Pasayten Nail | chossclimbers.com

Pain…Once More

The start of the long approach.

A test drive for our relatively new puppy – an outing heavy on the backpacking aspects and somewhat light on the climbing bits. We have attempted this climb before thinking we could try and pull it off in two days. Back then (2010), we took the other approach (Andrews Creek) and I guess in our fatigue induced delirium screwed up the trails some 20+ miles in and never glanced the peak. That turned into a 45+ mile march over the course of some 36 hours which our previous dog Blondie endured without any complaints.

This time around we had four days allotted and decided on the surer bet approach via Tungsten Creek trail. Other than distance, things could not be easier as the trail passes quite literally a couple hundred feet below the start of the Southeast Buttress (5.9+, 10 pitches) route on Cathedral Peak.

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Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak.

Late-ish Friday night at work, meant a noon-ish start from the trailhead on Saturday. A delay that would cost us an extra night in the backcountry versus celebrating the 4th at home with heavy drinking and high yield explosives. We did not quite make Apex Pass (16-ish miles in) until mid-day on Sunday. After a leisurely Sunday, we woke up early Monday morning to surprisingly cold conditions. We hiked up to the route, climbed it (pretty nice, especially pitches 1, 8, and 9), hiked off and were back in camp in the early afternoon. Some relaxing followed by a hike down to the 8-mile camp. Despite some daylight remaining, my blistered feet convinced us to make camp (come to think of it, we have not done a backcountry outing like this –unassisted by porters or donkeys – in quite a while). We were back in Twisp enjoying some surprisingly good breakfast by 10am.

Acknowledge Steph Abegg’s outstanding (!!) website for the route beta.

Photos

Benny in the first mile on the first day of the outing (July 2017).

Shirley and Benny early on hike up. This is the initial 8 mile section that shadows the Chewuch River (July 2017).

A little union break and a sip of mountain water (July 2017).

And more hiking (July 2017).

Another quick cool off (July 2017).

Colorful if a bit monotonous initial 8 miles (July 2017).

Easy stream crossings…

…and less easy stream crossings. Benny does not do well with log crossings…even very wide ones (July 2017).

A snack break about 8 miles in (July 2017).

…and a non-snack break (July 2017).

Our first night’s camp some 12 or 13 miles in (July 2017).

This is day 2 somewhere between Tungsten Mine and Apex Pass (July 2017).

Chilling in our camp at Apex Pass (July 2017).

The nice looking SE face of Cathedral Peak. Southeast Buttress route (5.9+, 10 pitches) climbs the buttress at the center of the formation – quite impressive and with decent climbing as it would turn out (July 2017).

A relaxing Sunday afternoon at Apex Pass (July 2017).

Our camp at Apex – somebody’s 2nd night in a tent and obviously he understands the concept: stay quiet but awake and guard us all night long…

A chilly morning greeted us at Apex with the objective sporting just a touch of a cloud cover (July 2017).

Hiking up to the start of the route (July 2017).

Racking up at the base of the route (July 2017).

Shirley starting up the Southeast Buttress route on Cathedral Peak (July 2017).

A very nice 5.8ish pitch (July 2017).

We linked pitches 2 and 3 (almost I think). Here Shirley is nearing the belay (July 2017).

Views of Cathedral Pass and Upper Cathedral Lake from low on the Southeast Buttress route (July 2017).

Shirley on pitch 4 I think (July 2017).

View of the headwall of Southeast Buttress; you climb a finger crack just right of the obvious wideness (July 2017).

Shirley topping out on pitch 4 (July 2017).

Looking for the start of pitch 5…wrong end of the ledge. Hint: move left from top of P4 (July 2017).

Leading pitch 5 – probably the least favorite (shitty groove up higher) of the day (July 2017).

Starting up pitch 8 (our 6) – this is the lower of the two 5.9+ headwall finger crack pitches (July 2017).

Views of Pasayten Wilderness (looking roughly S/SW) from high on Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak (July 2017).

Higher on the same pitch. That flake above me looks like a scary time bomb from the belay below but it seemed solid enough when we both stood on it later (July 2017).

Shirley starting up pitch 8 (July 2017).

Shirley on pitch 8 (July 2017).

Topping out on pitch 8 (July 2017).

Leading pitch 9 – the second finger crack pitch of the headwall. Very nice and quite hard (July 2017).

Looking back at Shirley from above the difficulties on pitch 9 (July 2017).

Shirley on pitch 9 (July 2017).

Leading pitch 10 (July 2017).

Looking back at Shirley (July 2017).

Almost done with the Southeast Buttress – only a short scramble to the summit remains (July 2017).

Fancy summit register (July 2017).

Views of Upper Cathedral Lake from the summit of Cathedral Peak (July 2017).

Shirley contemplating the jump across just below the summit on the descent (July 2017).

Shirley hiking off the backside of Cathedral Peak (July 2017).

No it’s nothing buddy.

Have stick, will travel (July 2017).

Benny and Cathedral Peak as seen from Apex Pass (July 2017).

Tail end of our day 3. Hike, climb, descend, and hike back to Camp 8…almost done for the day. Despite carrying our rack and quick draws (and the remaining cans of his food), Benny had energy to spare at every break we’d take.

Long hike-out (July 2017).

Another break and another “stick” for Benny (July 2017).

Finishing up the hike out on the morning of day 4 (July 2017).

Break time near the trail head (July 2017).

Almost beer time for all (July 2017).

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