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Ingalls Peak 7662ft North Peak, East Ridge (5.7) October 10, 2004

Today Dan Smith, Matt Cusak and I climbed the east ridge of Ingalls Peak. Matt had driven over from Spo-Compton the night before and spent the night at the trailhead. The stars were shining brilliantly as we put on our packs and headlamps and started hiking up the trail. With the days getting shorter it's necessary to stretch them with pre-dawn starts.

As we made our way up towards Ingalls Pass the eastern sky began to brighten. Soon the sun was showering the summits of the surrounding peaks, basking them in a pink alpine glow. This and the corresponding time in the evening are my favorite parts of the day. I hadn't been out hiking for nearly a month, so my legs were feeling the burn. A month ago I was able to hike 20 miles in a day and my legs weren't even sore the next day. But as the saying goes, if you don't use it you lose it. Matt, a journeyman transplant from back east, works at Omega Pacific when he's not climbing. So Dan and he were happily talking about all the latest gear as they hiked. I kept up with them for a few miles until I slowed up to get my camera out and take some pictures. I told them to continue on and that I would catch up. I thought about that as I snapped away pictures of Esmeralda Peak and Hawkins Mountain. I was doing my level best to keep up with them when I stopped, and they kept going at their same pace. I laughed to myself, "How in the world was I going to catch up with them?" I figured that they would probably stop for a drink and a snack at the pass so I might catch them there.

I put my camera away and started hiking as efficiently as possible. Like in a marathon (or how I imagined a marathon must be) I picked the best lines through turns to reduce the number of steps needed, I watched my pace to make sure I wasn't wasting energy, and I looked for the best foot placements when the trail turned rocky. It takes a lot of energy to catch yourself and maintain your balance when a foot slips on loose gravel or a boulder rolls under foot. I enjoy hiking in groups, but it's also enjoyable to be out on the trail alone with your own thoughts. I was really looking forward to seeing the golden Larch trees in the meadow on the other side of Ingalls Pass. I remembered back to the cold November when Jeff and I made the snowy hike back into Ingalls Lake and met our now good friends Jake and Mathias.

As the trail contoured widely around stream beds and gullies, I could see Matt and Dan hiking ahead of me far up the trail. I just kept to my pace, trying to put as much trail behind me as possible. A few minutes later, I rounded a bend to a flat spot and there was Matt and Dan just putting their packs back on. Ha! All my focus on efficiency wasn't needed! I grabbed a quick drink of water then we all continued hiking up the trail together.

Soon we were at Ingalls Pass and our efforts were rewarded with a spectacular view of Mt Stuart glistening with a fresh dusting of snow. Matt had never been to this area before, so Dan pointed out the West Ridge, the Cascadian Couloir and other notable features on the granite massive. Here I caught the season's first views of the golden Larch trees glowing as if they were on fire in the morning sunlight.

We hiked down the other side of the pass and made our way along the now dried up stream that runs through this beautiful meadow in the summer. There were several other cars in the parking lot this morning but up until now we hadn't seen or heard any other people. But as we made our way through the boulders leading up to Ingalls Lake we met up with two other parties. One was heading over to climb the West Ridge of Stuart and the other was waiting until tomorrow to try the North Ridge. With the recent snow, both parties had their work cut out for them. We wished them luck and continued on to our own adventure.

Our intended goal was to traverse the entire Ingalls Peaks by climbing the notch up to the beginning of the North Peak, east ridge route, climb the east peak, then rappel back down, climb the east ridge of the North Peak, rappel the south face, and then climb the South Peak. So Dan led up to the notch in the east ridge but from the notch we could see a lot of snow on the East Peak so we decided to just climb the east ridge of the North Peak. From the notch, I led up to the ridge proper and belayed from the snow covered boulders just across from the gendarmes of the second pitch. I cut the second pitch short due to rope drag and also because I could see that the downward sloping steps leading up past the gendarmes were wet and snow covered. Not exactly the conditions you want for friction moves! I was climbing in my polar fleece gloves because of the snow and the cold rock, so this route was definitely taking on an alpine flavor.

I belayed Matt up on his new 9.2mm Mammut single rope rated rope, and Dan on his 9.8mm. Since I cut the pitch short, I didn't want to make either Matt or Dan have to lead this dicey pitch so I continued on. I was able to find a placement for a small nut at the base of the steps but I knew from when I climbed this pitch in July that there wasn't much else. So I carefully made my way up the steps to the easy bench leading to the exciting ridge at the end of the pitch.

Dan led off on the third pitch, climbing up the face and making some tenuous moves around the corner to easier ground. Looking back, I think the route goes right, around the corner and then up the face, but Dan's way was really fun, with airy moves right on the ridge crest. Matt took the fourth pitch across the slab with the fun hand traverse and then up the ridge to access the upper slabs. Here he encountered a lot of snow and since he wasn't familiar with the route, he built an anchor and brought Dan and I up. We were on a rock formation up above the slabby face that leads up to the final summit ridge. Dan climbed up a little higher and decided that it would be easier to downclimb lower and work our way across the face and then up the other side where there was less snow.

So Matt belayed Dan as he made his way across the snowy slabs. I was wearing my Trango boots and even then my feet were starting to get a little cold and I thought about Matt and Dan's feet in their cute little tennis shoes. Matt reminded me that, "Come, on man. They're called APPROACH shoes!" Regardless, they probably didn't offer much warmth or footing on the slick, snowy slabs. In these conditions with no ice axes or crampons, this pitch was by far the most difficult. Dan was able to put in some good pieces to protect the traverse and he safely reached a belay stance on the other side. Once safely across, Matt downclimbed to where I was and made his way across the slope. Looking at the steep slab reminded me of looking out the windows from the Jungfrau railway when it stopped inside The Eiger. Ok, one is 60' and the other is 6000', but the terrain was similar. And if you slip, the result would be the same.

Once we were all safely across, Dan quickly led up to the base of the chimney below the summit ridge. Since I had climbed this route most recently, I led the last pitch up the tricky chimney and up to the summit. We could hear and see climbers on the last pitch of the south face route and Dan was yelling to them in German. Happy to have the difficulties behind me, I shouted over to them, "Mein Gott! Ich liebe die Berg!"

I belayed Matt and Dan up and we scrambled the last few feet up to the summit. We visited with some of the other climbers who had come up the south face route and then made our way over to the rappel station. Dan, being a Good Steward of the Mountains, cleaned up the messy rappel anchors. We rappelled to the base of the Dog Tooth Crags with one double and a single rappel. On the route we had talked about eating dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant in Cle Elum, but since the route took longer than we expected we were now motivated to just get down to the cars safely before it got dark. Which we did.

Thanks guys for a great day in the Mountains!