Spray Park, Observation Rock via Echo Rock & Flett Glacier — Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019

A two day climb of Observation Rock North Face with the Tacoma Mountaineers.

For this outing, we were conducting our Intermediate Alpine Climbing Ice I Field Trip with the intent of practicing placing steep snow & ice protection, crevasse rescue, ascending out of a crevasse, as well as swinging leads on alpine ice. We had a moderate sized team of eight, three instructors and five students, all strong and fast climbers, which made this an efficient outing.

Day I was approach via Spray Park trail starting at Mowich Lake. This trail is the most direct approach to the Spray Park area, making it steep, direct, and unrelenting for the majority of the way. It is single track with some fairly steep steps and annoying overgrowth. Toting overnight packs, we were a little on the heavy side of things, which made our travel a mite obtuse. Our first break was at the notch between East Fay Peak and First Mother Mountain, which offers a fantastic overlook of the Spray Park region, the north side of the mountain, and the first real line of sight on the north face route on Obs Rock. With the majority of our 1,400m ascent now behind us, we all breathed a little easier as the terrain mostly leveled out. Dropping down from the notch was a bit of a hassle scrambling over loose plates and boulders with overnight packs, but nothing we were unaccustomed to. Once off the boulder field, there is a bit of a spiderweb network of trails, some in service and some out, leading onward to and through Spray Park. Please pay attention to strategically placed branches and rocks indicating trails being out of service for restoration purposes. Stay on the established trail, it'll get you to where you're going.

There are a number of good bivy sites in the Spray Park area, but with the permitting system only allowing two teams in the region at a time, it really does not matter where you camp as long as consideration is given to the time of year you are camping. Post up on rock or snow, not heather, and leave no trace by utilizing the existing bivy/camp rock shelters. These are situated around a small tarn/snowfield outlet just below the saddle between Obs Rock and Echo rock. The trail essentially ends walking into camp.

After lightening our loads, leaving overnight and other unnecessary gear at camp, we continued on, trending towards Echo rock to make use of what appears to be a receding snowfield (Flett Glacier) with a moraine at the base providing a lip useful enough for crevasse ascension and rescue practice. Snow conditions made it very difficult to place pickets as there was only an inch or so of softened crust, immediately succeeded by old season, rock hard ice. We beat the absolute daylights out of our pickets to get them in and they were equally as difficult to get out later. We mostly built anchors on screws because of the difficult conditions. The afternoon was mostly sunny, but early evening deteriorated into a full white out and 25kph winds. After a few hours of exercise and practice we retreated to camp for a quick hot meal and sleep.

Day II we were up at at 'em by 0700 with the sun, loaded our climbing gear and headed for the route. It is worth noting that it does take some scree navigating and boulder hopping to get to the base of the route, always a pleasant way to start the morning. We split off into four teams of two, fanning out across the route. There is a notable rock spine protruding from the left side of the route (view point standing from the base), which forms a chute trending left away from the other 80% of the face. We had one team go up this chute and they said that they had less options for ice, reducing their protection options to pickets only, which were not easily placed or removed. They ended up sacrificing one MSR picket to the route after nearly half an hour trying to remove it. If you are attempting to climb this route, the recommendation would be to trend right and stay on the majority mass of the face, staying away from the edges and thinner coverage.

My climbing partner and I opted to stick to screws which took well on our portion of the route, after setting our initial anchor with a picket that took bloody well forever to construct. It just was not worth the sacrifice to speed and efficiency, especially when screws took just fine. We saved our 21cms for the anchors, and placed our 17cms and 13cms en route, all had plenty of purchase. We pitched this out into four pitches, though it could be done in three full length pitches. Rough estimates, I put up a 50m pitch, Spencer swung a 30m pitch, I swung another 50m pitch, and then Spencer put up the final 60m - 65m pitch. This was my first time multi-pitching any route: rock, snow, ice, or otherwise and I had an absolute blast! The most immediate take away was to take the time at swinging leads to put on a layer. It's easy when you finish bringing up your follower to just hand them the rack and keep things rolling, but after finishing your lead, you go from sweating to standing still for potentially a very long time while on belay. Put on another layer while your partner is anchored in and before they jump into leading. That's your chance to layer up, because once you're on belay there's nothing to do but wait, and wait, and shiver, and wait until "off belay!" finally comes echoing down the route.

Once Spencer set the final anchor over the lip I was ready to  m o v e. I broke down my anchor and darn near ran up the 60° - 65° ice, plucking his placements as quickly as I could. My sticks were not all that great and I was not using great form, but kick, stick, kick, stick got the job done quickly and got my heart rate up which is what I needed after being stationary and on belay for over an hour. Collapsing at the top of the route we exchanged high fives and hoops and hollers. This route really was a blast, and a vivid learning experience for our first time on alpine ice and my first time leading multi-pitch.

We continued with more crevasse rescue practice at the top of the route, which was kind of awful after a mentally intense morning. All of us were just ready for dry layers and to get moving again, but alas we were here to practice, and practice we did. Eventually we got on with it, the team opted not to summit (nobody was in the mood for more chossaniering), so we shoved off for the walk off. Realistically the walk off is not bad, it just is not pleasant. Once atop the route, you must circle around the S/SW sides of the peak to get back to the Flett Glacier, which is extremely tame from what we could see. We did not rope up, though there was one rather icy section where we retrieved our hybrids once more just to steady ourselves on descent, though we did not bother with crampons or roping up. Descending what is left of the Flett Glacier drops you back at the moraine where we had been practicing crevasse rescue the day prior, that and another swell or two, returns you to Spray Park camp. One pair on our team had dropped a screw on the route earlier that morning, so three of us made the extra trek back to the base of the route to retrieve it, while the rest of the team headed directly back to camp. Gear retrieved, we regrouped at camp, downed our lunches, and shoved off for our return push. 

For this leg, we opted to take the Eagle's Roost to Spray Park variation, which personally I was not a fan of. While the trail is well maintained, and is not nearly as rugged as the Spray Park approach, this trail has an exhausting amount of unnecessary gain/loss in the last 5km. After climbing and practicing all morning, we were just ready to be done, and the gain/loss was frustrating. The alternative being returning via Spray Park, which would mean reascending to the notch between East Fay and First Mother, which I will admit would have been a pain as well. Though, I will always contend for the most direct route, regardless of difficulty. 

Difficult but enjoyable, we had a fantastic time getting acquainted with the north side of the mountain and practicing our new skills on a mostly hospitable route. No bad days at the mountain.

• Total kit weight: 18kg~
• 50L pack
• 7 - 8 screws (plus alpine draws and anchor building material) will get you through the pitches and leave enough pro for a 2 - 3 piece anchor (this is obviously subjective)

Itemized list of gear used