ount Adams, Lava Ridge, ski descent

On June 25, 2006, Phil Fortier, Sky Sjue, my brother Jason and I skied Lava Ridge, just east of the Lava Glacier Headwall on Mount Adams. The Lava Headwall is a fantastic ski, but constant rockfall discourages repeat descents. Lava Ridge is not quite as steep but has 3000 feet of skiing to satisfy any ski mountaineer’s appetite.

Jason and I skied the North Face of the NW Ridge on the 24th and Jason was tempted to rest his injured knee on the second day. But the nice weather was his undoing and my gain. After Sky and Phil began climbing Lava Ridge we started up the North Ridge to try and catch them. This worked out beautifully. We caught up and skied together directly down Lava Ridge on spectacular snow. The route was moderately steep rolling off to 40-45 degrees toward the middle and bottom. We enjoyed every turn all the way down to the glacier below the ridge. Lava Ridge is one of the best ski routes on the north side of Mount Adams and well worth a return trip.

-Josh Hummel

(The opening photo on this page shows the ski descent of Lava Ridge.)

Gunsight South Peak, South Ridge, New Route

On July 10, 2006, John Frieh and I climbed the South Ridge of South Gunsight Peak across the prominent cannon hole feature. From Blizzard Col we scrambled north eventually cutting down along the east side of the ridge. We roped up at the base of two prominent corner cracks, and I climbed the right one to its top before moving up and right on great face features. From the crest, John led a balanced and airy 5.8 traverse across the cannon hole. From here, a final low-fifth pitch took us to the south summit. To descend, we rappelled the last pitch and then made an overhanging rappel off the ridge to the east.

Grade II, 5.8

-Blake Herrington

Grade I, 5.10c

-Jens Klubberud

We intended to climb the north face of the Black Pyramid the next day but a clean south facing wall got our attention and we changed plans. The wall proved as good as it had looked from a distance. We climbed seven pitches of mostly fun, well-protected cracks to the summit. The highlights were the first pitch 5.10+ left-facing dihedral finger crack, Eric’s mid-wall lead involving some extremely run-out 5.8 chicken-heads, and a 5.11 finger crack through a roof (which I freed on second, but Eric pulled on some gear to get through). We were rewarded with a nice comfortable summit with excellent views and an easy descent via the gully to the west.

Grade III, 5.10+, C1

-Peter Hirst

	Climbing Direct West Face, Pernod Spire. Enlarge. © Ross Peritore

Pernod Spire, Direct West Face, New Route

On July 15, 2006, Tony Bentley and I climbed the Direct West Face of Pernod Spire, the tallest of the Wine Spires near Washington Pass. From the bench west of the spires, we traversed right and climbed the loose, rubbly gully below Pernod Spire. We spotted a potential line left of a large wave-like roof one or two pitches up. I led the 1st pitch (5.8) up nice hand cracks and a corner that led to slabs below the roof. Tony took the 2nd pitch (5.8) up a thin crack and a slab up and right, ending right under the roof. The 3rd pitch was the crux (5.10+). I traversed on slabs left around the roof and launched up an incredible corner with an off-fingers crack. It was steep with a nice bulge. This led to some wild stemming moves and finished with a leftward move into a seam and grooves. The 4th pitch (5.9) started with a leftward step across a slab into more cracks. Intermittent finger cracks led up a full pitch between a corner and a huge freestanding horn.

The 5th pitch (5.10) started with an interesting move right off the belay then an arching corner with a thin finger crack under the lip, followed by a cool move up and over the lip, and finishing with 30ft of fun runout 5.9 face climbing on solid incut edges. Tony led the 6th pitch (5.9) up a broken face and through a little notch and then left on nice cracks. The 7th pitch (5.9) was another nice crack that seamed out for a few moves and brought us up to the ridge crest, where I traversed the airy, narrow ridge until...OH CRAP! We can’t get to the summit from here! A huge, blank, vertical slab stood in the way. We rappelled a full 60m to sandy benches and finished the climb on the 5.10 corner of the Nelson/Bale route, a fine 8th pitch. The summit block has two old aid bolts, the first with no hanger and the second about 1/2 way out of the hole with a loose hanger, providing a couple of exciting moves.

With the sun low on the horizon we made a long rappel to the Pernod-Chablis col. Major rope problems ensued and with shortened ropes we made two more rappels to the snow east of the spires. We returned to our car via Burgundy Col. We thought this was a great route, with varied, sustained climbing, and fun moves on high quality rock.

Grade III, 5.10+, full rack to 4 inches, maybe larger

-Ross Peritore

Grade II, 5.10 to 5.11

-Craig Gyselinck

Grade III, 5.10 C1

-Rolf Larson

	Looking up the West Face of Pernod . Enlarge. © Dan Cappelini

Pernod Spire, Indirect West Face, New Variation

On August 5, 2006, Dan Cappelini, Rolf Larsen and I climbed within one pitch of the summit of Pernod Spire in the Wine Spires via a nice west-facing wall just south of the Burgundy Col gully. The initial wall was four pitches of fine quality granite involving some tricky 5.10 face climbing and beautiful cracks. From the ground, it appeared that a nice ridge led from the top of the wall to the west face of upper Pernod spire, but the ridge was adjacent to a scree gully, which we reluctantly scrambled up. Dan then led past some “belayer-slayer” loose blocks to get to what looked like a splitter hand crack. The crack turned out to be an incipient fingertip-size crack, which I aided through. We followed the knife-edge ridge to the final spire and made a rappel. This lined us up for the final pitch of Nelson’s West Face route, a stellar looking pitch. Due to fading light, we bailed from there.

Grade III+, 5.10 C2

-Peter Hirst