| www.sverdina.com |

   Kangaroo Temple - North Face, September 2002
Kangaroo Temple as seen from Kangaroo Pass.

Having enjoyed our previous Washington Pass rock climbing experience on Liberty Bell, Agata and I returned for more. Wanting to explore a new area, I suggested we climb the Northwest Face of Kangaroo Temple. We parked at the hairpin turn at Washington pass and made the short but tedious hike over to Kangaroo Pass. From the pass we had our first good look at the "Temple", as it's sometimes called. We traversed on a sandy trail below the slabs of Wallaby Peak (interesting Australian theme here) and all was well until we noticed several parties already lined up for the Northwest Face. I knew it would be a long wait and in my mounting impatience suggested we go climb the North Face instead. Agata agreed, and so we continued on up to the notch at the base of the North Face.

Click thumbnails below to enlarge...
Early Winter Spires
The Early Winter Spires as seen from the parking area.
Approaching Kangaroo Pass
Agata reaches Kangaroo Pass with the Washington Pass hairpin turn in the background.
Gardner and North Gardner
Gardner and North Gardner Mountains as seen from the North Face notch.
Silver Star Mountain
The jagged Silver Star Mountain as seen from the notch. Big Snagtooth is the summit right of Silver Star Mountain.
Nearing summit
So anyway, the climbing was really quite lame. Beckey's CAG mentions something about the route being rated at a 5.6 or something. I failed to realize that he was merely referring to the odd move here and there, while the route by and large was mostly fourth class. I led out on the loose and crumbly first pitch left of the notch to a big hole/ledge in the face with some trees for anchors. An old rusty piton in a crack indicates you're on route. From there, I traversed right over more crappy rock to a belay at the 2nd rap station. I was getting frustrated with having wasted the day on this pointless route and Agata and I simply walked around the corner on the exposed ledge shortly beyond the rap anchors mentioned earlier. I climbed easily up a dirty crack, not bothering with any protection and brought up Agata to the sandy slopes just below the summit. Here Agata scrambles up the final summit block.
Liberty Bell Group from summit
Looking over at the Liberty Bell Group from the summit. I was in need of a beer.
On rappell
We finally located the first set of rap anchors (top of North Face) and had three enjoyable raps back down to the notch. The hike out was uneventful but yet tedious once again and we were relieved to reach the car. We spent the remainder of the weekend sport climbing over at Mazama.
        | close page |                                                                                                          Last Updated: Sep. 30, 2002 | ©2002 - 2007 sverdina.com