7,662 feet
East Ridge Grade II; 5.7 (attempt)
- Gear Used:
- 60 meter half rope
- gear to 2 inches
- slings
June 17 2008
7,662 feet
The Approach
Ingalls Peak is one of those awesome alpine mountains that you can get to in under 2 hours from Seattle. This is pretty important when you need something to climb in a day. From Seattle you drive I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass and into Cle Elum. Take exit 85 and drive Highway 97 for about 7 miles. Turn left on Teanaway River Road and drive till the end of the road and the Esmeralda/Longs Pass Trail head. There are a few forks in the road that can get a bit confusing for your first time in the area. Just follow the most obvious and most used road and you should end up at the right trail head.
The trail starts off following an old road along the river. Watch carefully as you quickly come to an intersection for the Longs Pass and Ingalls Way trail. The snow started shortly after gaining some elevation as you hike up the slopes. The snow slowed us down a little bit but is wasn't to bad. We tried to stay on the trail as much as possible but for the most part we would just head straight up the slope.
Dylan on the hike to Ingalls Way.
Once we made it up to Ingalls Pass we traversed across the basin. It was still completely covered in snow. This is the first time I have been here with this much snow and it made the approach much easier and faster.
Mt. Stuart always hovering above us.
We eventually reached the couloir that leads to the notch between the South and North peaks. The couloir maybe reaches about 40 degrees. I went to high in the couloir following some tracks before I realized that I have already passed the start of the rock climbing. I down climbed the steepest part and made my way onto a large ledge by the rock bulge.
Ingalls Peak. Our route follows the gully and then moves to the rock on the left and up to the notch.
The Climb
The East Ridge is mostly mid to low 5th class climbing with 1 move of 5.7. We were hoping to simul climb the whole thing so we could rap the South route and then climb back up the south route and go home. What a great day we thought!
We roped in and changed to rock shoes in warm sun on the rock ledges. I zipped off my pant legs as I was feeling pretty warm and was thinking the sun would be beating on the ridge. Dylan put me on belay with a 30 meter rope and I started climbing the easy low 5th rock. Once Dylan ran out of rope he simply took me off belay and followed.
Dylan starting the first and only simul climb.
It took a quick 10 minutes for me to pull up over onto the notch. To my surprise weather was drastically different on the other side of Ingalls Peak! I was in shock for a moment as heavy winds and dark clouds were battering our route. My hands quickly went numb and I decided to put Dylan on belay and bring him up.
A quick glance up the ridge revealed a lot of snow on route and with the new cold temps and strong wind we decided to turn around. I guess we just weren't in the mood to battle our way up a route that we thought would be warm and sunny. We quickly put on our puffy's and gloves and tied our 2 30 meter ropes together. We rapped into the snow gully and slowly down climbed the steep snow to the bottom.
The rappel from the notch.
Dylan coming down the couloir.
Ingalls Peak with the storm cloud that battered us on the East Ridge.
For a minute we thought we might head up to the South Face route but decided we were out of time and started the hike back out to the car. I think it was the right decision to turn around as it would not have been good to get caught on route in a cold storm in the dark. We were able to hike back to the car in sun but every time we turned around to look at Ingalls it was swarming with clouds. We'll be back!