Team Harro: North Early Winters Spire

Two days off, beautiful weather, what to do? Drive 7 hours to the North Cascades for a climb!

Earlier this summer I blogged about a climb we did on the South Early Winters Spire. The North is directly beside it. We did the Northwest Corner route, which follows pretty much the leftside of the rock in the picture. The faint white line in the left middle of the rock closer to the top marks the West Face route, next on the to do list. We thought about linking the two, but with just doing one we were able to spend some time in Seattle with Kelly and Jason, cuddle with Patrick, and catch up with Kelly's brother (and our friend) Mark, back from fishing in Alaska (into an early retirement at the ripe age of 24).

We spent the night at the Cutthroat Trailhead, woke up early and started the hike at the Blue Lake trailhead. 1hr15min later and we were flaking out the rope at the base. We were glad for our early start to beat the crowds on a Saturday for this popular area. I led the first couple of pitches, linking the two, beginning with a crack and a short chimney the book rated as a 5.8 (felt a little easier to me) and a short low 5th class to move the belay up. Daniel took the third pitch with 5.8 flakes (these felt way hard to me...possibly even the crux IMHO).

Daniel then took the 4th Offwidth 5.9 pitch. It helps to walk a#4 Cam up the challenging section at the start. An enjoyable pitch that made you work.

I took the fifth 5.9 pitch , starting off with 5.7 friction moves then a 5.9 finger crack and roof. I enjoyed this pitch a lot....easier than the offwidth too! Then the sixth pitch we soloed up a fourth class scramble to the top. It felt sooo good to be in the sun. I forgot it was September but was definitely reminded when I was layering up in the shade in the AM with hats and puffys and capilene and still not incredibly warm. When we rounded the top to the sun it was beautiful, sunny, and clear with no wind. We pawed through the summit registry and soaked in some rays before rapping down taking 3.5 hrs base to base.