Trip: Martin, Switchback, Bigelow, Star, Courtney, Oval -
Date: 7/15/2007
Trip Report:Turning 50 and bagging Top 100 peaksThis is a trip report about hiking/climbing six Top 100 peaks over two days. But first, some background. Call it a requiem for old geezers.
Some time ago I read a thread about climbing Top 100 peaks in Washington State. This rattled around in the back of head until this spring as I contemplated my approaching 50th birthday. Fifty! Yikes, that sounds old. But it is better than the alternative of not turning 50. I figured I should do something to mark the occasion. In my book most travel outside of the Cascades is overrated, so hauling off to some other part of the world just because I am 50 makes about as much sense as buying a red BMW Z4. It won't turn back the clock.
But there had to be some way of marking the occasion - some way to get outdoors, spend some of that time with friends, and maybe have an adventure or two.
This is where the Top 100 thread came to mind. Climbing all Top 100 peaks - at least in the near future - is too ambitious for me. I like my job and family and am not ready to abandon them completely - just some of the time. So I hit on a compromise, something that is tractable and combines my love of mountains and the people with whom I have visited them: I would aim to get to 50 of the Top 100 peaks! When I hatched this plan my birthday was right around the corner, so I could not get to 50 peaks before turning 50. Rather, I would aim to get to 50 peaks while still 50 years old. This would give me a little more than a year, until the end of June 2008. I decided to call it my "50 at 50" project.
I had a head start, as I already had visited 23 of the Top 100 peaks (using the Summit Routes list, 22 using the P400 list and 25 using the Bulger list). That meant only 27 (or 28 or 25, depending on how you count) more peaks to go in about 13 months. 27 does not sound like many, but between job, family, summer visitors, and other assorted sundries, I would have to work at it a bit.
Enthused by this idea, in late May I immediately scrambled up Cannon Mountain (#24 for me) solo and then Snowfield Peak (#25) with Eric Wehrly (see the trip report at
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=7286.0 ). But then a series of classes, conferences, and personal issues kept me out of the mountains for over six weeks. The delay in my "50 at 50" project gnawed at me like a ferret in the gullet. The reasons to stay in the city were compelling, but they could not halt my craving to get outside. I turned 50 grumbling like an old man about not getting out. I must have been a joy to be around.
Finally I got a break in the schedule. With the six-week delay I had to make some headway on the project and get my count up. Fortunately, there are a lot of easy peaks in the Top 100. Easy = Perfect for my plan.
Eric and I took off a weekday and we scrambled up Dumbell (#26) and Greenwood (#27) mountains. I love the Chiwawa valley in the winter, but the summer setting is equally stunning:
From left to right, here are Dumbell, Chiwawa, Fortress, and Glacier Peak lined up like lounge lizards (from Greenwood's south peak):
Spending time with amazing people like Eric is one of my motives for climbing, and one reason for hatching the "50 at 50" project. But solitude in the hills also is an important experience. So soon after the Dumbell day I headed to the east side of the Cascades for a two-day solo peakbagging trip in the Sawtooth Ridge area.
After driving over on Saturday night (July 14) and sleeping near the Crater Lake trailhead, I was so eager to get going that I woke up Sunday morning 10 minutes before the alarm set at 5 a.m. Bikes are allowed in that part of the woods, so I rode my bike about 8.5 miles to Cooney Lake and ran up Martin Peak (#28 for me) and Switchback Peak (#29). Then I pointed the bike toward Upper Eagle Lake to climb Mount Bigelow (#30). I am not sure how much advantage a bike provides compared to hiking the approach trails, because it is possible to cut the mileage and elevation loss by hiking cross-country from Martin Peak toward Mount Bigelow. Nonetheless, the bike was great for the ride downhill back to the car. Even though it was a Sunday, I encountered only one group of motorized dirt-bikers and a single pair of hikers. No other mountain bikers at all.
It was a big day for me: About 31.5 miles and 8500 feet elevation gain (24 miles and 3900 feet of that on the bike). But the early start gave me time to linger at the tops, take a dip in Upper Eagle Lake to clean off, and still drive into Twisp for dinner. While kids shot hoops nearby, I aired out my gear at Twisp's city park and enjoyed a little town life. Then I drove to the West Fork Buttermilk Creek trailhead for the next day's hike.
On Monday, July 16, I started up the West Fork Buttermilk Creek trail at 5:30 am, topping over Fish Creek Pass to drop down to pretty Star Lake before heading up Star Peak (#31). Then it was on to Courtney Peak (#32) and Oval Peak (#33) before heading to the car for some food in Winthrop and the long drive back to Seattle that same Monday night. This day involved about 24 miles of traveling and a total elevation gain of about 8800 feet. On Tuesday morning I slept right through the alarm.
It was good to get out and bag a few peaks, making my "50 at 50" project seem more attainable. But such external goals are not what it is all about. It is sharing intense moments with friends like Eric. It is about the solitude of the hills. It is the lesson of humility that big terrain and high places can teach us.
Another benefit of this trip is that it got me into a new corner of the Cascades. From a distance, the terrain seems parched and barren, as this shot of Star Peak and Oval Peak (from Martin Peak) illustrate:
Up close, however, this is beautiful country dotted with lakes and impressive rock features. Here is a shot of Mount Bigelow from Upper Eagle Lake:
Here is Star Peak from Courtney Peak:
This is classic scrambling country, with open meadows and larch forests down around the lakes, and talus fields sweeping up toward the peaks. The summit block of Bigelow poses a very minor route finding issue, but mostly these mountains offer straightforward hiking routes with lots of ridgetop boulder-hopping.
So this is a trip report in progress. I'll get out a few more times this year, and hopefully visit some new Top 100 peaks. I'll twist the arms of some friends who are better climbers than me to get out on some challenging peaks, and maybe meet some of the folks who post here on cc.com. A couple non-climbing friends from the east coast plan to join in (these must be real friends), and I am reserving the easiest Top 100 peaks for them (e.g., Abernathy, Big Craggy). Even better, my daughters plan to join me on a trip or two, and my wife might join me in the Pasaytan to catch a few more easy peaks. All in all, it's the best way to turn 50 I can think of. And if I make it to 100 I'll try the other 50 peaks.
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