The Silver Star Mountain massif and immediate area, just northeast of Washington Pass, contain relatively few documented snow and ice routes—like much of the Cascades, this area is normally buried under deep snow in winter. But as there is normal, there is also the abnormal. In 2019, a relatively wet autumn mixing with cold temperatures, just enough snowfall, the odd rain event, and cloud coverage equated to ice and hard snow on specific aspects.

On October 30, Steph Williams and I started up a new route on the northwest face of Silver Star Mountain’s west summit (8,840’), a prominent subpeak.  As we climbed squeaking snow toward the initial ice couloir, timing and conditions coalesced into real opportunity. Seventy meters of perfect ice, up to 85˚, led to steep snow. A high-quality ice smear, protected by rock and ice gear, gave passage to a sheltered belay above. 

Here, the couloir widens to a slab and a broad face extends above to the whimsical turrets that punctuate the ridge. A tilted corner abuts the black and gold slab, and it featured involved yet pleasant dry tooling past a small amount of plastered ice, leading to the junction of a hanging snow bowl and the rest of the northwest face. This rope length protected deceptively well and was very fine climbing in all manner of granite and ice.

During an exploratory effort the previous November, Scott Johnston and I had encountered similar conditions on the mountain but descended from a high point below this slab pitch. The notable difference in conditions then was the non-existent thin-ice smear before the slab; Scott and I had climbed a mixed corner immediately left of the ice we found during this year’s ascent. In the rare instances that the route’s initial ice is climbable but this ice smear is not, the mixed corner will be the safer option for that particular pitch.

Above, a right-trending snow ramp led to an offwidth crack, which deposited us 10m below the summit ridge. Moving several meters southward to a mixed passage, about 80m above the Whine Spire (see AAJ 2003), we gained the north ridge. Snow and rock along the ridge led to blocky low-fifth terrain and the west summit, as well as the twinkle of gratitude that emanates from an opportunity seized—the Northwest Face (IV WI4+ M6-).

– Seth Keena