Saturday, October 7, 2017

Route: Mount Garfield (Middle fork Snoqualmie)

Mountain Information:

 Driving Directions:


  • Elevation: 1,174 ft
  • Pass:  Northwest Forest Pass
  • Directions: 
    • SummitPost: "From Interstate 90, take Exit 34 (34 miles east of Seattle) near North Bend. Drive north off the freeway past a truck stop on the left. At the T-junction about 0.5 miles from the freeway take a right onto Lake Dorothy Road. Continue east on this road. It becomes Middle Fork Snoqualmie River Road (FR-56) in a few miles. It is paved for a while then goes to good gravel (recently regraded). At some point on the road you will see your quarry looming in the distance. Then the forest canopy hems in your views. At 14 miles you will come to the Taylor River Road junction. Continue for 2.6 miles past two switchbacks to the trailhead, which is located at a wide gravel wash that you have to descend a few feet to get into. You may also know it by the redneck paraphernalia littered about: old TVs, old CDs used as skeet targets, milk jugs on sticks, and bullet casings on the ground.."
    • Trip Report: "The trailhead is about 1 hour from Seattle. To get there, leave I-90 at Exit 34 (East of North Bend) and turn East on Edgewick Road. Follow this road 0.4 miles to a stop sign, then turn right on SE Middle Fork Road, which becomes Forest Service Road no. 56. Drive 12.3 miles to the Middle Fork-Taylor River road junction which is just after the Taylor River bridge. Turn Right onto no. 5620 and drive 1 mile to a 5-car pulloff. The trailhead is 100-200 yds further down the road on the left. Hike steeply uphill to the base of the route, 30 minutes if fast. Now, just look for bolts"

Route Information: Mount Garfield / Infinite Bliss







 




Misc 


  • Notes: 
    • There are actually five separate peaks on the Garfield Mountain massif and several lesser crags. Every single one of these peaks requires technical climbing to conquer. The West Peak (4896F, 336P) is 0.9 miles away. It's most notable feature is a 20+ pitch sport route bolted onto the slabs of a southside gully/amphitheater. This sport route is called "Infinite Bliss" and has been spotlighted in several climbing magazines. I reserve no judgment here on the permissibility of this 'bolted' route within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in which the Garfield Mountain massif resides. The East Peak (5480+F, 520P) is 0.4 miles away. A worthy objective unto itself, it is largely forgotten. The North Peak (5101F, 301P) is 0.5 miles away. The last peak and perhaps the most astonishing is just west of the Main Peak. It is called Leaning Spire (5040+F, 120P) and it really does lean and it really is a spire. Its east face rises incredibly above the notch separating it from the Main Peak. Two of the lesser crags are Courte-Echelle, the next large tower to the east of the Main Peak, and Little Flat Top, a small horn in between the two. Outrigger Spire (4960+F, 240P) is located north of the East Peak.
    •  Infinite Bliss, a 23 pitch bolted climb (crux 10c) on Mt. Garfield's West Peak. This impressively long route climbs roughly 2600 vertical feet, and is claimed to be the longest "sport" climb in North America.
    • You would typically set out to climb Garfield Mountain as a day-trip but with the understanding that you may be forced into an impromptu bivy. There are several flat spots on route that could accommodate you. Other than that, there are no designated bivy sites. Of particular note, the base of No. 1 Gully may still have a small trickle of running water in late August.
    • Details from mountainproject.
      • This route is not a sport climb. It is a bolt-protected slab climb, and it is extremely long which means you need to be quick and efficient. In fact, it's quite possible it's the longest bolted climb in the USA and Canada and the second longest in North America. There are sections where runouts can top 100 feet with little to no options for trad gear. However, any move harder than 5.6 is well protected, and the crux pitches are fully-bolted sport pitches.
      • The "parking lot" and approach is at N47.54604, W121.52151, Elevation: 1174'. Simply copy and paste the GPS coordinates, excluding the elevation, into Google Maps and it will tell you how to get there. From the parking lot, the approach is about 45 minutes long and is mostly uphill through switchbacks in the forest. While the trail was not explicitly marked when I climbed the route, it is worn enough that if you are hiking more than a few minutes and it does not look like you are on a trail, you are off route.
      • Pitches 1 - 7: These pitches involves easy, low-angle, somewhat runout climbing on solid slab. The rock can be a bit water-polished. Be careful if there are parties above you because if they knock rock down the rock will blast right through the first six pitches at triple digit speeds. Numerous bent hangers on these pitches are obvious indicators of the rock fall hazard. If you are confident simulclimbing 5.8, the first six pitches are the place to do it.
      • Pitches 8 - 12: The rock starts to steepen here, but the pitches become more closely bolted as the moves get harder.
      • Pitches 13 - 18: Mostly easy climbing. The most runout section is in here. Be very careful not to knock loose rock down on climbers below as the rock quality in this section is fair in some areas. Dont feel bad if you dont find the bolts on P15 as I missed both of them. P16 and 17 have no pro aside from the belay station. The climbing is very easy, but the rock quality is fair and the rock tends to be slightly polished, so be careful.
      • Pitches 19 - 23: These are the hardest pitches, but they are mostly sport-bolted pitches. Both of the 5.10 pitches are well bolted. 
      • WARNING: Rock fall is a serious concern here. Wear a helmet, and once you pass pitch six, be extremely careful not to knock loose rock down on other climbers. The entire route follows a gully slab, and if you knock rock down it will have nowhere to go but right along the route the entire way.
      • Protection: Seventeen quickdraws or 30 if you plan to simulclimb. Bring 2' trad draws as you will get a bunch of drag using only sport climbing draws. You do need two 60m ropes. A 70m or 80m is not long enough. I did not see many worthwhile trad placements when I climbed it as the route is mostly slab. If you really want to bring trad gear, bring a set of nuts, but don’t plan to do much with them.
    • It is "R" rated because you literally climb 200 feet without a bolt over super chossy although easy terrain. Every move harder than 5.7 is well protected.
    • Like many other people we got lost in the chossy section. The intermediate anchor is directly above the first bush WITH slings (80'). It isn't visible from any direction until you're about 15 feet away. From the anchor below the choss to the intermediate is > 200'.
    • Climbing this route with parties above/below is extremely unnerving. On Saturday we saw several golfball-to-softball sized shrapnel pieces come down, and on Sunday we couldn't avoid causing the same, especially over the P15-17 chossfest, both ascending and descending. These pitches are very different from other alpine choss I've climbed: it's a low angle continuous slab, with no blockiness or ledges to halt a major fall, and every hold is suspect, for at least these 400 feet.
    • Why there's no anchor other than the bush between the current P16 and P15 stations is beyond me, it's currently basically impossible to ascend or descend the route without unroping or "simuling with a death pact" -- no gear between. It's very psychologically taxing to climb these two pitches, both on the way up and down, and honestly felt like the crux of the route. Dealing with the double ropes on the chossy low angle rap was a lot of work at a very tired state.
    • The climbing is not that hard, and all the hard pitches, rated 10b, 10c, 10a, are tightly bolted enough that pulling on draws can easily get you up at a 5.9 A0 grade. Our ascent of the 10c pitch was definitely a case of reverting to 5.9 A0 after so much climbing. This route would be 4-stars if it wasn't for the P15-17 choss. The climbing on the rest of the route is fantastic!
    • Pitches 2 and 3 add up to 250' - rapping them with 2x70 left us 20' short (easy but exposed down-scramble). In general, the route appears slightly longer than the indicated 2600'. My GPS (barometric altimeter) indicated 2550' elevation change on rappel, so, given the ~45 degree angle of at least 40% of the route, and some zig-zag here and there, I'd estimate the route to be between 2800' and 3000'. We were, however, able to combine the following rappels just fine with 2x70: 23+22, 20+19, 12+11, 5+4. The 23+22 looked like it would *almost* go with 2x60 (didn't pay attention to how much rope remained on the other ones).
    • Route starts 47.549,-121.5137. The trail has at least 3 branches:
      • a flat horizontal traverse (good trail) that takes you to the slab too early (too low) 
      • an up-and-down traverse (also good trail) that takes you to the route
      • a branch that continues uphill much higher than the start of the route
    • So turn left to get to the route, but take the 2nd left rather than the 1st one. If you have a GPS, longitude 121.5137 is your target (the main trail in the forest goes mostly east-west, the traverses to the slab go north-south). Elevation gain from the road to the start of the route is right about 1000 feet.
    • Be aware that mosquitos will follow you up the rock for quite a way if you're climbing in June, or any hot month. Don't bivy at the base for a quick start. The road is nearby and your car is more comfortable. It's only a 45 minute approach anyways, so just wake up earlier, and avoid doing what I've done. 
    • Bring lots of water, obviously.
    • The chimney pitch can seep so having an addition large cams can be helpful.
    • Route was in good shape on 3 Oct 2017.

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2 comments:

  1. mpreissDecember 9, 2020 at 2:33 PM

    https://www.mountainproject.com/route/119496583/preiss-route

    ReplyDelete
  2. mpreissDecember 9, 2020 at 2:35 PM

    https://goo.gl/maps/N6PuNr8yvGe3yGbf9

    ReplyDelete

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