Ingalls Peak 7662 ft

August 20, 2000

Kim and I were hoping to climb Rainier this weekend, but the weather was poor down south, so we decided to drive east to the Stuart Range and climb the south ridge of Ingalls Peak. I had made the hike in to Ingalls Lake 2 years prior with Jeff W. but the October weather didn't cooperate, so we turned around at the Lake without even getting a glimpse of the peak. It turned out to be a great outing because on the hike out we met up with two other wet and weary travellers named Jake and Mathias! But that's another story...

This trip began with a quick paced hike along the well used trail. After an hour or so, we reallocated some of the weight in our packs, and continued on. As usual I was in a big hurry to get there. I knew that the Ingalls was a popular climb, so I wanted to get there as quick as possible. It didn't help to have another party of two close behind us on the trail. I didn't want to be behind anyone else. But Kim did not feel the need to race to a mountain that had been there for millions of years and will be for millions more, and had probably seen hundreds of ascents this summer alone, so wiser heads prevailed and we slowed our pace and let the other party catch up and pass us. Sigh. We stopped at Ingalls Pass (6500') for a rest and a quick bite of food. There were several other day trippers there, enjoying the nice weather and beautiful views. We dropped down the other side of the ridge and wound our way through grassy fields and small trees until we reached the boulders.

The boulders eventually led to the strange red slabs leading up to the north and south peaks of Ingalls. Looking down from the slabs offered us a great view of Ingalls lake and Mt Stuart. What a perfect day to be in the mountains! We picked our way through the slabs steadily gaining ground. We had to back track a few times to avoid steep gullies and boulders too large to scramble over. We finally climbed above the slabs and up loose rocks to the base of the dog tooth crags. From the base of the crags, we could hear many voices from above. We definitely would not be alone today. We followed the guide books route information and scrambled up the slabs on the right of the crags, up to a level area where we roped up. Looking back at the photo from Selected Climbs vol. 1, I realized that we scrambled the first two pitches of the climb! Oh well.

After gaining the large ledge area, we found several climbers on the second pitch and another party just beginning the first pitch. This area was exposed to the wind, so we put on jackets and roped up. The leader of the party in front of us was taking his time, while Kim and I got increasingly colder. Tired of waiting, I started climbing via another prominent crack. After reaching the belay, the climber ahead of me informed me that I had just climbed the "5.6 variation". Well, that sounded nice but I couldn't believe it, I just smiled and said "cool"!

I set up a gear anchor and Kim climbed up and cleaned the short pitch. She was glad to be climbing after the long wait. The route itself was protected from the winds, so it was much warmer. I intended to pass the slow party, but I saw that the route funneled down to a corner where only one person could climb at a time, and we were getting warm so we just enjoyed the views while the other party finished the last pitch.

This next pitch was fun also, with some steeper slabs, then a ledgy area before the corner leading to the summit ridge. There was six or so climbers waiting to rappel down, so I waited while one of them started and was past me before I continued up. I visited with some of the other climbers as I belayed Kim up. Everyone was happy to be out on such a beautiful day. Definitely not warm, but if you kept moving it wasn't cold. We said goodbye to the climbers in the rappel queue and scrambled up to the summit. We found four M&Ms that were left on the summit as some sort of offering. Green, yellow, red, blue. Hmmm... Earth, wind, fire, water? One way to find out. Crunch, crunch. "That one was chocolate. Crunch, crunch. That one was chocolate too! Crunch, crunch. Chocolate again. Last one, crunch, crunch. Ummmm...chocolate!" Really? No, not really. We left them there.

Kim and I enjoyed the view from the summit for some time, having it all to ourselves. We took some pictures, and talked about other routes up it. We enjoyed being there. But time hurries on, so we left the summit and walked back down to the rappel anchors and descended in two rappels. It felt good to have reached the summit but we still had the slabs and boulders to negotiate. We picked up our packs at the bottom of the last rappel and downclimbed the lower section of the Dog Tooth crags. We found our way through the boulders and slabs pretty well, although we didn't exactly follow the route we took up. There were a few parts that were somewhat exposed but our "well-honed Dave Anthony" friction skills got us through will little problem!

We took more time than we would have liked, but reached the lake safely. We were glad to see the trail. It wasn't long until we were back to the green meadow with streams running through. We talked about how wonderful it would be to just lay in the grass next to the streams all day, watching the clouds and listening to the relaxing water. We took a picture here to remind us how nice it would be to come back with friends and camp. It is amazing how diverse the landscape is on this hike. Here we were in a beautiful, lush, meadow, and a few minutes ago we were in a boulder field that looked like it could have been Martian.

It was tempting to linger here longer, but it was already late in the day and we still had several miles of hiking ahead of us. We continued on the trail enjoying the ever changing views. With a steady pace we reached the car just a few minutes before it was dark: A full day in the mountains!