Wine Spires

All week long, as I watched the weather forecast go from good to bad and back to good, then bad again our plans kept fluctuating. Once Eric and Mike showed up at my house a little after 7pm on Friday we finally decided to head up to Washington Pass and Bivy in the basin below Burgundy Col. So, after a few packing adjustments and picking another Mike downtown, we were on our way to Mazama to crash at one of the Mike's friend's cabin. I was surely in store for a adventure with these new acquaintances, far more than I would realize yet.

The Trudge

After eating a quick breakfast at the Mazama store, which consisted of a berry muffin, we were off for the short drive back to the pullout across from the Wine Spires. We all finished packing and headed down the Boulder slope to the stream. We made a delicate crossing on a slippery log farther upstream from another set of snags that provide a far better passage across the raging waters. From there, the trudge up hill was on.

The last time I made this Approach was many years ago and I had been dreading it since I found out this was where we were headed the night before. Unlike the first time I made the trek though, this time I didn't have a tent and all sorts of other unnecessary gear. A light pack, most assuredly, made a huge difference getting to the basin where we would stash our overnight gear. Though my memory is vague of that past ordeal, I do recall it taking far longer than the hour and fifteen minutes this trek took.

Good views!

Once in the basin, we picked an area to stay for the evening and stashed all our overnight gear and did a bit of refueling for the rest of the approach to Burgundy Col. It wasn't more than a half hour after arriving that we were back on the trail headed uphill, but this time with lighter packs. This took us a little longer than reaching the basin below Burgundy, but we found ourselves at the col in plenty of time to climb our routes that we had designated the night before. Mike and Eric planned on doing a route about 50 feet to the right of Mike and I's, which in turn enabled us to garner some Beta from each other.

We paired down our gear and made the quick descent down the snowy East side of the col and around South to where our routes started. As Mike checked out the moat between the rock and the snow I stared up at the beautifully cleaned rock that resembled another place I had climbed last summer. The first Pitch of our route Action Potential had a name that was only too familiar to me: the Bugaboo Pitch.