| Blown out of the Wallowas Trip Report |
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| Blown out of the Wallowas   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Date Climbed/Hiked: Jun 3, 2006 Activities: Scrambling Season: Spring | Page By: tazz Created/Edited: Jun 6, 2006 / Jun 8, 2006 Object ID: 198667 Hits: 1758 Loading... Page Score: 89.91% - 22 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Day 1What a weekend! We had a little bit of everything to make it perfect. Beautiful mountains, good friend, food and drink, tramway ride, great camp spot, route finding, open high ridges for miles, sunshine, clouds, rainbows, thunderstorms, lightning, whiteout, sleet, rain, snow, hail, and some of the worse winds I have ever been in!
Denise said she wanted something hard and scary. I am not sure if I delivered that but we did have a great trip in the Wallowas. My plan was to do a high traverse and peak bagging in the Wallowas. I decided to take the Tramway up to the top Mt Howard and then head along the ridge and summit East, Hidden, and Aneroid peaks. Then drop down into Aneroid lake and hike out E F Wallowa trail. One big 15 mile loop with 3 peaks to bag . It would have worked if the weather was on our side.
Yes I know the Tram is cheating but I justified it with a list of why nots: We would not be able to do all 3 peaks if we did the long approach into Android lake. It would save time due to our long drives. We can do a loop. It would be fun......bla bla bla.
I picked up Denise in Kenniwick and headed to the Wallowas. To the north and NW it was clear and nice. Looking over to the Wallowas it was cloudy and socked in. The weather said sun and clouds with a chance of thunderstorms. It looked worse than just thunderstorms. After driving 3 hrs and seeing the mountains all socked in I was bummed. The forecast at the tram was to good either. We parked and as we packed I said what the hell it is crappy and we won’t be going far in that stuff so lets have a drink. Well that set the tone for the rest of the day LOL.
We Trammed up in about 15 minutes. It was cloudy at the top but visibility was pretty good. We headed up to the summit of Howard and then dropped down the ridge heading south. After many ups and downs we found some good scrambling to be had on the ridge of East peak. This was the last spot for a good somewhat sheltered camp.
From here the next 5 miles wound be in the open. The weather looked threatening and I didn’t want to continue and have us up there without any shelter from storms. We set up camp.
That afternoon was a mix of lots of clouds and some sun. Later in the evening things were clearing out a bit and I was hopeful for the next day. We had a great spot at 9000' on the ridge and enjoyed our relaxing time.
Hit the tent and an hour later it started to rain and did off and on all night. My damn thermarest had a leak so I woke up every hour or two to blow it back up again grrrrrr.
Day 2We got up really early, we knew we had a long day ahead of us. It was still raining on and off. We started packing and getting ready. Just as are taking the tent down we hear Thunder and lots of it. Looking over to the West the peaks are being swallowed by big black clouds and it is moving quick.
I decided we should get back in the tent and wait it out a bit. Back in we go. As the storm came through the temp. dropped 10+ degrees, it poured, thunder and lightning all around and the winds started to pick up. I was hoping that the winds would fallow the storm out but it didn’t instead they got worse, and blew around 40+ mph. The tent was leaning to one side and flopping all around us. I knew that if this kept up Denise would never get on that ridge. Even in good weather it would be a little sketch for her. She had already mentioned heading back to the tram to get out of there cause she would not go on the ridge in these winds. We waited a bit to see if they would die down.
I had a plan B and C. I told AB about plan B. We could drop down off the ridge to the East, hopefully have less wind and skip climbing East and Hidden peaks. We could traverse around to a saddle between Hidden and Android and try for Aneroid if the winds died down. We would have to traverse a large steep snow field and keep traversing till we found our pass to get us over to the other side to start the descent route.
We packed up and dropped off the ridge onto a very steep snow field and traversed across it. The wind didn’t get any better it was getting worse.
After that the route was quite nice, a lot of up and downs over ridges. During the whole time we would get hit with gusts of wind that had to have been around 60+ MPR. We would have to drop down on the ground every time cause it was knocking us all over the mountain. I was knocked over several times. There was hail coming down sideways and pelting our faces (ouch). At this time I had already decided not to attempt the summit of Aneroid. We would be blown off the top! I figured we could at least try for the pass and be able to finish our traverse loop. Pushing against the wind and dropping to the ground every 2 minutes made for very slow going.
I could see the last ridge we needed to reach to get a look at the saddle we needed to reach. Once we arrived at the top of that ridge we got hit with winds packing the biggest punch (70+mph) I have ever been in. We dropped to the ground and sat through a gust or two. I HAD IT! I told AB lets turn back and forget it. We still had another 4 miles up high in these winds and it was not worth fighting it. Even after we turned around the wind was still knocking us all over the slopes. Our full packs were like kites on our backs throwing us this way and that. If the winds and weather were not trying to kill us then we would have finished this trip and even had 3 peaks bagged. It was time for plan C.
Plan C was to get back to the tram. We had round trip tickets but not sure they would take them. If they didn’t I knew we could get down Howard under the Tram. It is a VERY steep drop from the summit of Howard to the lake road, but we had no choice.
It is a good thing we turned when we did cause soon after crossing the steep snowfield we got socked in. Visibility was 30'+ or -. Lighting, thunder, and hail. Here we are on a ridge with no visibility. Between the two of us we navigated our way down the ridge and found trees for shelter. Soon it stopped and viability improved and we made our way back to Howard after some glissading.
As we arrived at the tram I noticed the tram not running. No one in sight. We checked and found that it was shut down. They must shut it down for bad weather and high winds cause the schedule said it would be open. We made our way inside the tram entrance and sat at a picnic table they had set up and the heated bathrooms were open too. We sat and stared up the stove and had some great warm soup and looked at our route to get down. There is no trail off of Howard except an old very hard to follow abandoned trail the last 3rd of the descent. We had snow for the first 1000' which helped a lot. After that it got steeper and we followed animal trails, bushwhacked and off and on found an old trail. Denise was really tired and hurting the last half of this descent. She plowed here way down though and we made it out safe and sound.
We were a sight to be seen! Covered in mud and wet. We went to a house that belongs to a friend of Denise whom we met up with the day before and rode the tram up with us. He said we looked like we got our ass handed to us.
I am glad we made the choices we did. I am little bummed cause I planned a trip that was easy enough for Denise (under class three for most of it. She is new to climbing and I don’t want to scare her off.) with many peaks for both of us to climb, a great loop out It was perfect. I think the Wallowas didn’t want us there. The winds just got worse and worse the more we pushed on. I had a great time and we will be back later in the season to finish what we started!
Love the Wallowas!
Stats: about 8 miles or so
highest point 9200'
Total acc gain starting at the top of the lift was 8135' A lot of up and down!
the tram descent route was 3600' loss in 1.5 miles.
Snow level is around 6800-7000' very well consolidated although a bit slushy. Postholes in the obvious places. Images
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