Larissa recently began exploring the world of trad climbing and wanted to see what alpine rock climbing is all about. I have already climbed many of the great moderate rock climbs at Washington Pass, but I’d never gotten around to Spontaneity Arete, which seemed like a perfect easy alpine rock route. Ian Nicholson makes this sound like the coolest 5.7 of all time in his guidebook for the area, so I was curious to check it out. Larissa and I swapped leads on this route on June 22, 2024 and had a great day!

We started hiking around noon. The old approach to this route required a few hundred feet of steep scrambling and fixed lines, but there’s a new approach that bears right just before the fixed lines are reached. This newer approach is highly recommended with only a small amount of scrambling required. We arrived at the base of the first pitch in 90 minutes, just in time to get rained on – thankfully, it stopped quickly!

The climbing was fun and very alpine-feeling. The most fun pitch of the route was a sweet layback on pitch three – great movement and good protection. That’s the kind of climbing I love the most! The “Goldie Crack” variation on our last belayed pitch was also a highlight.

Spontaneity Arete is a polarizing route, with some rave reviews and some less enthusiastic reviews too. This isn’t a classic, but it is a fun and mellow route that has many features of a proper alpine rock route. It’s a long route but remains very approachable with short cruxes. Most pitches have some fun climbing with good protection anywhere that the climbing is remotely difficult.

Strategy Notes

There are two descent options: rappel the route or descend the gully to climber’s right of the route. We rappelled the route which took a LONG time. The gully looks pretty loose and gnarly, but at least it would be faster. Your call.

Gear Notes

60 or 70m rope, set of nuts, cams .3-3 with doubles of .5-1. Bring plenty of alpine draws.