thedylan

@geosean, @MGraw and I ended up doing this over the weekend. Only mandatory rock was the gully between the lower and upper snowfields and that was a scree scramble, we didn't use the rock gear we brought until SE ridge of summit pyramid. The slope angles on the face were not as steep as expected and we did little frontpointing even though there was a lot of ice. We descended the fisher chimneys. Overall it was a really fun and beautiful way to tour the mountain. Something that has been overlooked in previous north face reports: the old growth forest on the approach, between white salmon creek and the ridge top, was seriously amazing! Many old growth western hemlock--western hemlock is the climax species west of the crest which means that's a really old forest. Above that we reached beautiful fall-colored blueberry fields and heard many elk bugles. AND I just remembered, Mike and Sean saw a wolverine! Incredible place.

Thanks for the TR you inspired me to check it out, had a really fun day yesterday. Saw no one until Forbidden. I skipped the west ridge though, was kinda bummed but my fitness isn't quite there this year :). Interesting how the snow melts, at the notch with the rappel to the north side I did one rappel angling skier's right, a long easy moat scramble, then another rappel to a moat where I had one steep step to climb out and onto lower angle snow. Was surprisingly straightforward I was definitely expecting worse.

Just commenting so I can find my trips again in the future.

Just commenting so I can find my trips again in the future.

Just commenting so I can find my trips again in the future.

Just commenting so I can find my trips again in the future.

Just commenting so I can find my trips again in the future.

I had a great time "cascadian hilarity" describes it well. @zaworotiuk here's you guys coming up the snow arete in the morning! Might have to zoom in.

Awesome! What a special place.

Nice!

Just that log you see in Sean's last photo which someone tied to the big concrete block. Gets you most of the way but still took our shoes off on the way in.

I think? Doable but attention getting. Would have been worse if the blocks were made of gneiss like they usually are :-D. Moving onto the slabby north side of the arete down lower may have been the thing to do, seems to be where the solid rock is in this section of the range. Update: noticed this in another TR. I think we tackled the referenced bulge head-on.

Nice, thanks for posting Sean. Such a fun backyard playground. I would add that we found a way more fun way up the green creek arete than what I have done previously (if you follow the actual line of the arete there is a lot of hiking). We started maybe 30 feet left of the gully going up to mythic wall on probable looking 4th/low 5th and went straight up, trending left slightly to avoid the real steeps. Hit the proper arete a little below where it flattens/where the mythic wall tops out. The true summit of the green creek arete: Skookum: Low on Little Sister: High on Little Sister: Cinderella: Green creek basin:

https://www.mtbakerultra.com/ Imagine taking all the less interesting parts of climbing--the approach, low angle glacier walking, the descent--and doing it for 15+ hours straight! Somehow it's actually pretty fun. If you're a climber wanting to do an ultra it's a good race because it has the mountain component to keep things more entertaining and the pace is a lot slower than other 50 milers. It's in June so you have plenty of time to get ready. Based on some cool history too if you are not aware watch this: http://themountainrunners.com/.

Looking for more local partners. I like to do most mountain activities, especially those with an endurance component. Specifically would be great to find people interested in multi-day ski traverses and long alpine rock routes. I would love to find a partner for the Southern Pickets traverse, my partner from attempting it a couple years ago is focusing on other things right now.