Pinto Rock Climb (08/21/2016)

For my 3rd experience climb to complete the requirements of the Mountaineers Basic Climbing Course, I went on a rock climb to Pinto Rock (Bowling Alley route).  Pinto Rock is a 400 foot tower (elevation 5,123 feet) northeast of Mt. St. Helens in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.  The approach is only 1/4 mile from the road, but it is made up of three pitches: 4th class, 5.4, and 5.4. 

There were 8 of us scheduled to be on the climb; 4 basic students and 4 instructors.  One of the students, however, called our leader at the park and ride cancelling, so we had 3 students and 4 instructors.  At the trailhead, our leader, Mike (who was also the leader on my Sahale Climb a few weeks back) informed us that we would have three teams.  Mike would lead the first team and set up protection.  I would be the second climber and would clear the protection, and one of the instructors, Steve, would be roped up behind me and I would belay him up.  The other two teams, each made up of an instructor and student, would follow, each setting up their own protection.  Once all three teams were at the summit, we would rappel down the opposite side of the rock and then scramble around the base of the rock back to the cars.  The rock itself was kind of like climbing on concrete with rocks protruding out of the concrete for handholds.  Summitpost's official description of the rock is "silicified tuff-breccia." which makes for decent hand and foot holds, but loose rock falling down the chutes the primary hazard.  When I looked up at the rock from the base, the rock formations reminded me a lot of the hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park that I visited a few months earlier.



We arrived at the rock a little before 9am.  After a brief meeting and final packing, we immediately headed to the base of the rock.  The first section was 4th class.  Mike found a good route, set protection, and once at the first ledge, belayed me up with me clearing the protection.  Once I completed the section, I turned around and top belayed Steve up to complete our first pitch.  The other two teams followed suit and as the second team reached our location, Mike started setting up the second pitch.  Like the first section, I had Mike on belay while he climbed setting slings around the various chickenheads for protection.  With not much rope to spare, Mike safely reached the second ledge and then he belayed me up with me cleaning the protection.  Though Mike is quite a bit taller than me and made the ascent look easy, I was still able to climb the 5.4 section and the rest of the pitch with little difficulty even though I opted to wear my alpine boots instead of rock shoes.  Once I reached Mike, I set up to belay Steve.  Steve is a strong climber as well and he was outclimbing the belayer (me), but I got him up to our location safely.  We then had a wait as the second rock team struggled a bit.  The leader on that rope team did not feel as comfortable with the route as Mike was, but eventually the other two rope teams reached us, so Mike went ahead and set up the third pitch.

Once again, we followed the same procedure as the previous two pitches.  This time, the climb on the final pitch seemed a little longer and somewhat more vertical.  As I started to climb up, the heat of the day required me to exert more effort, but eventually, I reached the top where Mike was belaying me to safety.  Of course, I had to turn around and belay Steve, but once he was up on top, I was able unclip from the system and walk over to the safety on the north side of the ridge.  It was 2:30pm when I arrived.

Like the 2nd pitch, the next rope team was a slower getting up, but the other two rope teams did summit, with the final person topping out at about 3:30pm.  At the top, we had views of Mt. Rainier to our north, Mt. Adams in the southeast, Mt. Hood to the south, and Mt. St. Helens to the southwest.  Mike remarked that we were in the center of four mountains, which we really were.  After eating and hydrating, taking summit photos, and signing the summit register, we made our way over to the northeast side of the peak to begin our rappel.

Mike having led Pinto Rock a few weeks prior, knew that the rappel had to be set up in such a way where it would not get caught on any rocks as it was kind of diagonal direction down.  So, he rappelled halfway down to a platform where he could redirect the rope where he wanted it.  The plan was for the rest of the team to rappel down using the extended rappel with autoblock.  After Mike, one other student and one instructor went down then I was the 4th person.  I got set up and started the rappel, but I had problems before reaching the platform where Mike was at.  I was really having to work to get the ropes through my autoblock and around my extended rappel and ATC device.  At one point, I am dangling using all my strength just to get the ropes through the system.  When I reached Mike, he decided to stop me, take off the autoblock, and have one of the assistants, Tai, have me on a fireman's belay as I completed the rappel down to the bottom.  Mike blamed the system for the issue, but I also think, upon talking to other climbers, that my autoblock was probably too tight.  Regardless, I got down to the bottom of the rappel safely and waited for the others to get down.  It seemed like everyone was slow because of the system, but the important thing is that we completed the entire climb safely.  The rest of the climb was to move around the west base of Pinto Rock on a climber's trail to get back to where we first set up as some of us, myself included, had left some of our extra belongings.  We then took the 10 minute hike down to the cars.  We were at our vehicles by 6:45pm.

All of us were tired, but satisfied.  For the other two students, Brian and Claudia, this was the final event needed to complete the Basic Climbing course.  And for me, it was the final climb I needed, but I'll still have to complete Mountaineers First Aid in the fall before I can graduate.  We all congratulated each other at the cars, and then departed for home.

Pinto Rock Photo Album

Sahale Peak via Quien Sabe Glacier (8/6-8/7/16)

After moving to Olympia last fall, I joined the Olympia branch of the Mountaineers and registered for their Basic Climbing course.  One of the requirements to graduate the course is the completion of three climbs: One glacier climb, one rock (multi-pitch) climb, and one basic alpine which could include a rock or glacier climb.  For my glacier climb, I was able to get on the Sahale Peak climb via the Quien Sabe Glacier.


Mike was our climb leader with Janette being the mentored leader as she is working to become a climb leader herself. Janette handled all the logistics and a few weeks before the climb, sent the participants a prospectus of our climb.  The plan was simple.  Leave Olympia at 4am, meet at Marblemount Ranger Station at 8am to get permits, leave the trailhead at 9:30am, and arrive at camp at 12:30pm.  On the second day, get up at 2am, leave camp at 3, summit, come back to the camp to pack up, and head back to the cars, reaching the cars by early afternoon.

As the trip neared, we were all paying attention to the weather forecast.  Though Saturday looked to be a sunny day, Sunday's weather forecast was deteriorating.  40% chance of rain showers with thunderstorms possible.  With the possibility of rain and thunder, Janette sent out an e-mail with an amended plan to possibly leave camp at 1am to try to beat the weather.



On Saturday morning, we met at the Marblemount Ranger Station as planned, reviewed our plan one last time and drove to the Boston Basin trailhead (3,240 ft elevation).  Mike suggested that instead of stopping at the listed high camp at 6,200 feet, that we go to the toe of the glacier to make summit day easier.  As such, we were planning to go as high as 7,000 feet. (Sahale Peak is at 8,681')   The first 500 feet of the trail were uneventful, but then the trail got steep.  We were climbing over blown down trees and crossed five streams.  The trail is not maintained and it took a lot of time and effort just to get to Boston Basin at 5,400 feet. 

We finally came out of the trees and after one final large stream crossing, saw Sahale Peak off to our southeast.  Boston Basin itself is quite beautiful.  Marmots were peaking out of the rocks all around, and off to our northeast we could see Forbidden Peak, Mt. Torment, Sharkfin, and Boston Peak.  We continued up slowly as the day warmed and our energy levels depleted.  We were well past our 12:30pm scheduled arrival, but the group trudged on.  At around 6,000 feet, we had to stop as one of our climbers developed leg cramps.  One of the leaders stayed back with him, while the rest of the group slowly trudged on.  Finally at 3:45pm, we reached the 6,700 foot level where there was a rock outcropping that would be a sufficient place to set up camp.  Half an our later, our climber who had the leg cramp made it to camp, but he decided that he was likely unable to continue the climb the next day.  He and one of the assistants ultimately stayed at camp while the other 10 planned for our summit day.

Around 5:00pm we had dinner and discussed our summit day plan.  There was talk, because of the concern of thunderstorms the next day, to possibly start our climb at 8 or 9 that night, but since that would put our arrival at the summit in the middle of the night, we kept with the 1am departure time.  We filtered water and got our gear ready for summit day, then around 7pm, we all headed to bed to try to get some sleep before waking up at midnight.
 

I lied down at 7pm and I would fall asleep for a few minutes then wake up with the pattern continuing more or less until just before midnight when we all got up and prepared for a 1am departure.  By 1am, all 10 of us had our helmets, harnesses, and crampons on, we were tied into our rope teams and left right at 1am.  We had two rope teams of three and one of four.

I was on rope team #1.  One of our assistants, Tai, led the rope team, with me being the middle climber on the team.  Tai led at an efficient pace.  He navigated around crevasses and kept the whole group moving even on the steep section on the right side of the Quien Sabe Glacier.  Finally, we got to the ridgeline above the glacier.  We took off our crampons and climbed the ridge but before we could get to the summit block, we had to cross a steep section of snow with significant drop off.  It was decided that we would set pickets to protect the teams in case of a fall.  We put our crampons back on then Tai went out to set five pickets while I belayed him.  Then when he was out of rope, I followed with the third climber, Tristan, belaying us.  We soon crossed the slope with the other two rope teams following.  There was one more steep section of snow that required three more pickets to be set, but the entire team was able to get to the summit block by 5am.

 

Tai and Tristan then went to set a fixed line for us to get to the summit and Mike climbed to the summit to get the rappel set.  Since the actual summit of Sahale is small, and since only two or three people could be at the summit at the same time, it was decided that one person would be going up the fixed line and after a couple of quick summit photos, they would rappel while the next person would ascend via the fixed line, repeating this process until everyone had summited.  The plan was remarkably efficient and we had all summited and rappelled down by 6:30am.  Meanwhile, the sun rose and we had beautiful views of Glacier Peak to our south, Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan off in the distance in the northwest, and Forbidden Peak and El Dorado also off to our north and northwest. 

After eating our summit treats, drinking water, and applying sunscreen, it was time to descend the same way we came up.  Our rope team which was the first coming up, became the last rope team with Tristan removing the pickets.  We made our way down the ridge and then stopped to get our crampons on one last time.  We noticed that while it was sunny at the summit, fog and clouds were rolling in and we could not see the camp from the ridge.  As such, with reduced visibility, we would need to take extra care to be aware the crevasses around us.

The three groups descended into the clouds following the boot tracks of previous climbers, but at one point, the first rope team lost track of the boot tracks, so our rope team, let by Tai, took over leading and Tai, somehow, got us back to the camp even though we did not have clear views.  We were back at camp by 9:45am

We set a goal of having camp packed up and be back on the trail by 11 and sure enough, at 11am, we were ready to go.  The travel was slow as we had to stop to take care of one climber's blisters, and then after getting out of Boston Basin, had to deal with the stream crossings and blow down of the climber's trail.  We got back to the cars, all of us exhausted, but safe, at 3:45pm.  After congratulating each other, we got into our cars and headed home.

It was a good climb.  We had beautiful views, nice weather, and the group got along really well.  I would love to go back to Sahale one day and try the more popular Sahale Arm route.  I also have to say that the whole North Cascades National Park area is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend visiting even if it is for a day hike.