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Gunrunner

5.10 C1 Easy Snow, Trad, Aid, Snow, Alpine, 18 pitches, Grade IV,  Avg: 3.5 from 2 votes
FA: 2007
Washington > Northwest Region > Darrington & Mt… > Glacier Peak Wi… > Gunsight Range > Middle Peak

Description

This route is the complete N->S traverse of the range, summiting the Northeast, North, Middle, and South peaks. The route will require carrying over, likely with ice axes and crampons. It begins and end on glaciers, although for us it began on the Chickamin and ended on the Blue Glacier. Most of the climbing is in the 5.9 range.

Location

To find the start of where we began, just walk along the Chickamin Glacier to the north, well past the NE peak, and you almost get to where a dirty gulley of bad rock more or less ends the ridgeline's continuous run. At this point you can tell that the top of the ridge will be a pitch from the snow. We did a pitch that began off large squarish blocks, just to the right of this broken dike/gulley.

Protection

Double rack of cams from yellow Alien to gold camalot. Single #3, #4, single finger/tips cams, and a set of nuts.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

The Golden Headwall pitch
[Hide Photo] The Golden Headwall pitch
Pitch 1 of Gunrunner
[Hide Photo] Pitch 1 of Gunrunner
Dan Hilden aiding the short (easily avoidable) pendulum.
[Hide Photo] Dan Hilden aiding the short (easily avoidable) pendulum.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

blakeherrington
  5.10 C1 Easy Snow
[Hide Comment] Mike Layton and Wayne Wallace repeated the route in the summer of 2009. They avoided the point of aid and felt like there might not have even been anything harder than 5.9

Sounds like they had fun though! May 20, 2010