[TR] Storm King and Mt. Logan(s) - Chossy Gulley, Fremont Glacier 7/19/2005

[Blake]

Climb: Storm King and Mt. Logan(s) -Chossy Gulley, Fremont Glacier

 

Date of Climb: 7/19/2005

 

Trip Report:

I headed up the Park Creek drainage on Sunday evening, planning on climbing Storm King and Logan, two peaks that I had seen the week before. Instead of following the suggested route in Beckey, which has one leaving the trail at the 5 mile point (Or From near Park Creek Pass which seems insane to me after viewing the area), I took the excellent climbers' trail up to the base of Goode. For reference, this path leaves the Park Creek Trail at next to a 10' snag, 5 minutes past the huge washout.

 

 

 

From the basin between Goode and Storm King, a couple thousand feet of boulders and talus brings one to the base of a snowy gulley surrounded by the many spires of the Storm King formation.

 

 

Climb the gulley on snow, eventually becoming 4th class rock. 30' before you can look down on Bridge Creek (chockstone and old snaffled-up slings) angle right up an unprotectable corner/face for a pitch to the summit. The register is from 1980 and has about 20 entries. The views centered on where I had been

 

 

and where I was headed

 

 

 

After getting down from Storm King, I had the bright idea to follow the directions in my '77 edition of Beckey, and attempt to traverse over to Park Creek Pass. The description in the guide gives about 2 sentences to this possibility, but I'd love to hear from any who have done it. This route resulted in 5+ hours of sidehilling with major exposure and too many juniper belays. I eventually rappeled a couple times to make it to the pass, but if I had stayed higher longer, I might have found a 3rd/4th class way down further north. I can hardly believe that this is/was the suggested approach to Goode and Storm King. I would not suggest this route, even with a partner.

 

The next day I left Park Creek Pass at 5AM and began the approach to Logan.

 

 

I knew the general idea was to traverse up and across the ridge to the Fremont Glacier, traveling on the glacier, until the snow slopes up to the rock, south of the summit.

 

 

 

 

Looked right to me.

 

Ended up being the wrong damn mountain!

 

After some low 5th soloing above Bridge Creek, I made the summit of Logan Middle Peak , a ~9000' sub-summit probably 1/3mile to the south. I left a register and a cairn, finding none. Beckey says that the Logan FA Party climbed this peak as well, thinking it might be the high point. Bad rappels and worse downclimbing left me back on the glacier, and I decided to go climb the real thing. I met up with another solo climber on the Fremont Glacier, and we completed the third class up to the summit together.

 

 

Amazing views from Rainier to Canada, the the Boston Glacier looming largely. We left the summit at 2:00PM, he would camp up high, while I still had to hike 12 miles and bike 10 more to make it back home at the end of a 16 hour day.

 

 

P.S. I judiciously chose to remove the full summit register for prompt mailing to the proper archival depository, if anyone is heading up to Logan soon, bring a new one to replace the paper scraps.

 

Gear Notes:

8.1mm 60m

3x double runners

2 nuts, 2 tricams

Axe, crampons

 

Approach Notes:

Trails recently brushed. Too much exposed choss below both mountains (low snow).

Fremont Glacier was no problem.

[klenke]

Nice.

 

Say, do you have a shot of Storm King and the Wyeth Glacier from the Logan area? I want to see if there might be a traverse route from Logan to Storm King by way of that glacier, possibly reaching this notch but possibly also farther east up the north side of the West Peak (Pt. 8515).

 

[Your profile says you're still located in Bellingham. Liar liar liar.]

[Blake]

Paul, I have a bigger copy of the picture looking at Logan from Storm King if you want to see it I can email you. Also, does the Logan South summit have a name, I think it must have at least a couple hundred feet of prominence.

 

P.S. I was reading through the register this morning, came across a few things. Many familiar names (Skoog, Pullen, McMurtrey) but also a Wayne who soloed the FA of a 5.8 grade V rock route, is that the CC.Com Wayne? The names of at least two of the victims of the Sharkfin accident were also on there from an '03 climb.... stay safe out there everyone.

[klenke]

A Roper pic of north side of Storm King {click here} shows the north side of the West Peak. Steep snow then some rock. Hmmm?

 

Yeah, sure, send me the pic via Email. Thanks.

 

I believe the Wayne you speak of is our very own. Wayne's Logan Adventure.

[tyree]

Nice work man. I love that part of the cscades.

[Chriznitch]

cool adventure in a remote spot. 20 entries is pretty damn remote!

I read Wayne's story again and that is definitely a recommended read

[Off_White]

Great trip, I've pondered the virtues of that outing, thanks for the TR

[wayne]

Nice tr, I did the same thing with the summit in a white out.

 

 

Just out of curiosity, why did you take the register? What do you plan on doing with it?When you are done with it, I might suggest taking it to the mountaineers or putting it back on the summit.

[klenke]

Yes, Blake, you need to send/take the register book to the UW archives or the Mountaineers. But you probably intended to do that anyway. It serves the public no good if some guy has it in a box or drawer somewhere.

[wayne]

The c00lest thing to do would be to write or scan it and put it and a new register on the summit!

 

Come on I did Logun 2x in a year. Certainly a yungn like you could!

[klenke]

Well, I did Shuksan twice in one year and it's higher than Logan. So neener neener neener.

Or were you speaking to Blaketyblake?

[Blake]

OK, i'm not just stealing the thing! It was totally full and the backs of pages were being used, and folks had singed in on scraps of maps and all that. I'll mail it back to the mounties.