Once in the basin, wander up to the gendarme which sits just SE of the Tooth. The usual way get to the climb proper is to scramble the gully to the left of the gendarme and then skirt around the back to the notch at the base of the SE Face. Early in the season, when the gully on the right of the gendarme has good snow in it, it is fun to climb this gully to the notch directly. This gully is an avalanche chute however, so beware.

The climb itself is pretty straightforward, with only the first and last pitches providing any real challenge. Rap and downclimb the route. Gear: One rope, small rack, and ice axe (if early season).

North Ridge: (March 1996) During a cold snap in March, I went looking for the East Gully. Unfortunately, I went too far north and missed the entrance to the gully. I eventually found myself on verglassed rock and so descended and continued traversing north until I could gain Cave Ridge. From here I hiked up the North Ridge. The snow was in superb shape and the East Gully would have been a great climb at this time of year. Be sure snow conditions are good. Gear: Ice axe and crampons.

East Gully: (March 1996) 3 days after my failure to find the East Gully, I dragged a friend up to look for it again. By this time, however, 3 days of warm weather had turned the snow into waist-deep mush and the climb was miserable. From the summit, we decided to descend the North Ridge to Cave Ridge (as is normal), but from there we decided to head straight down into Alpental (west), rather than descending east into Commonwealth basin and walking all the way around Guye peak. This turned out to be a huge mistake, and the descent turned into a major epic of horrible snow, ugly rappels, and a close call on some mossy, wet downslabbed rock. It appears, however, that the descent from further north on Cave Ridge is a bit better (lower angle perhaps and at least there are trees the whole way for good rappels). Bringing a ice axe, crampons, rope, small rack, and picketts is a good idea for this climb. Don't be stupid like we were and do it in mushy snow. It was pretty dreadful.

East Gully: (March 1998) Climbed the E gully in great conditions. Good step kicking snow, with a few icy spots. Descent via the N ridge and Commonwealth basin. 3 hours car to car.

South Gully and South Spur (May 1996) This is a fun sramble. With good route finding, it is clearly 3rd class, but we made it a bit harder and climbed 3 roped pitches (only one of these really needed any gear). The most challenging part of the climb is the descent. From the south peak, walk north and scramble up the east face of the middle peak. From the middle peak, downclimb or rappel (good tree anchor) the gully/face to to top portion of the East gully (a single rope will get you to within 15 feet on easier ground of a huge tree). Depending on snow conditions, this can be pretty dicey, especially for beginners. I lowered my partner down to this tree and then rappelled the route, downclimbing the last piece to the tree. From this tree, we set up a belay from which you can just reach the top of the East gully and again anchor at a tree. On solid snow, this was probably the best pitch of the day. Once out of the East gully, you're on the North slope of the North peak and you can walk off. The recommended route is to walk down to Cave ridge and then descend East into Commonwealth basin. This is guaranteed safer than the direct descent into Alpental. Gear: Rope, small rack (long slings are good), ice axe.

South Rib (March 1998) Climbed alone on the last day of this mild winter. Easy access, decent rock, much latitude makes this a fun climb. The snow conditions were so so, and I alternated between the spur and gullies on the right. The most challenging part of the climb was the traverse from the S to the N peak, which is a corniced snow ridge. The E face of the Middle peak had a couple feet of steep snow on it. The rap into the E gully was uneventful, but windslabby. The "huge tree" I describe above apparently doesn't exist anymore. Weird. After the rap into the E gully, I debated descending the gully, but thought it better to take the normal descent. I climbed up the gully and skipped the N summit. On descent, I traveled North, and then down to the alpental ski area. The descent went well, as I made certain to go far enough N to where the W slope is more gentle and tree covered. Gear: axe and rope (probably not vital, but nice for the summit traverse or bailing)

South Rib/Gully (May 5 2001) What a difference conditions make. In the week prior to our climb, between 2 and 4 feet of new snow had been deposited at higher elevations. We decided that due to extreme avalanche danger, we should climb a lower peak, closer to the road, with easier access. We left the car around 11:30 AM (late, but I expected the round trip to take no more than 6 hours). From the steep buttress toe, we sidled up and right, heading up more snow. Rather than continue around to the right (which eventually would have taken us into the gully separating the South Rib and South Spur) we headed up what looked like it would be mild fourth class rock.

The rock was largely snow covered, extremely wet, and hard to protect. Belay stations were scarce. About 3 pitches (up and trending right) got us to a decent tree belay and an easier pitch got us into the mouth of a high gully on the face. Another short pitch gets into the gully proper. At this point, we'd been climbing for maybe two hours, and decided to have a break. It was snowing steadily (but not too hard) and visibility was rarely over a few hundred feet. The slowness of our progress and the terrible conditions (realize that most of this was terrain that you would solo without question in the summer, but felt incredibly unsafe under these conditions) caused me to question whether it was wise to continue. I got pretty chicken and insisted that we bail. My bro agreed and we futzed around (for probably over an hour) trying to find a good way to get down. The nearest good rap stations seemed more than 80 feet off of easy terrain, and we could see no good tree anchors below. I even downclimbed a ways to check things out and found only wobbly horns and evil looking, slippery slabs.

At this point, we decided to commit to the climb, get up, and get the hell off. I knew if we got up, we could bomb down one of the easier routes. I figured there was a good chance that we'd be spending the night up there, but at least the forecast called for improving weather. It was probably past 3pm at this point. We shortened the rope and simul climbed/soloed for a few hundred feet up a moderate gully with essentially zero protection opportunities. This was nerve-wracking. The gully divides and we went right, staying to the far right and climbing broken but dry and positive rock. There was a 20 foot stretch of loose, mid-5th class way above the last manky tree anchor. This was terrifying. At the top of this, I found a small tree and the first crack in a while. The crack was too narrow for my cams and too even (and facing the wrong way) for the nuts. I jury rigged something and belayed my brother up. I was hating life pretty bad at this point, so asked my brother to take the next lead, which looked easier but turned out be perhaps the loosest pitch on the climb. He eventually got to a solid tree, above which were more trees, snowslopes, and rock steps.

I felt better about our chances now. I led out and we simul climbed up this terrain, using the frequent trees for anchors and progress (some very nasty tree/brush grovels; some pretty sketchy snow-on-slab climbing). We climbed on a short rope (probably 120 feet) making only 200 or so feet of progress on each lead (we chased the path of least resistance, so our route was often windy). We each took two turns at the sharp end before my brother reached the final snow slope to the summit. I felt like howling in joy when I saw them, but realized that celebration might be premature. We still needed to get over several summits via some exposed, corniced ridge climbing. As we reached the first summit (near sunset), I realized that the clouds had lifted. We didn't have a minute to enjoy it though, and bombed on to the first notch. We debated briefly if this was the East gully (my memory was hazy). We went with what I knew worked, which was to continue over the next summit. I led steep snow to the second summit and down to the second notch, where we could look down into the East Gully.

Here we found a tree nicely set up for a rap and headed down. 80 feet gets you to somewhat easier terrain. We roped up again (I figured it might give us some chance in an avalanche -- we were up to our waists in windslab at the head of the gully) and bombed down the gully at high speed, but sliding over a few icy/rocky parts. We sidled out of the gully and down into the basin under moonlight, frequently falling into hidden holes under the snow. We reached the car around 10:30 pm.

Lessons? Conditions can make a big difference. Start early. Committing to the climb is better than futzing around. Bring pitons. There were very few cracks wider than 1.5 inches. Many of them were just seams. A piton here and there would have made our lives happier and safer.

Gear: 9mm rope, axes, 4 med-big hexes, 8 stoppers (on the big side), 4 cams to #2 camalot (if anything, bring a couple TCUS and ditch the big cams). 3 double slings, 5 single slings. 5 doubles and 3 singles would be more reasonable.

North-East Buttress: (October 6, 1996) Due to some planning problems, we got a late start and left the Snow lake trailhead at 10 am (too late at this time of year). Our next mistake was leaving the Source lake overlook trail (this is the old Snow Lake divide trail) too early. You cross a slide zone / talus field at around 4000 feet and start to climb upwards. We left the rough trail at 4200 feet, thinking this was the talus field described by Beckey. This approach works, but is more arduous and climbs through several bluffy, wet sections. The correct approach (we discovered this on the descent) is to find the old divide trail as it switches back E across the slide zone (btwn approx 4200 and 4300 feet), across a stream, through some forest and then an open, level section, just before the divide (closer to 4400 feet on my altimeter). The correct talus field is identifiable by the obvious notch in the divide at the top of the talus field (which Beckey describes). We reached the "thumb tack" (small gendarme) in the basin E of Chair peak in under 2 hrs. We scrambled up some 3rd class bluffs to reach a notch in the divide (we headed for a notch closer to the buttress, but the grassy gully going directly up from the thumbtack looks easier). Here is the description of our climb (which is a pretty good description of how _not_ to climb it unless you have a lot of time):

1. A short pitch in a chimney/gully going up and right to rap anchors about 100 feet above the base. Class 4, not much good pro (I didn't place any).
2. Another short pitch continuing up the chimney into muddy gully ending at tree patch. Class 4, with one harder step then easing in muddy gully.
3. Another short pitch from the middle of the tree patch, up and onto the right side of the crest. Look for piton and horn anchor near a small tree on right side of crest. Rope drag a problem. Loose rock, mud. Class 3.
4. Another short pitch up easy ground to just below the open book. Class 3. Loose rock, mud.
5. About 60 feet above a poor belay station into open book. Face climbing on right side of book (the inner corner of book is muddy, but doable looking). Scant pro, looseness. Possibly some ancient pitons.

We should have started earlier, taken the time to find the efficient approach, and climbed the route smarter. It is possible to combine most of the first 2 pitches we did. It is about 180 feet from the base to the bottom of the muddy gully (where there is a good tree anchor). It would be efficient to climb this as one pitch from the ground with a long rope, or if the belayer stands in the start chimney. Easy simul-climbing possible from the bottom of the tree patch to the base of the open book. I'm still a bit confused about the route from this point on. The climbing higher on the route definitely wasn't that pleasant: pretty exposed, poor rock, little pro. Keep an eye out for ancient pitons, (The variation described - up a bit from the tree patch, then left into low angle area to heather patch and up to more trees - seems more obvious, but less direct.) This route may really be better during a cold snap in the winter. I'm sure the rock would be more stable and frozen mud is always fun to climb, although the open book might represent pretty hard mixed climbing. The variation to the left might be an easier option.

• This is a nice, 1200 foot gully on the NW face of the mountain. In the proper conditions, it would be a wonderful snow (ice?) climb. We climbed it in late May 1996 in pretty soft snow conditions. It's about 50 degrees at its steepest. We approached by hiking the Snow Lake trail to the pass, and then getting onto the W ridge of Snoqualmie Mtn. When the ridge gets steeper and more exposed (4800 ft), we dropped down to about 4600 ft on the N side of the ridge and contoured along until we reached a saddle in a N spur coming off the W ridge. We climbed the saddle (4800+ ft) and dropped into the headwater basin of Thunder Ck, which is an amazing place. (Beckey says when the W ridge gets steep, you can travel on the S side of the ridge, which is probably more direct, but means dropping down a potentially gross gully to get into the Thunder creek basin.) From here, we proceeded SE to reach the left gully (there are 3 major gullies) on the NW face. You can climb the gully and reach the W ridge less than 200 ft from the summit. On the descent, we headed more or less straight down to the Alpental parking lot (a bit to the right, when viewed from above). We began in a great avalanche slide zone and veered right until we reached heavier timber, crossing a couple of small streams on the way, where it was somewhat easier going. There are two bluff systems that need to be negotiated. This descent is generally unpleasant, and probably dangerous if there is snow. Gear: Rope, pickets, axe, crampons. We used only the axes as the snow was soft, but I could imagine needing the other gear in harder conditions. Time 6 hours (car to car).

• I tried to climb Snoq. Mountain, NW face again but this time in late July 1996, by doing the long W ridge approach. The W ridge gets steep shortly after the divide, which forces you onto the south slope. A lot of bushwacking leads to some nice tarns in a basin around 4800 ft. From here a rising traverse leads to a notch on the W shoulder of Snoq moutain. By the time I reached this notch, I was pretty beat (it was in the midst of a heat wave). Looking at the gully heading down to the headwaters of the Thunder Creek, I realized that I'd been stupid not to bring a rope, as the top of the gully was totally melted out, and looked horrible/dangerous to descend unprotected. The fact that it had taken me 3 hours to reach this point (very slow going along the W ridge), combined with the fact that I was not feeling in top form, combined with the scary prospect of the gully, without any info on the quality of the NW Face gully, convinced me to turn back. Getting back the car turned into another hellish bushwhack straight down to the parking lot. This time, I headed through nice timber and gradual slopes S of the basin. At 4000 feet the going gets steep and bluffy and after some scary downclimbing combined with hellish bushwhacking I appeared on the Snow Lake trail at 3320 ft. I have yet to find a good way down from this mountain. Maybe bringing a rope and just dealing with the bluffs is the only way to go. The other lesson I learned is that the W ridge is not a very nice way (long and pretty arduous) to climb the mountain, or even approach the NW face. The best way seems to be to follow the route taken on the above attempt, although I don't know how it works in late season.

Other climbs

• Chair - Tooth traverse. This would consist of climbing the N side of Chair (4th class?), and then traversing the ridge on the S of the Chair massif. Then climb the NW ridge of Bryant, walk over Hemlock and then the NW ridge of the Tooth, finally descending the SE face.
• Guye - Snoqualmie - Lundin - Red traverse. S spur on Guye Peak, slog up Snoqualmie from Cave ridge, climb the beautiful W ridge of Lundin and then do the snow gullies on the N ridge of Red Mtn.