bellows

Trip: Mt Logan - Fremont Glacier Trip Date: 08/04/2019 Trip Report: "Did you go far..." a gray haired lady happily chirped at us, 100 feet from the parking lot. "Yeah..." John and I muttered back at her in unison, giving her the shortest answer possible, not breaking stride as we trudged past. We weren't trying to be rude, but our minds were focused on the truck, cold drinks, clean clothes, and comfortable shoes. The longer answer is that we climbed Mt Logan over three days via the Thunder Creek valley and the Fremont glacier. And yeah, it was far, clocking in around ~46 miles total. Thankfully much of that is on trail, ~18 miles to Thunder Basin Camp on Saturday. Temps were cool enough and with enough shade that the hike in was relatively pleasant. John and I had each been up the trail on independent solo attempts in the past couple years. Sunday we were moving my 8AM, up towards Park Creek Pass then the long traverse across alp slopes towards the Fremont Glacier. We lost the climbers trail several times, but it was never critical. Just keep traversing. A tough aspect of Logan is you never really see the summit until you’re on top of it. The snow feature to access the scramble is melted back quite a bit, but not overly concerning. We lugged a rope which was nice to have for peace of mind, but not a critical piece of gear. The backside was more exposed than I expected, but is well cairned and stays mostly 3rd class unless you get off route. Views were worth it! Seems like you can see EVERYTHING from up there. Monday was a long hike out on sore feet. Sorry to the nice lady trying to say hi... Gear Notes: nothing unusual Approach Notes: long

The register went back to 1992. I saw your name in there. Simpler times... before wife & kids? I thought it was a fantastic climb and very worthy of a repeat. It's an easy approach, pretty mellow climbing, and the east face stairs are total type 1 fun.

Nice work. Your video commentary is surprisingly upbeat for being stuck in the gully without a rope! Attitude is everything.

Trip: Mix Up Peak - East Face Trip Date: 07/22/2019 Trip Report: The weather was too nice on Monday to spend it working for the man, so I ditched work and headed out to the alpine. The east face of Mix Up is a fun moderate climb with a couple pitches of low fifth and some of the best 3rd class scrambling I’ve ever seen. Good times! Views from Cascade Pass and Mix Up arm. First view of Mix Up East Face. Go through the lefthand U notch and circle around back to the righthand V notch. The moat was fine on the left. I self belayed a short low fifth class 10m pitch directly up from the V notch to a rap anchor, then scrambled up to the top of the east face shoulder. Surprisingly I ran into a party of 4 out-of-staters climbing the route right before the infamous white staircase. The staircase looks intimidating from afar, but the rock is clean, grippy, and FUN! And mostly only 3rd class despite the exposure down to the Cache Glacier. A final low fifth class 20m pitch at the top brought me just right of the summit. The summit register was a fun read and I spent some time snacking, enjoying the views, and chatting with the other 4 climbers as they made their way up. One of them “Ram” was making his fifth ascent of the peak. Fred Beckey June 25th, 2006, age 83! Two raps off the summit block and two raps down to the V notch got me off the technical terrain and a nice walk back to the truck ~10 hours after leaving. Overall a very worthwhile climb, I can understand why Ram was making his fifth trip up there. Gear Notes: 60m rope and light rack to 2" worked well Approach Notes: Easy peasy

FWIW, here’s a pic of Spider, Formidable, and the Middle Cascade Glacier from Mix Up peak yesterday. The Cache glacier was also in good shape. Not sure beyond that, but there were several parties headed out on the traverse.

Unique report Jeff! Good stuff

Woah, those stats don’t do your trip justice. That’s a crazy amount of terrain to cover in a single push! Nice job, way to inspire.

Good stuff! That area is my favorite in the Olympics. I agree, the standard scramble up Clark is quite nice. Heather and Deception basins (Mt Mystery!) are well worth a return trip. I'm working my way through the Smoot book too. To copy the Bulger lingo, I'm at 90/100. I need to start signing non-Bulger summit registers that way to confuse folks...

I really hope this can be fixed. There are TONS of trip reports prior to the site change where the photos no longer show up, including ones where the pics were hosted in the cc.com gallery. I know it can't be fixed for non-existent sites, but if the photos were on cc.com then hopefully it can get corrected.

Trip: Buckhorn Mountain - High Traverse Trip Date: 11/18/2018 Trip Report: Sunday was summer-like t-shirt weather in the Olympics! I took advantage and did a high traverse over Buckhorn, NE Buckhorn, Iron, and Worthington from the Big Quilcene valley. The views were incredible and the terrain was engaging albeit a bit chossy. Surprisingly, despite the traverse being well above 6000' elevation, there was zero snow on the entire thing. The difference between the Olympics and Cascades right now is significant. Approximate route: Foreshortened view of Buckhorn(s) and Iron from the Big Q trail: Marmot Pass: Buckhorn from Marmot Pass. The main peak is an easy walkup on trail: Constance, Warrior, and Inner Constance from Buckhorn trail: Mystery, Fricaba, and Deception from Buckhorn trail: View of the traverse from the top of Buckhorn. NE peak in the middle, Worthington on the left. Iron is hidden behind the NE peak. The descent off NE Peak (pictured here) was easily the crux. In general, stay on the east side and pick your way down various chimney/groove/ledge systems. It's never more than 4th class, but a rope could be useful here. Choss lovers delight: Easy slopes up to Worthington: Looking back on the traverse from Worthington. Iron Mountain is middle left, NE Buckhorn middle right, and Buckhorn proper on the right. Big Q Valley from Worthington: After tagging Worthington I dropped down on the east side and traversed below cliffs back to ~4800' on the Big Q trail to avoid any bushwhacking. A staged bike and a continuation over Hawk, Welch and all the way to Townsend (pictured here) would be a great alternative exit: That'll do summer 2018, that'll do... Gear Notes: Helmet! Approach Notes: Nice trail

Ah, I can actually see it in one of your pics. Good stuff!

Looks wintery! I’m amazed at the snow level difference between the Cascades and the Olympics right now. I was on & around Buckhorn on Sunday, almost a thousand feet higher than Lundin, and was in a t-shirt all day and didn’t come close to stepping on any snow. Maybe it’s the rain shadow, but what a difference.

Cool! Curious, what’s your lead solo set up?

Awesome, thanks Jason

Hey Jason, any chance I can get a pdf sent my way too?