Washington Pass Main Page

Washington Pass Main Page

Routes:

Several classic routes on Liberty Bell, Concord Tower, Lexington Tower, Minuteman, North Early Winter Spire, & South Early Winter Spire

Region: Washington
Elev: 7,000-7,800 ft
Rock type: Granite
Type: 
Date(s): 2006-2018 (several trips)
Partner(s): various

Washington Pass on Highway 20 is often regarded as the best alpine rock destination in the North Cascades, with the main rock climbing attraction being the tight-knit group of granite spires rising above the pass. Rising directly above the Pass are six named spires: Liberty Bell, Concord Tower, Lexington Tower, Minuteman Tower, North Early Winters Spire, and South Early Winters Spire. From all sides, the spires present a variety of high-quality multipitch climbs, from half-day 5.6ish excursions to Grade V big wall test pieces. Plus, the alpine setting and marvelous Cascade views are top notch.

For the purposes of this page, "Washington Pass" refers to the group of spires rising directly above the Pass. There are other great climbing objectives in the Washington Pass vicinity — such as the Wine Spires, Kangaroo Ridge, Supercave Wall, and Goat Wall, to name a few — which can easily be incorporated into a climbing trip to Washington Pass.

The following page features some short reports from some climbs I've done on the granite spires at Washington Pass. I have climbed many (though not all) of the 5-star routes in the area, and I have summited all of the spires at least once. These reports do not give as much written detail as most of the trip reports on my website, but they do provide some great photos and a bit of route beta and usually a nice route overlay.

To date, my favorite climbs at WA Pass have been Liberty Crack on Liberty Bell, East Face of Lexington Tower, West Face and NW Corner on North Early Winter Spire, and The Hitchhiker and The Passenger on South Early Winter Spire.

Route Overlays

Overlays for the routes I have climbed at Washington Pass. Photos of these routes are given in the trip reports on this page.

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Labeled Panoramas

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Climbs I've Done

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Liberty Bell (7,720')

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: May 13, 2006 (Sat);  Partner: Jason Cullum

Route Photo

(Back in the day before I started making route overlays!)

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Trip Report

I had heard of Liberty Bell and had always wanted to check it out, so my birthday weekend my friend and I headed south and drove 4 hours to Liberty Bell. The trailhead was covered in about 6 feet of snow, so we put on our boots and put our climbing gear in our packs and hiked up to the beginning of the route. My partner and I decided to swing leads, and I got the first pitch. It was cold in the shaded gully below the first pitch, and my fingers were too cold to feel the holds, but I made a bee-line for the sun where it was nice and warm. Overall the route was a lot of fun, although quite easy. The view of the snow-capped North Cascades was great. On the descent, we could not find the first rappel sling, so we downclimbed to the second rappel station. We had planned to perhaps climb a route on the nearby Concord Tower, but there was some snow still on the route and we were tired, so we decided instead to hike out and spend a relaxing afternoon driving the North Cascades loop to Leavenworth to climb Orbit the next day, since this was a route we had heard about when we did Outer Space a few weekends before.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: August 2&3, 2009 (Sun&Mon);  Partner: Clint Cummins
Date: September 4, 2017 (Mon);  Partner: John Plotz

Route Overlay

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Trip Report

THIS TRIP REPORT IS STILL MOSTLY IN THE EMBEDDED HTML FORMAT OF MY OLD WEBSITE.


INTRO

Included on Steck & Roper's Fifty Classic list, Liberty Crack climbs the left edge of Liberty Bell's impressive 1200-foot tall east face. The crack becomes continuous only after the first 3 pitches, and after that the route features excellent climbing and surprisingly moderate terrain. Most parties aid Pitches 2 and 3 (which go at 5.13- and 5.11+ free, but C1 or C2 aid) and climb the rest free (the rest of the climbing is 5.10 or easier). Many parties will fix the first 3 pitches the day before the climb to the top; these pitches can be fixed with 2 60m ropes.

I first climbed Liberty Crack in August 2009 with my friend and climbing mentor Clint Cummins. Clint did the climb as a 2-day adventure, fixing the first 3 pitches the day before and climbing the route to the top the following day. I had done little aiding before this route, but Clint had a fair bit of aid experience. Clint aided all of the pitches that were 5.10 or harder; I jugged most of them, at the time not realizing that it would be easier (and more fun!) to just free all of them besides Pitches 2 and 3. I did do a bit of leading, leading all of the easier (5.8 or below) pitches. We arrived on the summit in the dark. I was ecstatic—I had just climbed Liberty Crack! One of the best routes in Washington!

Eight years later, in September 2017, I climbed this route again, with my friend and master of efficiency John Plotz. John had climbed this route six times and was happy to climb it again.  With no fixing, going with a lightweight aid setup for Pitches 2 and 3, and free climbing all pitches except Pitches 2 and 3, John and I climbed the route in just over 7 hours, or car-to-car in 10 hours. This was almost twice as fast as Clint and I had climbed it! This time around, I thoroughly enjoyed my leads and had a greater realization/appreciation of the quality of climbing on the route. It was amazing how much quicker and easier the route seemed this time. Pure fun this time around!

On both occasions, despite warm summer weather, we were the only party on the route.

This page contains both trip reports, side by side. Enjoy!


OVERLAYS, ETC.

Aug 2009Sept 2017
Photo overlay (click image to enlarge):

Clint's topo:

Labeled panorama of Liberty Bell group:
Photo overlay on aerial photo taken in February 2012 (click image to enlarge):

Labeled panorama of Liberty Bell group:

GEAR

Aug 2009Sept 2017
  • 2 60m ropes (10mm lead line and 8mm) (You can fix the first 3 pitches with 2 60m ropes.)
  • Doubles tips to #2 plus one #3, 1 1/2 sets of nuts (including micro)
  • 1 skyhook
  • 6 slings, 4 draws
  • We each had: 2 ascenders + 2 etriers + 2 daisy chains
  • 1 70m rope (we did not fix)
  • Doubles tips to #3 plus one #4 (includes a set of BD offsets), 1 set of nuts (including micro)
  • 8 slings, 4 draws
  • Steph (I jugged Pitches 2&3): 1 ascender + 1 easy aider + 1 daisy + 1 gri-gri; John (John led Pitches 2&3): 1.5 etriers + 2 easy daisy chains

TIME STATS


Aug 2009Sept 2017
Car to base ~1 hour 37 minutes
Fix first 3 pitches (afternoon before)6 hours 45 minutes 0
Climb route13 hours 15 minutes (jug first 3 pitches + climb to top) 7 hours 15 minutes
Descent (top to car)? 1 hour 46 minutes
Total car-to-car ~18.5 hours (does not include time spent fixing the day before) 10 hours 2 minutes


PHOTOS

Note: Various route topos show the route as anywhere between 10-14 pitches. In August 2009, Clint and I climbed the route in 12 pitches (plus the scramble to summit), as per Clint's topo above. This is similar to the SuperTopo breakdown. In September 2017, John and I climbed the route in 10 pitches, by combining Clint's pitches 7&8 and 11&12. This is similar to the pitch breakdown in Herrington's Cascades Rock.

Photos:Photo descriptions:Photos:Photo descriptions:
Aug 2009Sept 2017
Approach 
~45 min. The trail starts at a little pond next to HWY 20 just E of the cresting Washington Pass. Park near it (nice pullout on the north side of highway shortly east of pond). Skirt the left side of the pond and head up a path through the forest, eventually breaking out in talus field under the east face of Liberty Bell. The start of the route is obvious (look for the white streak through the roof 120 ft above the ground). The last portion of the approach has some snow until mid summer.
1.   
2.   
1-2. Some appropriate highway signs near the start of the trail.
1.   
2.   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
1. Leaving HWY 20 at the entrance to the climbers' path up to the east side of Liberty Bell.
2. Hiking the boulder fields up to the base. The trail has gotten so much easier to find since I climbed the route with Clint in 2009.
Pitch 
0.5
4th or low 5th, 100 feet. From snow or talus at the base, scramble up an exposed but easy broken ramp (according to our topo, 4th on left, low 5th on right) to a belay spot below Pitch 1.
   

3.3. We accessed the base of Pitch 1 by a broken ramp system on the left.
Pitch 
1
5.10d or C1+, 30m. Climb a steep right-facing dihedral and then up the thin splitter crack past a fixed pitons. Belay at a semihanging comfy stance on two fat bolts about 25 feet below the "Lithuanian Lip".
3.   
3. Steph at anchor at top of Pitch 1 after jugging up it on Day 2.
4.   
5.
4. Looking up Pitch 1. John led this pitch and I followed. We mostly freed this pitch (i.e. no direct aid or jugging), with a few French free moves at some cruxy areas near the top.
5. Higher on Pitch 1.
Pitch 
2
C2 (or 5.13-), 25m. Move up the left facing dihedral (aid) toward the roof (aka Lithuanian Lip). Clip a bolt and fixed pin and aid the single crack over the strenuous roof. Follow a thin crack and bolts above to another semihanging good stance with fat bolts.
4.   
4. Clint aiding Lithuanian Lip on Day 1. About 5 minutes later he took a 20ft whipper over the edge when a piece in a rather flaring placement pulled. Thankfully it was an airy fall, and Clint made it look graceful.
6.   
7.   
8.
6. John leading the Lithuanian Lip.
7. Looking out from under the Lip while following it. I followed this part on belay clipping into the bolt and gear to get through the roof, and then began jugging when I got to the lip.
8. Looking up latter half of the pitch above the Lip.
Pitch 
3
C2 (or 5.11+), 25m. Move up and slightly left from belay following fixed pins and heads. There is an optional hook placement in a pocket. The pitch finishes with a short section of crack and a mandatory single exit free move onto a stance with belay bolts.
5.   
6.   
5. Looking up Pitch 3 from near the bolt anchor as we jug up on Day 2. Real Jumars! (Photo by Clint) 
6. 
C2 hook move about halfway up pitch. (Photo by Clint)
9.   
10.   
11.   
12.
9. John leading Pitch 3.
10. There are a few fixed heads in Pitch 3.
11. I followed with a 1 aider + gri-gri setup. It's easy to get away with this style for a less-than-vertical 2 pitches of jugging.
12. Offset cams work well in the old pin scars on this route.
Pitch 
4
5.10c, 20m. Move up the crack which is mostly 5.9 hand but has a 5.10 crux near the top just as rock quality deteriorates. Belay from beefy bolts on a small ledge.
7.   
7. Steph freeing the pitch (fun!), just above the 5.10 section.
13.   
14.
13. Looking up Pitch 4.
14. John nearing the top of Pitch 4.
Pitch 
5
5.8+, 45m. Climb a steep crack/dihedral system with some loose blocks and flakes. The pitch starts as a narrow chimney. The crack is wide at times, but smaller gear can be found. This is a long pitch and sustained at the grade. Exit right onto a small ledge stance and two bolts.
8.   
8. Steph leading the steep groove.15.15. Looking up Pitch 5. This pitch is fairly sustained 5.8.
Pitch 
6
5.10d, 35m. Climb a right-facing corner with loose blocks and bushes. Lieback right to a top of the "Rotten Block" which overhangs the dihedral. Either climb (aid?) the left side of the block on fixed pins or climb the right side at 5.10d with a new protection bolt. Assuming the Rotten Block stays in place, there is a great belay seat atop the Rotten Block with two bolts.
9.   
10.   
9. Looking up the pitch from near the anchor. You can see Clint sitting on top of the Rotten Block. 
10. 
Clint at the belay on top of the Rotten Block.
16.   
17.
16. Looking down from my belay seat on top of the Rotten Block. I really enjoyed leading this pitch.
17. John laybacking the final move around the Rotten Block. There is a nice bolt here to protect the move. I am not sure if this bolt was there in 2009 (Clint had aided around the left side of the block).
Pitches 
7-9
(in 2009, did this as 3 pitches
7-8
(in 2017, did this as 2 pitches
There are several ways to break up this section of the route, so I have grouped it together. In 2009, we climbed it as 3 pitches (as per Clint's topo), and in 2017 we climbed it as 2 pitches (as per Herrington's Cascades Rock).

5.10d, ~20m. Climb right awkwardly (10d) in the flaring chimney around the rotten block. Continue up an easier (5.9) left-facing corner ramp. Clip a bolt (optional belay), and...

5.10a, ~10m. Continue over an overlap (10a) onto the ramp above to a stance with a piton and crack. Or continue onward...

5.8, ~25m. Move up and left following a cool juggy quartz features to a ledge with a large tree below a chimney. Depending on if you have stopped to belay or not yet, either belay here or continue onward....

5.6, ~30m. Climb the chimney (5.6). Belay above from large trees at the base of a (initially) low angle, left-facing dihedral.
11.   
12.   
13.   
14.   
11. Steph jugging up corner on Pitch 7. Nice shadow of Liberty Bell below. 
12. Clint below the tricky move over the overlap. We had set an intermediate belay at the single bolt to make this first pitch very short. 
13. Looking down from the belay ledge above the juggy quartz features and the 5.6 chimney. This was our Pitch 8.
14. Clint at the belay below the 5.6 chimney, which was our Pitch 9.
18.   
19.   
20.   
21.   
22.   
23.
18. John just past the burly crux moves at the start of Pitch 7.
19. The overlap onto a ramp above. In 2009, we had belayed just below this overlap, but this time we combined it with the previous section.
20. An old piton in the ramp. There are lots of old pitons on this route.
21. Looking up at the 5.6 chimney section. This was on Pitch 8. John had extended Pitch 7 all the way up to the ledge below the chimney.
22. A broken tree at the belay at the top of the chimney (this is not the same tree as in the photo of Clint to the left), but rather at a belay ledge above the chimney.
21. A smoky view out towards the Wine Spires. Summer 2017 was a bad one for fires in Washington and BC.
Pitch 
10
9
5.9, 60m. Climb an excellent left-facing corner (some fixed pins). It might be easier to step left shortly before the dead snag and then step right just above it, but maintaining the corner works as well and is great climbing. Continue upwards and belay at a tree. 
15.   
15. Steph free climbing the 5.9 corner. This is one of the finest pitches of the route.
24.   
25.   
26.
24. Looking up the corner from the ledge with the broken tree.
25. John climbing the first half of the corner. (I had linked this part of the pitch in with the previous, but I would suggest just belaying at the nice ledge with the broken tree and leading the corner was one pitch, which is how the pitch is described in most route descritpions/topos).
26. John leading the second half of this pitch. He stayed in the corner the whole way, but it might be easier to step left for a few moves just before the snag and then go back into the corner.
Pitch 
11
10a
(in 2017, simul-climbed with next)
4th to 5.7. Climb up a low-angle corner which ends in easier terrain on the shoulder of Liberty Bell. 
16.   
16. Steph at the belay at the tree at the top of the pitch.
27.   
28.

27. Near the start of the pitch.
28. Easy 4th class traverse to the rappel anchors.
Pitch 
12
10b
(in 2017, simul-climbed with previous)
3rd-4th. Traverse easy gravel ledges left to intersection with Beckey Route. 
17.   
17. Easy 4th class traverse to anchors or to intersect Beckey route. The summit is above to the right.
Pitch 
13
11
4th-5.6. To Summit: Follow last pitch of Beckey Route to summit (mostly 4th with a short section of 5.6 slab).
To top rap anchor: Continue traversing roughly level until you see a double bolt rap anchor on a steep wall (look down a bit).



Top! 
yay!
18.   
19.   
18. Twilight from the summit. 
19.
 
Clint on the summit. Success! Now, for the descent....
Since John and I had both already been to the summit of Liberty Bell a few times, we felt no pressing need to tag it, so instead we headed directly to the rap station.
Descent 
Downclimb last pitch of Beckey Route to a double bolt rap anchor on a steep wall overlooking the Liberty Bell-Concord Tower notch (look down a bit to spot it). Make two 25m rappels (second is on a bolted rap anchor as well) into the Liberty Bell-Concord Tower notch. Hike down the notch (snow or unpleasant scree) to the climbers trail running along the base of the west faces of the Liberty Bell formations. Hike it down until the junction with the main Blue Lake Trail is encountered (about 1 hour from notch). Turn right onto Blue Lake Trail and follow it (30-45 minutes) until the highway becomes visible as the trail makes a sharp left turn. Leave the trail and hike directly to the highway. Hike along the highway about 1 mile back to your car near the pond (of if you have 2 cars, park a car at a small pullout on the north side of the highway near where you exit the trail).
20.   
20. Clint rappelling into the darkness.
29.   
30.   
31.   
32.   
33.   
34.
29. At the top rap anchor.
30. Scrambling down the Liberty Bell - Concord gully. We ran into another team that had climbed the NW Face of Liberty Bell.
31. Late afternoon sun and smoke from forest fires. It had cleared up a bit as the day had gone on.
32-33. John stopped to pee and the mountain goats came running.
34. Back on the road, 10 hours after we left it.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 20, 2017 (Thu);  Partner: DR

Route Overlay

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Trip Report

Due to rain-induced-last-minute-change-to-plans, DR and I met at the Blue Lake Trailhead at noon. The Northwest Face of Liberty Bell seemed like a good choice for a short day of climbing. We enjoyed just being out climbing (especially on dry rock), but our impression was that the route is a bit overrated. But worth doing if you've done the other classics at the Pass and are looking for something new, or looking for a route with a great position. The positive aspects of the route: off the beaten track (so probably will have it to yourselves), cool and windy (positive thing if it is a hot day), an awesome position and summit, and Pitch 4 is great 5.9 climbing. The negative aspects of the route: the first couple of pitches are grungy and unremarkable, cool and windy (negative for a cool day), and a somewhat difficult-to-find approach (although it is easy to find if you know where you are going, see my annotated photo below showing how to access the ledge below the route). We did the 5.10d Remsberg variation for Pitch 3, which was excellent; the last 40 feet of the pitch does not take gear, but there are 2 bolts which protect the 2 cruxes (when you are up there on the insecure move that ends the pitch, imagine Remsberg up there on the first ascent, 40 feet above his last piece...).

Concord Tower (7,560')

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 9, 2013 (Tue);  Partner: Jenny Abegg

Route Overlay

I stole this from SuperTopo.

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Trip Report

I had climbed all of the spires at Washington Pass except Concord Tower and Lexington Tower, so after our climb of the West Face of NEWS, my sister and I decided to do a quick and easy link-up of Concord and Lexington. The link-up involved climbing the North Face (5.7) of Concord, rappelling into the notch between the two towers, and then climbing the North Face (5.7) of Lexington. The North Face of Concord Tower is a bit meandering with featured and somewhat loose (looking) rock, but it is a fun little adventure. The climb up took us just over an hour and the descent (2 rappels down the south side) to the Concord-Lexington notch took 10 minutes.

Lexington Tower  (7,560')

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: June 20, 2015 (Sat);  Partners: Danh Ngo & Will Surber

Route Overlay

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Trip Report

This route follows a crack and chimney system splitting the middle of the steep 800-ft tall east face of Lexington Tower. Depending on whether or not you like wide climbing, this route either intrigues you or scares you. I like how offwidths and chimneys can make even 5.8 have a burly "how do I get up that?!" feel (and it seemed that Will and Danh did too) so we all enjoyed this route. My favorite part of the route was the three pitches comprising the middle portion of the route: the 5.8+ cracks and corner leading up to the dead-end chimney, the foot traverse rightward from the dead-end chimney, and the chimney with the wedged chunk of 2x4 and extraneous bolt.

We climbed this route as a group of three, splitting leads evenly. This slowed us down a bit, but also made it more of a fun social climb with more of a cheerleading squad for the offwidths.

Note on descent: Since we climbed on two ropes, we decided we would rappel the route. We made it to the ground in 7 double-rope rappels by linking together a series of slings with rap rings as well as a couple of bolted anchors for the next-door route Tooth and Claw. We felt pretty lucky that we never had a stuck rope during our rappels, as there seems to be a high potential for the ropes to get stuck. Indeed, the standard and less risky tact is to walk off the west side. But the benefit of rappelling the route is that you can leave approach shoes at the base and bring an ice axe and crampons to make the snowfield at the base cruiser.

Note on gear: This climb takes a lot of wide gear. In addition to a double rack to #3, we brought a #6, #5, and two #4's (we meant to bring only one #4, but we had a miscommunication and brought two). The rack was a little too heavy for climbing comfort, and I think that a single #6 (or #5, but the #6 was a bit more useful) and a single #4 and doubles to #3 would be sufficient; the wide crux sections are short.

All in all, a fun and rewarding day in good company.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 9, 2013 (Tue);  Partner: Jenny Abegg

Route Photo

I seem to have neglected my route overlay duties on this trip.

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Trip Report

I had climbed all of the spires at Washington Pass except Concord Tower and Lexington Tower, so after our climb of the West Face of NEWS, my sister and I decided to do a quick and easy link-up of Concord and Lexington. The link-up involved climbing the North Face (5.7) of Concord, rappelling into the notch between the two towers, and then climbing the North Face (5.7) of Lexington. The North Face of Lexington Tower is a short and athletic low-fifth adventure finishing with a cool ridge scramble to the summit. The climb up took us 40 minutes and the descent (downclimbing the ridge and then making 2 rappels down the route) back to the Concord-Lexington notch took 20 minutes.

Minuteman Tower  (~7,000')

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: August 28, 2009 (Fri);  Partner: David Kiehl

Route Overlays

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Trip Report

THIS TRIP REPORT IS STILL MOSTLY IN THE EMBEDDED HTML FORMAT OF MY OLD WEBSITE.

Overview of the Climb

The Route

Minuteman Tower is on the east side of the Liberty Bell group at Washington Pass. It is dwarfed by its larger neighbors, but the tower's East Face is a great place to spend a day. The whole route offers fun and challenging climbing, and the 5.8 handcrack on the upper shield is one of the best in the area.
The Liberty Bell group from the east, from HWY 20. The arrow on the sign shows the location of Minuteman Tower, dwarfed by Lexington Tower on its left and Liberty Bell on its right. Minuteman Tower is really a part of Concord Tower.
(Click on image to enlarge)

Gear

  • 1 60m rope (rappel anchors every 30m)
  • Medium rack up to 2-inches (with 3 2-inch cams for handcrack pitch)
  • 10 slings, a few of them long for some roof moves

Getting There

The approach is the same as for Liberty Crack. Drive SR 20 to a few hundred yards E of Washington Pass. There's a little pond next to the road; park near it and unload your stuff. Skirt the left side of the pond and head up the treaded path through the forest, bearing SSW until you break out into the talus field under the east face of Liberty Bell. Traverse under Liberty Bell and to the left side of the Minuteman near the base of the gully between Lexington Tower and MInuteman Tower. There might be snow at the base until late summer. About 1 hour to the base of the route.


  Pitch-by-Pitch Photo Trip Report

Getting ready for the climb
Photo 1: The new age of route beta.
Photo 2: Night photography at our camp at the car.
Pitch 1
Pitch 1: 5.7. Climb a corner up the left side of Minuteman.

Photo: Steph leading up the fun corner.
Pitch 2
Pitch 2: 5.8. Climb over a roof on a block and traverse to the right on thin face moves and then a roof into a crack system.

Photo: David leading the initial roof move over the block. There are great holds and jams along the top of the block. Liberty Bell is in the background.
Pitch 3
Pitch 3: 5.7. Continue up the crack system to top of the large apron, then traverse right below roofs to below the chimney or crack variation.

Photo: David at the belay at the top of Pitch 2. Pitch 3 climbs the crack above him, and traverses under the first roof (where the rock changes color in the photo) to the below the right corner of the summitblock in the photo.
Pitch 4
Pitch 4 (chimney option): 5.8. Climb weathered rock up to the chimney, and climb over chockstones to a nice ledge belay where the chimney jogs left.
Pitch 4 (crack option): 5.10. Traverse left to a splitter finger/hand crack to the left of the chimney, climb the crack past a diheral, and pull a roof/flake to gain handcrack on shield. (Click here for a better description from someone who actually climbed this variation.)

Photo 1: Looking up Pitch 4. From the bush in left-center, the chimney is to the right, and the 5.10 crack is gained by traversing left.
Photo 2: Despite the extra motivation of the 3 nuts I cleaned in the chimney, we found the chimney to have fun and good climbing (particularly the upper chimney).
Pitch 4.5
NOTE: With a 50 or 60m rope, the second half of the chimney can be combined with either the first half of the chimney below, or the handcrack above. We chose to combine the upper chimney with the handcrack on the shield since the chimney jogs left halfway through at a nice belay spot.

Pitch 4.5 (chimney option): 5.8. Continue up the second half of the chimney, and pull a fun roof/block move to gain the top of a pedestal. The top of the pedestal provides easy access to the handcrack on the shield. We combined this short upper chimney with the handcrack on the shield for what we agreed was the best pitch on the route.
Pitch 4.5 (crack option): 5.10. This apparently involves pulling a burley roof/flake somewhere just left of the top of the pedestal in order to gain the handcrack on the shield. (Click here for a better description from someone who actually climbed this variation.)

Photo: David climbing the upper chimney, which offered some great climbing, particularly the move pulling onto the pedestal just above him on the left. You can see the start of the handcrack of the upper shield above him.
Pitch 5
Pitch 5: 5.9. Climb the stellar 5.8 handcrack on the upper shield, with a short crux 5.9 move near the top where the crack narrows to fingers. The handcrack is about 30m long, and can be combined with the upper chimney below without rope drag (as we did).

Photo 1:Looking up the handcrack to the belay at the top. One of the best 5.8 handcracks in the area!
Photo 2:Looking down the handcrack from the belay. The crack narrows to fingers for the final move, but this is a short 5.9 crux.
Pitch 6
Pitch 6: 5.6. Climb/traverse easy cracks/ledges/blocks to the top of Minuteman Tower. Enjoy the rope drag.

Photo: Steph near the top of Minuteman Tower. This photo was taken from the rappel anchor where Minuteman meets Concord Tower. Look closely - I appear twice in this photo!
Descent
Descent: There is a rappel anchor where the Minuteman meets Concord Tower. From here, rappel into the gully between Minuteman and Liberty Bell. There seem to be rap anchors on either the Minuteman or Liberty Bell side, every 30m or so on trees and horns. We rapped a route on the Minuteman side of the gully.

Photo 1: David at the rappel anchor where the Minuteman meets Concord Tower.
Photo 2: David beginning the rappel into the gully between Liberty Bell and Minuteman. There is a bit of downclimbing after the first rappel.
Etc....
The climb up the East Face of Minuteman gives great views of Liberty Crack on the adjacent towering walls of Liberty Bell. I enjoyed looking at Liberty Crack from this perspective, since I had climbed Liberty Crack in early August.

Photo: Climbers fixing the first 3 pitches of Liberty Crack. Lithuanian Lip (Pitch 2) is on either side of the climbers.

North Early Winter Spire (7,760')

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: June 27, 2015 (Sat);  Partner: John Plotz
Date: August 11, 2017 (Sat);  Partner: Cindy Beavon

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Trip Report 1 (June 2015)

It was 100° in the lowlands, so John and I decided to stick to north or northwest facing routes. We began the day with a lap on the Northwest Corner of NEWS. The highlight of this route is an obvious 3-4" corner crack that comprises a pitch and a half of the route. John had climbed this route a couple of times before, but I had not, so I got dibs on the corner pitch. What a fun lead! I found that the first 15 feet or so was the most challenging section of offwidth, and after this I could get pretty decent hand jams and also some face holds appeared. Erring on the safe side, we had brought two #4 and two #3 pieces. After the first 15 feet or so, smaller sizes fit back in the crack, so I ended up having an extra #4 when I finished the pitch. I felt no need for a #5.

The standard descent has always been to rappel to the notch between NEWS and SEWS and scramble down the gully and then rappel over a chockstone, but instead we decided to descent by the recently-established rap route down the right side of the west face of NEWS. This is 6 bolted rap stations. Our 60m rope was sufficient, but just barely, as there is one rappel—the third I think—where we had to reach down to clip our daisies to the anchor and then let the rope slide through the belay device - knots are a good idea! Overall this new rappel line is a nice alternative to the somewhat chossy and sometimes snow-filled gully.

It had taken us an hour and a half to climb the route and about 35 minutes to rappel back to the base. It was still only mid-morning, so we moved onto the next northwest-facing climb of the day: the Northwest Face of SEWS.

Trip Report 2 (August 2017)

Cindy had never climbed any routes on North Early Winter Spire, so we decided to do a link-up of NW Corner followed by the West Face. We swung leads on Northwest Corner, with me leading the even pitches (conveniently, the ones I had not led when climbing the route with John a couple of years previous) and Cindy leading the odd pitches (which gave her the awesome 5.9+ corner pitch). It was one of those perfect summer days, pleasant temperatures in the morning shade and 70° by afternoon with a light breeze.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 16, 2006 (Sun);  Partner: Clint Cummins
Date: July 9, 2013 (Tue);  Partner: Jenny Abegg
Date: August 11, 2017 (Fri);  Partner: Cindy Beavon

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Trip Report 1 (July 2006)

After climbing the East Buttress of South Early Winter Spire, we had one more day of climbing before Clint had to fly back to California, so after the we decided our final route would be the West Face of North Early Winter Spire, a classic climb known for its exposure and long right-slanting 5.10a-d crack at the top. The approach to the climb was pretty easy (just over 1 hour via the Blue Lake Trail). We climbed the route in 7 pitches, although the route can easily be climbed in five pitches by linking Pitches 1&2 and 5&6. A pitch-by-pitch route description for our 2006 climb is as follows:

- PITCH 1/2 - 5.7/5.8 grove to a 5.6 chimney and past some rope-drag-generating blocks and trees. Led by Steph, who doesn't like chimneys, but found this to be a friendly chimney with lots of good protection. We linked these two pitches into one.
- PITCH 3 - A fun 5.9 corner and cracks. Led by Clint.
- PITCH 4 - An airy 5.8 lieback on an unprotectable 5-inch flake to an airy 5.9 undercling where you have to trust your shoes' friction. Led by Clint.
- PITCH 5 - This is where the real crack climbing starts. It begins with a 5.11a finger crack (surprisingly good finger locks) and ends with a short airy traverse to a 5.8 crack section. The protection is good. I felt surprisingly solid for this being my first 5.11a crack. Led by Clint.
- PITCH 6 - The crack continues, this time as a 5.10b finger crack which becomes easier and wider (eventually 5.9 hands). Led by Clint.
- PITCH 7 - Starts with an airy 5.7 traverse across the face to a 5.6 crack up to the top. Led by Steph.

We had started the route late (11:15am) so we could climb in the sun, and had to wait an hour at the first belay for a slower party ahead of us (one of the guys in this party we had seen at the base of the Great Gendarme on Mt. Stuart the weekend before!), but we topped out at 4pm. It was pretty cool to find Clint's entry in the summit register from his climb of the SW couloir with his dad in 1974 (this had only been the 27th ascent of North Early Winter Spire at the time). We wrote our summit register entries on a page that someone had torn out from Clint's Index guidebook.

The descent involved making 3 single-rope rappels into the notch between NEWS and SEWS, then a few minutes of class 3 scrambling, then a free-hanging rappel off a chockstone, a few more minutes of class 3 scrambling, and finally a short rappel to the base of the spire. In all, the descent took us 45 minutes. We saw some gear about a pitch high on the north side of South Early Winter Spire.....looks like the climbing gets pretty difficult after that but someone appears to be trying....

Trip Report 2 (July 2013)

Seven years later, I climbed this route again with my sister. It was just as fun the second time.  

Trip Report 3 (August 2017)

Cindy had never climbed any routes on North Early Winter Spire, so we decided to do a link-up of Northwest Corner followed by the West Face. We block led on the West Face, with me leading the route up to the upper shield and Cindy finishing off the route with the splitter 5.9-5.11a fingers money pitches up the upper shield. It was one of those perfect summer days, pleasant temperatures in the morning shade and 70° by afternoon with a light breeze.

South Early Winter Spire (7,807')

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 15, 2006 (Sun);  Partner: Clint Cummins

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Trip Report

After two stellar alpine climbs near Leavenworth - the North Ridge of Mt. Stuart and the Burgner-Stanley on Prusik Peak, Clint and I headed north to Washington Pass to cooler weather to finish off our 9-day climbing trip. The East Buttress of South Early Winter Spire sounded fun, being the classic route on the South Spire, first done by Beckey as a 2.5 day ascent.

We hiked the Blue Lake Trail on the west side and stashed our boots and extra stuff at the base of the South Arete descent route (took us just under 2 hours to get to base of South Arete). We had worried about the traverse to the base of the East Buttress from here, but we were happy to find it snow-free and relatively friendly, and 1.5 hours later we were beginning the climb. **For more detail about the approach/deapproach options, see my note below in my brief trip report for The Southern Man.**

Two easy pitches led to a tricky 5.9+ roof, followed by a short 5.8 crack and roof to the bolt ladders of the 5th and 6th pitches (5.11 without aid). Here the route traversed around the buttress crest giving some great exposure. I managed to free the first 5.11 section and Clint freed the second. The final three pitches of the climb were easier, but gave great exposure. From the summit of the spire, the 360° view of the surrounding North Cascades was great.

The climb took us just over 5 hours of climbing, and the downclimb+2 rappels descent down the South Arete took an hour.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: June 24, 2015 (Wed);  Partner: Janet Arendall
Date: May 27, 2018 (Sun);  Partner: John Plotz

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Trip Report 1 (June 2015)

The Hitchhiker is a phenomenal route on the near-vertical walls on the south side of South Early Winter Spire. It is located about 100 feet to the right of The Passenger, another phenomenal route on the wall. I climbed these two routes on back-to-back days (Passenger the day after Hitchhiker), and could not decide which route I liked better. Either way both of these routes are tied as my favorite route at WA Pass. The two routes are quite different in character. The Hitchhiker is mostly steep, technical face climbing with lots of lead bolts and only occasional sections of crack climbing. The Passenger has lots of steep crack climbing with a powerful crux and only small, short sections of face climbing with very few lead bolts. Both routes are definitely worth doing. I felt like The Hitchhiker was a fun cruise, while The Passenger was a bit more at the edge of my leading comfort zone. Some day I want to do a "Passhiker" or "Hitchenger" link-up. That would a be a great day of climbing indeed.

Thanks Janet for driving 5.5 hours (both ways) for a day on Hitchhiker. You cruised the cruxes!

On the descent of the South Arete, we came across a mountain goat half-way to the summit. He knows where to go to get the best view.

Trip Report 2 (May 2018)

When Memorial Day weekend came with a perfect warm spring day forecast, it was the perfect time to climb The Hitchhiker again. My friend John (who has climbed the route at least half a dozen times by now) was the perfect partner for this adventure. We approached via the Hairpin turn on HWY 20, since the spring snowcover was down to the road (I had not approached this way before but I would definitely recommend it in the spring when the snow covers the scree and provides a quick and direct highway to the south side of the spires). The Hitchhiker was every bit as awesome (and challenging!) as I remembered it to be three years previous. Since John is the enduro king, I was able to follow all of the pitches and aim for following the route quickly and cleanly; for the most part I was successful, except for the three or so short 11 moves where the nearby bolt was all too tempting to C1, darn it! The Hitchhiker is definitely one of the best routes at Washington Pass, and I will no doubt be back to climb it again.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: June 27, 2015 (Sat);  Partner: John Plotz

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Trip Report

It was 100° in the lowlands, so John and I decided to stick to north or northwest facing routes. After a lap on the Northwest Corner of NEWS, we headed for the Northwest Face of SEWS. This route features some good challenging climbing: a couple of committing 5.10c-ish layback sections on the first pitch, a sustained and techy 5.11a arching corner layback thing on the second pitch, and the famous Boving Roofs (our third pitch) involving steep, pumpy, mostly hand-sized jamming horizontally for more than 25 feet. Above the Boving Roofs, the route intersects the Southwest Rib route, which we simulclimbed to the summit. My favorite part of the route was leading the Boving Roofs, since this double roof system has always intrigued me every time I'd walked by the west side of SEWS.

By the time we finished the Northwest Corner, the whole west side of the spires was baking in the sun, so that was it for the day. We headed back down to the mosquito-infested parking lot. What a fun day.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: June 25, 2015 (Thu);  Partner: Jordan Deam
Date: July 23, 2017 (Sun);  Partner: DR

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Trip Report 1 (June 2015)

The Passenger is a phenomenal route on the near-vertical walls on the south side of South Early Winter Spire. It is located about 100 feet to the left of The Hitchhiker, another phenomenal route on the wall. I climbed these two routes on back-to-back days (Passenger the day after Hitchhiker), and could not decide which route I liked better. Either way both of these routes are tied as my favorite route at WA Pass. The two routes are quite different in character. The Passenger has lots of steep crack climbing with a powerful crux and only small, short sections of face climbing with very few lead bolts. The Hitchhiker is mostly steep, technical face climbing with lots of lead bolts and only occasional sections of crack climbing. Both routes are definitely worth doing. I felt like The Hitchhiker was a fun cruise, while The Passenger was a bit more at the edge of my leading comfort zone (in a very rewarding sort of way). Some day I want to do a "Passhiker" or "Hitchenger" link-up. That would a be a great day of climbing indeed.

Thanks Jordan for joining me on this climb. It was great fun to push our selves on a route like this. Great work on that 12a crux!

The goat we had spotted on the South Arete the previous day was still there, getting himself established for the weekend of climbers depositing their salty urine at the top of the climbs.

Trip Report 2 (July 2017)

I haven't climbed too many 5.11 routes in Washington, but this one has to be one of the best. I think I enjoyed it even more the second time. DR and I swung leads, with me taking the odd pitches and DR taking the even (the even pitches are in general a bit harder and have more of the cruxy sections and face climbing, while the odds are mostly 5.10 crack climbing). For me, Pitches 1 and 4 are the hardest pitches on the route: Pitch 1 is an awkward and strenuous way to start the day, and Pitch 4 contains the psychological as well as physical crux and an awkward chimney thing at the end. After Pitch 4, it's mostly awesome 5.10- climbing to the top!

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: June 21, 2015 (Sun);  Partner: Wayne Wallace

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Trip Report

This route was first climbed in 2008. Named after a Neil Young song, The Southern Man splits off from the East Buttress route about halfway up and climbs the south-facing headwall on the upper south side for 5 pitches to the summit. The headwall pitches are steep and sustained 5.10 to 5.11 crack climbing, mostly fingers, with excellent finger locks. The 5.12a crux on the second headwall pitch is a short bulgy section with bad feet. Overall the rock is clean and solid for being a relatively new route on the wall.

Wayne and I soloed the first couple of pitches of the East Buttress, swung leads for the next few pitches of the lower East Buttress, then Wayne led the first four headwall pitches, and I led the final headwall pitch to the top of the spire. On the second headwall pitch, which had the crux of the route, Wayne stepped in an aider on the crux 5.12a section and a couple of the steeper 11b sections, while I attempted to completely free this pitch and resorted to pulling on a piece of gear for two moves; we both freed all of the other portions of the route cleanly. Wayne strung together the third and fourth headwall pitches into a single 185-ft lead, which was a pretty impressive bit of climbing given the strenuous and sustained 5.11 nature of the third pitch. The headwall pitches had some great climbing. Wayne and I both enjoyed the route, with our main complaint being that we wished the route had more pitches of headwall and less of East Buttress. The climb from the base of the East Buttress to the top took us 5 hours. The scramble down the South Arete took us just under 30 minutes.

Note on approach/deapproach logistics: There are two options: (1) Park at the hairpin turn, clip all your gear on your harnesses and backpack the rope, scramble up gullies directly to the East Buttress, climb the route with everything you brought with you, descend the South Arete, hike out the Blue Lake Trail with your gear clanking on your harnesses, and hitch-hike/walk/pick-up your car at the hairpin turn; or (2) Park at the Blue Lake Trailhead, put your gear in comfortable backpacks, hike up the Blue Lake Trail to the notch below the South Arete (took us 60-70 min), drop your heavier backpacks and approach shoes here, scramble around the south face to the base of the East Buttress (took us 30-35 min), climb the route, descend the South Arete, hike out the Blue Lake trail with your gear in a backpack, and arrive back at your car that is already at the parking lot.

We chose Option 2. I think it takes perhaps an hour longer to get to the route via this option, but we were not pressed for time on this climb, so overall we were glad for expending an extra hour for comfort. However, the 30 minute scramble along the south side in climbing shoes is not exactly a walk in the park. On the south side of SEWS, we came across some mountain goats with some very young babies; at first I thought "oh, cute, let me get some photos!" but it quickly became apparent that the mother goats were particularly anxious and threatened by our presence, and having a 200-lb beast topped with a pair of sharp horns slowly approaching you with a somewhat menacing glare in her eyes on terrain that she can bound across at about 10x the speed you can is a bit nerve-racking....but in the end we made it to the base of the East Buttress without a goring incident....

All in all, a great day at WA Pass. I really enjoy climbing with Wayne. With Wayne, I always feel we can get up just about anything. And quickly too.

Wayne's brief report: https://waynewallace.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/southern-man-sews/.

This route inspired an obsession with the south side of SEWS, and a couple of days later was back to climb The Hitchhiker and The Passenger, which many consider to be a couple of the best routes at WA Pass.

Dates I've climbed this route:
Date: July 8, 2013 (Mon);  Partner: Jenny Abegg

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Trip Report

The SuperTopo guide notes that the Southwest Rib of SEWS is "possibly the best 5.8 rock route in the state". The route is indeed a fun one (but the "best," that's a tough decision!), with a variety of climbing on solid rock. The only variation we took was on Pitches 4 and 5, when the topo ambiguously led us to continue along the exposed 5.0 ledge a bit too far, but we were able to link back into the route by climbing a fun 5.6 corner. From ground to summit took us just over three hours, and from summit to ground (via downclimbing and making 2 rappels on the South Arete route) took us about 40 minutes. What a great way to spend a summer day!

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