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Trip Report    

Intermediate Alpine Climb - Observation Rock/North Face

Approach and route are still in good condition.

  • Road suitable for all vehicles
  • We only saw a few small patches of snow on the talus approach (doable in trail shoes).  No real snow on route so we only placed screws.

12 hours car to car, left at the beginning of twilight at 7AM and made it back to the car nearing the end of twilight at 7PM.  We hit frost while still on maintained trail (turns to mud on the return trip) and saw small patches of melted snow during the last bit of talus before traversing into the snowfield below the climb.  Surprisingly the approach is still pretty doable in trail shoes.  We stopped at the beginning of the snowfield to eat and put on boots/crampons/harnesses.  From there we traversed the snow, ascended the rock band below the climb, and then roped up and starting pitching it out.  My team did the climb in 5 pitches, we ran 60M ropes out for the first three gentle pitches and then broke the last steep section into two slightly shorter pitches.  No pickets placed only screws.  Not a lot of good solid ice on the route (bring long screws) but you will hit bands of ice for good placements while you are on the steeper upper section.  Our group had some flat tires in the way in and we saw several vehicles pulled over fixing flats on the way out so make sure your spare tires are in working order.