Steve Horton
Paisano Pinnacle/Burgundy Spire - July 29th, 2007
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| In an interesting sequence of events, Steve
Horton of Flagstaff, Ariz. came to Mazama for a good friend's
wedding and wanted to make the most of his stay with some climbing
in the North Cascades. Years ago, Steve spent some time up in
Hozomeen on Ross Lake with the National Park Service. He has
knocked off an impressive list of classic climbs throughout
the area in the past and wanted to sample some more of that
Cascade alpine magic. Steve made his visit more fun by camping
up on the magnificent larch bench near Silver Star for two nights.
His plan was to meet Paul in the morning to sample the spectacular
link-up of the West Ridge of Paisano Pinnacle and the North
Face of Burgundy Spire. The next day he climbed Silver Star
on his own. |
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| Though not often done, some guests at
NCMG get on the sharp end if their experience and ability
are up to snuff. Steve was psyched to swap a few pitches
and the enjoyable climbing on Paisano was the perfect
ticket. Here, Steve rambles upward on pitch two. |
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| A detour off the ridge onto the North
Face requires some traversing and down climbing by the
second. Check out the Liberty Bell massif in the background.
The weather was perfect - not too hot and not too cool. |
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| Steve off the belay heading for the ridge
crest and the sun. |
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| Typical belay vista on the entire route.
Mt. Baker is on the horizon. |
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| Highway to the Spires. |
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| The final moves on Paisano - a stellar
alpine experience. |
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| From the summit of Paisano it is a short
drop down to the North Face of Burgundy... |
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| ...where the climbing quickly continues
upward in a progression of fun and physical climbing.
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| Back to the shade on the first pitch
of Burgundy. |
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| On the connect-the-dots pitch off the
large ledge system. This key, but unlikely connector,
reaches a two-bolt anchor and the best climbing of the
route: the last pitch. |
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| Clean granite, superb climbing and position
puts one directly on the summit. |
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| Nice stem. |
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| Steve ticking off another classic Cascade
climb. A bunch of single-rope rappels takes us down to
the col. Steve spent another beautiful night and climbed
Silver Star the next day. What an incredible area! |
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| From the road: Burgundy is the large
blob of rock in the middle left of the photo. The ridge
route starts on Paisano in an obvious notch below the
large part of its shadow line against Burgundy and climbs
to Paisano's summit then up the large north face of Burgundy.
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