KaskadskyjKozak
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Posts posted by KaskadskyjKozak
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Trip: Colonial Basin: Snowfield Peak, Colonial Peak, Neve, Paul Bunyan's Stump - Standards
Trip Date: 07/08/2022
Trip Report:What to do after finishing the Bulger List - was I done? Actually, in addition to a handful of Smoots, I have a long list of adventures I'd like to do, most notably some high alpine traverses and trips to the pickets. For July I had planned to do the Isolation Traverse with my son and 1-2 others. Unfortunately partners had to bail shortly before the trip leaving just two of us. My son has limited glacier experience and I felt a little anxious about a remote alpine traverse with just us two. So we opted for a less committing trip up to the beautiful Colonial Basin area where we could do some peak bagging. We figured we would probably have some company too, which ups the safety factor a bit - and we were right.
I had been to this area once before as part of a two-day trip up Snowfield Peak back when I was in the Mountaineers and just starting to climb. That trip went less than ideal - and although we had summited I really wanted to return and have a better experience. As you'll see, I made a great choice!
So, we headed up to Marblemount early-ish on a Friday, got a permit and drove to the Pyramid Lake TH where we ran into a familiar face from a separate party of three. We headed up in the warming temps and grunted out 6000' gain in just under 9.5 hours, all the way to the col below Neve Peak and overlooking the Neve glacier. The approach between Pyramid Lake and the bumps below Pyramid Peak were as heinous as I remembered, however with many other unsavory approaches under my belt in the intervening 15+ years, it seemed more run of the mill heinous, than extreme (ahem Silver Creek ahem). Unfortunately, the party we had met at the parking turnout hours before had beat us to the one primo spot at the col, and a second party (who had passed us) took the next optimal spot about 50-100' below on the N side. So we dug a platform in a semi-exposed area just N of the ridge. There was a nice stream of running water in the nearby rocks which made getting dinner and water much quicker.
The night was colder than expected, windy and a bit miserable in a 30 degree bag. Between that and the long day before, we slept in a bit. We headed onto the Neve Glacier towards Snowfield well after sunrise.
Glacier travel was straightforward with minimal crevasses. It took 3 hours from high camp at the saddle to summit. No issues with routefinding. The little class 3 step/moves above the gully seemed way more tame than when I did this climb years ago. We enjoyed the summit then headed back to camp. It took about 2+ hours.
At camp we were a bit tired - more from the day before than today's efforts, and chilled a bit. It was still early and we opted to tag Neve Peak. This went way faster than expected (25 min up, 15 down, and we lounged on the summit for at least an hour, enjoying the views).
We decided to go for Colonial Peak the next day, though we had done minimal route research.
We had another cold and windy night, and slept in again and set off at 7:30 or so. We ended up having a long day climbing both Colonial and Paul Bunyan's stump. We (I) second guessed the obvious snow gulley and tried the direct snow slopes on the left side first. Those led to scary runout on hard snow, so we backtracked and tried to go up the ridge on the right of the snow gully by looping around to the saddle between Colonial and Neve. We dead ended on class 4 terrain before the false summit, and finally just dropped to the upper snowfield and led out with pickets across the exposed slope we had attempted earlier from below. All in all I believe it took us 6 hours up with 3 hours wasted on shenanigans.
We were pretty tired and tempted to just head to camp. But there was still daylight left, so we went for Paul Bunyan's stump, continuing straight up the higher traverse above cliff bands to the saddle below Paul Bunyan's. We then went up as quickly as we could (40 min from saddle to summit), probably going farther left than we should have on the upper slopes. After enjoying the summit we descended efficiently and got back to camp before dark. We followed a better path down, especially on the upper slopes (still took a similar time to the saddle - maybe 40 min?). All in all 12:20 and 4750' elevation gain on the day. By this time (Sunday night) the other parties were gone so we moved to the nice spot at the col.
The last night was much warmer and quite pleasant and we slept well. We had considered tagging Pyramid during this trip but just wanted to get home at this point. We retraced our steps from the first day, with the exception of needing to go over the rocks to get around the lake. The lake was that much more melted out along the shore! Total time down, including rest stops and refilling water: 6:53. For once we got to eat a proper dinner and drive home in daylight.
Another great trip with my boy!
Gear Notes:
Glacier travel gear, helmets
Approach Notes:
Strenuous, steep, hateful.-
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I have a cyclocross. I use it as my street bike, and occasionally on gravel - most frequently that would be when doing the Lake Sammamish loop ride (the gravel part has been closed recently). I've taken it on the Cedar River trail all the way to Landsburg Park. Are you on Strava? that's a great app to see what people are up to for rides
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On 8/26/2021 at 7:40 AM, tanstaafl said:
Man you guys are a bunch of HIPPIES!
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Nice work! Back in May we actually intended to do both Anderson and W Anderson and even brought a small rack all the way in there for W Anderson (due to TRs we read, some of it is exposed and worth pitching out). But Anderson early season gave us enough excitement and took long enough so we settled for the single summit. W Anderson definitely is the trickier of the two- impressed you did all that with almost no snow and solo to boot!
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14 hours ago, JasonG said:
Ain't that the truth! My experience at ONP definitely jives with yours. Best of the bunch (on average), by far.
Some of the ranger interaction stories I have personally collected over the years from the other two parks boggle the mind. I mean I understand that they work with the public and all, but..... ONP shows that you can thread that needle with the right leadership!
totally agree with you! so far I have not had a bad experience with the ONP rangers. They do have a ton of visitors and still are able to manage things quite well. my only gripe is that bear cannisters are still required in some places. I love my ursack - so much easier to haul around
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19 hours ago, tanstaafl said:
you are so right, I actually just got off the phone with a very nice ranger, so I was too pessimistic in my outlook.
He explained that basically if you want any kind of climbing/off the beaten path route, you need to call, since recreation.gov is not exactly set up to deal with requests that are in any way out of the ordinary. Super helpful guy. Now if the forecast just keeps improving we'll be in business....
Of our three NPs, I have found the "customer service" to be very different in each, and the ONP to be the best of the three by far! Glad it worked out for you !
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1 hour ago, tanstaafl said:
OK all you Olympic National Park people, how the heck do you decipher the permit system? I am trying for once not to just give up and go somewhere else.
The website says you have to reserve your permit on recreation.gov. There does not appear to be an option to stay anywhere but in a developed/designated campsite. I see trip reports by people doing ridge traverses and bivying along the way, which is what I would like to do; but I can't find any option on the site that would allow for a permit that isn't staying in a designated campsite. I've called the WIC but have little hope they will call back. Any advice?
they will only issue certain backcountry permits by phone (e.g. bailey range, upper royal basin). If you leave a message they will likely call back. Good luck and have fun!
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18 hours ago, Otto said:
I've been wanting to go up Clark for a long time. I've heard there is good rock there. Thank you for the excellent photos!
However, peak bagging is not a numbers game. It is an experience game, as I'm sure you know.
There is plenty of loose rock, but it is solid in the two most exposed spots, where it was most welcome.
as for the peak-bagging, I'm well past the "experience" threshold so it is a lot more about numbers for me as well as important factors to determine when and if to go (seasonal variations depending on time of year and snowpack/glacier conditions, weather, amount of daylight, access, fires, my fitness level, availability of partners, time off work, etc).
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1 hour ago, OlympicMtnBoy said:
Love it, getting after it out there! I still need to climb Mystery one of these days.
The Olympics deliver again and again! Mystery is on my list now too
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9 hours ago, Rad said:
Sweet! Remember these days.
I take nothing for granted. Every day out in the mountains is a blessing!
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There is also a way from Whatcom Pass where you traverse the glacier. When we did our trip to Easy Mox we met a party at Whatcom Pass that had just climbed Challenger via this approach and they said the glacier was not that bad.
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2 hours ago, Kuato said:
I was up in that area this weekend doing Mount Mystery. Clark was looking really nice. Deception wasn't looking so nice, kind of like a pile of loose rock. What was your total travel time to the summit and back?
7:15 cars to summit. 14:10 C2C.
(18.70 miles, 5780' gain)
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Trip: Mount Clark - Standard
Trip Date: 08/09/2021
Trip Report:We attempted Clark back in June as part of a three day trip, which included a summit of Mount Deception and two nights at Royal Lake. After cancelling our plans this weekend (Terror Basin, with advanced permits) due to "meh" weather we opted for a cleanup trip, and allocated Monday for it, C2C.
We drove up Sunday night and slept in our cars at the trailhead, setting alarms for 5:30 am. After breakfast and packing up we headed up the Upper Dungeness trail at just after 6:30. Overall we kept a decent pace and summitted Clark without issue at around 1:45, took a quick break and headed back down. The only snow we encountered was in Surprise Basin, which made for a nice break from tedious boulder hopping (the snow was continuous in the basin). The snow at the summit block back in June was totally melted out. The first part of the final block was loose and a bit unsavory class 3. The finish is a nice crack that pushes the limit of class 3 - it's quite steep but has great holds.
Mount Deception looking a lot more melted out than it was in June. Glad we did this with snow coverage!
View towards Clark from the tarn in upper Royal Basin:
View towards upper Royal Basin from the base of Surprise Basin:
Continuous snow in Surprise Basin:
Traversing on the east side of Clark. This exposed section is one of two 'attention getting' parts. (great holds)
Summit Stoke: 91/100 for me, 40/100 for my son (Smoots)
Royal Lake as viewed on the way out:
Here's to another one in the books! Prost!
Gear Notes:
Light crampons, approach shoes
Approach Notes:
Trail in excellent shape - no blowdowns. Snow free except for Surprise Basin.-
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15 hours ago, rat said:
way to put it together....that's a lot o' walking. has your son caught the bulger bug?
after this trip he said he's done bulger hunting
but i'm sure he'll forget and be back. he solo'd the gardners earlier this year
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3 hours ago, mountainsloth said:
Impressive. Beautiful. Stunning. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
congrats for completing such a prestigious list, but more valuable are the experiences and the memories you now have.Thanks man. This list was hateful. But it gave me so much, I can not even express it.
What a way to finish. I'll never forget this trip. Ever.
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I went on a Friday evening once, arriving at 2:45 pm and had a permit by 3:30. It's busy in the afternoon too, unfortunately
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23 minutes ago, Kuato said:
Great trip report! Congratulations on the Bulger 100. Excellent information for that area. I've been thinking of a trip out to those peaks but the time requirement and distance always has me picking something else.
Thanks, man!
When the border is open you can get in there as a 3-day trip. 4 days can get you 2-4 summits depending on which ones and your speed/efficiency (I am old and slow). Word is the border may open soon. FWIW Spickard is the easiest, with Rahm and Custer a close second. Custer is a POS though and only worth doing to finish the bulger list.
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I can appreciate your experience a bit, despite not having tried the Perry Creek approach. I attempted the Silver Creek approach last year and turned around at the headwall, thwarted. In addition to the green hell/schwack we had the pleasure of many hornet stings as our trip was in early September when the queen dies and they become much more aggressive and territorial.
Way to persevere and HTFU for a spectacular experience. TFPU!
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23 minutes ago, bellows said:
Awesome trip report! Congrats on 100. Hah, now you gotta finish the Smoot list. So inspiring to see the father/son trips.
Also super cool seeing the next generation on this site!
Just 10 Smoots to go!
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Trip: Mox Peaks - NW Peak (Easy Mox) - NE Ridge
Trip Date: 07/24/2021Team: @Stefan B @KaskadskyjKozak
Trip Report:It's been a long journey tackling the Bulger list. And what a way to end it - with a long journey! A long fucking journey!
In 2019 I was committed to slaying the beast, tackling 14 of 16 remaining Bulgers only to get blocked in late August in the Chilliwacks when we cut the trip a day - and a Mox - short due to an injury. Oh, well, that just left me with just two peaks to clean up in 2020 - Buckner and Easy Mox. Easy enough. Then there was COVID.
As the border closure continued into June 2020, I began researching approaches from the US side for Easy Mox. No option seemed appealing, but two stood out as viable options: a high traverse via Whatcom or approaching via Silver Creek. I procrastinated, hoping the border would reopen, then finally tried each - and failed - in late summer. I utterly underestimated what these approaches would take, and despite being in great shape by that time of year, fell short. Oh well, I could just do the standard approach in July 2021, right?
When it was obvious the border would not reopen in July, I began planning again. I coaxed and wheedled friends to try to join me for weeks - after all, who wouldn't jump on such an opportunity, especially to take multiple days off of work for a death march? The amazing weather we have seen in July held and held and held. The stars aligned on climbing partners. I pulled the trigger. There were three of us: my son, Jorge, and me.
Applying lessons from my failed attempt in August 2020, I split this trip into a 5.5 day itinerary, which went as follows:
Day 1: Evening hike to camp at Hannegan Pass. Not much to say here except we arrived later due to traffic and started up at 8 pm. So glad I built in buffer to my itinerary!
Day 2: Got up early-ish and hiked trails to Whatcom Pass, then took by-trail towards Middle Lakes, camping by a small tarn with awesome views of Challenger and Whatcom. The tarn was warm and we even got to clean up before dinner. (7:15am - 5:15pm).
Day 3: Got up early and did the high traverse, camping on slabs above Bear Lake, SW of the saddle extending below the SW-trending ridge extending from the SE peak of Redoubt (6 am to 7:30 pm). We had a small pool with running water *at* camp. The high traverse was inspired by a TR from a few years ago. In summary, we summitted Taps mountain, then traversed ridges NE-ly to the lake below Cave Mountain (Pass Lake?). We then traversed NW towards Bear, then NE towards Redoubt. Our biggest time sink on this day was due to bush-whacking through hideous, thick trees on steep slopes getting to the upper basin above the Pass Creek drainage. We took 3 hours in this section.
Day 4: Long fucking day (6 am to midnight). This involved traversing to the ridge on the Depot-Redoubt Divide, traversing the Redoubt glacier, climbing the route, then doing it all in reverse.
Some detail on our long climbing day: We ascended the SW ridge of the SE peak of Redoubt until about 7200', then downclimbed about 100-200' to talus and traversed to the first point we could cross on the E ridge of the SE Peak of Redoubt, roped up, then walked the glacier over to a fine snow ramp leading towards the low point on the NE ridge of Easy Mox. I led a full 60m pitch up the slabs above the snow ramp, only to be stopped about 30 feet short of scramble terrain, and then led a very short second pitch to the top rap anchor. We then scrambled the ridge. Holy shit, what an amazingly exposed, improbable ridge! We found the gully off the ridge easily and scouted out the final pitch and settled on two options. I tried the easier one (we had a picture from an online TR that made it look like the right start) but it dead-ended on the ridge so I downclimbed. Jorge then led the other option (which was correct) and set up a belay at the bottom rap sling. We then solo'd the final 25 feet or so (up to the higher rap anchor). We did two rappels, downclimbed the ridge, then did two more rappels. We were super careful to not get any ropes stuck on our pulls! It was now around 8 pm. We roped up and crossed the glacier which was very soft after a full-day of sun exposure. We essentially retraced our boot path, but punched through opening crevasses twice (on the eastern lobe of the glacier). As we rounded the rock spur to get to the W part of the glacier, the sun set and we unroped by headlamp. We then miraculously scrambled boulders, talus, and scree back to camp with minimal issues.
Day 5: Slept in (8 am) and did the traverse back to our camp from Day 2. We got a late start due to the previous long day. It was hot and sunny - the hottest day so far, and we were grateful for lingering snow patches and fresh running water in many places. We followed a much better contour from the upper Pass Creek drainage back to the NE ridge of Peak 6874 which took us less than half the time to do. Bugs were bad at camp - noticeably the worst of the trip so far. (10 am to 8:30 pm)
Day 6: Got up early and did the full 17.5+ mi hike out to Hannegan Pass. Bugs were hideous in the final few miles to Hannegan Pass. (6:30 am to 6:30 pm).
Bulgers done. 100/100.
Now for the pics!
View of high traverse from the summit of Taps Mountain. Redoubt looks *far* from here:
Views South from Taps Mountain. We were surrounded by these amazing views above treeline continuously for four days:
Looking back at the first part of the high traverse from near and below Peak 6874
Indian Creek Drainage from the traverse. Bear Mountain on left:
Traversing the lake above Pass Creek and below Cave Mountain. I believe it is called Pass Lake:
Nearing the end of our traverse and camp. Redoubt is finally close!
Summit Day taken just above our camp. The Moxes still look far. We had a lot of talus to traverse just to get to the glacier!
Finally on the Redoubt Glacier!
Looking down P1:
Hard Mox as viewed along the N ridge of Easy Mox. The exposure and views are unbelievable!
Summit views from Mox back towards our traverse:
Spickard, Custer, Rahm. Been there, done those:
Shuksan, Baker. Ruth looks far! TBH, I was not looking forward to the long walk back to Hannegan when I took this pic:
Jorge on the summit:
My son and I on the summit.
KK rappelling. This, along with one I have from Storm King are my two favorite rap photos ever!
Redoubt as the sun got lower in the sky and we downclimbed.
The sidewalk in the sky:
Longer view up the NE ridge:
At camp on day 5, getting ready to traverse back to Middle Lakes:
Looking down the Indian Creek drainage. Taken on the traverse back to Middle Lakes:
Taken from a point about 6400' - the high point on the NE ridge of Peak 6874 that we climbed after the traverse above the Pass Creek drainage (right of frame, mostly out of view, blocked by the ridge):
East Lakes as viewed on the traverse, near Taps Mountain:
Descending to upper Middle Lake:
Gear Notes:
60m rope, mid-sized rack, helmets, glacier climbing gear
Approach Notes:
Long, brutal, epic.-
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I generally see deer on roads or near established camp sites (deer know there is pee to lick up there). Sometimes I see them off fairly popular trails (like cascade pass trail).
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19 hours ago, ryaneames said:
When i was about 9 my dad did deception and had little me sitting at the col waiting haha, loved our camp at the lake.
Heres some pics. Me glissading down, me and my brother headed up towards the col and then us at the col. I was 9 he was 11
This is awesome! My son's first "interesting" alpine summit (and Bulger) was Cashmere. He was 10 at the time and didn't look much different than you and your brother
Great to start the kids early - sure wish I had the opportunity myself growing up
[TR] Colonial Basin: Snowfield Peak, Neve Peak, Colonial Peak, Paul Bunyan's Stump - Standards 07/08/2022
in North Cascades
Posted
That's the plan. Cracks are already showing in this old, broken body, but I'll keep getting out as long as possible.