TR Chair Peak (WA)

After last week's hours of driving, I was looking for someplace closer to home. And it had been long enough since I had last climbed Chair that I had forgotten most of the unappealing aspects. (Can you shout, 'Rock!'?)

Since I had assured Connie that it would be 'fun and easy', she met me Sunday morning and we headed up the Snow Lake trail. We took the old Snow Lake trail (now signed 'Source Lake Overlook' out to the big rock slide, then headed up to the Chair basin. There is one short rock band to climb or bypass.

Once in the basin we followed the firn as far as we could, then moved into the very loose talus as we labored up to the twin gullies just south of the East Face.

We took the left gully up to a heather ramp which crosses under the 'Tooth' (as opposed to 'The Tooth' which is several mountains away). The ramp leads to a pass south of the Tooth. From there we traversed around on the west side, eventually climbing back up to the top of the left gully. A short (but exposed) class 3 section drops down to the top of the right gully.

(This route bypasses the hardest sections of the left gully, which is dirty, wet, and class 4. Fred Beckey says the right gully is class 5.)

Yet another loose gully led us up to the summit system (there are three summits which are connected by walking trails). We arrived about 2:30 and ate lunch. Somewhere, somehow, we heard pan pipes or flute music. At first I thought it might have been the wind blowing through some wires somewhere, but later it seemed more definitely to be music. In any event, we stayed up there for about an hour, drinking in the views and the sun (even though it was cold enough for the fleece and jackets to come out ASAP).

We returned to the basin via the route we had climbed. If anyone out there feels the need for practicing their rotten, loose, class 3 alpine rock technique, I highly recommend Chair Peak.

As we left the heather ramp and returned to the gully, we saw someone watching us from the base of it. I called out to see if anyone was in the gully, and fortunately no one was. So I warned him not to stay where he was, and he took the hint. This is not a place you want to be if there is someone above you. In fact, we accidentally trundled one precariously balanced rock (torso sized) which we had successfully skirted on our way up. It broke up into dozens of baseball-sized pieces as it ricocheted off the gully walls.

Dave Doneux had told me that there was an easy-to-follow trail from the basin out to the pass between Chair and Snoqualmie, so Connie and I decided to explore that way on our trip out. We did find this trail, which led us down to the top of the old Snow Lake trail. Along the way Connie found several mushrooms, one of which she took a picture of because it was nicely formed.

Finally we walked the old trail out to the new trail, and then back to the car at 7:40. It was decidedly dark when we emerged at the car, but neither of us had to pull out the headlamps. A few more minutes would have made them necessary.

Chair is a wonderful summit, on top of some interesting but scary climbing. It's good that it is not very popular these days, because you take a huge risk if you decide to climb it underneath another party.

Snip of a trip report

>If anyone out there feels the need for practicing their rotten,

Now Mike, there is some decent rock on Chair. Direct East face connecting to the very top of the NE Buttress is a bout the best rock on the peak.

More snip

This is the most practical, if no the fastest way into the basin

The highest and one of the more remote of the immediate Snoqualmie Pass peaks. Thanks for the report.

I've been on the other end of this scenario...We had just about made it to the Caves, on The Grand. We were in the last real steep traversing section when somebody from above cut loose with a few basketball sized missiles...It's amazing how far these thing will travel....

Some of my best climbs (while just peak bagging...) have been chossy 3rd and 4th scrambles...Our own King's Peak is one like that, that I love to climb...

Thanks for the write-up The Rockrat

And it had been long enough since Nice TR Mike. My partner solo'd that route in spring many years ago. Scared himself quite well.

I did it last winter on the N. face in great conditions.

Does anyone know if Chair and Kaletin(sp) can be linked up for a long day trip out of the Snow lakes parking lot?

Before you buy.

(snip)

Try doing it in the winter after the snow and ice solidifies. I found it to be a lot of fun. I think it also sees alot more traffic under winter conditions.

Great TR Mike.

I'm sure it's been done. Traversing directly over would likely be hard, but you could probably drop down the talus fans on the west side of Chair into the Melakwa basin, then climb up it on the other side to Kaleetan. Or you could cross over to the north, go past Chair Peak Lake, and get up to Melakwa pass.

The avalanche danger scares me off from there in the winter. Of course, when the conditions are good for ice, the avalanche danger is probably also low. But my winter climbing is usually non-technical snowshoe trips. I have bad shoulders, and have never gotten into ice techniques.

How bout traversing north from the Tooth, over Hemlock and Bryant to Chair? The drawings in the Beckey guide make it *look* possible.

It looks from Chair like it probably is possible, but I've never been over to Hemlock or Bryant. I'm sure that if you are willing to leave the ridge in places it can (and has) been done.

Bring a rope to rap the North Ridge of Bryant. I tried following the little dotted lines in Beckey's guide UP the North Ridge of Bryant a while back. There wasn't an obvious easy way to solo up that part, so coming down would probably be pretty scary. Maybe I was a little too wigged as I had just come from trying to solo the Roosevelt-Kaleetan traverse.

There is some way-exposed, way-loose crap to try to get over before the low point of the traverse. I backed off. I'm not sure if having a rope would make it much less scary (especially for the second). Anybody here done the R-K traverse?

I felt dejected at backing off to two things in one day (did bag Roosevelt though) so quickly humped over to the Tooth to salvage the day. That clean, bomber rock on the Tooth was very comforting.

I've soloed the N Ridge of Bryant to the Tooth. It's a pretty straightforward trip if you don't mind loose blocks that will only stay in place with downward force and a traverse using roots and branches for hands and dirt ledges for feet over airy drops (N Ridge of Bryant), a substantial elevation loss that you have to regain through steep, dense forest (Bryant to the summit of Hemlock), and the heartbreaker of standing at the narrow gap between Hemlock and the Tooth knowing that you have to backtrack despite spitting distance to the N Ridge route. (I found a somewhat tenuous shortcut straight off the ridge, rather than climb all the way back to where I could traverse the southside of Hemlock). The N Ridge of the Tooth turned out to be pretty cool.

I looked at the traverse over to Chair as I started up Bryant, and it looks very straightforward. Someday I would like to do the whole thing, Chair to Tooth.

My suggestion is that you do it NW to SE so as to avoid having to downclimb or rap the N Ridge of Bryant (I would much rather climb up it than go down it), as well as descending the W side of Hemlock (I would much rather go down it than climb up it.)

Scott

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