Leland

I don't remember any dicey creek crossings on the road, but one was pretty WIDE & shallow. My partner's feet probably got wet...

Trip: Mt. Triumph and some other places - NE Ridge attempt and other shenanigans Date: 6/15/2013 Trip Report: If you are looking to read about a climb, this will be an unsatisfying TR. If you are looking for a way to pass some gloomy winter time laughing at the poor choices made when a couple guys listen too closely to their raging June climbing boners, read on... (This pretty much sums up the trip) Spring was in the air with the pungent crotchy smell of sun warming the wet North Cascades forest, and we had the OK to go play GrabAss for a few days in the mountains. Time to drink a bunch of beer and make an overly ambitious climbing plan! Ron suggests the NE Ridge of Triumph and my nethers stir (or maybe I suggested it, and Ron's nethers stirred?) Either way there was stirring in our nethers and we needed to be in a tent. And the lack of June TR's from the NE ridge wouldn't deter this pair of retards! Off we went.. (Early summer over Thornton Lakes to Triumph Col and the peak beyond) Crossing the snow bridge over the first lake outlet was a little sketchy, but we were more worried about some actively disintegrating snow on the approach to the col. We ended up staying high to the right side of the gulley, after we watched a car-sized snow block from the rock slabs above break off and avalanche through the central bottleneck. Probably should have taken this as a warning shot across the bough, but our bulges pressed us onward and upward! As we approached the gulley the clouds were gathering and rumbling in the distant SE. Good thing we hadn't gone to the Enchantments! (so we thought until we read a TR from the same weekend of nice trip up Prussik after a stormy night in camp) As we got above the steepest snow slopes and onto the upper part of the gulley the weather took a sudden turn - right at our sorry asses. The wind shifted, the cloud deck and temperature dropped, and soon we were in the belly of a fire-and-fucking-brimstone thunderstorm. We couldn't see lightning bolts, just the blowing clouds around us flickering and exploding. Seriously freaky shit. Knowing dramatically higher topography surrounded the col, making a lightning strike unlikely, we opted to get off the open slope to the col quick and get in the tent to get warm/dry. Getting the tent up in 40mph blowing rain and thunder and lightning was tricky, and by the time we got in all was pretty wet inside and out. Usually we set up a ridge of gear between us in the tent to keep us from naturally rolling together and spooning "unconsciously" during the cold night, but with water running down the walls of the tent we decided to use the gear to keep us away from the wet sides, creating a sort of central nest of warm dry gayness. Of course once we were all comfortable the weather broke up - but the man nest remained... A look at the NE ridge confirmed our worry: a mess of thinning snow plates melting on rock slabs, huge mounds of snow on the steps in the ridge. No go... We drank all our booze and ate some mystery pills swimming around my first aid kit, and woke up late and ashamed the next morning with a new clever plan. We beat a quick depproach, and got back to the truck for some cold liquid courage and dancing. A sunny drive over the pass brought us to Early Winters campground in a fire-and-fucking-brimstone thunderstorm. But again the weather broke, gear was dried, beer was drank, Steely Dan was blasted and discussed, Mazama Rock climbing plans were made, and Johnny Can was played. [video:vimeo] Already an interesting couple days, things were destined to take yet another unexpected turn. We woke to sprinkling rain and headed for the Mazama Store for the best goddamn breakfast sandwich on earth. Killing time, Ron mentioned that he had never been up to Hart's Pass. A bright eyed kid approached me in the parking lot asking if we were headed up towards the pass and could he get a ride up start a backpacking trip - sounds like destiny calling again, and something to do while the rocks (hopefully) dried out. Off we went, along the way passing a heard of goats. Goats! We also passed a forest service truck and crew getting reading to do some road grading (this came into play later). We dropped this kid from Wisconsin who had never really backpacked out here and had a cut off HOCKEY-FUCKING-STICK(!) for a trekking pole/ice axe, and he marched off to his inevitable misery and death on the PCT. He actually returned after about 30 minutes, already lost. We directed him back into the unforgiving maw of the mountains and started back towards an afternoon of clipping bolts at Fun Rocks, and were met with this: The forest service crew had abandoned our flaming tax-dollars in the middle of the road, and we didn't want to temp fate and squeeze past lest the fucker explode on our asses, so we watched, filmed, smoked, and chewed, crapped, etc...the fire worked its way from the engine compartment and through the cab with lots of neat popping and hissing. Eventually it reached the auxiliary fuel tank in the bed and the fucker went up A-Team style! [video:vimeo] All said and done it was a pretty cool trip. We didn't climb shit, but we learned a lot (and "knowing is half the battle") and forged and rock hard friendship, leaving a little piece of each other inside of each other, and some other little pieces ourselves in little holes in the woods.

Just affirming the profound awesomeness of a solo ramble. There really is something about several hours in your own head, out on some otherwise moderate ground, made magical by simple solitude. The things you think and notice...

Nice supplement! Makes me want to do it again. At this rate maybe there will be boot path by the next time I'm up there.

Thanks for the details! Thinking about having a go at this in the next couple weeks...

I went up to the notch to look down the side you came up - not a pretty pitch! Looked like some ballsy loose climbing on that side. But I think at some point on the ridge we quoted your "This is more like it!". We will definitely be repeating this one!

Yeah, the notch is the little v-shaped spot at lowest spot on the far left.

Trip: Cutthroat Peak - North Ridge Date: 8/9/2012 Trip Report: Looking for good moderate climbing, solitude, a place to sweat out a hangover, and something with some of that adventurous element of the unknown, we headed for the North Ridge of Cutthroat Peak. (Cutthroat Peak viewed from the west side. The Route follows the left skyline starting near the distinct notch.) Cutthroat sees a bit of action, but not so much on this route from the approach we took (at least if the paucity of TRs for this route is any indication). And we thought the route description for a climb this rad could use a little fleshing out. And I am a middle school teacher with a bit of time on my hands for a couple more weeks and am trying not to stick my head in the goddamn oven as my vacation dwindles so I thought I would spend all fucking day trying to format a TR. Anyways Beckey suggests two approaches: branching off from the usual approach to the south side of the peak from hwy 20 below Washington Pass, or by taking the PCT north from Rainy Pass then going cross-country into the basin on the west side of the peak. From JasonG’s TR several years ago it sounded like the PCT approach might be better so we gave it a try. THIS IS DEFINITELY THE WAY TO GO! In a range notorious for hellacious schwacking this approach was pretty nice. Hike the PCT about 1 mile north from the Rainy Pass TH to the first creek crossing. Cross to the north side of the first creek and immediately head up into the woods and stash some tallboys in the coldass creek. If you didn’t bring trekking poles find yourself a good walking stick to poke your buddy’s butt with. Make an ascending traverse along the creek, bearing gradually away from the creek as brushier areas necessitate – basically head up into the drainage following the path of least resistance. Only stupid retard people would try this on the talus-y south side of the drainage.You will start crossing nice meadows and the way becomes more apparent – just don’t go too high or you will be slowed down by rocky stuff. The woods and meadows are surprisingly easy to cruise through. As you approach 6100 feet, contour back to the creek to check out a sweet meadow, then you’re in the clear on steeper talus and heather to the base of the climb. The approach took us about 2 hours. The feeling of being a little more “out there” in this west basin definitely added nicely to the alpine element of the climb without a painful price. (Looking down on the west basin. The approach follows the broken woods and meadows into talus and heather along the right side of the basin.) Beckey very descriptively says to get on the rock and head for the north ridge “well south of the notch between the main and north peaks” or something vague like that. The pics below show my blurry finger pointing at the spot we got on the rock, and my partner standing by that spot viewed from up towards the notch. We headed to the lowest tree and roped up, traversed right about 20 feet above a big detached boulder, made an awkward move with a little exposure, then scrambled straight up to the ridge crest. (Coming up our first pitch towards the ridge crest.) There are probably a few different easier and harder ways to gain the ridge down around to climber’s right a bit, but definitely not up into the chossy notch to climber’s left. The notch is only a good place for snapping a pic, kicking a rock down on your buddy, and farting. The rest of the route stays pretty much on the ridge crest on mostly great rock. It is basically a series of steps punctuated by nice scrambling. A team well-versed in simulclimbing would cruise up this at a good clip – we broke it into 6 pitches including the one to gain the ridge, each starting at the base of a step. The money pitch is a nice corner crack (could be bypassed for those who dislike fun rock) to a bench, followed by a sloping offwidth. (Following the corner crack.) (Topping out on the sloping offwidth. Just now noticing that my partner was flipping me off for no good reason. Sometimes he is a real dick.) Another pitch with a couple little friction slabs reaches the false summit. (Leading the protectable slab.) Scramble down to and across the saddle, then one more mellow pitch to just below the summit. (Looking back at the false summit and saddle.) (Looking across the saddle from the false summt to the final pitch.) Toughest moves probably 5.6ish. Fun climbing on great rock the whole way! Several obvious rappel stations (slingable blocks) are passed along the route. We did 5 single rope rappels interspersed with downclimbing. The route took us several hours, but a quicker team could probably do it in about 3-4 hours. The entire outing was an intimate and romantic all-day trip and we kind of wanted to makeout after our creek beers but we didn’t. Except for at the trailhead we didn’t see another soul all day but nothing weird happened between us when we were changing out of our sweaty clothes, really. Gear Notes: Gear: 60m rope; we brought way too much pro – a lighter rack with a handful of medium-to-big stoppers (BD #9-13) and hexes (BD #9-11), and cams (BD #.5 – 2) would do it; lots of long slings.

It is very cool up in that corner of the Sisters Range. It's not often I find myself wishing for easier access (how different would WA Pass be if you couldn't hear harleys roaring by below?), but the Skookum/Hayden Peak area of the range had some very enticing rock just begging to be explored - faces and aretes and cracks all on super rock. An open logging road gate and some boot paths would make that place an incredible trad climbing destination.

We are heading up the Beckey Route tomorrow. Anyone seen how much snow is left on the approach gulley? Wondering if we still need boots and axes...

Trip: Skookum Peak (Sisters Range) - North Ridge Date: 6/28/2012 Trip Report: This route is the one described by Beckey as the "Northwest Ridge", but is really on the N-NE aspect of Skookum Peak. Maybe they hadn't invented compasses yet when they scouted this peak. Beckey's short description of the route is pretty right-on, but we opted for a slightly different approach than the one in Red Fred. The approach follows the usual route to get to the west side of the Twin Sisters range, all the way to the turn off for the west ridge of the South Twin, where we hid our bikes from dberdinka and his sort. This is where Beckey suggests heading up over a couple of spur ridges coming off the South Twin. We saw a system of logging roads on the map that instead contour around the lower parts of these ridges, avoiding some of the elevation gain/loss, bushwacking, minor cliff navigations, and inevitable man-man arguments, name-calling, then icy silence. From the South Twin turnoff we immediately headed south across the creek then climbed on sometimes brushy logging roads south to about 3600 feet, then countoured south east around the South Twin's west ridge to where the road switchbacks to the west. The topo showing this system of roads and an altimeter were very handy here! This is where the superb bushwack ensues. The goal is to cross the drainage ahead to the logged ridge to the east, ending up at the top of the logged region on the next spur ridge. From the switchback we left the road ascending NNE through hellacious trees and brush, aiming for the obviously more mature forest above. Still finding moss and pine needles in my belly button from this part. The going was easier once in the mature forest, but my partner still fell down. We made an ascending traverse through these woods until we reached the bottom of an avalanche slope draining the SW side of the South Twin then climbed to the top of the ridge at ~4100 feet, just above the clearcut. From here we sidehilled southeast below the South Twin, at 4100-4200 feet, until we reached the talus/snow basin below Skookum Peak. Going any higher gets into some cliffy stuff. The route was as described in Red Fred: ascend into the basin then scramble on mostly good rock to the obvious notch between Skookum and the Jaw’s Tooth (getting off the snow and onto the rock can be tricky). We continued unroped another ~50 feet above the notch along the north ridge to set up our first belay. The final ~250 feet of ridge was done in three short pitches on great protectable rock, mostly lower 5th class with lots of options for adding in some spice. Fun and straight forward! Very surprised to hear dberdinka yelling hello from the South Twin while we bickered on the summit. Time breakdown: ~7 hours to reach the basin below Skookum; ~4 hours to reach the notch, complete the climb, and descend back to the basin; several more hours of whining back to the car. ~16 hours total. No land-speed records today. Gear Notes: Beckey suggests "several chocks" and you could probably get away with that. We tend to go heavy and brought gear to 3", and we were glad to have some big hexes and a handful of cams. Besides they look cool and make noise all fucking day. 50m rope used as a double rope worked fine, but something longer would have been nice. Ice axe useful in a couple spots, and again looks cool. A love of logging roads, brush, and sidehilling.

Skookum is a terrific climb but has an unfortunately long and yucky approach. A little bit of loose stuff here and there, but mostly solid and protectable rock. Lots of variations possible to add some extra spice. We will put up a TR this week with plenty of praise and whining for this route. P.S. Just wondering how long that romp took you Bham-to-Bham?

Wow! - and we thought we had a long day getting to and from Skookum. We were pretty surprised to hear a "helloooo!" from the South Twin - what are the chances?! Wasn't quick enough to snap a pic back of you. We were too busy grousing about the best way down.