KaskadskyjKozak

Trip: Logan - Fremont Glacier Date: 7/30/2016 Trip Report: I've always wanted to climb Logan, but I've never wanted to dedicate 4 days to this remote peak. I tried it once, unsuccessfully: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=885143. Since then, I've not had the heart to try the Douglas again, and I've held out hope that the road from Stehekin would be extended past High Bridge - but, alas. I had hoped to climb Buckner last weekend but with my view of the route from afar on the Inspiration Glacier recently (http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1150251) I thought it might be a bit melted out and Logan came to mind. Seeing as how I still didn't want to dedicate 4 days to the climb, and I'm in decent shape now... I said fuck it and went for it in 3 days. On day 1 we hiked in to Thunder Basin Stock Camp. Yes, you heard that right. That's all we could get at the Marblemount RS and we were lucky they let us stay there. The hike was long, hot, and painful. We left the trail head at 10:15 and were in the middle of the hottest part of the day. I don't do well in the heat and it showed. Cars to camp took 10 hours. We set alarms for ~5am and continued up the trail. The trail is easy to follow up to the flat spot at about 5800' and totally snow free. We found the climber's trail traversing up towards point 7760 (and 8248) and it was easy to follow up to the sandy gully. Buckner - next time, bitch! View of the traverse (on descent): We crossed several streams en route. Most were easy but two were a bit nasty. The first required us to do a brief excursion up hill to a safer spot. It involved some delicious 3rd class dirt with a veggie belay. The second was into and out of a deep gash in the hill side. The trail was thin and exposed here. Don't fall or you will get a lot of metal in your ankles for your trouble. We encountered a snow patch or three as we headed towards point 7760, and avoided those we could. Eventually we hit snow, and the toe of the Fremont glacier. The glacier itself is smooth as a baby's butt. We had hauled all the accoutrements for glacier travel this far, so we roped up for shits and giggles and headed up to the low point in the ridge. Here we discovered that the hogsback was purely vestigial, and moated badly with poor run out. So, we unroped. Logical, LOL. We carefully climbed it, gingerly stepping where the snow was thinnest and ascended a heinous gully with kitty litter over shit-rock. The hogsback (on descent): A cool motherfucking swale near the top of the Fremont: This slope mellowed but remained shitty to the notch. From here we crossed to the E side and the ledges were quite reasonable and as advertised, class 3. We hit one 4th class move, which made us scratch our heads and pucker our sphincters. It was not so bad in retrospect. We then ascended talus (little snow here!) to a notch and then climb a very nice class 3-4 bit to the summit. Unfortunately we only found a cairn and no register, so I have no idea what kind of traffic Logan has been seeing. Views were spectacular - a 360 degree mountain porn money shot. I had brought a light rack and we had our ropes from the glacier but never used them on the rock. We savored the summit then headed down without incident. Thanks to copious breaks up and down, we got to camp right at dusk. Here is one view we were treated to: The hike out was uneventful. The cool temps were a sharp but pleasant contrast to the sauna we waded through two days earlier.

5 years in a row I've set aside days to do this climb and every year weather does not cooperate. I'm jealous! Congrats!

The Sisters, maybe?

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No problem. Now that I think about it you could simulclimb that ridge with a 30m, or you could do it in three pitches if need be. Good luck!

We needed a 60 m for the rappel. a 40m would definitely work for the pitches, not sure about a 30. If you downclimb the first pitch/snow, then yes a 30 m would suffice

I've been up the Eldorado glacier around 7 times so I was pretty confident that it would be a no brainer. Like I said, although there was a wide boot path, it was a bit tricky to follow going down the first few hundred feet (then I hit the bottom of the cloud layer). My partner realized his mistake but thought it best to follow a boot path off the glacier. Personally, I think I would have *ascended* back to the flats and moved back onto the correct track. It was actually quite pleasant sitting up ther at night with the clouds moving through, stars peaking out, and a >1/2 moon rising and moving along the sky. Fortunately i know that boulder field like the back of my hand and guided us out fairly easily with just one issue at the vertical rock step near the bottom.

I ran into the rails leading out to the cliff when I climbed Horseshoe a couple of years ago. Very cool. The entrance to the mine is buried under rocks now though. Cool link to the story, Tom!

Thanks. Still, I'm bummed about Goode. You guys did it at the right time.

Trip: Dorado Needle - NW Ridge Date: 7/14/2016 Trip Report: Four years in a row I got time off from work and lined up a climbing partner to climb Goode. Every year it's been shutdown due to weather. This year one of my climbing partners flippantly replied "Julyuary" - as if that is a normal term for Seattle weather - where summer is supposed to start July 5. Fuck. Of the six days I had open to climb this week, only one had decent weather so I decided to give Dorado Needle a go - in one push. I figured that since I'm no speed demon this would take me about 18 hours car to car. Shenanigans ensued. It took 23 hours. I met my buddy Scott at Prost at 4:30 or so Wed and we headed to the Eldo TH. Up at 3 am, moving by 3:45. We initially made decent time - 3:15 to the ridge, 4:45 to the Eldo base camp/rock island. We solo'd up to this point then roped up. I think it was under 8 hours to the base of the climbing route. Scott at the rock island (7500'). Dorado, with her legs spread wide: My route description said to start at a notch at the top of the glacier. Which I did, ignoring an obvious boot path up a moderately steep snow slope just to climber's left. Turns out that was the route (pitch one is under snow right now), and we did a viable variation adding a couple pitches (short), but we knew we weren't on the proper route and that slowed us up a bit. The climbing went well from here, but the weather came in. We were in a cloud and the temps dropped quite a bit. By the time we finished the climb it was below 40 with windchill. Summit shot: With around 6500K gain and 15 hours on the day already, we were already getting fatigued when we got to the Eldo camp. I was cold while my partner was still rearranging his pack. He's an ultra marathoner, avid cyclists, and generally faster than me, so I opted to head out first - he agreed. We both figured he'd catch me soon (and he had the filter that I needed for water), so I started down. Clouds were blowing in and it was a little tricky to follow the boot path after crossing the flats, but I managed. The clouds cleared here and there and were totally gone below 6500' Weather sets in: Just above the gully crossing: Unfortunately Scott somehow picked up a different boot path and ended up in heavily crevassed terrain (we were both soloing down). He opted to follow that path down and off the glacier since he could not see and did not want to stumble onto any cracks. This put him way off course. As I waited and the sun set, I picked up Scott's headlamp flashing and set mine to flash as well He saw it and made his way towards me at the gully that drops into the Roush. It took 2 hours to get to me and it was almost 11pm. We then navigated down in the dark and add 4 hours to the day more. Good times. Scott's GPS track: Gear Notes: Standard glacier travel gear, small alpine rack. Approach Notes: No snow until the upper basin below the ridge crossing. Muddy.

Tear down that wall!

We chose it because it is the recommended approach in Blake Herrington's new Cascades Rock book. I think it's shorter and easier, except for the ferry ride. But that was rather enjoyable. You've come a long way from dry-humping tents, Carl!

Sometimes folks (esp. newer climbers or conservative ones) rope up "just in case" then end up deciding conditions don't warrant pro. Then it's a matter of being too lazy to untie. I did that on the zipper the first time I climbed it.

Trip: Dome Peak - Three Fingers, No Lube Date: 6/29/2016 Trip Report: This was my first excursion up Suiattle River Road since it was washed out, and my first ever past the Green Mountain trailhead. Bulgers. Oh the places you'll go. The plan was to bag Sinister, then Dome. The prior weekend, actually. However, weather instability, a marginal hydrological outlook und so weiter thwarted my best laid plans. Fortunately I have cool climbing partners with a commensurate appetite for torture and willingness to make shit happen at all costs. I went to work on Monday and requested Tue-Thu off, wrapped up some loose ends and packed. Two of my partners had just completed a three-day ski tour of Glacier Peak, and met us rough and a bit ripe at the Downey Creek TH Tuesday morning. A work crew was on site placing a brand new TH marker. We were impressed by the trail maintenance along the Downey Creek trail virtually all the way to 6 mile camp. Soon thereafter things got ugly - at times uglier than a warthog's asshole. In the 3, 4, or whatever miles from Bachelor creek's confluence with Downey up to the avy swath we must have encountered a hundred fallen trees. Most involved much more than a simple step over, and route finding on the far side of each was a given. And the brush. Holy fucking shit. We took the bypass at 4100 (as described by Franklin Bradshaw RIP, and others). That was our one relief and escape from Green Hell. Sometimes you are the hammer and sometimes the nail. In this case Bachelor creek came down on my skull like a 16 pound sledge. But I got up it. My partners seemed completely unphased. Time from TH to Cub Lake? 10 hours. Humbling. Demoralizing. I mustered the willpower somehow and managed to move this ancient decrepit form up another 900' gain, crossing a waterfall and slick slabs to arrive at camp at 6200' on Itswoot 11.5 hours into the day. Sunset at camp: The conversation then turned to start time. Yeah, it sucks, but the best I could do was alarm set at 4 am. We awoke to mist and clouds and headed up at 5:20. Time to the col should have been 2.5 or 3 hours but took just over 4. The snow was soft most of the way - not postholing, but enough to slow us down. The glacier was very smooth with only a few crevasses showing. At the col near the toe of the Dome Glacier: It was now late. 10:00 I think. I cautiously approached the top of the Chickamin expected a wall to wall Bergschrund. Nope, but it looked sketchy, and a punch through seemed more than plausible. I picked a line and started to slowly plunge step. After a dozen steps or so I set off a microslide. The conditions were classic as NWAC warns in its spring statement. Pinwheels. Wet snow. Entrained slide. FUCK. No sinister today. Fuck you Chickamin glacier. High on the Dome Glacier Next time, mother fucker: Well, we could at least tag Dome and head back. How long will that take? It's only 400 feet up and class 3 with a few 4th class moves. 30 minutes? 40 max? Nope. The third class terrain was covered with snow. At first there was a n Eldorado-like snow arete, then there was 4 inches to a foot or so of rock on climber's right with steep snow on the left. It took a couple hours for the four of us to work up to the summit, mainly because we were simulclimbing, and had to pass a knot between two climbers. Best laid plans. Underestimating your opponent. You name it. View up from the sandy bivy sites at 8700' View along the summit ridge The author, stoked, on the summit: Not much more to tell. We pitched it out on the descent - 3 30m pitches, then hiked back to camp. Near to camp we crossed a recently deposited swath of avy debris, including a serac the size of a refrigerator. Good times. Living the dream. Day three involved a 9+ hour hike out and copious high fives and alcohol consumption at the TH. I have to get back somehow to tag Sinister. Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, helmet, rope, pickets, small alpine rock Approach Notes: Miles of blowdowns and brush.

it's probably smart they did. We found the col at dome unsafe and bailed on sinister after I set off a microslide.

Well done! We could see your boot path from the Dome-Chickamin col yesterday

Good post. Another alternative to soloing this or staying roped and setting pickets on a running belay would be lead up the chute and hip belay the rest of the folks (that needed a belay). The belay would be off an anchor (deadman a couple pickets). any belaying in there clogs up the chute of course. I think teams (including clubs that often often 9 or even 12 folks out) should strongly consider limiting their size (4 max?) on this route, at least on weekends.

Trip: Gunn Peak - Standard Route Date: 6/5/2016 Trip Report: This was a consolation prize for poor planning. Roads do wash out from time to time, and that might be checked at least a few days prior to a trip rather than the day before. That bitch Luahna did me in again. I'll get even someday. But that's another story. Last year I started tagging more Smoot climbs in a semi-systematic manner, covering Persis, Baring and Merchant in the dry winter of 2015. Gunn and Index remain from that area. Gunn it was! We started up the trail just after 8 am and it was already hot as hell. Barclay creek was flowing fast and one of us dipped a boot in 2 minutes into the trip. From there the trail was easy to follow and snow free until after the waterfall crossing at 4200' or so. Snow was continuous at and past the Gunn-Barclay divide. We had some shenanigans here trying to avoid dropping down (and going up instead). We lost about 30 minutes on at that detour before sucking it up and dropping down. Did I mention it was fucking hot? Snow was soft and easy to ascend. The hidden gully wast mostly dry and the N side traverse was 100% snow-free. Woot! Mountain P0rn galore on the summit. View of summit block when you drop down the divide: Snow still covers most of the talus bullshit: Hidden Gully: Summit block scrambling: Mountain p0rn galore: Descending from the divide: Gear Notes: Ice axe, helmet. Rope for those preferring to rap exposed class 3. Approach Notes: Cross a full stream in summer heat, then go up a really steep fucking trail

Nice work, Porter! More kids need to get these kinds of awesome experiences.

Trip: Dark Peak - Dark Meat with Veggie Floss Date: 5/31/2016 Trip Report: Oh, the places you'll go... when you are ticking Bulgers. Ted Geisel himself could not have invented such a strange and fabulous landschaft replete with alien fauna and flora, including the dread prickly vines of doom in a green hell maelstrom. Ok, it was not actually bad. It was enjoyable, classic, type 2 Cascade fun. And the views... mountain p0rn worthy of hand lotion and a few kleenex. But, I digress... The plan was to tag Dark Peak over Memorial Day Weekend proper. However, suboptimal weekend forecasts followed by a perfect high-pressure system soon thereafter prompted a change in plans, warranting vacation days from work, sick time, or whatever it took to GIFD. And it was worth it. Somehow I convinced four friends to join me. Some have climbed with me before, and should know better. None admit to seeking the full century of summits, but I am dubious as to their claims. De Nile is more than a river in Aegypt, so they say. I've never been to Holden, Lucerne or Stehekin. Never ridden either "lady" of the lake. So, this trip was novel and a bit of an adventure. Enough of the ramblings and banterings. Here's the trip in captioned pictures, which are worth a thousand words apiece, if not more. Need a route description - it's on Summit Post. Ride the lady. Enjoy her frothy wake: Take a bus to High Bridge, then walk the PCT ~9 miles to Swamp Creek Camp: Start on the PCT. Gawd, it's gorgeous! The abandoned Swamp Creek Trail is hard to follow in places (especially upon descent in the dark). Here's a bit of it close to camp just after dawn: It was easy to find a log across Swamp Creek. We found this one at the base of a boulder field at 3600' with a beautifully engineered cairn in a talus field to demarcate the spot: Our perambulations took us through much of this open forest terrain: The lower basin of Dark could be construed as a stairway to heaven, and the slide alder as either purgatory or hell. YMMV: Typical section of slide alder hell with an interleaving, gurgling rivulet. It's all fun and games till you lose an eye, or get an uninvited testicular scrape or probing anal intruder: We hit a lot of snow patches. They helped a lot, and saved us time: Shangri La. Yes, really. When I'm on my death bed, I'd love to be transported to this spot to expire with this view. Then a cougar could eat me and crap me out, and my digested remains could fertilize some slide alder - circle of life and all that: View of the snow and glacier route from the upper basin (5000'): We roped up for shits and giggles around 5500'. Well, it was either drag the ropes, continue to haul them, or dump them. The glacier was pretty damn mellow in late spring conditions, truth be told: Approaching the col at 8200'. We hit two slopes with semi-sketchy snow conditions and modified our route accordingly. We considered bailing, but pushed on: At the col. Be here or at work? Easy choice: View along summit ridge: Mountain p0rn pano: Bonanza and more: FYMF! Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons (see below), helmet, rope if you want Approach Notes: PCT: needs some TLC. Swamp Creek Trail: needs a machete and Roundup. Lower Basin to Upper: don't fall Upper Basin to Summit: evaluate snow conditions. 'Pons useful, but may not be required - YMMV

Quesadillas and bratwurst

I want to go back and bag Constance!

It's really nice right now

Trip: The Brothers - South Couloir Date: 5/8/2016 Trip Report: I had some plans fall through at the last minute for Sherpa so I joined some friends on their trip. Forecast was hot on Saturday but cooling quickly Sunday with 10% chance of precip, and some clouds. Good enough to go for sure. We took a midmorning ferry into Kingston and got to the trailhead around 11:30. We took a leisurely hike in during the hottest part of the day - a bit miserable, but it was in the shade. No bugs. Perfect weather. We woke up at 4:15 am to mists and fog, and headed up with headlamps. The trail out of camp is flagged well. The worst part is through an old burnt out section near the bottom of the avy fan. Continuous snow began around 4000'. We had excellent snow conditions all the way up. We scrambled up one short rock section just to climber's right of the hourglass. Soon, the snow was steep and icy enough that we donned crampons. As a bonus we broke through the clouds here. The going was easy, using an old, wide (frozen) boot path from the day before. The top involved a short, icy traverse with some nasty runout before attaining the summit block. (On descent) Summit views were spectacular, with a sea of clouds below us and only peaks above 6000' poking through. N summit from S summit: Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons, helmet. Approach Notes: Easy, maintained trail to Lena Lake. Unmaintained trail with obstacles to camp at around 3000' just after crossing the stream at the fork.

That may have been my group with pickets. We only had two, and left them at camp thanks to your (or whoever we met for beta). Crampons were required on Sunday - TR to follow.