dugdaled

Congrats on your climb! This report reminded me of when I was benighted on the N ridge of Forbidden when we had planned for just a day out (in 1994--so probably better snow back then). The sunrise from our unplanned bivy on the east face traverse remains a fabulous memory.

Trip: Hibox - SE Ridge Date: 9/15/2013 Trip Report: A group of alpine scramblers, led by Craig and Andy, had a fabulous day doing the SE ridge route of Hibox. The approach was by the Rachel Lake Trail, but we cut off into the forest about a half mile up the trail at the 3000 foot level. From there, the brush was light to moderate as we ascended the hill side. We did manage to anger many yellow jackets and had some stings from tripping over 2 different nests. Continuing up, we reached a large talus field at about 4000 feet, and ascended that to its head. From there we traversed to the head of the drainage described in Beckey’s version of the route. Careful routefinding led us to the saddle between Hibox and “Lobox” at about 5250. From there, a trail led first up to a plateau, and then to the ridge of the actual peak. Steep trail and some scrambling led to the standard trail on the South route. More scrambling (class 3 or short class 4) led to a nice summit area. We had great views of the Alpine Lakes region and a good time was had by all! The trail down became faint around 3800-4000 feet, and we were briefly “cliffed out” before traversing west to get around that obstacle. Light bushwhacking led us to the valley floor where we tripped over yet another yellow jacket nest before finding the trail. The rest of the way out was uneventful, and we made it back just before the rain started.

Trip: Rock Mountain - West Side Date: 10/12/2013 Trip Report: Allan and I had a good day on Rock Mountain off of highway 2—and the “likely” showers never materialized. Plus, we had quite good views! We decided to approach from the Smithbrook road off Highway 2. There were a few inches of snow on the road at its high point. We accessed the Snowy Creek trail at the higher trailhead. We got into snow at the basin around 4600 feet. From there we went upwards, mostly following the trail, on a well snow covered slope to the summit ridge at 6600 feet. The final 250 feet were along the ridge, which was also snow covered and even had some small cornices. It was 3 hours to the top, and we were glad to have snowshoes for the upper 1800 feet. After a lot of hot chocolate and other goodies, we had an uneventful trip down. Another great day in the mountains! Gear Notes: Snowshoes; crampons and ice ax not needed, but would be under some conditions Approach Notes: Via Snowy Creek Trail

Trip: Chilliwack area--Custer and "Hard" Mox - Standard Date: 7/25/2013 Trip Report: Allan, Phil, and I spent 5 days in the Chilliwack region climbing 2 of the 6 “top 100” peaks in that region that they had not yet done. The weather was fabulous and the climbing spectacular—though somewhat marred by a lot a loose rock and a rockfall injury to my leg. The drive from Everett was long, but uneventful, with the last mile including 2 car-bottom-scraping bumps. The hike to Lake Ouzel had a modest amount of deadfall over which to climb, but is in pretty good shape. Phil joined Gretchen and Brett on Redoubt while Allan and I relaxed the rest of the day, preparing for what we knew would be a long day on Hard Mox. On day #4 of the trip, we left camp at 5:15 AM, dropping down into the basin south of camp, http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/500/medium/mox_approach_1.JPG[/img] Although the summit tower has less loose rock than the gully, there was still plenty, and we had at least 1 “near hit” in spite of being cautious. We joined forces for the descent starting about 3:15 PM, and after adding a sling to the summit rappel anchor, did a single rope rappel to the 2nd belay ledge. From there, we again added a sling and did a double rope rappel to the notch at the top of the gully—and prayed as we successfully retrieved our ropes. Another double rope rappel took us to a fairly sheltered ledge. However, it was there that I got hit by a grapefruit sized rock falling from above while we pulled our rappel rope. Having been unlucky enough to get hit by a rock, I was VERY lucky to have only a mildly painful injury that needed little attention during the descent. The final double rope rappel led us back to the base of the gully from which we could scramble to the platform that allowed us to see the snow finger we had descended. The ascent of the snow finger was straightforward, but it led to an awkward exit to the ledges with loads of loose rock. We had several “near hits” during this segment. Phil set up a hand line for us across the 4th class traverse. This traverse is very crumbly, and seems to be getting smaller with each crossing! We then retraced our steps, following cairns, back to the 4th class step, which we downclimbed. We briefly lost the route, but Phil’s “routefinding nose” got us back on track. Further traversing led us back to the Col of the Wild where we could all relax some after many hours of somewhat tense climbing. Now we just had to race the sun back to our camp! We regained camp at 9:45 PM and got in our sleeping bags as quickly as possible. For the hike out, we did the direct descent from the Redoubt glacier down into the creek valley. With careful routefinding, we found a route that was even easier than the route back to Lake Ouzel, though it did require searching for a creek crossing. We found a reasonable one that even allowed us to avoid the terrible willow thicket we had crossed on the way up—hooray! From there, the rest of the descent was steep and tiring, but straightforward. We were sure glad to see the car!

Trip: Mt. Baker - Park Glacier Headwall Date: 6/29/2013 Trip Report: James and I had been considering a steep route on Mt. Baker—the Glacier Creek closure led us to go for the Park Glacier Headwall route on a much less visited side of the mountain. We parked at the ski area parking lot, and hiked the road to the trailhead. From there it was almost all snow with lots of side hilling and a gradually upward course along the route to Camp Kiser. There were some brief talus fields, but overall conditions were quite good, with snow that was firm enough to avoid sinking in, but took step kicking well. We found running water about 15 minutes before Camp Kiser which was a blessing given the relentless sun and warm temperatures. From there, more side hilling first to a saddle straight ahead, then dropping down the Sholes Glacier, around the Portals and up the Boulder Glacier to the toe of the Park Glacier, and our camp. Although crevasses were open, navigating around them was easy. We had a very scenic and flat campsite and could view the next day’s route. We started moving at 1:50 AM the next day, with the darkness creating some challenges to finding the best route through crevasses. About 700 vertical above our camp, we eventually found a straight shot nearly crevasse free route to the bergschrund. This section had quite a bit of soft snow with postholing to slow us down. We reached the edge of the schrund, after a little bit of crevasse winding near the top of the glacier. The ideal point for crossing was about halfway between the 2 rock features on the posted picture, just below and right of a patch of dirty snow. From there, James led us 2.5 rope lengths of mostly soft snow to 45-50 degrees up to the summit ridge that forms the upper end of the headwall. We were careful to climb in old slide paths on this section as much as possible. From the top of the headwall, more postholing led to a windy summit of Mt. Baker with beautiful views—my 1st time! To descend, we reversed course. The headwall downclimbing was straightforward using our uphill steps. It was somewhat unnerving as several soft slides came down various parts of the headwall, but fortunately not exactly where we were. They were definitely large enough to dislodge a climber! We made our retreat to the lower angled slopes as hasty as possible. From there, it was a slog back to our camp, and then more, seemingly endless side hilling back to the parking lot which we gained at 8 PM. Thanks James for leading this climb—a very rewarding one! Gear Notes: Pickets, 2 tools Approach Notes: Long snow slog with lots of side hilling.

Trip: Stickney - Olney Creek to Standard Route Date: 6/8/2013 Trip Report: Allan and I tried Stickney again and although the weather was not perfect, it was better than our previous attempt, and we got openings in the clouds at key portions of our trip. Our previous outing was on a rainy September day when we turned back after identifying the cairned turnoff for the trail that looked like it would be a wet brush-bash. This time, we headed up the Olney Creek road on bikes. This leaves the Sultan Basin Road (a traffic light east of town center) at about 11.5 miles and is gated at the start. The bikes sped things up for the first part of the approach, but we ended up walking them uphill most of the way to the snow line. The first double switchback has a blocked road, but an easy trail bypass just before the switchback. We ran into continuous snow coverage about a mile past there and parked the bikes. The second double switchback leads to the ridge saddle followed by a gradual uphill road. Although the cairn was snow covered, we left the road about 300 yards past the saddle and found easy travel on well packed snow up the ridge. We traversed climbers left around 4100 feet and this led easily to one acre lake. We crossed this, and ascended slightly left to a small flat area that has small ponds when snow free. We then ascended rightward but continuing to traverse 30 degree snow slopes into the basin below the summit. To get to the summit ridge, we ascended 35 to 40 degree snow slopes for several hundred vertical feet, with a brief 45 to 50 degree snow section to navigate the bridge across the deep and somewhat intimidating bergschrund at the top (see below). From there a scramble leftward led to the summit in about 15 minutes. We roped a 20 foot exposed traverse just right of the ridgeline, though this is optional as the holds are good. After this, another 100 feet of scrambling put us on top. To descend we rappelled off a tree to speed passage through the schrund, though the slope could be easily downclimbed in the relatively soft snow conditions we found. The bikes speeded our descent, though the multiple berms and washouts made us get off and on many times—and also caused a few crashes. Time to summit (mellow pace) was 6 hours. Descent time including lunch break was 5 hours. Gear Notes: Ice Ax. No crampons or snowshoes needed. Approach Notes: Walk or bike Olney Creek Road

Trip: Beckler Peak - Southeast side Date: 11/17/2012 Trip Report: Allan and I climbed Beckler peak on November 17. We used the Jennifer Dunn trail, and it was a moderate snow hike/climb. We could have used snowshoes the last half mile or so, but did without. The drive to the trailhead was straightforward, and the route finding about as easy as it gets. We managed to get up and down in a weather window—so avoided rain; had a little snow—though the forecast and certainly most of the weekend was wet. It must have been my large umbrella that warded off the rain. I recommend this as a great half day “transition season” climb. In winter, the approach will be substantially longer, but very doable. And the entire route is “avalanche safe”

Trip: Forbidden - West Ridge Date: 9/16/2012 Trip Report: Phil and I went to Forbidden last weekend for a try at the West Ridge. It was an amazing climb—and this is mainly a conditions update and some beta we have not seen addressed in other reports. Sorry but I cannot figure out how to upload photos with this trip report. The approach to the glacier was straightforward. Due to short days, we decided to bivy at the West Ridge notch. We could not see the entire couloir, but it looked very broken up and we decided against spending time trying it. The best looking way off the glacier to climber’s right has collapsed recently, so we looked for alternatives. Fortunately, we were able to go to and then get into the moat at the top of the snowfield. Phil devised a way to bridge in the moat between glacier and rock 20 feet laterally to a gully that led up via scrambling to the start of the first main gully to climber’s left of the couloir. This involved 3 pitches of 4th and low 5th climbing. Unlike the West Ridge, which has a similar grade, this gully has lots of loose rock, lots of rounded edges, and not many protection opportunities. At times, this part of the climb felt dangerous and unpleasant, unlike the near ideal climbing conditions of the ridge itself. It made us wonder if we should have tried the couloir first. From the top of this, it is a scramble to the notch, where there are bivy spots for at least 4 people. There was plenty of snow for water just north of the notch. It was quite a place to spend the night! We did see 1 party on the East Ridge Direct route as well—they now have a post on cc.com. Their bivy spot was even more spectacular than ours! We left the notch at 7 AM the next day (cold and windy), and summited just after 9 AM. The rock is fabulous, and we did a mixture of scrambling, belayed climbing, and running belays. There was new snow scattered on the north side, but this was not an impediment. We encountered the East Ridge party on the summit—congratulations OlegV and YcoumRidge. Coming down was slower than going up, with a combination of down climbing and rappelling. We were back to the notch by 12:30 PM. Then began the somewhat nerve-wracking descent of the gully we had ascended. It seems likely that some have descended the gully just to the descending climber’s right of the gully we climbed, but we opted for the certainty of the gully we had ascended. After scrambling down some loose 3rd and 4th class terrain, we did 4 single rope (60 m) rappels to the bench just above the glacier. Then 100 feet of down scrambling led us to the final rappel station from which we got to the glacier right where we had left it the day before. This was a much better moat crossing than on the way up, and our 60 m rope made it with a few meters to spare. From there it was a long descent back to the car—but the great views helped pass the time. Gear notes: Ice axe, crampons, medium rack to 2 inches Approach notes: Boston Basin trail, then trail to upper camping areas. Glacial slabs up to glacier, then snow to 30 degrees takes you to the upper moat crossing.

Trip: Shuksan - Sulphide glacier Date: 8/12/2012 Trip Report: Charlie and I climbed Shuksan last weekend. It was something we both had wanted to try for a long time—and with the great weather forecast, we went for it. At first, we were disappointed about not getting a permit for the Sulphide glacier camping area, but as it turned out, we had a much better spot just outside the park boundary! The road was fine, and the trail in straightforward, except for about a half mile where there are about 8 deadfalls across the trail that need to be circumvented. It’s not too difficult, though would be challenging in the dark. Our bivy site was at 4900 feet, with running water coming from the snowfields above, and a wide open view to the east and west, with Mt. Baker looming large. We enjoyed the meteors and clear skies all night. We were moving by 5 AM the next day, with straightforward trail and snow climbing to the standard camp with again a great view of Baker. From there, again straightforward snow climbing and minimal crevasse navigation led to the summit scramble. This was more than we expected in terms of length, looseness, and exposure—but we summitted by 10 and enjoyed an hour on the summit, with great views in all directions. The descent was easy route-finding, scrambling back down to the snow; there are several excellent rappel stations for those who prefer that option. Be careful about loose rock on this! It felt LONG back to the bivy and then the car—but we had a great trip! Gear Notes: Standard glacier gear Approach Notes: Careful following the trail through the deadfall

Trip: Lundin - West Ridge Date: 7/21/2012 Trip Report: James and I did a nice climb on the West Ridge of Lundin today. Although the approach is a little gnarly—we downclimbed from near the 1st false summit to some benches and then into the gully leading down from the summit notch, then across to meet the ridge-- the route is airy with great views north and south. We did the climb as 5 leads from the low point of the ridge above the basin between Lundin and Snoqualmie. Two of these leads had short sections of low 5th class; the reminder was 3rd or 4th class. [img:left] With great protection and belay spots, this an excellent climb for beginning leaders. Note that the summit block area has been the site of at least 2 fatal falls. [img:left][/img] The descent requires caution, and there is an excellent rappel station as well. From the base of the summit block, you can scramble up, and follow the trail to the Red Mt. basin and down to Commonwealth basin, or descend talus and snow, then bushwhack to get back into Commonwealth basin. Approach Notes: Approach from the crest trail parking lot at Snoqualmie Pass

Does anyone know of current conditions on this route, or access to it? thanks

Trip: Sperry - Southwest Shoulder Date: 10/16/2010 Trip Report: Allan and I climbed Sperry by its SW shoulder on October 16. Although Beckey calls it “class 2”, we found several class 4 sections for which we could find no bypass. It won’t take much more snow on the route to make it a much more difficult climb. We approached over Headlee Pass, crossed the talus field, and skirted the lake climber’s right to get to the Vesper-Sperry col. The view down from there is excellent, showing large areas of slab and glacial remnants. The route then heads up following a trail with cairns that make it straightforward. After about 30 minutes of hiking, and at about 5500’, the scrambling began. We followed an ever fainter trail through many brushy lightly snow covered steps, eventually reaching a grassy gully about 150 vertical feet below the summit. This had class 4 moves, and significant exposure, so between the snow and mud we belayed this, Allan leading up about 100 feet. There was a rappel sling at the top of this gully. From there, easy scrambling led another 200 feet to the summit, for some fabulous views! Descending, we reversed the route. We had not really expected to use the rope we brought, so had no other gear. But, we rigged a Dulfersitz for the rappel down the gulley (OUCH!). From there, lots of branches and heather provided handholds for an uneventful descent, getting back to the car just before dark. This was another great day in the mountains, with a beautiful fall dusting of snow on all the peaks. Gear Notes: Rope, runners Approach Notes: Over Headlee Pass

Trip: Cascades - Sherpa West Ridge Date: 10/2/2010 Trip Report: We approached over Beverly Creek trail. It is longer than Long’s Pass, and less elevation gain, so not as steep. At the Ingalls Creek crossing, we lost the trail, and bushwhacked up to the main Ingalls Trail (the correct trail continuation takes a fairly sharp left after crossing the creek). We followed other cc.com posts to start ascending the hillside. This led us to the edge of the Cascadian Couloir which had some steep dirty climbing, but was mostly good. In retrospect, it would have been easier to follow the Ingalls Creek trail to about 200 feet east of the avalanche path, and then go straight up (this is how we descended and it was very pleasant). We dropped into the couloir coming down from Sherpa around 5800 feet, and it was straightforward. We then ascended talus fields, running out of daylight around 6800 feet, where we found a small bivy site for 2 and a seep with enough water. A beautiful site! The next day, we passed a large bivy site on a flat rock about 400 feet above—this is the standard site, but it may have been dry this late in the season. There were a few sprinkles over night, but in the morning, we started up by headlamp, arriving at the saddle below the route shortly after daybreak. We scrambled the 1st pitch—mostly class 4 with a few low 5th moves. The 2nd pitch was a full 60 meters to a starting at a belay with rappel slings, again mostly 4th with more low 5th. We passed multiple rappel points doing this. The 3rd pitch was traversing 3rd and 4th class, leading to a rappel anchor below the crux pitch. It was just as advertised—low 5th into a cave, then get high and a big step right to a slab (5.5 friction), followed by more low 5th to the start of the last pitch. The final pitch was again mostly 4th with brief 5th to the summit. There is a summit register, and we were the 6th party to sign it this year. The record goes back to 1985. We wasted no time descending because of threatening clouds that fortunately never opened up on us. We downclimbed the top pitch roped; rappelled the crux pitch; and did the traverse pitch unroped. We then did 2 more rappels to the start of the route. After that, a long slog out the way we came in except we dropped down the slope above the Ingalls Creek trail directly rather than entering Cascadian Couloir—that is easier. Then--more slogging to get to the car just before dark on Sunday. Thanks for a great trip Phil! Gear Notes: 60 meter rope; small alpine rack and runners. No ice ax needed now Approach Notes: Over Beverly Creek trail

Trip: Buckner, Sahale - Southwest Face Date: 7/11/2010 Trip Report: Last weekend, Phil, Allan, and I climbed Sahale and Buckner in the spectacular North Cascades. We hiked from Cascade Pass up to Sahale Arm camp at 7600 feet in about 4 hours, and after setting up our bivy site, climbed up the last 1200 feet to Sahale’s summit. The usual right-sided gully or left skyline ridge both had a lot of snow giving very exposed mixed climbing to the summit and fantastic views. The traverse to Boston looked too much for us to start that late in the day. A single 60 meter rope rappel got us off and we descended to a great dinner provided by Phil at our bivy. The next morning, we left camp at 6:15 and went down the East snowfield and rock rib to its toe at 6400 feet. There is a trail on the rib, and by following closely, the amount of 4th class is small. Once on the snow again, we nearly got hit by a basketball sized rock that was going so fast it must have started high on the ridge above. A traverse led us to the steep open slopes of the south aspect of Buckner where the angle was up to 40 degrees, but conditions were excellent. We summitted at 10:30, and after a break headed down. The skies clouded up as we returned toward our camp, and by 2:00, it was a white out on the arm as we followed tracks. As we left our camp, we needed to navigate by compass in the poor visibility , but descended out of the fog at about 6000 feet, and back to the car. An excellent 2 days in the North Cascades!!

Has anyone been up there this spring, with info on the moat at the base of the route?