Tom_Sjolseth

Trip: Mt. Ballard (8,320') - E Face via S Fork Slate Creek (New Approach) Date: 9/28/2008 Trip Report: Mike Collins, Don Beavon and I made an ascent of the E Face of Mt Ballard from S Fork Slate Creek this past weekend. This route shaves many miles off traditional approaches and allowed us to summit from the TH in a tad over 5 hours. There is no record of any previous parties approaching this way. We finished the climb on the W Face of the summit tower, of which there are also no record of ascents. A year or so ago, Stefan Feller mentioned S Fork Slate Creek as a possible route up Ballard from the East. Since that time, I have been meaning to get up and scope it out. This past weekend, I finally got that chance. Ballard has traditionally been associated with long approaches and loose rock. On the map, S Fork Slate Creek seemed to mitigate the arduous approach and the E Face seemed like a pretty straightforward route. Nevertheless, none of us had heard of anyone actually approaching this way (although we knew Don Goodman and Dave Creeden had both climbed the E Face, via alternate, more strenuous approaches). Looking at it on the map, the S Fork Slate Ck approach seemed easy, but as is the case with many places in the N Cascades, maps and reality can be two entirely different things. But after a little bit of planning, Don Beavon, Mike Collins and I decided to give it a go. On Saturday we made the long drive up to Hart's Pass, then down to the Cady Pass TH (rough road here, high clearance vehicles recommended). After leaving the car (~3800') at 12:30, we were off. 1.5 miles of nice graded road led us to the bridge spanning S Fork Slate Ck. From here, we peeled off left, up the bank and through open forest. We gained about 100' from the creek, and immediately found a nice waytrail (very faint, but not too hard to follow). We continued on upstream through open forest, crossing several tributaries. The lack of brush was a relief, as we thought ahead of time that it was going to be brushy. About 2 hours from the TH (~3.25 miles in), we came into a clearing at 5200'. Beautiful red heather slopes gave way to Ballard's dramatic E Face. We took a short break in the meadow, watching the sun disappear behind Ballard, looming 3000' above us. From here, we spied a possible camp at the base of the talus, and we headed up. Gaining 1000' through open heather slopes and rock bands (to class 3), we found no suitable camp sites. One could possibly excavate a campsite in the talus, but it wouldn't be comfortable. Instead, we pushed another 100' further up to the timber ridge mentioned in Beckey. Here, we found several possible camps, one on heather that suited our needs just fine (~6,300'). It was only 3:30, a mere 3 hours in from the car! We were astonished that we got in there that quickly after hearing accounts of fast parties taking 14 hours RT using other approaches. Thanks Stefan, for the idea! We bivvied that night out under the stars, and wow, what a show. The stars were as bright as could be, thanks to the near new moon. After counting seven shooting stars and BS'ing with Don for a couple of hours (Mike was out as soon as his head hit the pillow), we finally went to sleep, planning to wake up as the sun hit the camp site. Before the sun hit camp, though, we were already awake, ready to start the climb. We ate breakfast and headed up, leaving camp at 7:40. Lots of class 2, a bit of class 3, and a small amount of class 4 got us up to the notch between 8,301' and 8,320'. From here, we teased out a route on class 3 ledges, connecting us with the main summit block. Once on the summit block, we climbed class 4 to low class 5 on the W Face for 80 feet, before scrambling class 3 to the summit at 9:40 (2 hours from camp). Looking at the route over Cady Pass, and the route in from Glacier Pass on the summit, we were astonished at how much faster our approach was. We felt relieved not to have to haul out 12+ miles to the TH. We took summit photos, ate lunch, and generally kicked back. We remarked about how much lower 8301 looked than the true summit. In our opinions, it looked a lot more than 19 feet taller. Don went over and tagged 8,301 (the false summit) to take photos, while Mike and I relaxed at the notch, enjoying the views and the brilliant reds that dominated the landscape. It was about 70 degrees in the sun, and there was zero wind. What a gorgeous summit day in late September! Don joined us back at the col, and we retraced our route back to camp. We packed up and in 15 minutes, were off again, headed back to the TH. It took us exactly 2 hours to get back to the car, where we had cold drinks waiting. Another awesome trip in the mountains! Gear Notes: Helmet. Approach Notes: Short and easy.

A classic example of the hardest peak by the hardest route. Great effort, and thanks for the TR!

It looks like you're getting in some nice climbs this year, Dave and Juan. Thanks for the report.

Wow, you have some keeper snaps! Great trip, Wayne.

Rob on the ascent. David scurrying below looming blocks of ice. The view up from the rock bypass. David climbing in the upper couloir. The view back down to the valley floor from the upper couloir. Looking up. Another view up the couoir. The view down to the Cascade River Road. Spider and Formidable through evening clouds. David and Rob getting into the climbing on the E Ridge. Looking down on camp from the lower E Ridge. Rob and David further up. Views of Spider and Formidable from the lower ridge. Cascade Peak, The Triplets, and Mix-up Peak. The view down the ridge from the false summit. Finally on the summit. The view down the upper NE Buttress from the summit. Views along the summit ridge. Typical downclimbing. Sharkfin Tower, Boston, Sahale, Buckner, Booker. Spider Mountain from Johannesberg's E Ridge. More downclimbing. One last view of the E Ridge route on the way out via Doug's Direct. Gorgeous! Moon over Mix-up and Cache Col with a looming Spider Mountain from Doug's Direct. Downclimbing Doug's Direct

Nice TR!

We summitted, but not by the route we wanted to. We had very wet brush coming down from the berm into Cascade River, and the ground was saturated, so we opted to climb the CJ Couloir to the E Ridge. Johannesberg gets a bad reputation, probably because it's intimidating to look at from the CP parking lot, but in all actuality it's really not that bad. I was able to ascend and descend the E Ridge without a rope. Routefinding was not that bad, just stay in exposed class 3 gulleys systems until the false summit, then stay below the crest on climber's left (class 3 with short sections of class 4). Rob turned out to be a great partner on this outing. He should have a TR up soon.

What happened with what? I was up hiking Big Chiwaukum this weekend, a week on your heels. The original plan was Johannesberg, but I didn't want to be up there in crappy weather. It turns out that was a great decision, because we encountered rhime ice on Big Chi on Monday.

Partner found leaving Saturday AM, sorry James.

Very nice trip, Dave and Juan!

Looking for a solid partner for the NE Buttress of Johannesberg Sat-Mon (9/6-9/8). Must be comfortable soloing 4th class, following to 5.8.

I've never heard of the Daniel Glacier, but I've heard of the Lynch Glacier... http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7969618

I'm a commercial electrician. There are several others on the board. Frikadeller has good info. Federal Pacific Panels suck, but their main problem was failure of breakers to trip under fault conditions, so I doubt that's your problem. If this has always been a recurring problem, you might try putting an ammeter on the circuit that keeps blowing and see if the circuit load is exceeding the breaker capacity. Breakers should not exceed 80% of their rated capacity. So a 20 amp breaker (or fuse, if you have them), should only be loaded to 16 amps max. It's possible the breaker itself is failing. They are easy to replace, but you should know what you're doing (this will probably be your last recourse before trying everything else). Feel the breaker itself, is it hot? If you have aluminum wiring, there could be corrosion on the termination points causing heat buildup and successive tripping of the breaker. Replacing the breaker, and adding some deox compound to the aluminum conductor will fix this problem. Do you have "fuses" or "breakers"? If fuses, you have an old electrical system and there could be bigger problems than just a tripping breaker. Good luck, electricians aren't cheap. I wouldn't worry too much about fires unless you see blackened receptacles or smell burning insulation.

I'd like to hear folks comment on what routes maybe should not be in the list... and what should in their place. I've heard some folks talk up the merits of the E ridge of Forbidden as opposed to the W, for example. No comment on the other 50 classics, but the W Ridge of Forbidden is more of a classic than the E Ridge in my humble opinion. I've climbed 3 of the classics: - N Ridge Stuart - W Ridge Forbidden - Liberty Ridge I'd like to climb the NE Butt of Slesse, but probably not this year.

Great photo of Berdeen and Bacon! That area is high on my list, thanks for the TR.

Nice sounding trip! Is that the only register on Sinister? The one pictured below was up there in 2006. Notice the first ascentionists..

Nice TR on two obscure, but worthwhile peaks! There is actually a much faster way in there which probably saves 3000+' of elevation gain and several miles of trail walking, which would be good to remember when you go in to climb Repulse. The basin E of Fisher is an easy cross-country jaunt from HWY 20. Going in this way, our party was able to go in and tuck away Fisher and Arriva in an average day from the HWY. We were on the summit of Fisher in less than 3.5 hours from HWY 20. We also climbed Repulse this way, which took a little more doing, but much more manageable than a traverse from Fisher.

Congratulations, Paul! Paul finished 5 lists at once: The Bulger Top 100, the Top 100 x P400, the 39 County Highpoints List, the 2000 Prominence List (144 peaks), and the 39 Washington County Greatest Prominence Points. He became the 30th finisher on the Bulger List, the 6th on the Top 100 x P400, the 5th on the County High Points, and the 2nd on both the 2000P and the County Greatest Prominence Points. Thanks for being a climbing partner and a friend, Klenke. It is an honor to be listed next to you on the Bulger finisher's list! Finisher's List

I'm pretty sure that belongs to Mike Collins, who is out of town. How'd you like the mold? Pics of your recent trip? I'd love to see them.

The true summit of Sherpa is triangulated at 8605. As far as I know, the balanced rock has never been triangulated, so any contention that it is higher (by 18 inches) is just opinion at this point.. unless you know something I don't. I'm not saying it couldn't be higher (it's damned close), but I am saying that making the statement that it is and deeming it fact is a little pretentious without any solid evidence other than subjective observation. Does anyone have any evidence supporting Jens' assertion that the balanced rock is higher? I would be interested to hear any developments on this.

Thanks for the link, AYCE. A good read for sure. Does anyone know anything about moat/snow gulley issues affecting the Nelson-Gerson route this late in the season? Is there anyone that has been up there to have a look at this route recently? I'm thinking mid-June might be the best time to give this one a go.

Early Winters. Rheinlander. Hamms (the beer refreshing). Freeze-drieds in the metallic green and gold packages.

Excellent choice for a first post. Nicely done!

I'd go with the cheapest pair of pants available since you're going to rip them anyway (nothing worse than ripping a pair of $200+ pants the first time out - it will happen). I use Lowe Alpine Adrenalines or Marmot Precips which can commonly be found for $50-$75. They provide plenty of protection from the elements.. as much as you need for the NW (even in winter).

Sweet, more shameless T100 peakbagging no doubt. We were in the neighborhood too. How did you like the skeeters? http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7968515 BTW, not that I give a shit, but I think this belongs in the N Cascades forum.