing up high was excellent - wasn't quite face shots in May, but it was damn close! Low visibility meant we couldn't fully open up on the upper slopes, but soon enough we poked below the chilly cloud layer and were out into the open. Snow quickly became softer and sticker, eventually become saturated enough lower down that it again skiied fairly well.





Pounds abound for the skiing, not so much the slog out from here...






The views FINALLY open up right before we duck into the woods. Thank you for that moment, weather.



The good skiing was over too quickly, and soon after skiing the fall-line through the steep gully, we just traversed high along skiiers right and hugged the snowline all the way out to the waterfall, and down a few hundred more feet of slushy snow before sliding along through rock studded portions on the valley floor. Once we reached the woods we switched back over to booting and enjoyed the schwack through the forest before finding the trail and heading back out to the car.




Greg and Vasiliki ridge in the background




Just as we set our gear out and were enjoying some well earned beers, the rain started up again and we quickly shuffled our stuff back into the car and drive down to Mazama and to the Ballard campground along the river. Our car exploded with wet gear all over the rocks and picnic table and we enjoyed a roaring campfire late into the night. The weather didn't look great for being in the alpine the next day, so we decided some cragging above Mazama was in order.

Monday - Mazama, the WA Mecca
We enjoyed two stops at the famous general store on the way in and out of Mazama, with some rock climbing up on Sun Wall. Despite our climbing Sun King and willing the rainclouds away, after 3-4 climbs the skies opened up even down in Mazama, signaling that we needed to take off. A quick packup in the car and we were off on the scenic drive along SR20 back to Seattle.








Greg putting up the rope on Plexus on Sun Wall. The wall lived up to its name until it started raining.