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Trip: Challenger, Crowder, N Despair - Eiley Wiley to Thornton Lakes Trip Date: 08/09/2020 Trip Report: This trip was an apex experience preceded by years of planning and dreaming. We took nine days. Thanks to Steph, Tom, and Jason for all the trip reports. Thanks to Eric and Jason for the beta. My climbing partner conceived the idea of our abbreviated traverse. The plan seemed favorable, but included two major unknowns. The first was our plan to climb over Crowder. Others had descended our climbing route (in general) and reported it as not recommended. The second was the descent from N Despair. Climbing Crowder was adventurous, loose, and included a couple pitches of 70 degree heather/moss climbing. Perhaps there is a deluxe solid line we did not find. We took the path of least resistance. I would not repeat it. The descent form N Despair was much less difficult than we imagined. Downclimb to the first notch south. One short rap, downclimb rock, then snow. Any less snow in gully would probably make it more tricky. South side of Challenger Southern Pickets and Crowder Crowder Spectre! Departing Jasper Pass for North Despair Triumph! Gear Notes: (2) 30m 8mil Approach Notes: Oof!

Trip: Mt Despair, N summit - NE ("Bipolar") Buttress, 3700+', 5.9 Date: 7/28/2014 Trip Report: Low. (Our first glimpse of the double buttress from banks of Goodell Cr.) High. (Rolf climbs the final snow arête of the N Ridge to the N summit of Mt Despair. The highpoint of the NE Buttress is barely in view on right. Pickets background.) Route summary: the NE Buttress (“Bipolar Buttress”) of Mt Despair, ~3700’ net vertical relief of climbing and scrambling; a few hundred more are climbed thanks to multiple rappels into notches along the way. Difficulties up to 5.9. (Rolf nailed the name.) I think we belayed a total of 9 pitches, 8 on the buttress and 1 to attain the N ridge? This shot taken from the southeast shows the NE Buttress toeing down into Goodell Cr. Photo courtesy of John Roper, taken from the Roost. We began climbing at the base of the big open book in the area of lighter rock on the lower buttress. The feature can also be seen in the background of this shot taken from Mt Terror last summer: And here: Trip summary: a delightful tour of Picket-ness proportions; we approached via Goodell Creek, climbed Mt Despair via the soaring NE Buttress/N Ridge continuation, descended Despair’s west flank, and ultimately exited via Triumph Pass and Thornton Lakes trail to a bike, where the lucky loser of roshambo commenced the 8ish mile ride to retrieve the car. Lots of ups and downs. (On a map, this looks like a reasonable horseshoe route. Plan for three demanding days.) More-enterprising types might more fully express this route by traversing from the N to the S summit, thence to Triumph Pass and home; we left this for future work due to budget constraints of calories and time. A good thing too, as I botched the de-proach; in a monomaniacal fit of hubris, neglected to thoroughly research the route from Triumph Pass to the Thornton Cr trailhead, instead relying on simply a map and odd recollections. As a result, deep into the third day, we achieved new psychological limits by rat-schwacking up a 600+ vf stretch of steep, dense brush. My bad, brah. A soi-disant Cascades dignitary pronounced this a Last, Last Great Problem of the Cascades, while the other side of same mouth pronounced it “table scraps”. The Bipolar Buttress is more akin to eating a spilled gourmet meal off the floor, tasty if a little dirty--the floor in this case is the Goodell Creek valley. The NWMJ notes Roger Jung used Goodell to score FWAs on Mt Fury, but my contacts with real Cascades dignitaries yielded little info re: optimal access in the brushy summer. Sundry, pleasant surprises await those who in future travel this way. Route description/photo blast: Scrambling the lower buttress. Around 1300’ of mostly solid and well-featured scrambling up to low fifth class. Chimney moves to finish the lower buttress difficulties. From top of lower buttress, we rappelled into a notch; a party could bail from here at relatively low cost. Beyond this point, costs increase. Rolf leading out of a notch after a rappel. A very deep cleft in the upper buttress weighed on our psyches during the whole climb; the most technical pitches had occurred climbing out of smaller notches after rappelling into them. This deeper cleft can be seen in Tom Sjolseth’s picture from the N. Only the upper buttress is visible here, extending left—the cleft is near the summit of the buttress. With apologies to Jimi Hendrix, this is the Manic Depression. New lows were hit upon closer viewing of the chasm. The wall we needed to climb appeared very steep, overhanging in places, and meager viable lines looked difficult to access. We rapped in and scoped around, finally settling on a route beginning maybe 50’ to the south of the notch: a right-trending stair-step ramp kept the climbing at a reasonable grade. Watch for loose rock here. Rolf led the first pitch, and I got the leftovers; a bunch more rambling (an exposed stretch felt like the TFT) and we found a dee-luuuuxe bivy site on heather near the high col, where the two E-side glaciers meet. Views into the Pickets were available all day, and made even more enjoyable by respite. Smoke filtering in from eastern Washington provided color. Mr Bo Jangles S Pickets N Pickets The next morning we crossed the high col, climbed a 70m pitch of rock to attain the N Ridge, and then continued on its final snow arête. This pic shows the upper buttress (blocks view of lower buttress) on the right, with Goodell Cr far below. Descent was made by downclimbing to the notch S of the N summit, then down the W side of the peak; one rappel required. Demanding tour, but rewards with sweeping views and ambiance. Bunch more photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/ewehrly/2014_07_28MtDespairNEBipolarButtress?authuser=0&feat=directlink [Might add or swap out some photos upon receipt of Rolf’s.] Gear Notes: Medium rack with several pins, but never used them. Axe/crampons. Lithium. Single 70m rope. Approach Notes: See above.