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Trip: West Mcmillan Spire/Elephant Butte - West ridges via Stetattle Ridge Trip Date: 09/06/2020 Trip Report: Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of getting back into the Southern Pickets with @JasonG and @Trent. We took the eastern high route/approach via Stetattle Ridge. I outlined the route in the approach notes, this will be more for a general itinerary/thoughts/photo dump. Hiking along Stetattle was extremely panoramic and quite pleasant. We setup camp the first night just north of North Stetattle (pt. 6728). There were abundant tarns for water and flat spots to setup at. Not long after unpacking the guys pulled out the whisky and chocolate, a ritual I'm not familiar with having spent most of my time trying to be as ultralight as possible. We shot the shit for hours and listened to tunes on Steve's little speakers. I'm sure now that theres a little room in my pack for some whiskey. I slept really well until the (full?) moon was dead center over the sky and woke me up with its brightness. We got up decently early for the big day of tagging Elephant Butte and and a plan of making it to the summit of West Mac for the nights bivy. We were a bit above an awesome sea of clouds down in the valley. The drop down to the notch above Torrent creek is fairly straight forward and to get up out of it toward the benches at 6200' above the small lake east of Elephant Butte is just a bit more involved, but not too bad. We dropped packs at the notch at the base of the west ridge of Elephant Butte. Was a quick romp to the summit and we were surprised how many entries in the register there were as of late. We toyed with the idea of staying on the ridge crest and tagging the next two high points west of the Butte (Hippo, Rhino). But some hairy climbing/scrambling, lack of inspiration to tag them, and a concern for having enough time to deal with the ridge to get into Terror basin pushed that idea to the side. I'm glad we spent the effort on the more important task of getting into Terror Basin safely and efficiently. We stayed more or less at 6200' from Elephant Butte until we got to the notch just west of pt 6455. From there it was staying very close to the ridge crest. At this point, the route gets very exposed, serious and committing. Scrambling on 4th class rock, heather benches, veggie pulling. It was not too far removed from what you'd experience on the NEB of Jburg. It finally eases off just before Little Mac. A small sandy notch allows entry into Terror Basin. From there we traversed down across snow to get to the base of West Mac, we were able to go up a dry mossy waterfall on the rib extending down from West Mac which cut out quite a bit of travel. We scrambled up the west ridge and made our way up to the summit. Theres now currently three one-person bivy spots up there now. We made dinner, drank whiskey and waited for the sunset. It was an awesome sunset, highlight of the trip for sure. But after every calm, comes a storm. We settled in for the night in really pleasant weather. At some point the winds picked up dramatically and Steve and I got sand blasted all night. Meanwhile Jason was locked in mortal combat with the snaffles. He said they were trying to take his headlamp off his head. They had told me the night prior that the snaffles really like him. I think the wind that Steve and I were experiencing were keeping the snaffles at bay, leaving Jason as easy prey. Didn't sleep a much that night as you'd guess. Got up and made breakfast and a big pot of coffee in a spot on the summit mostly out of the wind. The sunrise was fantastic and made up for the night we had. Packed up and made out way down West Mac and out Terror basin without issue. This was an incredible trip and thanks to Jason for inviting me on this, I cant say I would've thought to do this kind of trip myself. It was the kind of trip I have been meaning to have for some time now though. And big thanks to Jason and Steve for being SOLID partners. It was really cool being around two guys that have been climbing with each other for as long as you both have. I won't be caught without whiskey on the next Choss Dawgs trip. Myself as we make our way up Sourdough Creek. Jason Photo. Jason and Steve looking at the next two days. North Stetattle. Sunset, Elephant Butte and The Southern Pickets Sunrise, Snowfield group and Davis Peak Sea of Fog. Jason up on Elephant Butte About to make our way into the business end of the traverse. Steve Photo. Steve with the veggie belays. End of the hairy stuff. Jason photo. Into Terror Basin. Headed up West Mac. Up on West Mac preparing for battle with snaffles and wind. Steve photo. Dinner time. Jason photo. Sunset on Mt. Fury Morning light on Inspiration, The Pyramid, Degenhardt and Terror. Kulshan in the distance. Ray of light on Azure Lake. Hopefully Jason and Steve will drop off more of their photos! Gear Notes: Ice Axe, Crampons, Whiskey, Chocolate, Van Halen Approach Notes: Start at Sourdough Lookout Trail, go up along Sourdough creek, Stay on the crest of Stetattle Ridge. From pt. 6154 follow game trails down ramps and ledges to the notch above Torrent Creek. Ascend more ramps and ledges with a bit of steep schwacking up to ~6200'. Traverse westward around that elevation, Elephant Butte is a quick jaunt from the notch west of it. Gain the ridge proper from a notch just west of pt. 6455 (just east of the Mcmillan Spires). This is where the scrambling gets extremely exposed. Traverse mostly solid rock and heather benches toward East Mcmillan, occasional goat trails and veggie belays. Aim for a small notch to the left of where the ridge meets Little Mac.

Trip: Sherpa Peak North Ridge - North Ridge Variation Trip Date: 06/13/2020 Trip Report: Timeline Saturday 6/13 7:00 a.m left Stuart Lk TH 11:00 in upper basin below sherpa and argonaut 3:30 On the Ridge at 2nd notch 6:30 On the Summit 8:00 At Bivy Site on South Side of Sherpa Peak Timeline Sunday 6/14 8:30 a.m left bivy site 11:30 at sherpa pass 3:00 Back to the car Approach Notes Others trip reports mentioned turning off of Stuart lake trail at the first switchback heading up to the lake. We must have missed that and departed a bit later. Was not a problem though. The bushwhacking was not bad at all and we continued making our way towards mountaineers creek. We actually ended up hitting a boulder field and remembering some trip reports mentioned that thought we were in the right spot. Followed cairns through the boulder field for a bit before realizing we were heading right towards the north ridge of Mount Stuart. We checked the map and dropped down off the boulder field until we hit mountaineers creek. Once at the creek we followed the climbers trail up into the basin. We crossed over the creek to the east side to wander up a boulder field before crossing back over to the west side above the slide alder and onto another boulder field. We continued up the field for a short bit before crossing back over mountaineers creek near the basin's entrance. We cruised on up the basin to views of our route. This is the meadow you read about in trip reports. We somehow ended up having to walk through the meadow on our way back and it was horrible bushwhacking leading up to the meadow and of course the meadow is a swamp so we were wet not that it mattered hiking out. On the way in we went a bit past the meadow before leaving the trail. You can see colchuck peak on the left, argonaut, sherpa pass, and the destination peak Sherpa on the right. 998166BF-BFD1-45A9-9E30-480BDF6EF137.heic The next picture shows our route in red up onto the ridge and shows the standard approach route onto the ridge in blue. We decided to to head up the couloir in red on the picture to gain the ridge early and make the summit that day. It looked like it went and directly to the 2nd notch which would put us right at the start of the reported 5.8 pitches. It did go and we made the notch at about 3:30. The snow was fairly easy to kick steps in approach shoes and we switched to crampons about 1/2 the way up the couloir. On route up the couloir B5BDBA85-CF61-4925-BD44-F362B15A36A4.heic A little over halfway up we hit a rock band we had to ascend over to get back on snow. Maybe low 5th class? I am not good at grading. It was exposed but mostly easy scrambling back onto snow. Pictured below is my partner on the rock section. 63A31BAC-51C8-4C30-A97C-CFD89C24C799.heic We hit snow again for a short bit before getting back onto rock and gaining the ridge. Looking down the couloir below. DFC28675-1992-4D0B-8776-264FF4A66743.heic Pictured below is my partner on the ridge at the 2nd notch and there is the start of the technical climbing. The first pitch and the 2nd pitch were short and loaded with rope drag. Partly due to my poor placement of a few pieces and due to the nature of the route. I also had to be careful on the pitches of poor rock. At one point my foot completely gave out as a rock I was standing on gave way down the mountain. The 3rd pitch was almost a full rope length and much more ascetic. The 4th pitch my partner led was close to a full ropes length and put us on the summit. The last 2 pitches were by far the best. Pictured below is my buddy belaying me at the start of the 3rd pitch. This and one other spot was the only snow on the ridge we had to step through. My Buddies vantage point of the start of our 3rd pitch. s Below is my partner starting out on the 4th and final pitch to the summit. He reported quite a bit of rope drag as he belayed me up. This pitch I found the climbing fun though and was surprised and happy to find myself on the summit at the end of it. This was the other spot on route with a bit of snow. The Summit. We had white out conditions with some light snow flurries the whole way up. It was cold when belaying but warmed up while climbing. We descended the first rap down the "west ridge" into a 3rd class gully. The descent was not as arduous or horrible as many have described or at least that is how I felt. After the first rap you descent the obvious gully climbers left until you run into another rap station around a big boulder. We rapped down onto a gradual snow slope. Below is looking down the gully we followed to the 2nd rap station. 9C81CCB1-2BCF-46F0-9666-C2519C00C03B.heic Looking back up the gully 07723B3D-6711-4ED1-84CD-09B7D51E3C2B.heic Start of traversing at 8000 feet We followed Lemke's descent route which was spot on. After that second route and descending the snow slope it opened up and we headed climbers left at about 8000 feet. Then we ran into the most wonderful bivy site. 08B834C7-A77E-4FBC-A3C2-856095098E4C.heic Looking back at our route down. route down.tif The next day we traversed for just a short bit at 8000 feet before dropping down a longish snow ramp (loose rock late season I imagine) towards 7000 feet. At 7000 feet we made our traverse pretty easily over towards sherpa pass. Below looking back up sherpa pass on the the left and our peak on the right. 9E249E86-1EF0-4FBA-A85F-D2865CD2AF5D.heic Rad trip all in all. We got snowed on a bit that night and it was 24 degrees in the morning but the weather cleared a bit and we could see mount rainier. Gear Notes: Gear to 3" Doubles of .75" and 1" I don't think you need doubles of anything. Set of nuts. Approach Notes: Reference trip report above B5BDBA85-CF61-4925-BD44-F362B15A36A4.heic

Trip: Mt Adams - NW Ridge Trip Date: 06/19/2020 Trip Report: Images: https://imgur.com/gallery/xtuhf6H Started from a turnout near Takhlakh Lake and headed up the Divide Camp Trail. Probably could have driven to the Divide Camp Trail but there was a bit of snow – a Lexus 4x4 was at the trail head. Crossed over the PCT intersection and just followed a route that seemed reasonable. I went up a couple of the moraines that didn’t have snow cover. It probably would have been better to have stayed lower in the valleys and then climbed up the moraines at the very ends. Some of the tops of the valleys had deep moats at their ends. Gained the ridge around 8000 feet. Didn’t see any bergschrund lower down as mentioned on summitpost. I was on a rock ridge for a bit and then stayed to the left to keep on the snow. Conditions weren’t ideal, since very little was firmly consolidated. It was nice to have two tools when heading left towards the North Face of the ridge (40 degrees?). Down climbing the steep parts was a chore given the slushiness of the snow. It was at most just freezing on the summit that night and morning. Saw a few people on the summit but none while I was there. There were three boot tracks that appeared to come from the North Ridge / Cleaver route but I didn’t see them. The big chunks separating at the top of the Adams glacier were a spectacular sight and well worth the climb. Definitely will come up the north side again. Attached GPX file is not a recorded route, just a best guess. Gear Notes: Helmet, crampons, axe, two tools Approach Notes: Divide Camp Trail - a walk through the woods