Distance: 16.3 mi.
Elevation Gain: 4700 ft.
Although Craig had already climbed Banshee and Main (South) Cowlitz Chimney, he had to go back to the area for Central Cowlitz Chimney so I convinced him to repeat the other two. We had a long day ahead so we left Seattle at about 5:30 AM and reached the Summerland trailhead at 7:30 AM. The trail climbed gently until crossing Fryingpan Creek and then began to switchback uphill more aggressively. We passed a few people milling about around the Summerland shelter on the Wonderland Trail. The Summerland meadow was still partially snow-covered but filled with wildflowers and very pretty. We pulled out our ice axes to cross the steep final snow slope to Panhandle Gap because we had them, but many people were traversing it without ice axes.
Once we reached Panhandle Gap we turned hard left (east) on an obvious climber’s trail toward Cowlitz Chimneys. The trail quickly reached a broad field of wildflowers with intermittent patches of snow. We made a slow climbing southeast traverse toward Banshee Peak, which was a sloping hillside from the south and a sheer cliff face from the north.
After our quick climb up Banshee peak we continued southeast and descended 700 feet into the west basin of Cowlitz Chimneys. We scared off a handful of goats who were hanging out down there as we glissaded down a short snow slope. The chimneys looked pretty improbable from this vantage point but Craig reassured me that there were passable ledges.
We aimed for a small patch of pine trees beneath the main chimney and climbed snow and scree to the trees (Beckey describes going right past a solitary fir and then traversing north behind a fence of bushes, which is pretty accurate), then traversed northwest to a flat area above the trees and at the start of our 4th class scramble. Craig slung a tree to create a belay station and I belayed him across a slabby traverse to a small cave. He was able to protect this exposed traverse with a couple nuts. The cave was already set up with a rappel station so I belayed him from there as he climbed a short chimney that he didn’t end up protecting. Then he belayed me from above until I could bash through some trees to his belay station.
From here we did a climbing traverse with a few steeper sections to the north/northwest toward the summit. Although the climbing was tricky in spots, it was rarely particularly exposed. We reached the summit at 1:15 PM. We had lunch on the top and then retraced our steps to the first rappel station. After rappelling we decided to protect the exposed 4th class traverse again at the beginning of our climb. We picked up our poles and ice axes at the copse where we had left them and then downclimbed some steep scree and slab toward the snow.
We reached the basin quickly by plunge stepping and glissading and then began climbing northwest toward the southwest ridge of Middle Chimney. We left some gear at the base of the climb and then stayed below the ridge to the south. We ended up briefly entering a small moat before landing on a wide, flat sandy area that would make a nice bivy. From here we climbed slightly counterclockwise on easy slabs to the summit. We didn’t spend long on top before heading back to our gear.
We got back on snow briefly to cross the southwest ridge of the Middle Chimey and then did a climbing traverse below Banshee peak, staying below our previous track by a few hundred feet. As we filled up water at one of the small streams in this meadow we saw a very large group of 20 to 30 goats hanging out on a nearby patch of snow. We kept our distance from them as we made our way back to Panhandle Gap. We decided to cut off the climber’s trail and head straight for the gap on steep snow, which wasn’t too intimidating with our helmets and ice axes out and good snow for kick steps. After returning our snow gear to our packs we made quick work of the remaining hike out, enjoying the high meadows at golden hour. We reached the car at 7:30 PM, almost exactly 12 hours after we started.
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Recommended brew: Hop Valley Cryo Stash
Gear Used:
- Aluminum crampons (not used)
- Aluminum ice axe
- Day pack
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Harness
- Helmet
- Mountaineering boots (Craig)
- 30 m half rope
- A few mid-sized nuts and tricams, slings
- Trail runners (Vanessa)
- Trekking poles
- Water drops
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Do you remember what size pro you used on the climb?
Hi Scott. I am pretty sure I just brought 5-6 nuts and then a few slings. On either end of the ‘climbing’ there are trees to easily sling and I think I placed 2 nuts each on the traverse and then then brief climb. I only brought a 30 m half rope because the climbing is quite easy and I mostly wanted it for the repel (and I had done the climb before). Unfortunately I don’t have any better pictures of the climbing. I hope the climb goes well! It’s one of my favorite climbs of volcanic crap!