Observation Rock/North Face

Four of us met at the TH at 6:15 am and started on the trail around 6:45. About three miles in turned right at the second large Cairn with the obvious trail towards Observation rock (6200') Shortly after the turn we spotted large brown bear. Looked like he was wearing his full winter coat. Beautiful looking. We followed the trail to bivy site with some excellent rock wall designs for shelter. From here we veered right towards the Flett Glacier. Traversed across loose rock and crossed up hard snow and over the terminal moraine to the base of the climb. Possible better way to go is to continue up snowfield towards Observation Rock then cross through first saddle towards flett glacier.

Took us about 4.5 hours to reach the base of the climb. Stopped for lunch and water on our way. With two rope teams, each climber carried 2 pickets and 4 ice screws. Started about 50 feet up from the base, which worked perfect for reaching the top in 4 pitches. We used ice screws on all pitches. Tried placing pickets on first pitch but snow way too hard. Had mixed ice on the way up with areas of harder ice than others. Last 80 feet very hard ice at approximately 50 - 60 degrees. We topped out around 3:30.

At the top of Flett GLacier and climbing up towards Observation Rock we experienced gusty winds at over 40mph. The wind gust were so strong we had to hold on so it wouldn't knock us over. We circled around Observation Rock and once on other side winds were minimal.

Worked our way back to the bivy site and followed trail out to TH. Was out just before 9pm. Long day but but lots of fun with some great people.