Rabbit Ears, The Chossy Classic of the Columbia Gorge, well... maybe just The CHOSSY of the Columbia Gorge, is located on the Washington side of Bonneville Dam. We turned north off of Hwy 14 onto Dam Access Road (labeled something "Hot Springs Rd") and immediately drove under the train tracks, making a left at the T-intersection. We drove ~1/2 mile and turned right into Bonneville Hot Springs Resort and parked in a parking lot on SW side of the resort. I don't know if they ticket here, but we did not get ticketed.

We hiked up the service road for 200 yds and started up a trail at the bend. The trail joined a road after maybe a mile where we hung right. Eventually the road split (after ~1/4 to 1/2 mile) and we took the right, smaller fork for a while (~1 mile) until a trail crossed it at a somewhat obvious intersection (the intersection was rather large and the trail was probably the PCT). We headed right on the trail for 150 yds or so and started bush wacking across a valley separating us from Rabbit Ears. The bush wacking was approximately 1/8 mile long or so, where we stayed below a cliff band and headed up a "gully" to a saddle between Rabbit Ears and the larger rock outcropping. The approach was ~3 miles of extremely balmy hiking in the blaring sun.

We hit the saddle to find probably 30-40mph wind gusts, a change we welcomed, especially since the Rabbit Ears shielded us from the wind if we chose. We roped up and I led the first pitch, a perfect blend of moss and crumbly rock. The scrambling was easy, but remarkably I was fully focused on the conditions. Forget about pro on this pitch aside from a tree on the left near the anchor, but by that time I should have just went straight to the anchor.


Looking down the 1st "pitch"

The anchor is slightly on the other side of the ridge line and only by heading up the path of least resistance did I find it.


1st "pitch" anchor, a mixture of 1 SMC hanger with ~1/4 inch both and 2 new, and unusual looking hangers

2nd "pitch" is shown in red, traversing around the rock outcropping

My partner headed up the next pitch, traversing to the right of the rock outcropping on sweet Gorge moss crumble, clipping a failry new looking bolt once he was completely around the rock outcropping. Some more adventure scrambling brought him to a steeper section that could be protected with a small bush.


2nd "pitch" after traversing around the rock outcropping

He clipped into an anchor at the saddle between the two Rabbit Ears and brought me up, quickly realizing that he accidentally passed on leading the only rock of the climb... sucker. I grabbed a draw or two and an anchor and led up the last 15 ft, clipping a piton, and found out right side = 1/4 inch layer of flakey rock and left side = solid rock. I brought my partner up to the multiple bolt and piton anchor, celebrating with a quick swig until we saw why it was getting windy. The Gorge was definitely getting quite dark and the river was hazy from rain.


Final short pitch

A quick 30 m rappel/traversing walk brought us to the first anchor. A 20 m rappel took us through the trees near the top of the gully where we decided to do a 3rd rappel. With perfect timing, it began to sprinkle at the bottom of the gully, and we quickly bushwacked our way back to the trail. By this time it was a full on rain, and we made it back to the car within a wet, soaking, and actually pretty enjoyable hour. Extra swigs might have helped with that.