Climb team members rendezvoused at the Patjens Lake trailhead at the west end of Big Lake before departing at 6:30 a.m. A fallen tree at the junction to Patjens Lakes caused us to travel several hundred yards down the wrong trail before the team was able to recognize the error. The climb team arrived at the cairn marking the climber's trail at 7:40 a.m. and took an hour to reach Washington's north ridge. A group of eight Mazamas was spotted 45 minutes further up the north ridge. After a lengthy break, the team departed for the summit block, hoping that the Mazamas would have completed the first pitch by the time we arrived. To our disappointment, the Mazama's lead climber was still fixing the first rope pitch when we arrived at the summit block. This forced us to wait about one hour before we could begin setting our own fixed line. Not long after our arrival and to our surprise, Chemeketan climb leader, Paul McClellan appeared. He planned to do a solo climb of Mt. Washington. Leader, Mike Rudy set the fixed line for the first pitch and was belayed by assistant Brad Tedrow. Climb team members took turns climbing the first pitch protected by the fixed line. We had planned to have Mike take a second rope further up the summit block and set a second fixed line. However, the Mazamas were still occupying the route on his arrival. Once our climb team had regrouped, a decision was made to set a fixed line in an alternate location about 30 yards west of the intended route. Throughout the day we watched as light planes flew over the fire, helicopters dumped bucket loads of water on the fire from nearby Suttle Lake and large cargo aircraft dropped fire retardant on the fire. It was about 2 p.m. by the time the entire climb team was on the summit. After enjoying the summit and taking several group photos, a single rope rappel was set up, down the route which had previously been occupied by the Mazama team. A second rappel and a little down climbing brought us to the top of the first rock pitch. It was 7 p.m. by the time we had finished the rappel and had packed up our gear. We made a cautious descent to the scree scar being careful to stay close together and traverse the slope where possible to reduce the rock fall hazard. We arrived back at the trailhead right behind the Mazama team at about 9 p.m. We had a brief late dinner in Detroit before heading our separate ways.

Key learnings from the trip were: 1) Limit climb team to eight. 2) Talk-About radios are crucial for communication. 3) The use of fixed lines and single rope rappels increases security of climbers but takes considerable time. 4) The low angle rappels were a nice warmup for the final rappel of the first rock pitch.

Climb team members were Bob and Clementina Evans, John and Gloria Petrie, Rick Barry, Craig Siler, Haydar Kutuk, Steve Dougherty, Assistant Leader Brad Tedrow and Leader Mike Rudy.

I have believed over the years that the best rock in the Oregon High Cascades was on Mount Washington. However, I was very disappointed in the quality of the rock on Mount Washington last Saturday. Even on the standard, North Ridge route the decent rock is interspersed by a dark, ashy rock that offers handholds that pull out with little effort. I was climbing a variation to the right (west) of the gullies up the "Nose", the same route I had led seven years ago. It is easy climbing, except that one cannot trust any handhold or foothold. I had one handhold blow out in my face high on the pitch and my focus on keeping three points of contact at all times kept me from coming off.

I do not recommend third-classing routes on Mount Washington, and will not likely do so again.