Anyone who has been to the Pasayten Wilderness seems to sing its praises – there is a certain feeling in the air that’s hard to describe. Soaring peaks, great rock, and splitter cracks abound. Remoteness only adds to the character of the land. You’re as likely to see cowboys on horseback as you are to see other climbers. The spirit of the Wild West is alive in these hills – Pasayten magic. In this zone, there’s one route grander than the rest: the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak. Blake Herrington calls it one of the 15 absolute best rock climbs in the range. Fred Beckey himself considered the line an exceptional climb. On our trip to the area, Avi Baehr and I climbed the Southeast Buttress of Cathedral Peak on August 31, 2025.

There are several long approach options to reach the Cathedral Peak area, all with pros and cons. After debating several options, we chose the “Cathedral Driveway” approach which makes the hike in as easy as possible – we are climbers, after all, so we thought that we should optimize for the climbing rather than the hiking. The only downside is that this approach starts with a 1300 foot descent to the valley bottom, which means you’ll have a 1300 foot climb back to the car at the very end of your trip. The drive to the Chewuch trailhead and 18+ mile hike to camp at Upper Cathedral Lake took an entire day from sunrise to sundown. It’s a long day of walking with heavy packs, but we found that the Chewuch trail is well-maintained and easy hiking the entire way. No bushwhacking, no scrambling, not even any steep hills to climb or descend. Nice! Avi and I snagged a fantastic campsite at Upper Cathedral Lake.

The next morning, a 30 minute approach brought us to the base of the climb. Right off the ground, the route was high quality and fun. Splitter cracks provided great climbing and protection – this is awesome! The chimney of the second pitch has a large chockstone which you can climb behind and then over for a bombproof terrain belay… not to mention that it’s a fun maneuver that you rarely get the chance to do. Each pitch unfolded smoothly and we had no routefinding issues – just blissful climbing in stunning environs.

Atop pitch seven, the steep headwall that finishes the route loomed just above me. Knowing that it would be tough climbing, I built a belay with nuts to save cams for the lead. Avi is a champion crack climber so I was more than happy to let her lead the crux headwall pitches – and by “let,” I mean that I specifically asked her to lead them because I’m not very good at finger cracks! Of course, Avi cruised up the steep wall, linking both pitches into an amazing, 60 meter 5.10a pitch of alpine goodness. Rather than climbing the offwidth of the original route, Avi climbed the harder and equally splitter finger crack just right. I took the final 5.8 pitch to the summit. Wow. This is a route that I’d climb again and again!

After some time enjoying the summit, some fourth class scrambling and a quick hike back to camp took all of 45 minutes. The next day, Avi and I climbed Middle Finger Buttress Left on Ampitheatre Mountain.

Gear Notes

We used and recommend: doubles of cams .2-2, single 3, a light set of offset nuts and a 60m rope. You could easily drop the .2 cams but we did use them. Approach shoes aren’t really needed in this zone given the easy hiking and descents – comfortable trail runners make much more sense.

Strategy Notes

The Cathedral Peak area has so much to offer alpine rock climbers! We did a 4 day trip roundtrip from home, which is really the minimum amount that anyone should consider. The hike in is long but mellow, so it’s not a huge penalty to carry some extra food and fuel for a longer trip. That said, I’m glad that I still have several routes in the area to motivate me for another trip soon – this is such a special area that only one trip is not enough!

Please do all that you can to minimize impact on this fragile wilderness. Bring a trowel to dig cat holes.