Ingalls Peak: East Ridge. 04/13/2025
There are many reports for Ingalls Peak East Ridge. However, there is little information about climbing it in spring condition, although apparently people climb it in early season. This trip report attempts to somehow fill this gap.
We climbed East Ridge on Sunday April 13, 2025 making approach on Saturday. Teanaway River road was still covered with snow packed from snowmobile traffic. At first driving over snow patches was ok in my Tacoma TRD Off Road until the packed top layer collapsed and we stuck. It took us some time to excavate the rear axle and free the truck. We had to hike extra 5.5 miles to the trailhead. Sasha skinned and I went on snowshoes. We broke our camp before Ingalls Lake in a small depression where we found some protection from howling winds.
Next morning we started hiking at 5:30 towards the Ingalls Peak. The snow condition was excellent with hard neve all the way. After climbing the access couloir we took the left gully before the notch as other reports say. After short section of 3rd class scramble we built the station and Sasha took the lead. The 1st pitch led up somewhat dirty gully with rock quality improving closer to the ridge where Sasha belayed me. I followed with moderate drytooling, occasional hand holds and final knee jam in a wide crack.
Mount Stuart
Approach gully is on a right
Pitch 1
On the ridge the climbing was very straightforward. We alternated pitches making them not too long to have good communication and avoid rope drag. Some sections of the ridge was snow-covered, especially on the North Side. We took full advantage on this, climbing snow where possible. There was no cornices on the ridge. There was some occasional loose rock, but because of the ridge nature of climbing it never threatened a belayer. We encountered some short slabby sections with poor pro which we climbed carefully in crampons.
Sasha on 'au cheval' section
Sasha after climbing tricky slab
When we came to “5.7 crux” we found a wide crack with icy walls. I took the alternative way to the right climbing flakes over a lip using bare hands. We were at the summit at 11:30.
We learned the day before that South Ridge was free of snow. We easily found the 1st rappel anchor. First rap was less than 30 m. Second was 35 m with our 70 m rope fully stretched. As other reports suggest, we downclimbed gravely ledge, but we did not find the 3rd rappel station. The ridge further was snow-covered and maybe the station was under the snow. As it turned out this was not a problem. The base of the ridge was closer than it looked from above. We downclimbed the snow section of a ridge and then the approach gully.
We hiked back still on a descent snowpack, packed our tent and hiked up the Ingalls Pass. Sasha enjoyed the nice ski ride from the pass and I joined him later at the trailhead. After the final hike back to our truck we still had a pretty rough ride on now soft deep snow patches. I vigorously tried to keep the truck on course when it was pulled to the left or to the right and Sasha was cursing on my poor offroad driving skills.
Conclusion. This route is a good option for spring outing. It is pretty safe, with minimal routefinding. At this time it had very minimal avalanche danger, no cornices, the climbing is not too hard and the rappel anchors were free of snow. The approach might be long if you don’t have a snowmobile.
The route. x mark is where we left trekking poles. Some sections of approach and descend gullies are obscured by rock buttresses
Gear: