Trip Report
Intermediate Alpine Climb - Hubba Hubba
Washington water ice on a blue bird day!
Ben Chapman
- Fri, Mar 17, 2023
- Intermediate Alpine Climb - Hubba Hubba
- Hubba Hubba
- Climbing
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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Snow from parking lot, firm enough not to require snowshoes. We post holed occasionally to hip depth. Avy debris on approach which looked to be from previous storm cycle (1+ week ago). No indication of loose/wet avy activity. Approach took just over an hour from the parking lot. Central flow was still fat and took screws well. Some rotten/snowy ice on surface - be sure to get to solid ice before placing screws. Top of route was steep, snow covered rock. Small rock rack was helpful.
Left parking lot at 9a on Friday, left snowshoes in the car. No boot pack to the route, but the snow was firm enough to stay above the crust (mostly) and kick steps. Morning sun on the approach and route.
Started climbing with 3 person party at 10:30a with the leader trailing two ropes. Ice was solid but had a ~1” layer of snow/rotten ice on the surface. There was no indication of the route being climbed recently and was in WI3 shape. We set up a belay perpendicular to a rap station using screws. The rappel station was being peppered with falling snow/ice melting off rocks from above. Two followers trailed simultaneously to minimize danger from falling snow/ice. We swapped leads at the belay station and continued to the top in series with the middle person trailing a rope for the third climber.
Above the uppermost steep section the route turned to snow covered rock. The snow was soft enough not to provide purchase for steps and was the crux of the climb. We used 2 red BD cams to protect the route to the rappel tree which was up and climbers left from the route.
Two double rope rappels (60m) were enough to reach the base of the route. It took our party of 3 4.5 hrs to climb and descend the route.
Photo credit: Jeremy Benezra
