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Trip Report    

Intermediate Alpine Climb - Observation Rock/North Face

Solid ice and summer weather on Obs rock

  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • Route was all solid ice, no pickets needed. Road had some rough patches but not too bad. 

Opportunistically posted climb based on the predicted weather. The weather held and we had a perfect sunny day in spray park enjoying the climb. 

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Once off the main trail, we followed the indistinct path and aimed for the base of the route as seen from a distance. We geared up below the rock band (near picture below..) and then traversed over and up to the top of the rock section where we began to rope climb.

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Both parties simulclimbed until about even with the rock as seen in the middle of route. 

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From the elevation of the rock, one party did an entire full rope length and then a very short quarter pitch to the top. Other party split the final section into about two half pitches to complete the climb.

Ice was very solid almost the whole route and especially so near the upper portion. Brought 12 screws each team. Could have gone with 10 if needed, but nice to have a couple extra. 

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Once on top we unroped and scrambled to the top of Observation Rock proper. After scrambling we enjoyed t-shirt weather with spectacular views of the surrounding area.

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On the descent we used a small pool of water near the bivy camp to refill our water. The trail walk out went smoothly for  12 hours c2c.

From TH: 6:20AM
Base of route: 9:30AM
Top out: 1:00PM
True summit: 2:10PM
Back to TH: 6:10PM

More pictures + GPS:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AoQXrox6ZOuigrtTO_Wdc0YJVq04bw