4:00am I was awake and by 4:30 I was on the road north. It was over an hour drive to pickup Art at his house near Colville and then we were on the road west. Hwy 20 took us over the Kettle range, through Republic and Tonasket. Gas was nice and cheap at the Spoko Fuel south of Omak and before too long we had made it to the pass.
It was 9:30am when we parked and this was the view we were greeted with. It had rained overnight so everything had a damp glow to it as the sun rose.
That is the object on the left.
The canyon is steep and deep.
We got our packs on and then started the trudge up the approach. We had to hike down to the creek which was in the perfect late season low flow so it was easy to cross.
We popped out of the trees into a avalanche path and hiked the side of it up to the base of the steeper parts. Since it had rained the approach was wet everywhere and was super sketchy.
There is a cool cave that is on the wall lower down and the water is running right down into it from the top. It was super cool and looked to be a pretty big cave, well over 6 feet tall.
It took a while for the sun to shine lower in the canyon and it took forever for us to get sun on the wall.
The path up was a bit funky so we kept having to look at the guide book.
We were not far below the start of the route at 11am.
It was 11:30 when we reached the base of the route. Art lead all the pitches and I followed. He started of at 11:45am on the first pitch.
12:15 he had started the second pitch which just went around the roof and then we had about 400 feet of 3rd and 4th class climbing over fairly mellow terrain. There was one spot that was a 5.2 corner but it was mellow.
This was the view the whole climb. That is the Early Winter Spire group.
The next pitches went by in paced procession and by a little after 3pm we were at the last pitch.
Our reward for the adventure was this killer view of the pass.
The last bit was supposedly 4th class but noway would I have done it without a rope. We called it good at the top of the route. It was 4pm and we started to rappel the route. I had my 70m rope with so we had 115 foot rappels we could do. It took us 5 rappels to get to the top of the second pitch. From there we rappelled once more into the gully where we ended up finding a trail that was WAY easier than the approach and really well flagged. I like an ass had forgot my headlamp in the truck so it was a rush to get down the descent and back up to the truck before dark. We hit the forest and it got dark quick. We managed to find our way through, across the creek, and by Art's headlamp climbed up the hill to the truck. Right as the last bits of glow hit the tops of the Wine Spires to the east. The entire hike down I was pouring sweat. My shirt was completely soaked but I couldn't tell as my body was hot. Near the bottom by the creek I started shivering and had to put my coat on which worked well enough. When we got to the truck I pulled my shirt off and it was dripping.
It took a bit in the truck to settle down before we stated driving back down the pass. We went through Winthrop and got to the Okanogan Forest where we found a forest service road and parked for the night. I crashed in the bed of my truck and he found a spot in the forest nearby. I slept like pure and utter garbage, feeling like I never fell asleep during the night.
The pictures that follow are the ones Art took in chronological order.
It is quite appropriate that we climbed Spontaneity Arete since it was a rather spontaneous decision for us to make the trip. Today we drove back, I dropped Art off and made it home just in time to go pick R up from school. Now I am so tired but have to go work in the gardens to make up for the time I was gone.
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