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Trip: Mount Challenger and Whatcom Peak - Challenger Glacier Trip Date: 08/19/2018 Trip Report: Nate Redon and I climbed Challenger and Whatcom last weekend. We started late Friday night from the Hannegan Pass TH and hiked to the Chilliwack crossing before making camp. The next day we hiked up Easy Ridge and summited Challenger, finding the bergschrund to be in good condition. We slept at Perfect Pass then climbed Whatcom, descended the North Ridge to Whatcom Pass, and made it back to the car at dusk. I wrote a full trip on my site here: https://www.laneaasen.com/2018/08/a-weekend-in-pickets-challenger-and.html I thought some of you here might have known my great-grandfather Phil Dickert, who made the first ascent of Challenger along with George MacGowan and Jack Hossack in 1936. I used some of his photos in the trip report since the smoke was too thick to get overview photos of my own. Gear Notes: 30m rope, two slings, ice axe, crampons Approach Notes: Hannegan Pass to Easy Ridge

Fun route! Pitch 4 is classic darrington, and wonderfully sustained. Thanks for all the effort putting this up!

I don't think any trip to the Pickets is chill, and this one was no exception! Especially the North Ridge of Whatcom. I don't really want to go down that again. I used trail runners for the first 10 miles to the Chilliwack crossing, then approach shoes (La Sportiva Boulder X) for everything else. They work pretty well with the strap-on Irvis Hybrids for glacier travel.

So this isn't a climb and not really a true trip report, but in the chance that this might be interesting or helpful, I decided to post my notes from our recent scramble of Luna Peak in a day. See below for splits, route beta (log crossing, bushwack) and a few pics. The crux of the trip was the navigation. Nailing the creek crossing location, following the path of least resistance during the bushwack and finding the correct gully to the alpine were all critical. Otherwise it was a class 2 hike (minus the true summit traverse). The bushwack ended up being much better than what I had heard (no wallowing in swamps full of devils club!), but the gully was a bit harder than expected, very long, loose and steep, but overall not too bad. Plenty of water available in the basin south of the peak and near Luna Col. Luna Peak - 8/30/17 Abram Elwell, Jenni S, Luke P 48.2 miles, 12,200' gain, 23:18 elapsed Ross Dam TH, 2:33 am, 0:00 elapsed Ross Dam, 0:12 Big Beaver Trail, 1:40 Leave Trail (After second clearing past Luna Camp, three large boulders on left, near "B" in Beaver on USGS map), 4:18 Easy cross-country travel to log jam with minimal brush until river Big Beaver Crossing (On log jam south of Access Creek, near "v" in Beaver on USGS map), 4:28 Climb up slope while traversing right with moderate brush Access Creek Crossing (3000'), 5:18 Bushwack upstream not far from creek with moderate brush, slide paths had waytrails through slide alder Cross creek to southern boulder fields (3840', before slide alder!), 6:43 Access Creek Basin Camp, 7:16 Halfway up gully (5400') cross over to the gully on left, stay right at the fork. Gully is loose and steep. Top of Gully (6240'), 8:30 Luna Col, 9:51 Summit, 10:35 (we opted out of the exposed scramble to the true summit, it looked much harder than 3rd class) Leave Summit, 11:02 Luna Col, 11:37 Top of Gully, 12:43 Access Creek Basin Camp, 13:55 Cross creek to north, 14:20 Split from ascent route (to try Big Beaver ford), 15:29 Big Beaver ford (knee height, north of confluence), 15:50 Back to Trail (follow flagging through swamp, difficult brush, cairn by trail), 16:13 LOG JAM CROSSING BETTER!! Big Beaver bridge crossing, 19:42 Ross Dam, 22:42 (includes two short sit down, eye-closed breaks) Ross Dam TH, 1:51 am, 23:18 elapsed Gear: Light axe (CAMP Corsa Nanotech), micro-spikes (Hillsound Freesteps6), helmet, 3000 Cals (bars, gels, chews, salt pills, rice crispy treats), three half-liter soft water bottles, emergency shelter (puffy, light jacket, baselayer pants, arm sleeves, warm hat, space blanket, garbage bag), gloves for bushwacking, headlamp w/ extra batteries, phone with gps mapping app and extra battery, gps watch with route loaded, gopro, PLB, sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, buff, chapstick, TP, knife, lighter, etc: all fit in/on my Ultimate Direction AK Mountain running vest. Wore La Sportiva Mutants, thin wool socks, calf sleeves for brush, running shorts and top. Didn't bring poles but should have. GPS Route .gpx file GPS Route and elevation profile Nice beach at the Big Beaver Creek crossing Big Beaver Creek crossing location Big Beaver Creek log jam crossing Typical Access Creek brush Approaching the head of Access Creek with the first view of Luna Loose gully The view of the Southern Pickets from the top of the gully Luna Pass views of the Northern Pickets Fury, Baker, Shuksan and Luna Lake Opted out of the "3rd class" traverse to the slightly higher true summit. Chilliwack range in background. Access Creek approach valley to the right. Best view in the Cascades? Definitely a contender!