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Basic Rock Climb - Ingalls Peak/South Ridge

Wonderful trip, with a great group. The approach and route are in great shape.

Placeholder Contact Profile Bill Dittig
July 05, 2022
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • The approach is mostly snow free from the trailhead up to Ingalls Pass.  Be aware of the trail intersection with the Longs Pass trail, as the sign and intersection are obscured by a patch of snow.  From this point up to Ingalls Pass, the trail is well defined.  From Ingalls Pass to the start of the climb you are on snow the rest of the way, allowing you to traverse high to the notch.  The moat at the notch is increasing in size, but is still easily passable.  We chose to do the scramble approach on climbers left of the Dogtooth Crags to avoid the 1st pitch, but the first pitch is now snow free and was dry.  Two pitches of low 5th class rock got us to the summit.

    For the descent, we chose to do a single rope rappel from the top to the belay station for the third pitch.  From there, we did a double rope rappel to the top of the first pitch.  Once again, we scrambled down to avoid rappelling the first pitch.

    There is plenty of location to pull water from, as everything is melting out.

Forest Service road 9737 is in great shape, which allowed us to get to the trailhead from south Bellevue in an hour and 45 minutes.  We assembled all group gear and briefed everyone on the details of the climb, and were able to get moving by 7am.  The trail up to Ingalls Pass has a couple of blowdowns, but nothing of size to slow us down.  Got to Ingalls Pass around 9:30am and pulled out ice axes and put on gaiters.  Due to a member of the party not feeling  well enough to continue on, we regrouped and finally made it to the notch by 11:30am.  After taking a break we stated climbing at noon and topped out on the summit by 2:45pm.  We were fortunate to have only 1 rope team of two people ahead of us that was rappelling down as we were finishing the climbing portion.  With a nice break at the summit, we started to descend at 3:30pm.  Being the first time for some in the group rappelling in the alpine, our descent took a little longer than usual.  With downclimbing around the first pitch, we were back on the snow by 5:30pm.  A quick stop at Ingalls Pass to pick up our party member who stayed back, we headed down to the trailhead.  We finally got back to the cars at 8:15pm.  With the anticipation of a DQ Blizzard waiting for us in Cle Elum, we were met at 9:29pm with the open sign being turned off.  Was it the extra stops on the way up, or the extended break on the summit?  Something to put into the trip planning for the next time!