North Early Winter Spire  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Elevation:  7,760' Page Views:  16,709. Good page?    Administrators:  Peter Franzen, Kristine Hoffman, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  Lizzy Trower on Jan 30, 2006 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event

Early Winter Spires.
Photo by Blitzo.

Description 

Nearly as impressive as its neighbor, the North Early Winter Spire tends to be less popular because it has no easy way up or down. Nevertheless, it has many excellent routes and the summit view is great. The quality of the granite is very good.

Getting There 

Most of the routes on North Early Winter are on the west side, so approaching via the Blue Lake Trail is best. The approach will take most parties 1-2 hours. The descent route scrambles down south and west of the summit, then takes several rappels down to the Southwest Coulour between North and South Early Winter, from which some scrambling and one more short rappel bring you back to the ground.

The Classics

Featured Route For North Early Winter Spire

Northwest Corner (a.k.a. Boving-Pollack Route) 5.9  WA : North Cascades : ... : North Early Winter Spire

Typically done in 5 pitches, some can be strung together to do it in 4. There are some wide bits, but they are actually quite fun and don't require the use of wide crack techniques. The climb starts by scrambling up a trail traversing north along the base of North Early Winter to the base of a corner/crack that leads up to a ledge with lots of trees. P1 - Climb the crack/corner to the ledge. Part of it is a chimney that doesn't have much in terms of protection, but this section is short and fair...[more]   Browse More Classics in WA

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BETA PHOTO: NEWS on the left, SEWS on the R. Viewed from the ...

NEWS summit view