Ingalls Peak (North) - South Ridge

The south ridge of Ingalls North Peak is an exceptional climb on solid rock.  Take exit 85 off of I-90 (close to Cle Elum) and drive west (signs may say north) on Hwy 970 for ~7 miles.  Make a left on Teanaway Rd and continue for ~23 miles.  Make sure you do not cross over the North Teanaway River Fork, but you will follow it for quite some time (you will cross over Beverly Creek).  Continue on the main road, avoiding the left fork (Spur Rd 112) that ends at the Beverly Turnpike trailhead, to the Esmeralda trailhead (Ingalls Lake Trail) parking lot.

Start hiking up the Esmeralda trail for ~0.3 miles.  Make a right on Ingalls Way Trail (trail 1390).  Continue for ~1.3 miles to Longs Pass trail and take the left fork onto Lake Ingalls trail.  You will reach Ingalls Pass in another ~3 miles.

At Ingalls Pass you have two options, the lower trail that passes through the meadow and some trees, and the upper trail that is a bit longer and skirts along the hillsides, losing less elevation.  Both trails are good.  Continue to Ingalls Lake.  There may be a climbers’ trail that takes off left before the Ingalls Lake but after the lower and upper trails join back together, but we missed it.  Drop down to Ingalls Lake and look for a band of grey/black color rock about 5-10 ft wide that runs up the mountain.  This rock is a much different color than the rest of the rock.  This band provides easy terrain that has little scree or talus, though there may be small sections of it.  We chose the band because it seemed to provide the best choice in the rainy/snowy weather we encountered.  Otherwise, there may be more enjoyable paths up the solid rock.  If you are dying for a scree/talus climb, there is a “gully” a little further around the left (west) side of Ingalls Lake.  We chose to ignore it, but it may provide a nice ascent in the snow, especially if there is little to no visibility to route find, which we encountered, and this way would have helped tremendously.  The beginning of it looked like hard talus to pass, so it may be better to join up with the “gully” higher up.  The gully seems to lead directly to the desired saddle between the South Peak and the North Peak.  If you choose to follow the rock band, once you arrive at a flattened section of scree/talus, head far right, climbing down an easy short section of rock/scree and join the scree/talus “gully.”  At this point you should see a climbers’ trail. 

Continue west on the climbers’ trail over the saddle, and head north for a very short way.  If you hike up the first easy terrain to right below a rock outcropping, you will see a nice low-angle ramp leading to the south ridge line of the North Peak.  We ended up climbing this, but after the ramp, there is a short traverse section above a gully of broken rock that is difficult to impossible to protect.  This 40 ft 4th class gully of broken rock is the general route used and can be accessed if you continue further north after passing over the saddle.  Upon our descent, the rock in the gully seemed fairly solid, but does not look it.  Use caution.  Also, use extreme caution if the rock gully is wet.  It seemed to be a more slippery than the rest of the rock in the rain and snow.  At the top of the gully there is a boulder with slings on it for a rappel station.  From the top of the gully, continue on easy terrain for approximately 50 ft to the start of the face of the south ridge and to a large belay ledge with slings around a boulder.

There are supposedly three choices for the first technical pitch of climbing as shown below: a 5.4 crack on the left that may have some exposure half way up (blue), the 5.6 popular Beckey route up a crack in the center (red), and a supposed 5.2 loose and unprotected route on the right (green) (I did not pay attention to this climb, so I have no good opinion of it).  We went up the Beckey route, a very enjoyable route up a low inclined hand sized crack that protects well with ~1 inch gear, though smaller gear is needed in a couple of places (I don't remember much larger gear than 1.5 inches, but I may have used a piece or two, though other places of protection were probably available.  After 115 ft of climbing, you will arrive at a hanging belay station with 2 bolts and a piton.  It looks like all of the routes converge near here.  This belay station was remarkably shielded from the wind gusts we experienced.  Close to this belay station is what appears to be a jade lined crack.  Use caution here.  It did not appear that it would have enough friction to hold active protection.

 

Date: Sept 17, 2007

The next pitch from the belay station tops out over the vertical portion of the ridge in ~30 ft to a low angle class 3-4 ridge line to the summit block (another 50 ft).  Small pieces of pro are required just before getting to the vertical step accessing the top of the ridge line.  There may be mid-sized pro placement at the vertical step, but I don’t quite recall.  Immediately after topping out, there is rappel station with 2 bolts.  The first summit block is visible at this point.  The second one is a short 20ft behind the first one. 

To descend, get to the rappel station at the top of the vertical portion of the ridge line.  A 2-rope rappel (60 m ropes, other combos may work) will take you to the bottom of the technical climbing section.  It is unfortunate that the hanging belay station was placed where it was.  If it was a little further down the cliff, two 1-rope rappels would take you to the bottom of the technical climbing section, but it was most likely placed there to take advantage of a small ledge and to allow all routes to access it for a belay station.  As it is, 1-rope rappels with a 75m rope would probably work.  1-rope rappels with a 60m rope will leave you at least 15ft short, requiring down-climbing of probably the more difficult section, though there is little exposure.  Choose as you will.  If doing the climb again, I would consider taking a short 50ft rope to tie to the end of my 60m climbing rope, and use two prussic and a belay device to bypass the knot (possibly tying a stopper knot in the dynamic rope at the approximate location that you would encounter the knot between the 60 m rope and the 50 ft rope).  From the bottom of the technical climb, you can either down-climb easy, but occasionally mildly exposed section, or rappel from the slings described previously.  Do not attempt to do a 2-rope rappel from this station to the bottom of the 4th class gully; the friction and sharp bend will almost guarantee a stuck rope.  Instead, do two 1-rope rappels, using the rappel station at the top of the gully to rappel the gully.  I ended up climbing the 4th class gully to get our 2-rope rappel from the upper station unstuck.

There Is No Someday