Climb: Mixup Peak - (Cascade Pass)-West Face/Ridge

Date of Climb: 11/12/2004

Trip Report:
On Friday Peter Chapman and I had planned to attempt a couloir on Cascade Peak that I thought might be in shape. We slept in the back of my truck at the Eldorado Creek trail head Thursday night. Shortly after falling asleep I awoke from a nightmare screaming like a girl when Billygoat pulled into the parking lot. Billygoat, Bug, Ken4ford and Alpinedave were meeting Friday morning to attempt Eldorado.

Peter and I left the truck at 2:40 AM and hiked to Cascade Pass. Seeing that our intended route was not in shape we changed objectives to the West Face of Mixup Peak. The climb followed a 50 degree snow couloir to the ridge crest, then a long ridge scramble over multiple false summits. The ridge narrowed to knife edge with big exposure down the north and south faces and was pretty loose. We reached the summit a little after 10 AM. After summit photos, we descended a couloir on the south side and traversed east across multiple ribs and gullies. This was very difficult travel, much of it loose, 3rd class terrain.

We eventually worked our way to Gun Sight Notch, arriving at 3 PM. We down climbed the couloir on the north side until a rock step forced a rappel. The only rock anchor option was a thin knife blade crack so we opted for a large snow bollard backed up with a tool driven in. Peter rappelled first and made it half way down before the anchor failed, loading the backup just as he reached a ledge. I reset the anchor using two partially driven knife blades which thankfully did not pull.

We needed to traverse the glacier west to Mixup arm, then down to Cascade Pass. To do so we had to drop down and skirt below the North Ridge. The glacier had melted out quite a bit exposing large rock cliffs so we spent a lot of time working our way back and forth, making end runs around the cliffs. Peter did a fantastic job navigating. We continued moving well past dark, knowing that our wives were expecting us back home that night. We eventually decided it would be prudent to bivi rather than risk walking off a cliff.

We stomped out a small platform below some rocks and did our best to make it comfortable. Peter got the rope for insulation; I pulled out the foam pad from my pack. A slow trickle of melt water from the rock provided much needed water which I collected with the Glad Ware container that I packed my peanut butter sandwiches in. The cloud cover kept temperatures bearable, unfortunately it also brought snow. Inevitably at an unplanned bivi one person has something the other person wished they had. Peter had rain pants; I had a foam pad and a Primaloft jacket. Hid leather boots were soaked so I gave him my dry socks. Peter had never been overdue from a climb so as uncomfortable as we were, we knew our wives were even more miserable.

We awoke the next morning to very poor visibility. At 6:00 it was light enough to move so Peter took the lead again and we continued west, eventually reaching what we thought was Cascade Pass. We spent some time wandering around until we ran across our tracks from the day before just as the weather broke at 11:00 AM.

From the pass we could see down to the parking lot and the search and rescue vehicles. We hurried down the trail where we ran into a ranger hiking up to look for us. In all, three Skagit County Search and Rescue folks, two NPS Rangers and a Skagit County Sheriff responded to the search for us. Big, big thanks to these folks who took time out from their weekend to look for us. We filled out some paper work and got a ride down to our car in the back of the Sheriff's vehicle. Bug and Billygoat got quite a kick out of the spectacle of two wet climbers being delivered in a cop car.

Finally, a big apology to our wives who were worried sick when we did not show up on time. Thanks for calling Search and Rescue and for taking care of each other.

Photos will follow.


Gear Notes:
Rope, pitons. Shoulda had a satelite phone.

Approach Notes:
Cascade Pass trail to Mixup Arm.

Glad you guys made it out alright.

Sounds like quite the trip you guys had, gald ours wasn't as eventful. Good to hear that everything work out and you guys are ok.

Thanks guys!

Sounds like bivying was actually the smart thing to do. Sometimes if you know you'll be safe it is best to go slow or bivy. Worrying never killed anyone, but hurrying a descent has killed many.

Glad you guys made it out safe. I (among others) always seem to make Mixup more of an epic than need be!

A sincere thank you to Kim and Rachel for providing accurate and timely information to the search and rescue folks, as another night out could have proven quite bad for us, and to National Park Rangers Craig and Joe, Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Marty Steiner, Skagit Search and Rescue volunteers Carl, Steve and Wade. A big thanks also to friends and family who were willing to help look for these
two overdue climbers.

Great TR! Thanks. I was starting to get worried that I might have to blackmail you with photos of you guys in the cop car. I would have been bluffing of course as Billygoat and I beat ourselves up severly for not thinking of it. DAMN! We should have asked them to cuff you guys. What a photo op.
Seriously though, good work, good judgement, good search and rescue effort! Thanks to the guys who came out to find the climbers!

i was worried sick dan and peter.....glad that story was pretty anti climactic, michael and i were ready to come help look for you guys! anyway glad everything is fine!

Aidan

Great TR and Good call.

Sorry to interrupt your dream as I came whipping into the parking lot at midnight with Rage Against the Machine cranked I didn't see you guys in the

It was excellent meeting you two and thanks for introducing us to all those cool Rangers, SAR guys and Sheriff I was impressed to see that all those guys were happy and not annoyed about having to come up there. Not that I would want to test them any further on that. It was quite a sight but good to see you back and successful How are those feet Dan?!

When Bug and I got down Sat afternoon and saw your truck still there and the gate to the road open, I knew something was up.

Always a tough call: "I will be back by___" or "If we are not back by ___ call it in" or "We should be back by ___, if not, give us another 24 hours, then call it in" You never know what is the right one till afterword...Good luck with the wives. I'm feeling your pain. Did you find a florist on the way home Peter?!

I don't have one, but this is a case where a cell/sat phone would have come in handy.

Way to get out in this weather and show everyone that this is not the off season

Cheers

Thanks for the well wishes guys. My feet are pretty abraded and scabby after 36 hours in plastic boots. It still hurts to walk.

I was pretty surprised as well by the reaction of the rangers and SAR. They were simply very happy that we were ok. We had a cell phone but could not get reception. I definitely wished for a sat phone.

I climbed pretty much your route to the Mix-Up ridge crest in August 1992-- probably the same couloir. We turned back at the crest because it looked a very long way to summit. Noticed an old bit of iron at our high point.