Trip: Mt Challenger - Big Beaver - Luna Cirque Traverse

Date: 6/30/2007

Trip Report:
Four years ago, my friends Dustin, Ken and I tried Mt Challenger over a Fourth of July weekend via Easy Ridge. We passed a guy we'd seen the night before in the parking lot who had just summited and would make it out car to car solo in a day. After seeing this guy, we figured how tough could it be? We got as far as Perfect Pass. Granted, we only given ourselves a one day summit window and it rained on us with no visibility that day. We tucked our tails between our legs and hiked out.

This time, we came in via Ross Lake, did the Eiley Wiley high traverse, tagged Challenger, descended into Luna Cirque and were awed by the greatness all around us. Unfortunately, we forgot to take the cell phone up to Luna summit, so we didn't have arrangements for a return boat the following day. We assumed there’d be several boats in to drop off hikers. There were, we just missed them all. We ended up being castaways at Pumpin Mountain campground for a day, managed to Yogi a couple rounds of breakfast buritos the next morning from a GRCC environmental studies class, and played with signaling mirrors flashing every boat on the lake till one was lured in to investigate. They passed word back to the resort, and we were on a boat back home in time for pizza at Annie’s in concrete by 5:00.

In hind sight, we should have made the boat arrangement ahead of time, and I should have brought full gaiters. My feet were soaked after the snow went isothermal from the recent heatwave. Some things we did right were careful research and verifying the Big Beaver crossing on our way in. As of this writing, there is a single log across Big Beaver that would have been dicier to have taken, but there's a log jam a twenty minute bushwack down stream that's a lot safer.

No bee stings on the way in, a perfectly reasonable brush bash up to Eiley Wiley ridge, one amazing alpine sunset, incredible alpine views of all peaks around us, and two really great friends made this one of my best climbs to date. On the boat dock July 4th, I felt totally beat up, scraped and bruised… but in a good kinda way.

Gear Notes:
Handful of nuts (not needed,) Pickets (handy for descending the wrong gully into access creek,) Full Gaiters (I wish I'd brought)

Approach Notes:
From Beaver Pass, descend just past campsite marker and aim for the wide gap between drainages. Head directly uphill skirting cliffs. Trending to the right, find bench at ~ 5700’. Follow ridgeline up and follow along south side to Eiley Lake. You will need to skirt around Eiley lake clockwise. Nice camp in rocks above Wiley Lake with spectacular ampetheter seating to view sunsets.

From Challenger Summit, descend NW ridgeline trending to the right as you enter Luna Cirque. Corkscrew downwards staying as high as practical around Luna cirque till Lousy Lake is due East before heading straight down. Anything short of that will get cliffed out.

From Luna Pass bivy site, descend bowl aiming for the far side of the minor peak that extends off Luna’s east side. There are three points to drop into Access Creek from that point. We rapped the first gulley which was very narrow and steep. In hindsight, I’d take the second if it has snow. It’s less steep and more forgiving. There is a third point to drop in from further down that would go.

From head of Access Creek, follow right hand side of creek till boulders run out. We saw a small cairn and took it as a sign to cross to the north side into trees. We found mostly light brush but ran into a few bad patches of slide alder around dry creek beds. Once it leveled out we crossed Access Creek to find a log jam across Big Beaver – approximately at the “v” in Beaver marked on the USGS quad. The creek draining down from the trailside is just north of Luna Camp.

If you should come upon a red Suunto Vector laying in the rocks at the creek, it's probably mine.

niiice! way to rock it

Toast,
Post pics if you got em.
R

Nice Toast! Thanks for the Beaver crossing beta!! Would love to see some pics...

Good work! I am happy it went well for ya!

I'm waiting for D to whittle down the shots to a reasonable number to select from. We had one camera, but he shot enough for all three of us

If you go up that way, I dropped a red Suunto Vector somewhere around the Big Beaver crossing, prob crossing the logs or on the bushwhack up to the trail. I took it off my wrist for a swim and attached it to my shoulder strap. In hindsight, I don't think I secured it very well and noticed it missing when I was back on trail.

Here are a few pics to appease Toast.

Ken and Tony (Toast) enjoying breakfast before we set off for the summit of Challenger. Challenger and a nearly full moon loom behind camp:


Heading up the Challenger Glaicer:


Crossing the last suitable snow bridge over the schrund near the top.

Did someones words ring throughyour mind Tony?

The snow's melting fast. I doubt the snow bridge across the schrund will be there in two weeks time. The summit block will still be doable, just more work... scary work.

Many many thanks to the folks who provided beta. With the exception of the boat and a slight misjudgement of which descent gully into Access creek, all went off like clockwork.

That challenger glacier pic is beautiful! Great job!

A friend and I are thinking of ascending the Eiley-Wiley Ridge, then going over to Luna Peak via the Cirque (rather than over Challenger). Is it possible to descend from the ridge (Wiley Lake area) to the cirque and then climb back up to close to Luna without the use of ropes?

Also, has anyone heard of successful trips into Luna via the Standard Big Beaver-Luna Camp-Access Creek in and out routes?

Thanks.
Brian

Sure, you just skip Challenger and descend into Luna Cirque. Doing so would save a lot of weight in not having to lug a rope, harness and gear. It'd still be wise to bring along minimum gear to rap into Access Creek drainage - 30 meters of skinny rope a few double slings and locking biners.



Sure, people do it all the time. If you see my watch lying on the ground, please bring it back.

As Toast said, yes. But I don't think you want to drop into Luna Cirque from just anywhere. Actually, I believe there is only one 'easy' way to drop into Luna Cirque from up there and that is to descend a shoulder coming off the Challenger Glacier due east, down to around 6,300 feet, then traverse the cirque (counterclockwise obviously) first to the southeast slowly loosing elevation to drop around some cliffs and steep snow, then maintaining your elevation for a while as you contour around the cirque (to stay above hidden tree covered cliffs below). Don't drop to low (into the trees and hidden cliffs beyond) and don't stay too high (ice cliffs, hanging glaciers, steep snow, smooth granite slabs). The path became obvious to us once we were dropping down the shoulder off the glacier. We could see where we needed to descend to, and then where we needed to maintain elevation and contour around.


Picture showing Luna Cirque and Mt. Challenger from near Luna Lake. The shoulder I was referring to above is the one on the right skyline. When starting to traverse, stay on the snow above the rocks and cliffs until where the snow is almost continous down to the bottom.


From Luna Lake we took a path to the far left - not pictured here so don't get confused - (to avoid steep and discontinuos snowfields heading directly up from the lake) bushwhacking through some cliffy treed areas and then traversing back right and up to Luna Pass.



Toast or I can give some beta on the Access Creek approach. Make sure you choose the correct gulley to descend from Luna in to Access Creek Basin. If you didn't go up that way it can be challenging......

Gullies leading to the southeast ridge of Luna Peak from the head of Access Creek. Coming down, and not realizing there were 3 options, we took the first and steepest gully on the right.


Shenanigans in the gully:

DB,
I remember telling Toast to take the second gully or decend to the saddle. What was he thinking?

You did, but with snow filling all three, we figured any would go. In hindsight, that was a mistake. Once we rapped in we found it a lot steeper than we thought initially and were committed at that point. The snow was firming up too, and the side moats didn't give much room for error. We ended up dead manning several anchors and doing several raps to get out.

Note to self, think twice before you rap into a gully Next time I'll weigh options more carefully. Any slip could have turned this into a really ugly TR.

Once we arrived down in the basin of Access Creek we immediately saw our error. I think choosing the wrong gully was about our only mistake on the whole trip (that and forgetting to take the cell phone up to Luna summit to call for a boat ride out.... cell phones don't work from Big Beaver camp or Luna Pass.....).

Just to clarify. Toast and Ken were perfectly content to frontpoint down climb the entire gully. I'm the one who requested the 5 or 6 single strand rappels as it sketched me out big time. Those gully shenanigans were the worst part of the trip for me. Toast and Ken took turns removing my anchors and downclimbing while I rappelled the whole thing.

Ahh Now I see what you did. It is very steep in the standard gully. I would have not wanted to be in the gully you guys chose! I would have done the same as you Dustin! Insist on Rapping it! Good stuff guys!

Thanks very much for all the information.

We will probably end up doing the traditional Access Creek approach and come out the same way. Because we'd heard that the old log jam has been washed away, we would definitely appreciate some beta on the Big Beaver crossing location. Any landmarks? From your report it looks like you crossed access creek twice, ending up back on the south side, boulders.

I suppose that as we scramble up this route, we'll figure out the easiest route to the notch in the SE ridge; the picutres look like the left most (third as you descend?) is pretty gentle, but you recommend the second/middle?

Thanks again,

Brian

here is a tr from last year. the log jam is further down stream than the log we crossed. The log we crossed is probably not there anymore. There is beta on the gully for ya. Luna Tr

Can't say much about the other two gullies we didn't take, other than either one has to be better than the one we chose.

There is a huge log jam over Big Beaver Creek at around 2,400 feet. Here is how to find it. If you are looking at a USGS Quad for Mt. Prophet, find where Access Creek - not labeled - drains into Big Beaver Creek. Follow this confluence down stream to where another stream enters from the north side of Big Beaver (right where the 'v' in 'Beaver' is). Just north of the confluence with this stream and Big Beaver there is a huge, easily passible log jam across Big Beaver Creek. We reconned the passing on the way in to Beaver Pass and easily found it when we came out Access Creek, because we knew exactly where it was.

Once on the west side of Big Beaver, Access Creek is easy enough to cross near where it joins Big Beaver. I suggest crossing over Access Creek down here. There are 3 or 4 small branches of the creek with the northern most being the largest, but still easily crossed via a log or rocks. Then I suggest ascending up the ridge which is mainly open forrest to around 3400 feet where there is somewhat of a large flatish bench (can't really see it on the map). Then start heading up valley slowly gaining elevation until you reach 3900 feet. There is no reason to ascend higher than roughly 3900 feet on the north side of Access Creek. Its fairly open up here with several gullies full of Devils Club to pass through. But they are short and for the most part its fairly open forest and easy going. If you roughly follow this 3900 foot contour (give or take 100 feet along the way) for most of the way, you'll eventually come to Access Creek. This is where to cross to the south side of Access Creek (rock cairne on other side). Now on the south side its easy, open boulder hopping the rest of the way to the head of the basin. Choose your gully and off you go.

Again, Tazz, thank you for the heads up on the log crossing. It paid off

Ya, you'd have to cut through a cornice on the one we came down... probably fall on you and kill ya. Seriously, we rapped in from overhanging rock above. Not the way to go. From our vantage on Luna, looked like all had cornices. The other two will be gentler in slope and hopefully offer better options.

FANTASTIC.

Thanks for all the beta on this thread everyone, it was very useful.



As of July 17 the snow bridge is still in, but only barely. It was about 1.5 feet wide when we crossed it. Here's a picture looking down on it from the upper snow arete.
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