Mt Washington July 3, 2010

On July 3rd we had a successful summit of Mt Washnigton for Tim Smith on his provisional lead . We encountered snow on the upper trail but were able to get to teh summit block without ice axe or crampons. Snow on teh first pitch required Tim to lead out on a "new' route to the first rappel ledge. Good rap webbing and rings in place for the descent.   Our SPOT II location on this link during the climb.

A summary of Tim's prospectus below:

Climb Team:
1, Tim Smith
2, Mike Niemeyer
3, Justin Clark
4, Chad Mangers
5, Ryan Osborn
6, Robyn Smith

Schedule:

6:30am, We will start by hiking south on the PCT for 3.5 mi. to a climbers cairn marking the climbers trail.

7:30am, Turning east we will head toward the north ridge of Washington. following the contour onto the north ridge
11:00am, We will continue along the last edge of the ridge until turning west to descend around the final pinnacles that lead up to a loose gully and saddle
12:30pm, Here we will don our harnesses and helmets as the next 75 ft. of climbing to the top of the nose is the most difficult on the route
2:00pm, from here we move on to the left leaning chimney where some easy face climbing leads to the top of the nose (Class 4/easy 5) above the nose its unexposed scrambling to a short gully(grade 1)
3:00pm, Summit shots , Happy Times and Prayer Flags a couple of short rappels and down we go by reversing our route. I have decided not to do the standard "scree descent" due to the highly visible scars that it leaves.
7:30pm back to the trail head before we head to Gates for dinner at Sierra

Emergency Contact Info:

McKenzie Ranger District. 57600 McKenzie Hwy, McKenzie Bridge, OR 97413. (541) 822-3381

See route details and GPS from my previous Mt Washington climbs at http://mikessummits.blogspot.com/search/label/Mt%20Washington