whinckley

Great photos of a spectacular place! We climbed the Polish route on 1/11/15 and for me it was the best ice line I've climbed in WA. I hope more folks get on it this season. We found a similar amount of ice then. If you don't want info on the crux pitch stop reading now. .......................................................... We set the belay in a cave excavated between rock and right side of curtain above snow slopes. We had double ropes and used one to haul both bags for the dagger section. Choking up on tools in the lower ice I got a back scum on the dagger and a hands free rest to recover before committing to the climbing above. I climbed until my head hit the steep rock in this position (back to dagger and feet on lower ice) and then gradually shifted my full weight onto the dagger on its left edge. I found some good hooks to start before getting higher and swinging the tools. Once established on the face it was straightforward steep ice to the top of pitch. So no volcanic mud rock dry tooling or campus jump moves required, at least how we found it. Just an attention grabbing pitch that requires feeling good about the stability of the ice and offers great climbing in a wild position.

Trip: Buck Mountain - North Face - Wild Game Date: 2/22/2015 Trip Report: Around midday on Saturday (2/21) Braden and I drove to Fish Lake and the start of Chiwawa River Road only to find it closed more than 20 miles from the trailhead. In hindsight, we probably should’ve checked on this minor detail before loading up the truck and driving out there, but I’m glad we didn’t. We discussed changing plans and climbing something closer to an open road, but after asking around we discovered there were snowmobiles available for rent right where the road was closed. Problem solved - we strapped our climbing and bivy gear to the back of 2 rented sleds and rode them to the end of the road where we spent the night. On Sunday we started at 4AM from our trailhead bivvy (2,800’), walking on 3-5 feet of well-consolidated snow beside the Chiwawa River and then along Buck Creek to access the North Face of Buck Mountain. Travel conditions were perfect, with hard snow the whole way, and it took us about 5 hours to arrive at the small glacier at the base of the face. We started up steep ice to the left of Buck Shot and then continued simul climbing through less sustained terrain. As the face got steeper, we pitched out two mixed sections. The crux pitch came in this section and fell to Braden. This pitch involved wandering, tenuous dry tooling connecting patchy snow/ice with limited protection opportunities and some mandatory simul-climbing due to a lack of suitable anchors. After this we simul climbed up snow and easy mixed terrain before pitching out 2 more mixed pitches to gain the ridge around 6PM. In all, we climbed 8 pitches with quite a bit of simul climbing. After finishing the face, we tagged the summit (8,528’), enjoying the sunset lighting up the sky and the stunning views of surrounding peaks. To descend, we traversed the summit plateau and went down the Southeast Face into the Alpine Creek drainage ending up next to the Chiwawa River about a mile from our bivvy. This descent was more straightforward than reversing our route and approach. The only problem was that we were on the wrong side of the Chiwawa River. We searched for a place to cross, but couldn’t find one, so in the dark night we took off our boots, rolled up our pants, and crossed the river holding on to each other to stay upright. After more than 17 hours on the move, the cold water felt refreshing on our feet and legs, and crossing the river was our final crux. We packed our stuff back on the sleds and raced along the totally empty trail back to the truck. My head hit the pillow at home the same time I had woken up that morning, the final ending to a memorable Cascade adventure day shared with a good friend. Buck Mountain - Wild Game IV WI5 M6R/X ~1,800' Other notes: No exposure to cornices overhead like right side of face. Beckey book says: “North Face: The face was climbed by Cal Folsom and Mark Moore in September 1976. The climb proved to be extremely loose and dangerous – the party warned others to avoid this climb.” We don’t have any more info on where they climbed, but believe this was the first time this line was climbed in winter. Gear Notes: We brought ice screws including 2 stubbies which saw lots of action, knife blades, lost arrows, nuts, hexes, a single set cams to BD #2, and two 60m half ropes. Approach Notes: No skis needed on approach

Anyone know what Banks is like now?

Here's Matt B.'s photo with the line we took in red. Will