Cutthroat Peak via "SW Buttress," 5.8
July 6, 2024
About a year ago, Carly got in touch with me after being told by our friend Geoff that we’d have fun climbing together. He was right, but it took us almost a year of trying to coordinate schedules to actually hang out, and then another few months after that to climb together. On this particular weekend, the stars had finally lined up for it to happen and we were super excited!
On Friday after I got off work, I drove straight to her place from my office, and we set off from there to try to beat the border lineup. The drive went quickly, and I really enjoyed seeing the views of the Northern Cascades from the car, since I don’t remember the last time I didn’t do this drive at nighttime.
It just so happened that this weekend Francis and our friend Brayden would be coming North from their trip in the Eastern Sierras, so we decided to meet up and camp with them near Mazama. When we arrived at camp though, the boys were looking pretty exhausted, being on the tail end of their week long trip; and on top of that, Brayden was having some bad stomach pains. He wasn’t feeling super keen to climb the following day which was surprising because we know him to be a man that pushes through all sorts of pain in name of the adventure. As such, Francis was left without a partner, so Carly and I decided to shift our objectives slightly to include him.
We were up by 5am, quietly but excitedly moving around camp trying to get some food down and organize gear for the day. We decided on Cutthroat peak, which Francis and I had been wanting to do together ever since we got snowed out of it on a trip last fall. By 7am or so we were moving on the trail, and were soon combatting mosquitoes on our hike in through the meadow.
Carly on an awkward creek crossing
Francis hopping stones on another creek crossing
Carly and I walking up through the meadow
Going up a gully to the ridge crest
Carly coming up towards the beginning of the ridge
Looking towards the base of the climb
We left our poles near a rock we could find again, then ascended a gully system to gain the ridge to Cutthroat. We scrambled along the ridge for a bit until we reached a notch that required a rappel, which forced us to get our ropes out and call this pitch one.
The first few pitches were weird and wandery, and Francis and I took turns running the rope up as far as we could before rope drag slowed us down enough to build an anchor. Carly and I already had an understanding that she wouldn’t be doing any leading after coming off a difficult foot injury, so it was between Francis and I to fight each other for the good climbing. We ended up swinging leads all day, while Carly provided excellent belay hangout vibes and became our photographer.
I think it was around P4 that we reached some more exciting climbing when we followed another party and accidentally got off route. This pitch provided a strange corner crux, before traversing hard right to get us back on track. The descriptions and the topo were confusing for this section, so we were super relieved when on the next pitch, Francis came across the very-obvious chockstone that we’re supposed to crawl under.
Francis starting up the first pitch from a gully along the ridgeline
Looking back at the ridgeline with Liberty group behind
Me belaying everyone up pitch 2(?)
Starting up a funky corner I didn’t think I could do (we were off route here)
Francis and I at one of the belays
Carly coming up and under the “very obvious chockstone” feature
We all thought the route would improve from this point onward, but it continued to be a bunch of short cruxes mixed in with a lot of wandering and scrambling over low angle slab or gravelly terrain. Francis and I both had one fun and slightly more vertical lead, before we reached the beginning of the summit notches. These notches were not difficult, but were a bit of a nuisance for rope drag.
Francis stopped his lead shortly before the summit because he was a little worried about us not having enough rope for the downclimbs, so I took us up the final #4 crack on to the summit itself.
It was beautiful up there, but we were all a little drained and hardly waited around to enjoy the views. After some quick photos, and eating only half my burrito, Francis was already off to scope out the rappels.
Carly coming up one of the following pitches
Belaying everyone up after what was my favourite pitch
Leading the way on the final pitch before the summit notches
Downclimbing the first notch
Downclimbing the second
Looking up at the summit – you can see the small #4 crack to the top
Me leading the short but very awkward crack
Finally sitting on top of Cutthroat!
Carly and I on the summit
As described in the guidebook, we followed the west ridge as our descent. If you follow the right path, there are chained rappels the whole way down so we took extra care to stay on route and avoid any dodgy looking slings for anchor stations. We made two rappels off the summit itself, scrambled along the west ridge for a ways (exposed! but doable), then three more rappels got us back on to solid(ish) ground.
The hike back to the meadows was gross, with tons of slippery scree on top of slab, or hard packed sand instead of dirt. It took more mental focus than I wanted to descend this section, but we finally made it back to the meadow without incident.
Back at our poles, we made a sad discovery: the marmots had completely chewed them to pieces! My dear poles that have made it through with me since the beginning of my hiking days in 2018 had reached an abrupt end 🙁 For poles that I’d bought on craigslist for $40, nearly 6 years of heavy use is pretty damn good! Carly and Francis’ poles hadn’t been chewed quite as badly, but were still full of bite marks and missing some pieces of cork. Carly was rightfully sad since they were brand new! There’s definitely a learning lesson for us all here…
The rest of the hike out was beautiful, as we watched the sun set over the Liberty Bell group and surrounding mountains. The mosquitoes were as bad as ever, but it was made up for slightly by the beautiful wildflowers now in bloom. Francis joked that the mosquitoes were in bloom too, so we hurried along before I could stop to sit and smell all the lovely flowers.
Me rapping down from the summit ridge
Carly and Francis scrambling down the west ridge
Some pretty big exposure in some sections!
More scrambling. The ridge was super aesthetic
One of the lower rappels back to the ground
Carly descending the sandy slopes with Cutthroat behind
Goodbye my favourite poles 🙁
Coming down through the meadow
So many wildflowers!!
Almost back at the car
The following day, Carly and I were supposed to do some more climbing, but after such a long day and late dinner, we were absolutely zonked. We decided to grab coffee and baked goods in the Mazama coffee shop (which is becoming one of my favourites!), and then went for a swim in the gorgeous blue looking river near town. It was icy cold, but felt excellent on our sore muscles and tired minds. I felt happy to have a new friend that was somehow already on the same page: just enjoy being out here, and not needing to push too hard! I look forward to many more adventures together 🙂
Our very pretty little swim spot!
Our rope was handy in getting down the slippery concrete/sand slope. We used it as a hand line off a nearby street sign!
Gear
- 60m twin rope and 70m rope (only needed 1 tbh)
- Single rack of cams from .3-4. The 4 was very useful on the last pitch.
- A collection of nuts & offsets
- 9 alpine draws, & a 5m cord each for anchors