May 25, 2003, Ingalls Peak (7,662')
5/25/03
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
1995
0
Rock climb: Grade II, 5.4, 2 pitches
Vertical skied: 2,500'
Distance: About 9 miles round trip
On our morning commute up into the mountains early Sunday morning, Ron and I discussed our options, the weather, more options and finally - under a gloomy sky at Snoqualmie Pass - the weather, and decided the dry side of the Cascade crest was the answer. Ingalls Peak was our new goal with its long ski in and fine 4 pitch rock climb, the South Ridge. One hour later we were parked at the end of the Teanaway River Road, having passed a transplanted suburbia along the river, I was worrying that the Memorial Day hordes would dampen my flight to solitude and peace. Oh well, the route out to Ingalls will surely be easy to follow. 8 am and off we went with skis on heavy packs - why on earth did we decide to Surf and Turf?!?
Once out into the woods, it became obvious that I had grossly overestimated the crowds venturing into the woods, at least this early, let alone the number heading to Ingalls. We had to do some heady route finding as we quickly lost the trail in the woods low down and were blindly trying to find Ingalls Pass, the crux to the day if we wanted to pull Ingalls Peak off. We were skinning up fun terrain, so we'll just ski down if we blew finding the Pass. All will be good.
Bingo! Cresting the ridgeline, our mountain lay just to our north and the clouds were well over head allowing perfect dead reckoning to our goal. From this distance, we could see three climbers in the bowl who mysteriously disappeared when we neared Ingalls and these turned out to be the only people we saw all day - glory be, and on Memorial Day Weekend!
As we approached Ingalls and our route, The South Ridge, we could see a slab of 3 foot deep snow on the first pitch potentially barring access to the rock climb, and here we had brought all this gear! Oh well, at least we'll have a great ski back out to Ingalls Pass...
At the ridgeline among the Dogtooth Crags, we were able to scramble class 3 up onto the large ledge that starts the second pitch - holy cow - the weather was still and turning sunny, we just might get this Peak!
I cruised the first pitch and brought Ron up. The supposed crux was behind us so I was able to string the next two pitches together and soon enough we were standing on top of the peak looking back down at our ski descent route. Three raps brought us back to our packs.
The ski from 7,300 at the Dogtooth Crags to Ingalls Pass at 6,500 was a scream. The sun was shining, the snow sloppy but not catchy, and every time we turned around we could see the peak we just climbed - almost unexpectedly. The second part of the descent was almost as fun (beats the hell out of walking) and we could naturally tell how we had screwed up on the ascent, skiing down into the trees until it wasn't fun anymore, and surprisingly soon we were back at the car. 4:45 pm.
Just another day at the office.
Vertical skied: 2,500'
Distance: About 9 miles round trip
On our morning commute up into the mountains early Sunday morning, Ron and I discussed our options, the weather, more options and finally - under a gloomy sky at Snoqualmie Pass - the weather, and decided the dry side of the Cascade crest was the answer. Ingalls Peak was our new goal with its long ski in and fine 4 pitch rock climb, the South Ridge. One hour later we were parked at the end of the Teanaway River Road, having passed a transplanted suburbia along the river, I was worrying that the Memorial Day hordes would dampen my flight to solitude and peace. Oh well, the route out to Ingalls will surely be easy to follow. 8 am and off we went with skis on heavy packs - why on earth did we decide to Surf and Turf?!?
Once out into the woods, it became obvious that I had grossly overestimated the crowds venturing into the woods, at least this early, let alone the number heading to Ingalls. We had to do some heady route finding as we quickly lost the trail in the woods low down and were blindly trying to find Ingalls Pass, the crux to the day if we wanted to pull Ingalls Peak off. We were skinning up fun terrain, so we'll just ski down if we blew finding the Pass. All will be good.
Bingo! Cresting the ridgeline, our mountain lay just to our north and the clouds were well over head allowing perfect dead reckoning to our goal. From this distance, we could see three climbers in the bowl who mysteriously disappeared when we neared Ingalls and these turned out to be the only people we saw all day - glory be, and on Memorial Day Weekend!
As we approached Ingalls and our route, The South Ridge, we could see a slab of 3 foot deep snow on the first pitch potentially barring access to the rock climb, and here we had brought all this gear! Oh well, at least we'll have a great ski back out to Ingalls Pass...
At the ridgeline among the Dogtooth Crags, we were able to scramble class 3 up onto the large ledge that starts the second pitch - holy cow - the weather was still and turning sunny, we just might get this Peak!
I cruised the first pitch and brought Ron up. The supposed crux was behind us so I was able to string the next two pitches together and soon enough we were standing on top of the peak looking back down at our ski descent route. Three raps brought us back to our packs.
The ski from 7,300 at the Dogtooth Crags to Ingalls Pass at 6,500 was a scream. The sun was shining, the snow sloppy but not catchy, and every time we turned around we could see the peak we just climbed - almost unexpectedly. The second part of the descent was almost as fun (beats the hell out of walking) and we could naturally tell how we had screwed up on the ascent, skiing down into the trees until it wasn't fun anymore, and surprisingly soon we were back at the car. 4:45 pm.
Just another day at the office.
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