Climb: Mt. Buckner-Southeast Ridge (F.A.) IV 5.8
Date of Climb: 8/6/2006
Trip Report: 
On August 5th and 6th Gordy Skoog and I climbed the SE Ridge of Mt. Buckner. Gordy had been eyeing this climb for 25 years, ever since seeing the line from a climb of Goode. I had been interested in the line for about 25 days, since seeing it while windsurfing in front of my house. I asked Colin Haley if he was keen to have a go at it, but he was busy with
some other little climb , and he mentioned that Gordy had shown an interest in the Ridge.
We met up at the toe of the ridge and the base of the Buckner Glacier on the evening of the 5th, after I approached via Park Creek and he came down Booker-Buckner Col.
We soloed the lower 1/3 of the ridge in a couple hours that evening finding nice 4th and low 5th class climbing.
(Gordy still looking photogenic after 12+ hours on-the-go.)
We slept at a notch where the glacier reaches the ridge and began pitching things out the next morning.
The climbing was initially quite loose, but the rock quality improved and good cracks were found as we climbed up the first of several major towers on the ridge.
We made one rappel to get down the backside of this tower and decided to try bypassing future towers in order to avoid more up-and-down than needed.
After skirting around to the left side of the ridge, we climbed back to the crest and topped out on the SE summit at 5:30.
We scrambled over to the true summit and enjoyed the views all the way to Puget Sound before heading down towards Horseshoe Basin. I spent the night in Horseshoe Basin and hiked home yesterday, while Gordy headed out via Sahale Arm. We creatively named it Southeast Ridge of Mt. Buckner – grade IV, 5.8
If you do the climb from Stehekin mid-season onward, you won’t need an ice axe, crampons, or even boots. Ditching my crampons and approaching in light running shoes definitely made climbing easier on the carry-over. We figured if you climbed up and rapped off the towers we bypassed it would likely be a grade V route.
Thanks again to John Scurlock for some excellent photos and to Gordy for the climb.
Gear Notes: Rock gear to 2"
Approach Notes: Leave the Park Creek trail in open meadows 15 minutes past the 5 mile camp, cross the creek and head directly to the base of the route. Two hours from the trail to the start of the climb with no brush and no steep snow this time of year.
Previous Topic
Index