Kachess Ridge and French Tongue

Overview

The Kachess Ridge high point, Pt 5524, ranks #61 on the Home Court list. I combined this page with with an interesting looking tower, Pt 5400+, "French Tongue".

This trip was motivated by knowing that on the following Tuesday, we would consume one FatBurger for every summit on the Home Court list tagged.

Getting There

We started at the French Cabin TH. Note that we parked at 3900' using a typical small car.

Red Tape

A NW TH pass is required.

Camping

There's plenty of flat ground east of Pt 5525. I don't recall finding any running water at the end of October, and didn't expect any.

Kachess Ridge High Point, Pt 5525

From the car, hike west and gain about 1000' before teeing into the trail that runs along Kachess Ridge. Go south, and over the 5300' saddle. Head West and make your way up to Pt 5525.




We first climbed French Cabin Peak, so I'll briefly describe that approach. The West flank of French Cabin is pretty open, so you can choose your route and get back to the trail. As you approach the North end of the large meadow, head West, looking for any track. We didn't see anything down low in the meadow, and eventually hit a trail higher up. This led us to another point South of the high point. (See the purple track on the map.) An easy ridge scramble leads to Pt 5525.

French Tongue, Pt 5400+

French Tongue, a.k.a. "Little Pecker Peak", is an interesting rock tower. It looks imposing from the trail, and more scramble-able from Pt 5525.




When approaching it from Pt 5525, you need to first climb up a 20' 4th class wall. Karl and Vlad went up a section that was wet from the recent snow, and I went up farther to the left (North), looking for, but not finding an easier way.

This brings you to the base of the final scramble. It starts out with a traverse to the right, before heading up loose 3+ class rock. Be very careful here, and you will definitely want your helmet.

Look at our yellow track on the map, and you can see that the 20' 4th class wall is easily avoided by approaching the tower from the South.

We finished our day by heading North to "Hard Knox", or "South Thorp." It would have been nice to get to Thorp too, but we left that for another day.

External Links

WTA TR
Hard Knox pt 5522, French Tongue
Thorp, Hard Knox, pt 5522, French Tongue, French Cabin
WTA French Cabin TR's

Images

View Kachess Ridge and French Tongue Image Gallery - 11 Images