SEWS (Southwest Buttress) - 06/27/09

Ralph was up in Seattle for work on Friday and I "convinced" him to join Katie and I for some climbing at Washington Pass for the weekend. We decided to give the Southwest Buttress on SEWS a go on Saturday and Sunday was TBD. We arrived at the Blue Lake trailhead with a ton of other climbers, luckily nobody was on our route. My platypus leaked in my bag on the drive over, so I had to go with one nalgene (something I was not comfortable with). I had heard about the avy blowdown before we got there, but still could not find a good way through the mess. Finally we were on snow and straightlining it for South Early Winter Spire. There was only one problem. Bandit got his first glimpse of some goats and he took off after them. He basically made it up to the start of the Northwest Corner route on NEWS. He didn't come down until he knocked down some rocks on himself which scared him. We finally got to the base of our route and then Bandit took off again cornering another goat. Katie had to go and collect him and tie him down on his runner. As Ralph started climbing the first pitch, goat after goat came down on the rocks and stared at Bandit. There must have been six by the time Katie and I started climbing. The first pitch was long and awkward at one point, but soon enough we were at the sandy ledge with Ralph. I felt strong and went to lead the flake off-width. I had a good balance of being scared and confident, which worked out well. It was very amazing after pulling the mantle on top of it. Katie and Ralph made it up very fast although I made Ralph crawl way back into the crack to retrieve the #5. The next pitch went very fast, except for making an anchor below the slab. Ralph then cruised the runout slab and the infamous bear hug. The slab was interesting for the follower as there was no directional at all. Katie did well to stay composed and handled the wind and exposure very well. Then came more runout slab on an arete which had some good exposure and was very fun. After that Ralph lead a full rope length of scrambling until Katie and I thought he was still climbing. I quickly told Katie about simulclimbing and we were off even though shortly after we realized Ralph had us on belay. Then I did the airy traverse around the rabbit ears to below the summit. I belayed Ralph over to me and then he soloed up to the summit. I started belaying Katie over, but she was struggling to get the cam I placed. Of course it was in the worst place possible, right in the middle of the airy traverse. She finally got the cam out and all three of us were soon standing on the true summit. After lounging around for a little bit, we decided to downclimb the South Arete route. There is some exposure on the upper part of the route, especially when windy, but the climbing is easy. Katie did awesome and handled it like a pro. Eventually we made it to the chimney and made two raps off the spire. Unfortunately an angry goat was waiting for us and we got the rope stuck. Ralph had to solo back up the first pitch and free the rope. More goats came over to us and forced us to walk all the way around them which was pretty painful as all of our toes were killing us. After some scree surfing in rock shoes, we made our way back to Bandit and our packs. A quick jaunt down and we were putting up our tents and making dinner. Pictures can be found at http://alpinenapping.com/main.php/v/mountains/2009/sews-06_27_09/

Pitch 1 - Long 5.8 (Ralph)
Pitch 2 - 5.8 flake (Joshua)
Pitch 3 - 5.4 double cracks + 4th class ramp (Joshua)
Pitch 4 - 5.7 runout slab + 5.8 bear hugs (Ralph)
Pitch 5 - 4th class ramp + 5.5 runout slab (Joshua)
Pitch 6 - 4th class to rabbit ears (Ralph)
Pitch 7 - 4th class traverse (Joshua)
Pitch 8 - 5.2 crack (Ralph)