Crag Rock Climb - Ingalls Peak/South Ridge

Summited Sunday, May 29th. 

All but one of the North Teanaway River Road washouts are passable with high clearance vehicle, and the last one is literally within 50 yards of the trailhead.  Parking available along the road very nearby within the "fee area" zone.

Sun in the morning, overcast on the approach, clouds & wind on the rock ascent.  Snow showers on the way out.  Sun again near the trailhead. 

Plenty of snow on the trail to Long's Pass, . . . very stiff in the morning and crampons required for efficient travel.  Soft in the afternoon for easy plunge stepping.  Lot's more snow from the pass to the base of the climbing route allowing a high traverse across open snow fields. 

Windy & cold on the ascent but with dry rock.  We went around the back of the tooth at the base of the route, scrambled through a narrow gap, down a just a bit and then up a crack/dihedral to a broad shelf where the climbing route begins.  We roped up out of the wind and layered up with just about everything we had, but were still cold while waiting to climb or rappel once exposed to wind chill on the route. Brrrr! 

• First pitch passed the anchor at the top of the greasy rock to the boulder at the base of the ramp.
• Second pitch to the bolts (one rope-team set up an anchor halfway to gather pro from the first half of this pitch to finish the upper half of the pitch). 
• Third pitch to the summit. 
• Single rap back to the bolts at the top of pitch two.
• Single rap back to the boulders at the base of the ramp with a 70 meter rope and with only four feet to spare, . . . otherwise requires a double rope rap to get to the boulders. 
• Single rap to the anchor at the top of the greasy rock on the first pitch.
• Double rope rap back to the shelf to put on boots and collect gear and then down to the snow. 

Once back at the ledge where we roped up---thankfully sheltered from the wind---we rehydrated & took in calories, put on boots and packed up our gear, and rapped the last bit to the snow.  Got underway and warmed up quickly as we traversed back to the pass.  We made a quick descent from the pass on soft snow perfect for plunge/kick stepping, until lower down finally attained bare trail and we motored back to the TH.