The broad north face of Chiefs Head Peak spans more than a mile and rivals the Diamond in terms of size. The great wall is divided by a rib that separates the Northeast Face from the Northwest Face. Both routes have some superb long and challenging routes on them. These routes have a reputation of being hard and heady, due to the steepness of the wall coupled with the distinct lack of crack systems. The first route I climbed on Chiefs Head was
Cowboys and Indians (5.11c, 11p) on the NE Face in August 2019. I thought it was awesome.
I had become intrigued by a route called
Birds of Fire on the NW Face, which ascends the center of the face to its zenith, on superb rock. The climbing is mostly sustained face and friction and has reputation of being sort of runnout. The climb is mostly bolt-protected (except for a few sections mainly on Pitches 1 and 9, requiring that you bright a small trad rack). All but two pitches (tops of Pitches 1 and 8) have bolted belays and the descent is rapping the route. This sounded like an amazing route, but I knew I would not be comfortable leading the slabby runnout. Fortunately, Nate (who had been my partner for
Cowboys and Indians the previous summer and had become my primary climbing partner at this point) was happy to take his fourth lap on the route and do the leading. (Thanks Nate.)
Chiefs Head is approached via the spectacular Glacier Gorge basin. So Nate and I decided to combine a climb of
Birds of Fire with another climb up in Glacier Gorge, and bivy in this spectacular area. So we hiked up Friday afternoon (it was a hot day so we jumped into a couple of lakes along the way), climbed
Birds of Fire on Saturday, spent the rest of the day reading/studying/relaxing at camp, climbed Airhead on Arrowhead on Sunday, and then hiked out. What a great way to spend a hot weekend.
As planned, Nate led the entire route. Under Nate's confident flawless leads and our combined efficient style, we climbed the entire 9-pitch route in just under 3 hours (note: I am not counting in our climbing time the half an hour we hung out at a belay to allow Alex and Tommy to pass us). The entire camp-to-camp climb was about 5 hours, which was quicker than we expected. It was a beautiful day and the route was entirely in the sun this time of year, so we climbed in t-shirts.
The following page gives an overlay and pitch-by-pitch photos for the climb. Enjoy!