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Trip: Southern Twin Sisters Traverse - Kloke Peak (register placed), Twin Crest, Saddle Slab, Shirley, Trisolace, Barbara, Nancy, Last Sister Trip Date: 08/03/2024 Trip Report: Ever since our climbing mentor Dallas Kloke died on the Pleiades in 2010, @Trent, @sepultura, @Kit, @John_Roper and others in the local climbing community have been thinking of ways to honor a man who had given much during his 50 years of pioneering ascents in the Cascades and beyond. These dreams became a reality in 2022 with the naming of Kloke Peak (formerly Hayden) in the Twin Sisters Range. The Twin Sisters were near and dear to Dallas's heart and he completed many first ascents in this area over the years (including his FA of "Hayden" in 1972 with Dave Dixon) . The peaks are also visible from his house in Anacortes, adding a bittersweet element to the commemoration. Like all worthwhile climbs, the naming process was difficult, involved and several times seemed to almost come to a complete stop. Imagine my surprise then when I got a call from the Everett Herald on an October morning, deep in the mountains, letting me know that the WA State Board of Geographic Names had approved our proposal. Or, months later when a friend texted me a photo of the Gaia map (below) with "Kloke Peak" prominently displayed on the summit, meaning that the US Board of Geographic Names in Washington DC had also approved our proposal. Surreal. We just needed to get a register up there to really make it official! Fast forward to this summer.... when @Trent and I managed to find three days to get away to the range and place the register. We toyed with the idea of a full traverse of the range (Dallas style!) but the time and effort for that was a bit more than we were willing to undertake in the heat and humidity. So we settled to starting from Green Creek (thanks @dberdinka!), climbing from the cars up through the Cinderella/Little Sister col. We dropped a bit on the backside and cached our gear, heading over to Kloke Peak in the early evening to place the register and marvel at the rugged appropriateness of Dallas's namesake. KLOKE PEAK!: (below) Steve had done an admirable job of prepping the register, complete with laminated photo, newpaper article, Rite in the Rain logbook, and Pelican case. All secured with cord and pitons. Please leave it up there! When the book gets full, bring it down and let me know. I'll be the keeper of it and hike up a new book as needed. After savoring the view for a time, Steve and I headed down to camp at an unnamed lake south of Cinderella. It felt as if we were the first people to camp there, almost no sign of anyone, except for a random rock hammer we stumbled across the next morning as we left camp! Soon after finding the hammer, we began the quest to bag the rest of the peaks south of Cinderella. We knew it would would be a big day, but the heat and humidity made it even more taxing than we estimated. It was a 14 hour+ whirlwind day for us to climb Twin Crest, Saddle Slab, Shirley, Trisolace, Barbara, Nancy, and Last Sister. There was a lot of 3rd and 4th class along the way, some loose rock, a lot of solid rock, and a bit of head scratching so as to not carry all our gear up and over all the peaks. Sometimes this meant linking improbable ledges on the west side of the peaks. Sometimes it meant backtracking after scrambling a peak by the "easiest" path. We had left the rope behind in a effort to save weight, but I would have been happy for it on the "easy" route up Trisolace (photos of it way below). This was probably very exposed 4th or low fifth terrain, but we couldn't see an easier way, even on the way down. Careful there! Also careful on the summit ridge of Trisolace. I dislodged a large rock right at the summit and it nearly took me with it. As it was, it pinned my leg and @Trent had to come over quickly, and carefully roll it off and down the mountain. Whew! I sat for a time getting my heart rate and breathing down, cursing myself for letting my guard down, even for a moment. It was not lost on me that this was the same type of accident that took the life of Dallas. Steve on Trisolace. I eventually got up the gumption to follow him: Me, a few minutes after my mishap with the large rock: And somewhere along the traverse: The day wore on and we got further and further south and farther from Kloke Peak: As the sun dipped towards the west at last we were on the Last Sister, looking down at the Step Sister. Steve had already climbed it, but I hadn't. Camp looked so close at Heart Lake (it wasn't, as we would soon find out). There was a brief period, as we neared the col between the two peaks, that I considered heading up and descending to camp in the dark. But then I slipped, fell, and went into full leg cramps on both legs! My day was done, I was totally spent. And so we went down surprisingly far to the surprisingly rugged Heart Lake, barely finding about the only decent campsite on the west side of the lake as the light failed. Step Sister as we hike down to Heart Lake: Our camp at Heart Lake the next morning: The next day was going to be a long one (14+ miles) and hot, so we didn't have much time to rest after the marathon peak bagging tear the day before. As the sun came up we were soon moving down through the brush below Heart Lake to an old logging spur that took us down and across the South Fork Nooksack. Here, we grabbed the PNT and followed the elk up valley, surprising a trail crew along the way that hadn't seen many people in awhile. Sort of as we expected, it got really hot as we hit the Elbow Lake trail up and over the ridge back to our car. But we had beer stashed in the river and chips in the car. It could have been worse! I would really like to hear of others' stories of climbing Kloke Peak. Even if you don't post up a TR, feel free to post your experiences in comments below! Gear Notes: Ice axe, helmet, leather gloves. Many will want a rope on Trisolace. Footwear and clothing you don't care about. Approach Notes: In Green Creek (thanks Darin!), out Heart Lake and PNT to Elbow Lake and back to Middle Fork Nooksack.

Trip: Squire Creek Wall, 6p, 5.8+, FA - Miracle Ramps Trip Date: 08/29/2024 Trip Report: Miracle Ramps, 6p, 5.8+, Bill Enger, Anastasia Blagoveshchenskaya, Linnet Vacha, FA 8/29/2024 On August 29 this year three of us made the first complete ascent of a new route on Squire Creek Wall. It is on the right side of a buttress on the south side of the massif. It is a central buttress with an old route on its crest called Primal Scream. The new route, called Miracle Ramps, is a variation of the first six pitches of that route. This route shares the class 4 approach pitch, and half of the first pitch, of Primal Scream as I know it (it hasn't been published anywhere). From the "grassy saddle" bivy spot clean, class 4 ramps lead up to a shallow dihedral, then to a good ledge at a short wall (see photo). I had scoped these clean slabs from an exploratory climb of Primal Scream with Yale Lewis in June, 2023. The white granite slope appeared to continue far up to a great white spot halfway up the buttress. I thought it might yield five or six pitches of moderate slab climbing, which turned out to be correct. Approach pitch: From the grassy bivy area, walk directly up the middle ramp until it narrows into a dihedral with a small cedar bush in the middle. Knobs and easy friction connects to a form a path to the start dirt ledge. P1: Climb a short wall with a 3" horizontal crack above. Pull around this bulge to a couple of low hogsback ridges which lead to a pair of diagonal cracks with pro choices. Climb past a cedar bush on its left to some blocks, and look left for a bolt. Step out left onto the knobs to a dirt pedestal. This is where Miracle Ramps starts—see the four bolt leading up and rightward. Smear past the four bolts, 5.8+, to a trough and a couple more bolts. 55m, 6x, 5.8+ P2: Smearing and knobs lead rightward, and upward past three bolts to a thin crack with good feet. Don't climb the crack, but go rightward on knobs to the overlap. Pull the overlap on knobs, cross over a grassy crack with optional pro, and cruise to the anchor on above a flake on a good ledge. 60m, 9x, 5.8 P3: Step down and to the right to the bottom end of Ruffled Crack, a wavy-edged, 1-2" wide, undercling delight. Continue rightward on edges to some good pro in a 3/4" crack. Then move up and left on friction to a ledge with a finger crack for pro. Head for the one bolt on this pitch and up the knobs galore. When they end, step right and grab a good vertical crack with middle-size pro, which curves into an overlap. Optional small gear is under the overlap; pull this and reach for the ledge with the anchor. 45m, 1x, 5.7 P4: Friction and edges lead straight up to two bolts and an overlap. Step past the overlap on its left end. A bolt protects the start of a vertical seam with good right-leaning edges. Face climbing leads to another bolt and a bit of blocky climbing to the anchor. 40m, 4x, 5.8. P5: Follow the three bolts up to a wide crack, and some others with middle-size pro possibilities. Move up atop a large flake and see three more bolts above on a clean slab. Smear past these, 5.7, to the fractured cracks leading to the anchor. 60m, 6x, 5.7 P6: Climb cracks and blocks aiming for the space between the two prominent bushes in view. A slanting overlap system leads rightward, follow it and pull the overlap to a bolt above. Another bolt leads to a huge flake with a sweet left edge for laybacking. From the flake's top, smear past three bolts to the top anchor. 55m, 5x, 5.7. For the adventurous party wanting the full overview, two new bolts lead to the left to connect with the Primal Scream route. Doing this leads to the modern two-bolt anchor atop the sixth pitch of Primal Scream as I know it. There was never any evidence of where the original belay anchor might have been, so Yale and I placed modern two-bolt anchors at roughly 55m intervals. After three more of these pitches, it intersects the modern route, Concerto in C for Drill and Hammer, at its 11th pitch anchor. Follow that route or make your own way to the top. Special thanks to Yale Lewis for early support of this effort. Topo: Bill Enger, with help from Anastasia B. on p3 Anastasia leading pitch 2, above Linnet leading pitch 3, above The short wall at the start of the route, above The class 4 approach pitch from the grassy saddle bivy area The 4th class approach starts up the ramp on the right end of this snow patch, above Gear Notes: Standard single rack to 3" Approach Notes: Directly above the grassy saddle bivy area, go up the middle ramp to a shallow dihedral, on knobs, class 4. Alternatively, hike up the right side of Skeena26 following a faint path.

Trip: Pinnacle Mountain - Standard Trip Date: 08/25/2024 Trip Report: I can finally admit it. I am out of the closet. I am an aspiring Bulger. It has taken me almost 30 years of closeted Bulger bagging to come right out and admit it. Why else would you find yourself trudging through 10 miles of burn to the upper reaches of the less than attractively named Snow Brushy Creek and to a summit that hardly requires the use of your hands? Oh, the views. Devil's Smokestack on the hike in ^ Lots of fire carnage on the hike in ^ v North side of Saska from camp ^ Saska, Emerald, and Cardinal from the ramble up Pinnacle ^ Bonanza ^ Rugged peaks on the west side of Lake Chelan ^ @cfire and @Trent heading up Pinnacle ^ @cfire and @Trent walk the last few feet to the top of Pinnacle ^ The view west to South Spectacle Butte, Dakobed, and Maude ^ @cfire and @Trent on the summit ^ Hiking out the lonesome Emerald Park trail after Pinnacle ^ Gear Notes: We only brought hiking poles and this was fine once the snow comes off Approach Notes: Entiat River trail to the Emerald Park/Snow Brushy Creek Trail. All had been recently logged out as of our trip, esp. Snow Brushy. I don't think we stepped over a single tree. Good camping where you leave the trail to head up Pinnacle