Climb: Mount Logan-Douglas Glacier
Date of Climb: 6/25/2006
Trip Report: Myself, PK, and SV, met up Saturday morning the 24th of June and drove to the Marblemount Ranger Station to sign in and then continue to the Easy Pass Trailhead. It was around 11:00am and there was only one other car at the parking area. The temperature was warm and it was only going to get hotter. After dividing up gear and going though the usual pre-climb motions, we shouldered packs and headed up the trail.
Hiking up towards Easy Pass was uneventful aside from a creek crossing on a long, narrow, slippery log with overnight packs to make the slog interesting. Snow on the trail started about two miles in but was nice and firm making travel easy and we made the pass in about 2 hours, 20 minutes. The Fisher Creek side of the pass was snow free and offered unobstructed views of our agenda along with the other peaks of the area. Walking the section down to the valley took us about a hour and at the junction of Fisher Creek we came upon two familiar climbers and their four legged companion. They were out for Mesahchie Peak and possibly Katsuk.
Katsuk and Mesahchie peaks from the upper basin below the Douglas Glacier
Heading down Fisher Creek valley into the trees was nice and along the way we saw a black bear and a number of piles from him or his friends. About four miles down the valley around 4000' we came to the confluence of where the creek draining Mt. Logan's Douglas Glacier meets Fisher Creek. We crossed the latter on a log into open old growth trees. We stayed to the left (east) of this creek encountering a buffet of brushy travel, some good and some bad. At about a mile from Fisher Creek we were quite amazed (and pleased) to discover a huge avalanche had laid waste to the terrain and annihilated any brush that would have hampered us. This must have reduced our approach time by two hours or more. Dare I say this destruction has rendered Logan an easy 2-day climb?
Finally, in roughly 6 hours and 30 minutes we entered the upper basin below the Douglas Glacier and set up camp for the next two nights. The basin's headwall amphitheater must contain at least twenty waterfalls coming down rock slabs below the glacier and snowfields. This offered plenty to look at but not much peace and quiet.
A waterfall between the upper and lower basins
Our camp at 4,800 ft
A view up to the glacier and Thunder Peak from camp
On early Sunday morning we accessed the foot of the glacier by going up the right side (west) of the cirque.
Approaching the upper basin headwall
After climbing through the headwall (Class 3) with PK doing a vertical evergreen Class 4 bushwhack, removing his pack in the process, we roped up and basically made a straight line up the glacier avoiding crevasses to a buttress that we went around to the left and up a hidden snow slope to the col between Thunder Peak and the main summit.
Ascending the Douglas Glacier
Climbing up toward the col
Booting up a couple of steep snow sections brought us to the summit rock which we easily scrambled up un-roped.
The steep, 50-degree snow slope encountered at the col wasn't a problem in the warm weather
SV completing the climb
PK completing the climb with Goode Mtn beyond
On the summit (9,087 ft) with views galore
The views and weather were spectacular as we had lunch and signed in the register. The register has been replaced last year with Blake Herrington's entry re-entered at the top (in purple felt tip ink, no less). The ascent from camp to summit took 5 hours and 30 minutes (4,300 ft of gain).
Having a lot of time on our hands and not wanting to sit around camp we decided to do a long easterly traverse over to Outpost Peak (7,910 ft) to finish off the day.
Outpost Peak (with Black Peak at upper left)
Getting there involved traversing on the north side of the ridge on snow where we took full advantage of the shady areas when we could. This brought us to a snow finger that we booted up placing two pickets until it delivered us to the ridge crest and the dry, loose, and rocky south side facing Storm King and Goode Mountain. We sidehilled this ridge over to Outpost where we again soaked in the views and plenty of Vitamin D. Not only did this other peak help wile away the day but offered us a descent of long sitting glissades down the north side of the basin back to our camp arriving at 6:30pm and a much desired break from the sun and dinner (and hooch) to sedate our hunger.
Monday morning had us sleeping in until we broke camp and headed out dreading the hot switchbacks up to Easy Pass.
We finished the trip with a cooling wash up in Granite Creek and some fatty burgers at the Good Food in Marblemount.
Time to camp and time back to car = 6 1/2 hours.
Time to summit = 5 1/2 hours, time to Outpost = 5 hours, back to camp = 1 1/2 hours.
Jeff R 6-24/26-06
Gear Notes: Gear- 50 meter rope, crampons, used pickets for snow finger on the traverse to Outpost just because we had carried them the whole way, a whole lot of sunscreen.
Not needed- rack for summit scramble which is fun easy Class 3 at most.
Approach Notes: Huge avalanche from upper basin has taken care of most of the lower valley brush
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