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I've used this forum a fair bit for research in the past and figured it's time to contribute back! This is a post from the summer of 2022, but hopefully the beta is still useful. My partner Andrea and I set out to do Phyllis's Engine via the standard route in late September. The plan was to do the approach on day 1 up to Polemonium Ridge and then attempt our climb the following morning with a long hike out on the same day. Despite its inclusion in the Alpine Select, there's actually not a ton of beta (that I could find) on the standard route. Steven Song has a great report from the 5.9 variation and there was also one post on here from 2013 with some good beta as well, but otherwise there's limited details on what to expect. The one other detail that I read on numerous accounts was the cadence of ropes getting stuck on rappels. I had that in the back of my mind for the rest of the trip. On the 20th, of September we set out from the Helm Creek Trail Head and followed the well paved path all the way to the turn off for Helm Glacier. The glacier was in a very dry condition, so we didn't bother roping up and found it straightforward to navigate. When we reached the top of Gentian Pass we caught eye of the 250m elevation loss below, but the scenery is nice enough to distract from it all. We reached a suitable camp site around an hour before sunset and settled in for the evening. Andrea on the Helm Glacier Dropping into Gentian Pass Sunset at camp We got going around 9am, when the sun rose and followed the long side hilling traverse around to the Sphinx Glacier entry West of Phyllis's Engine. This glacier looked more complicated to traverse so we made the decision to rope up here. Andrea lead a great line up to the base of the Engine and then we transitioned over to climbing gear. From there we lead 3 pitches to the summit on solid rock, albeit the top of pitch 1 was kitty litter over slab. Reaching the entrance to the glacier The Engine off in the distance Getting closer Myself above the first part of pitch 1 At the top of pitch 1 looking down at Andrea The kitty litter slab traverse Andrea coming up pitch 2 Myself on pitch 2. I ran out of gear just before the top, so Andrea lead the remainder up to the base of pitch 3. Looking down the exposed and awesome pitch 3 Andrea on the summit Myself on the summit On the descent, we found our rope was too short to reach the second rappel station we spotted (on a 60m rope) and so had to build an intermediary rap station and then continue on. I held my breath on each rope pull, but thankfully it never got stuck. We swapped back into our regular gear and then roped up for the glacier again. We didn't reach our camp site until just before sunset. Andrea and I debated crashing for the night, but we had run out of snacks and we figured it's better to slog it out now then be hungry in the morning covering the same distance. With that, we packed up camp and made our way back towards Helm Glacier. We didn't arrive until well into the night and it was a touch spooky covering the glacier by head lamps only. It was a moonless night, which didn't help. Helm Glacier at night After the glacier, it was a long march back to the car, but we finally made it around 4am after 19 hours on the move. I drove us back home where we promptly crashed out for the day. I have a full recount of the details here if you're interested: https://www.francisbaileyh.com/2022/09/22/phylliss-engine/

Such a beautiful area! Thanks for the summer report, I haven't seen much on that area once summer rolls around. I have very fond memories of a winter trip some years back.

For the most part this year has been short on Drury epics and lond on success. Here is a short and incomplete history. 1980 R. "Ten" Gram falls into Drury Falls 1980 John Stoddard, his pack, and his snow shoes fall thru the ice on Jolanda Lake 1982 Dan M falls thru Drury 1987 Cockroach and Jackson get drunk, canoe across river, get feet wet, return to car (no extra socks!), cross river third time, capsize, sink,etc. Their fourth trip across the river was by wading in the dark. A local saw them changing in the bathroom of Crystals and said "We have a word for people like you - Dumbshits!" 1988 Dean and Lee climb Drury in one day, although it takes Dean three days of partying to recover 1988 Cockroach and this author climb Drury, but spend the night on top with no bivy gear. 1988 Doug Klewin is half way across the ice bridge when it breaks, sweeping Doug several hundred feet down stream. This points out that Doug is lucky, and the Cockroach is one stupid MF'er.

I don't know if it will be of any use, but I maintain a search engine specifically for trip reports. CascadeClimber's is included on there in addition to a large number of curated sources. There's no way to filter by site specifically, but CascaseClimber results usually filter to the top due to the well structured titles and content. There's a link here if you're interested in trying it out: https://searchthesummits.com/