Cathedral Peak
An ascent of Cathedral Peak (Southeast Buttress, II, 5.7), with Simon Wacziarg, August 26, 2016.
Timeline:
To celebrate Simon’s upcoming 11th birthday, we went to climb the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak – Simon’s second alpine climb after Crystal Crag some 10 days before. We departed the trailhead at Cathedral Lakes at 7:55 and took our time getting to the base of the climb, which we reached at 9:45. There were several parties already on the route. We roped up and started climbing at 10:15. We started the first pitch roughly in the middle of the buttress, bypassing a couple of parties farther left. We continued to bypass parties on the right up to the chimney pitch. There was a traffic jam at the base of the chimney so we opted to climb up the 5.7 golden knobs variation on the left side of the buttress (this was my 5th time climbing Cathedral Peak and I still haven’t set foot in the chimney!). This led just below the summit, where another traffic jam forced us to wait a bit. We finally reached the summit at 14:45, after much delay due to the crowds slowing things down. On this climb I led all 5 pitches.
After a little time enjoying the summit, we climbed down to the saddle between Cathedral Peak and Eichorn Pinnacle. There, we enjoyed a well-deserved lunch, and packed up the rope and gear. At 16:00 we set out to finish the descent, reaching our pack at the base of the Southeast Buttress at 16:30. We were back at the car at 17:43 (a 9:48 hour day).