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Trip: PRIMUS PEAK (8508'), TRICOUNI PEAK (8102') - EAST RIDGE & NORTH RIDGE Trip Date: 08/13/2022 Trip Report: PRIMUS PEAK (8508'), TRICOUNI PEAK (8102') – Thunder Creek Trail Approach – AUG 13-15, 2022 (Sat, Sun, Mon) Another perfect weather weekend for climbing. Temp was right around 80 all days. I originally planned to climb Tricouni, Primus & Austera Peaks. After climbing the first two peaks and doing the math, I would have needed another full day and more supplies to bag Austera from this side of the mountain, which wasn’t going to happen. Saturday: I started from the Colonial Creek Campground area at 9:00am. I headed up the Thunder Creek Trail to McAllister Camp arriving at 11:30am. I planned to cross the bridge over Thunder Creek to the McAllister Camp on the other side of the creek. That is where the start of the climber’s trail up to Primus Camp is located. Having climbed Primus before, I knew this was the best option. I walked right by the trail to the creek because it was covered under a pile of sticks and the old signage was gone. I doubled back and headed down the trail to find that the bridge is completely gone too. Not damaged or collapsed, but completely gone. I looked up and down the creek nearby for a possible log jam crossing. No luck at all, the creek was high and deep and moving fast. There was no way I was going to attempt to ford the creek. I decided to move on to Tricouni Camp since the camp is located before Fisher Creek feeds into Thunder Creek, hoping this would mean the creek would be more crossable. I headed through Tricouni Camp to Thunder Creek and lo and behold, a fantastic log crossing with three big trees together all the way across the creek. It was 12:45pm by this time and the new plan was to cross the creek and go straight up the mountain side to connect with the climber’s trail on the ridge. I knew it was going to be steep the whole way. The bushwhack started out good, the terrain was pretty easy going. That ended pretty quickly. I came across a well established game trail mostly of goat tracks. The goats have always been good to me, so I followed the game trail up the best I could. I started to hit vertical cliffs around 4000’ so I traversed toward Tricouni Peak and through several steep gullies, again following the goat trail. I finally made it to a boulder field and headed straight up. It got steeper and more loose but I kept fighting my way up. Finally at around 7:30pm I popped out onto a familiar looking plateau at about 5700’. Sure enough, the climber’s trail to Primus Camp was a little way up from me. I reached Primus Camp at 8:15pm. Time enough to setup camp, eat and go to sleep. The climb up was tougher that I had expected and took much more time. The goats are a bunch of crazy tough bastards, thank god, just my type. Sunday: I was up and moving at 7:00am. Tricouni was first on the list. I headed for the toe of the North Ridge and started up. The ridge start is class 3-4 rock then it eases up a bit to cIass 2-3. I looked down the side of the ridge to see a mountain goat hanging out on the cliffs below. He looked surprised to see a human in the area and got the hell of a dodge in a hurry. I headed up to the main snowfield. The snowfield is moderately steep and gets steepest at the top. Snow conditions were pretty good and firm. Once at the top of the snowfield I was staring at the ridge up to the top. Exposed class 3, 4 rock, somewhat loose in sections. I took my time and made sure my holds were good. The ridge got narrower, down to about 2’ wide in one section. I climbed along the side of the upper snow section with an overhanging cornice to the summit area. The cornice was ready to come down. A 6’ wide section came down as I was working my way to the snow gully. I climbed up the left hand side watching the cornice carefully for any movement. The rest of the cornice will probably come down this week. Once above the cornice section, it was easy climbing to the summit arriving at 11:15am. Beautiful views in all directions. I found a summit register from 2004 with only two party entries. One entry only had the date listed. I’m assuming they must have lost the pencil at that point because there was no name and the pencil was gone. The register is a zip lock bag with a vitamin bottle inside, hidden in a small pile of rocks on the summit. Bring your own pencil and maybe an extra to leave behind. I started down from the summit heading toward Primus. There is supposed to be an “easy” snow finger down to Lucky Pass. Easy my ass! The snow finger was steep with halfway soft snow and shitty moats on both sides. I was about 75% down the snow finger before seeing that the bottom section had a 20’ gap with 10’ of vertical snow. I had to climb down into the moat and wedge myself between the smooth rock wall and the snow. The snow was not solid enough to climb down with crampons safely, so I alternated between the snow and the smooth rock until I was close enough to jump down if I slipped. I didn’t slip but it wasn’t fun. I finally made it down to Lucky Pass at 1:00pm. The name is fitting. The pass is in a perfect location with great camping and a nice little stream for water. The view is fantastic. Klawatti Lake below would make a great camp area. Looking back at the “easy my ass” snow finger on Tricouni, I noticed a goat path down the side closer to the pass. If I had known it was there, I would not have taken the snow finger down to the pass. Next stop was the Primus summit. I climbed Primus before via the North Ridge in 2014. That was low 5th class rock. The East Ridge of Primus is mostly class 2 bouldering with a little class 3 here and there. I made it to the summit at 2:40pm. I was back to Lucky Pass at 4:00pm. I looked over at Austera Peak and looked at my watch and went through my supplies. There was no way I was going to get to that peak and make it back to camp in any reasonable amount of time. So I headed for camp cutting across the glacier in front of the South Face of Primus. The glacier was in OK shape, soft but manageable. I wrapped around down to the glacier above the lake and over to the glacier below Tricouni. It’s a bit of a bowling alley below Tricouni so I opted to climb on the glacier halfway floating on the Lake. It worked out well, I saw several boulders on the glacier around that area so I knew it would hold my weight fine. I made it back to camp at 6:45pm. Monday: I packed up camp and was up and moving at 7:00am, heading for home. I didn’t want to follow the same route that I came up on as the gully crossings were not fun. My plan was to drop down the climber’s ridge trail a ways and then drop off the side into the Thunder Creek area, hopefully running into the Tricouni Camp’s huge log crossing. I dropped down the ridge trail to about 5000’ and decided to make my turn down toward the creek valley. The route started as a fairly steep gully down the side of some cliffs. It looked somewhat well traveled, probably by goats. Careful vege belay technic was crucial. After the initial loose steep start down the gully, I spotted what looked to be a dried creek bed down the middle. I follow this dry creek bed as far down as I could. There was some wet mossy sections along the way. I was using vege belays the whole way down. I reached a cliffed out section in the creek bed and turn right into the forest to get around the cliffs. The forest vege belays didn’t work very well. Most of the branches were dry and brittle and tended to break when you needed them the most. So I aimed at the areas that had the most trees to grab onto. I stayed close to the creek bed but in the forest. There were cliffs mixed in here and there put they usually had hidden shelfs that allow me to get around them. Again I was following goat trails most of the way down. The steepness started to ease up and I knew I was close to Thunder Creek. I popped out onto the creek side and checked my elevation (2060’). This was close to the Tricouni Camp log crossing. I looked up and down the creek and didn’t see the huge log crossing. I decided I must be a little too high up so I followed the creek down thinking I’d run into the Tricouni log crossing soon. After about a half hour going down stream I came across another nice log crossing the creek. It wasn’t the original log crossing but it was too good to pass up. I was on the main trail side of Thunder Creek at 11:00am. I wasn’t sure if I was above or below Tricouni Camp. I wandered around massive amounts of downed trees in a swampy area until I saw a sharp turn in Thunder Creek. I pulled out the map to look for the turn in the creek and it put me closer to McAllister Camp than Tricouni Camp. I knew the main trail was close even though I could not see it. So I just marched straight up the hillside and sure enough I ran right into Thunder Creek Trail at 12:00 noon. I was on the trail just above the old bridge crossing that has disappeared at McAllister. The trail back to the parking area was uneventful and actually kind of boring compared to the bushwhacking. I was back at the vehicle at 3:20pm. Since the McAllister bridge is completely gone and probably will not be rebuilt, the route I took up and down will probably be the new way to Primus Camp for the future. Hopefully with more use by goats and people there will be a more clear cut path to follow up to and down from the Primus area. Right now, it is one hell of a workout getting up and down. I was beat by the end of each day. Some Tips and Notes: 1. The McAllister bridge over Thunder Creek is gone and there are no log crossings nearby. 2. Tricouni Camp has an excellent log system crossing Thunder Creek. 3. Climbing up the hillside toward Primus Camp from Tricouni is steep and loose. 4. If you see a creek bed on the way up, follow it. If you see a well worn goat path on the way up, follow it. They will be the easiest ways up. 5. Bring work gloves for the extensive vege belays needed both up and down. 6. There are bivy / camp options near the Tricouni Summit, the Primus Summit and at Lucky Pass. Travel Time for reference: Saturday: Trailhead to Primus Camp (6000’) – 11:15 hours. Sunday: Camp to Summits to Camp – 11:45 hours. Monday: Camp to Parking Area – 8:20 hours. Total Mileage: around 26 miles Total Elevation Gain: around 8100’ Gear used: Trekking Poles, Ice Axe, Crampons, Helmet. Logs crossing over Thunder Creek at Tricouni Camp. Bushwhacking around 4000' on way up to Primus Camp. Finally on the climber's trail with the objectives in sight. Tricouni and Primus from camp. Tricouni North Ridge. Snowfield on Tricouni. North Ridge to Tricouni Summit. Looking down the North RIdge route from Tricouni Summit. Looking back at the Tricouni snow finger down to Lucky Pass, notice the goat trail on the right side. Lucky Pass view. Klawatti Lake below. Forbidden in the background. Primus East Ridge, basic class 2-3 rock. Primus summit memorial. I have to admit I had a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. One simple line "We Miss You Son". I couldn't image losing a son so young and trying to move on in life. I climb in the mountains to get closer to heaven and it seems others do to. Austera, Klawatti & Eldorado from Tricouni. Primus on the way back to camp. Tricouni on the way back to camp. Back to Camp. Some nice views right off the side of the main trail. A very beautiful area that charges a hefty fee in the form of suffering. Well worth the effort. Gear Notes: Trekking Poles, Ice Axe, Crampons, Helmet. Approach Notes: Park near Colonial Creek Campground, head up Thunder Creek Trail, cross logs over Thunder Creek at Tricouni Camp.

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article266805861.html What a great piece of news! @JasonG it's only taken a few years, but.. yay!

That's a poetic finish if I've ever heard one!

Climb: Davis Peak-NE Face Couloir Date of Climb: 3/12/2005 Trip Report: Davis Peak - No milkshake, no blowjob There is a God, and he or she has it in for me big time. The last three weekends have been spent alpine failing, or flailing, depending how you want to look at it. Partners get sick, snow conditions turn to garbage or the weather does inexplicable things. Some take the hint; Alasdair heads for Smith Rock and sport climbing rather than spend another entertaining Saturday night rappelling off a route in high winds, others just don’t return calls or have sick pets and ailing aunts who need their attention. At this point in the closing weeks of the most frustrating winter on record you can either quit while you’re only somewhat behind, go for a sure thing, or plough on regardless and hope for salvation. Enter… Davis Peak and Stuart. Davis Peak is big and steep and Stuart is too polite to say no to the idea climbing it, winter or otherwise. He only moved to Washington a while back so hasn’t been warned about Davis, or me for that matter. Friday night finds us sleeping in my truck just outside Diablo next to a “No Camping” sign. The following morning we leave at first light and hike the Stetattle Creek trail. Despite warnings to the contrary this turns out to be pretty nice, easy hiking on a good trail with some nice views up the valley. Stuart and I both enjoyed this part of the approach. Opposite Davis we drop down to the river and scope it for crossings – no such luck. We ford the river, which thankfully doesn’t reach the critical testicle deep level but it’s a close thing. The bushwhack to the base of the 3/4 class rib described in Beckey is also a little disappointing. This is all a bit too easy. Luckily the rib comes to save the day. Maybe we were off route, maybe I’m a shittier slab climbed that even I’m prepared to admit or maybe it’s a sandbag but after some long runouts on what feels like 5th class and a close call with a detached tree and resulting slide to a ledge we get the rope out. Fred wins – again. He does mention a “rugged approach” and a “variety of terrain problems” so I guess we were warned. Maybe the next edition should just say “you might die on this dipshit” and have done with it. The section above the cliff band is slide alder but actually not too bad this time of year with no new foliage. We find a bivvi at the base of the glacier on a nice flat spot in the snow with running water. Stuart and I have bivvi coffins kicked out and a brew on by late afternoon. We spend the remaining time re-hydrating and watching the sun set on the ridge opposite. We also look at the NE Face Couloir and debate if it’s going to go. The lower 5.6 pitches are snowed up and don’t look that easy and the entrance into the upper couloir has several ominous blank patches on it and some hidden ground. We also can’t see the top of the couloir but the cornices further along the face are enormous. There’s no denying it Davis is one big piece of rock. Still, Stuart doesn’t fancy descending to the river any more than I do. So, one way or another; we’re going down the other side. The following morning we hike up the glacier to the base of the route. The slabs directly below the couloir are partially iced but not continuously and partially iced slabs don’t sound too clever. So we start a ways right of the bottom of the couloir. The bergschrund is pretty much filled in but we gear up there and Stuart belays while I head up to see if we can climb the approach pitches. Hard neve and just enough ice over the rock in places make the climbing tricky but not impossible. In some places we even find turf nirvana and I educate my Quarks in the way of Scottish climbing. The gear however is hard to find. The rock is compact and the climbing runout – later we’ll be very glad of the knifeblades. We simul-climb to just below the snowfield, were I find a decent belay in some ice under an overhang. Stuart leads off around the corner and onto the main snowfield. I follow. We traverse leftwards towards the entrance to the couloir. The couloir doesn’t look like a giveaway. On the left is a vertical snice line that looks like garbage and doesn’t actually gain the couloir directly. On the right a couple of rock steps lead to a chockstone guarding the upper slopes but we can’t see the whole line. All a bit concerning really seeing that, given the nature of the rock rap anchors aren’t going to be leaping out at you. “Up” had better happen because “down” doesn’t seem that nice. Clearly Davis isn’t going to give it up that easily. I belay from a cam, stubby screw and iffy looking horn while Stuart gears up for the next lead. Everything is super exposed. The snowfield has steepened at the left end and I’m looking down it until it disappears over the rock band below to the glacier nearly a thousand feet below. Herb Swedlund, first ascentionist of the Black Ice Couloir on the Grand, observation that; “On alpine climbs you can’t just lower off for a milkshake and a blowjob”. No kidding Herb. Stuart scratches his way across a partially iced up slab. Falling would not be good. So he thoughtfully doesn’t. Next some snow and then finally he’s nearly in the corner below the chockstone. He’s partially out of sight but doing a fine job trying to surmount the final rock bulge to get below the corner. The knifeblades prove their worth and after some cursing and scratching Stuart appears and then disappears into the corner. I follow and soon we’re established below the chockstone on a thankfully good belay. We’d been worried that the chockstone would have a big drop below it and be impossible to reach. It turns out there’s a fragile tongue of snow reaching up below it. Stuart belays as I try and climb up to the chockstone without collapsing the snow and making things harder. The ice above the stone is spilt by another large rock and the stuff on the right is hollow. Luckily the left is good and the gear gods smile on us; cam below the roof, stubby in the ice just above. It’s steep so don’t hang around. Big stick high, stem, stick higher, foot under roof and stem some more, another stick and we’re up! Hopefully it’s couloir all the way to the ridge. I finish the pitch and Stuart follows. He continues up the couloir and we climb this sort of rib that forms one side of it with more big exposure. We simul-climb with occasional gear, trying to move as fast as possible given the cornice above and the big scoured out runnel we’re climbing in. Things could still get quite unpleasant if we hang around too long. Move fast, sweat a lot, wish I had more water. This couloir, like most, goes on a tad longer than I’d actually admit to finding enjoyable. At some point I take over from Stuart and kick steps up the final few hundred feet to make the ridge. The snow on the South side has been turned to mush by the sun. Given the 6000’ vertical feet of Klenke Country that is the descent and the hour plus it’s going to take us to get to the summit we rap from pins to the SE ridge. The descent was supposed to be hideous but getting the upper 1500’ done in the light really saves us. We avoid all the cliff bands and the rapping off trees that comes with it ending up at the top of the timber just after dark. The timber sucks but not as much as I’d expected it to. No cliffs, except the small one I fell off and not much Slide Alder. My Petzl Myo5 certainly saved us on a few occasions. A bit of compass work saves us from ending up back at Stetattle Creek. Four hours sees us to the road. It takes me another half hour to retrieve the truck from Diablo. Home time! Notes: The timber is thick enough that we could never see the lights from the dam. The only lights we saw the whole way down were those some a car when we were a few hundred feet above the road. Take a compass and try and be descending before dark. Klenke - You do that shit for fun?! You’re INSANE! NOLSe - Gracias for the beta. Gear Notes: Full set of wires, KBs, LAs, friends from #1-#3.5. A picket might have been nice. Approach Notes: Not as bad as you might think.