Chair Peak
July 9, 2011
Chair Peak (6238')
Eileen and I were looking for a good climb but a short drive on Saturday, so we quickly zeroed in on Chair Peak near Snoqualmie Pass. The easy approach and modest elevation of this peak belies its scrappy nature and route variety. We chose the classic Northeast Buttress route, which reportedly features moderate (Class 4) climbing on solid rock with great exposure. We weren't disappointed. In fact, we had our hands full with this mini "mixed alpine" adventure.
From Sno-Chair Pass on the Snow Lakes Trail, we traversed solid snow slopes over to the Footstool, then went up steeper snow, some rock, and a moat to reach the buttress base. The route starts up a shallow groove that offers Class 3-4 scrambling on surprisingly firm rock, then enters a short stretch of trees and heather. After that, things get interesting and fun. Our route worked directly up the buttress, with great views over to Snow Lake, then traversed leftward across the steep and exposed upper East Face. I think we'd actually wandered slightly off course and ended up climbing through the middle of the "dark band" that crosses the face. Fortunately, there is a reassuring handhold pretty much everywhere you really want one, so the climbing never feels harder than Class 4 or 5.0. Up to this point, we had belayed the route pitch by pitch, just out of caution. From here on, we did running belays up an enjoyable, well-broken, and highly exposed Class 3 rib immediately left of the large summit snowfield, then wandered along the ridge to the summit (6.2 hours from car).
For such a popular peak, we were surprised to encounter only one climber (soloing) on the Northeast Buttress and no other climbers on the summit or anywhere in view. Perhaps the late snowpack is tending to delay the summer rock-climbing season. One thing we can say with certainty is that the late snowpack is delaying the alpine lake swimming season: Snow Lake is still completely frozen over, whereas at this same time last year (also a pretty heavy snow year), it had a large patch of open water. Swimmers might be waiting until mid-August this year!
In hopes of making a faster retreat, we decided to descend via the Southeast Chimney route rather than to downclimb the buttress. We scrambled down the south gully, then made a dicey traverse on rotten rock to reach the chimney-top notch. There are actually two Southeast Chimneys side by side, but the standard route follows the southern one, which is well-marked with rappel slings. We made two single-rope rappels down the drippy, dank chimney, then a third rappel down the steep, narrow snowfinger below it. Setting up for the third rappel gave us some nervous moments because we had to put on crampons while standing in a narrow moat directly underneath a minivan-size snow block. I feared that a loud sneeze might bring the block crashing down on us! Once off the final rappel, we did a full-length roped downclimb of the lower snowfinger to get past several ominous snow breaches. After that, we could breathe easier and enjoy an easy snow descent back to the trail and car (5.8 hours from summit).
Chair Peak from trail
Eileen in the approach moat
Climbing up the approach moat
Eileen scrambling on the NE buttress
Climbing on the upper east face
Scrambling along the south ridge
Alpine Lakes peaks from Chair Peak
Eileen on the summit of Chair Peak
Rappeling down on a SE snowfinger
Backing down the SE snowfinger