dmarch

Fantastic! What a great trip!

It is open and driveable by any sort of passenger car all the way to the very very end.

http://uw.cascadeclimbers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19518

There are lacing techniques you could try to lock your heel down. Google it. That being said, I only know of one person who loved their Makalus, and didn't get terrible blisters from them. La Sportiva Glaciers are more forgiving, IMO.

But if it develops a leak/pops and you can't find/fix it, I guess you are sleeping on the rope and your backpack for the rest of the trip. No thanks. I'd bring a closed cell foam pad + a 3/4 length self-inflating for extra comfort if needed.

Wow! Impressive solo adventure. Thanks for the report!

I've got two of these vouchers that someone gave me. I'm not going to have a chance to use them but I'll gladly mail them to anyone who wants them. I'll even spring for the stamp! PM me with your address.

Snowmobiles are aid. I wish I had one.

Pyramid lake trailhead is easy winter access to snowfield group and beyond.... You're imagination/weather forecast would be the only limit.

Nice!

Black adjustable lifelink poles left behind at Blewett pass snowpark - south side.

The one SE of Easy Pass

Fisher Creek Basin

How? Standard Goodell Cr. approach Why? Just sightseeing. Wanted to get some winter shots of the pickets.

Here is one from February near terror basin... http://static.flickr.com/103/293983752_0ec45a7133.jpg?v=0

I'll take the MSR Drom bag.

It's at about 4 miles, after crossing a stream (last water for a long time late in the season). The trail starts from an obvious campsite which sometimes has a fire ring or cairn. It also switches back on itself at an angle which makes it easier to spot once you are beyond it, looking back. Good luck!

Cool!

Thanks, WC

Ok, I just uploaded a bunch of pics to the gallery. I can't remember how to add them to the report, sorry...

I'll add the pics later

Climb: Mount Spickard/Mount Redoubt -Southwest ridge/Redoubt Glacier Date of Climb: 8/5/2006 Trip Report: Doug, Mario, Laurie and I left Seattle at 5:30am on Saturday the 5th after a careful and precise stuffing of all of our packs, gear and bodies into Dougs' wifes' (thanks Jackie!) subaru - a very tight fit!! We made good time to the Sumas border crossing despite a detour on highway 9. Arriving in the town of Chillawack, B.C. fairly early had us hunting around for a place to have breakfast. With full bellies and properly amped on caffeine, we headed out of town towards Chillawack Lake. After about 25 miles, at the north end of the lake, the pavement ends and we bumped and jostled our way along the severely potholed road for another 6 or so miles to the left spur- (second to last spur before road end!) depot creek road. In return for borrowing Jackies' car, Doug had promised not to inflict any serious damage to it. In order to keep that promise, we ended up parking a whole .5 miles up the road, next to another car in a pull out to the right. We probably could have driven further, but we were pretty loaded down which compromised our clearance. We loaded up and headed up the road soon after, coming across some very rocky and seemingly impassable sections of "road" before coming to the permanent washout at approx. 1.8 miles from where we parked. The road continues on from here for another 3/4 of a mile or so before turning up and to the left (150yrds) followed by a right turn. This is the depot creek trail. We were worried that we might miss these turns, but it's all very obvious and going the wrong way anywhere would quickly lead you into alder hell! The trail is mostly flat and leads through some very boggy sections before making it to the border crossing in another 2 miles. Here, there is a marker and a register for the North Cascades National Park. Flipping through the register, we noted that there were 3 parties of 2 ahead of us, but none had the exact itinerary we did. One party was doing Spickard only. One party was headed for the Moxs and Redoubt, and the 3rd party was going for Custer and Rahm. Wow! I hadn't expected to see anyone at all for the next 4 days! Once in the U.S., the trail is more open but hard to keep track of in some places due to all the new deadfall that has to be scrambled up, over, under and around. After 4 mostly flat and pleasant miles, we came to a couple of alder swathes leading down and to the base of depot creek falls, which could be head roaring in the distance for some time. After a tricky creek crossing on alder branches, we were at the base of the falls in all it's glory. There are handlines in key places to help climb up the slimy rocks next to the falls, and another handline to get up to the steep trail which parallels the waterfall. From here the trail is straight up to the top of the headwall at 4800ft. Once in the lower basin, views of the north face of Redoubt will stop you in your tracks! Very impressive up.gif We pressed on through timber and open meadows. We ran into the 2 that were climbing Spickard the next day, camped at the edge of the forest. We continued on and up towards the upper basin. Once out of the trees, the landscape turned to rock and boulders for as far as the eye could see. Before the flood of '03, this terrain was all brush, but has since been scoured down to just rock. The boulder hopping up to Ozul lake seemed to take forever, but I think I prefer it to brush. We reached Ozul lake a bit after 7pm, and set up our camp for the next 2 nights. I chatted with the party headed to Rahm the next day, and we settled down for the night. Bright and early wouldn't exactly describe the start of our day on Spickard. In fact, the two guys camped below tree line walked by as we were still having breakfast. Then the Rahm party left. Guess it's time to head out! We had considered doing a loop up the silver glacier and down the southwest ridge, but risk of impassable crevasse issues steered us toward the sure thing - the southwest ridge We headed up a wide talus gully to a break to the right about halfway up. More boulders, talus and slabs delivered us to the glacial remnant below the west face. We put on crampons and headed up to the 8000 ft notch between the southwest ridge of spickard and the north buttress of mt. solitude (pt.8405). Here we ran into the spickard party, who were considering turning back here, as one was having some stomach issues. From the notch we traversed south and east until we could gain a gully heading up. Most of this ascent is up really loose talus, scree, dirt, and more dangerously loose talus. We tried to spread out or stay close together to avoid hitting each other with the unavoidable missiles. Helmets are a must! The views from the summit are very nice! The non-puking guy from the other party joined us on the summit soon after. We perused the summit register, which had and entry from Pete Schoening and Cliff Leight (1998). Cool. After and hour or so, we began our careful descent to the notch. The snow had softened up enough to allow plunge stepping down the snow to the slabs, where we filled our water bottles in preparation for the long and hot talus gully descent to camp. Later in the evening, we chatted a bit with the guys on their return from Rahm. This doesn't sound like a peak I would like to climb - chossville!! We turned in early this night (sun.), as we would need to get an early start in the morning for Redoubt. So far, the weather was beautiful, and seemed inclined to stay that way. Monday morning dawned crystal clear as well. We headed out by 6:30am, but were stalled trying to find a dry crossing of Ozul's outlet. Rather than waste more time, we just walked around the lake instead - which only took about 15 minutes. After a short talus romp we were at the base of the slabby rock and shelf system which would deliver us up and to the base of the redoubt glacier. On the advice of others we placed cairns to aid routefinding on the descent. We reached the base of the glacier, roped up and were on our way by 8:30ish. The first part of the glacier is crevassed, but we avoided these by staying to the right (west) until we hit the massive, open, middle section of the glacier. There were few, if any visible crevasses through this section. We continued heading west toward the notch between the flying buttress of redoubt and pt8090. It looked like we were heading toward a dead end of spires, but other footprints were converging on this spot as well. We packed up the rope and crampons and scrambled up a short steep pitch and down some ledges to talus on the other side. We traversed snow gullies and talus bands to our ascent gully, and headed up. Then things got interesting! We continued up this steepening snow gully farther than we should have, which resulted in much loose rock difficuly in trying to exit. This sketchy situation was compounded by spontaneous rockfall in the gully released by melting snow. Tense moments ensued. At one point, we saw a descending party below about to enter the gully below us. They heard and saw our rockfall and stayed put until we were no longer above them. One guy yelled up some directions to get us back on track, and admitted to making the same mistake on a previous attempt. We thanked them for their help, and carefully made our way over to the rock ridge we needed to cross which lead to a snow slope. Above this slope we could clearly see the freeway ledge we were looking for. We ascended the snow to the ledge, working our way up and right to another narrow rock gully, which we exited left. From here we could peer over the north face of redoubt. Our descriptions of the route seemed to match were we were. Above us was the light colored 3rd class steps which we scrambled up and peered right. We were looking for the cannon hole, but couldn't see it. The route description said to head right after the steps to another gully which would lead to the cannon hole. From here we were faced with a short 4th class section above a sheer drop down the north face. We couldn't see beyond, and nobody seemed too hot (myself included) to lead this pitch. If we committed to this, it would mean we probably needed more time than we had. It was already 3pm, and going on from here meant rappels down for sure. Belaying 4 people to the summit and getting us all back down via rappels would take a long time. We weren't even sure we were on route, so we decided to bail on the last 80 feet or so. frown.gif Since that decision was out of the way, we could relax and marvel at the views. And it was all layed out before us from the best vantage point I can imagine. Seeing the north faces of the north cascades is a treasure to be savored. We reluctantly headed down, turning back often to try to pick out the true summit of redoubt amongst the pinnacles raking the sky. What a confusing mountain! The descent was largely uneventful, we only roped up for the last part of the glacier leading down to the slabs. Once we had worked our way back to the shelves and ledges above camp, we could make out a tent next to the lake that hadn't been there in the morning. It was the guys that helped us on redoubt on their descent. They had camped high to do the mox peaks and redoubt. We apologized for the rockfall, and discussed the route with them for a while. One guy said not to feel too bad since he knew of about "12 ways to go wrong on Redoubt!" I guess I don't feel so bad. We got back to camp and chatted with the guys who had just returned from Custer. Yes, even chossier than Rahm! In fact, it sounds like Custer is the reigning king chossmaster of this section of the park. No thanks! In the morning, some clouds had moved in, but burned off by the time we were packed up and headed down. The handlines at the waterfall were much appreciated on the way down. By the time we reached the car, it had clouded up and was windy, and by the time we were halfway around Chillawack lake, it was raining. Good timing! It rained nearly all the way back to Everett. We had planned an extra day for this trip to do Custer or Rahm (sounded too unappealing), but it turned out to be a good decision to leave a day early. What a great trip! I plan to return for Redoubt and those amazing views! Gear Notes: Helmets Ice Axe Poons Rope Approach Notes: Good trail

Cool trip report and cool pictures of a cool mountain with an equally cool name! A couple of my friends got chased off Goode by that same snowstorm.

Nice! Looks like you had great weather! My friend and I got off the boat as you two were getting on. (Heading for Luna) Did you see the mamma bear with two small cubs up Access creek?

How deep/swift is the sauk ford?