Assault on 'A Peak'

Some people might be inclined to think since humans have scaled the tallest mountains on earth there are few challenges left for climbers to pursue. They would be wrong.

For example, every peak in the Cabinet Mountains has been reached, but not in every season and not by every route.

“As far as we can tell it’s probably the first big technical alpine ice climb that’s been done at that grade in the whole range,” Scott Coldiron said of the climb he and three other climbers completed March 7 on the northeast face of A Peak in the Cabinets. “That’s definitely something you look for, especially sort of in our backyard. It’s pretty neat to find some big unclimbed stuff close by,” the Spokane resident said.

Coldiron said the Cabinets offer unique challenges depending on from what side you access them. On one side of the range most summits can be reached by relatively easy hikes, while the other side offers rock walls jutting straight up from the valley floors below.

“So there are actually a lot of climbs that haven’t been done in the Cabinet Range, and they tend to be the steep hard faces,” Coldiron said.

It was the second trip Coldiron made to A Peak in a little over two weeks.

A couple weeks earlier, Christian Thompson of Sandpoint, Idaho, had been using Facebook to message other climbers to trump up interest in climbing in the Cabinets. Coldiron responded

to the inquiry and said that he had done some exploring in the area and was psyched for the opportunity.

Coldiron and Thompson journeyed to Granite Lake at the base of A Peak by way of snowmobile, skis and hiking. “We took what we needed for three days,” said Thompson. “The weather was supposed to be better than it ended up being, but we wound up getting snow.”

They determined the danger posed by the fresh snow made their initial plan to attempt a longer line up the mountain too risky. The duo woke early on February 22 and the weather looked to be clearing. At about 6 a.m. they skied across the lake to get a closer look at the lower section of the mountain.

“From the lake we could see this big ice climb that I had scouted before that looked doable,” Coldiron said. “A Peak is so dramatic, the mountain just looms over the lake, it feels like you’re at the Eiger,” he said.

Most of the ice Coldiron saw earlier in the winter while scouting the route had disappeared because of abnormally warm weather. “But there were a couple of formations that stay in the shade on this 1,400-foot buttress with Blackwell Glacier sitting right above it feeding these waterfalls,” Thompson said.

As the climbers neared the couloir, they saw what looked like a nice line. “Lo and behold, in this right facing corner there was a frozen waterfall that looked like it would go all the way to the top. So we racked up and started climbing,” Thompson said.

The climbers brought protection for both rock and ice climbing, known as an alpine rack. “We didn’t know what we would find from start to finish,” Thompson said.

Thompson and Coldiron climbed in unison the first couple hundred feet of 70 to 75-degree ice in one continuous push. Then the ice got quite a bit steeper and narrowed into a right-facing corner gully system. “There was a big pillar about 1,000 feet up and we couldn’t tell if the ice connected or if it just ran into rock and we would be kind of stuck or if we would find more ice. We just kept going with the intent to go as far as we could,” Thompson said.

 “It was really fantastic climbing; very classic fun ice with a really dramatic finish,” Coldiron said. “There were a couple of cave belays at the top where the ice and rock formed perfect caves that were just amazing spots. Climbing out of those onto overhanging ice was really dramatic and fun,” he said.

The duo made their way to the base of a pillar and took turns leading the way up. “Our goal was to push all the way to the top of the buttress so we had one more pitch of rock climbing that took us to a ledge,” Thompson said. “Climbing with crampons and ice tools is kind of interesting, but it’s part of the game,” he said.

The rock in the Cabinets is less than stable in the summer, but the cold winter moisture freezes everything in place.

A large blank headwall didn’t afford the climbers any optimal way up, so with dark steadily approaching they decided to make their way back down. “That took us a couple of hours rappelling. Eight of the 11 rappels were made in the dark,” said Thompson.

They skied back across Granite Lake and celebrated with a dinner before crashing out for the night and heading out the next day.

A couple weeks later, Coldiron returned to A Peak with climbing partners Ben Erdmann, Jonah Job and Beau Carrillo. On their way in to Granite Lake the group followed a pair of wolf tracks all the way to the lake. “They were really fresh tracks. We didn’t actually see them, but it’s pretty neat to be in the real wild with grizzlies and wolves,” Coldiron said.

The group started their day at 2 a.m. and roped up at about 6 a.m.

For the climb, they separated into two climbing groups with Coldiron and Job in one team and Erdmann and Carrillo in the other. The teams climbed parallel routes until the final crux pitch, which was led by Coldiron, which took them to about 200 feet below the summit. They named the route Unprotected Four-Play.

From their finish point the climbers were able to hike down to the lake, which took them about three hours. In total, it was a 22-hour day from start to finish. “The weather was beautiful,” said Job. “That was a huge reason why we were successful. It’s a huge morale booster when the weather is nice.”

Making his first foray into the Cabinets was world-class climber Ben Erdmann. His resume includes climbs like Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy in Patagonia, the first ascent of the Hypa Zypa Couloir on the east face of the Citadel in Alaska and regularly rope solos El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. Next week he travels to Nepal where he’ll spend a couple of months getting acclimated and will make an attempt to scale Annapurna, a mountain that takes the lives of one in every three who try to climb it.

“It was my first time back in the Cabinet region. I was just so impressed, it’s a really great place,” Erdmann said.

Just because he’s ascended mountains that dwarf the Cabinets, Erdmann said by no means did he let his guard down while climbing A Peak. “Absolutely not, they’re pretty full on,” he said. He mentioned the half dozen river crossings, ice conditions and the distance to the climb as reasons he approached the climb with caution.

Erdmann said the team did the climb in pure alpine style. “We left no trace of our passage, we took all of our equipment out that we took in,” Erdmann said.

The names of the climbers will be etched into the history books of first ascents in the Cabinet Mountains. And it may not be the only mention of them, but their return may come in another year. “Christian and I are looking at a couple of other lines, but it’s probably over for the year unless we get really lucky and a cold-snap happens,” said Coldiron.

Thompson said that now that he’s connected with other climbers interested in putting up some big lines in the Cabinets, they will be keeping their eyes open for future adventures.

“The Granite Valley alone will offer years of ice climbing for anyone who’s got the wherewithal to hike in and spend the time,” said Thompson. “The Cabinet Wilderness is just an absolutely gorgeous area to be explored any time of the year.”