Spire Rock.A randomly chosen, short hike on a Saturday happened to include a view of Spire Rock. The formation looked proud, the approach was easy and the general area was quite pretty with stunning views of Mount Jefferson. And so we decided to come back on Sunday for its nice looking Southwest Buttress route, 5 pitches long and 5.8R per Olson’s guidebook. We pinged our friend Josh (a budding chossmonaut) and he was game. The route offers a gentle introduction to Oregon chossaneering: an easy approach (you start climbing from the trail), mostly easy and reasonably well protected climbing, spacious belay ledges (we ran the line in what seemed like logical 3 pitches), and a trivial descent. A fine half day followed by some lap swimming time for Benny in the soupy (and aptly named) Detroit Lake.
Photos
Saturday
Spire Rock from the trail (July 2019). Benito on the summit of Triangulation Peak with Jefferson in the background (July 2019). Views from summit of Triangulation Peak. L2R: Three Fingered Jack, Broken Top, The Three Sisters (cluster), and Mount Washington (July 2019). Family shot atop Triangulation Peak (July 2019). Quick side trip to the Boca Cave (July 2019). Boca Cave (July 2019). Mount Jefferson from Boca Cave (July 2019).
Sunday
Highly zoomed in shot of Spire Rock from the drive in (July 2019). Shirley belaying me on the first pitch of Southwest Buttress. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Shirley on pitch 1. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Short crux of the route on pitch 1. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Shirley arriving at the first belay (July 2019). Josh on pitch 1 (July 2019). And Josh topping out on pitch 1 (July 2019). Shirley and I at the first belay. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 2 (July 2019). Shirley starting up pitch 2 with me belaying above. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Shirley (right) and Josh starting up the second pitch of Southwest Buttress (July 2019). More pitch 2 action (July 2019). Views from the route. That’s Mount Hood on the right (July 2019). A zoomed-in view of Mount Hood from the route (July 2019). Shirley and Josh nearing the top of pitch 2 (July 2019). Josh in the slot on pitch 2 (July 2019). Starting the lead of pitch 3 belayed by Shirley. Another cool photo by Josh (July 2019). Views of Jefferson from high on the route (July 2019). Some of the older fixed gear on the route (July 2019). Shirley on the summit ridge (our pitch 3) of Southwest Buttress (July 2019).
Shirley and Josh on the dinner plates section of the summit ridge (July 2019). On the summit ridge (July 2019). One more of Shirley and Josh topping out on Spire Rock (July 2019). Shirley and I on the summit. Photo by Josh (July 2019). A close-up (July 2019). Josh and Shirley on the summit (July 2019). Yours truly on the summit. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Rigging the short rap. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Shirley scrambling down to the rap station. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Shirley rapping off. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Backside of Spire Rock; one short rap and some free solo downclimbing sickness obviously (July 2019). Spire Rock. The Southwest Buttress route climbs the left hand skyline (July 2019). OK, let’s go swimming (July 2019). A little something for Benny on the way home – laps in the Detroit Lake. Photo by Josh (July 2019). Mount Jefferson above Detroit Lake. Photo by Josh (July 2019).
