Matt Lemke

Yeah we noticed that! How was the ice serac at maybe the 7k level? Did you climb it or bypass it? We were trying to follow the historic route as much as possible. That debris field just to the left from where we started was really a mess, but luckily right where we were climbing everything looked like it had already slid down low over there and the snow was prefect and firm.

I love them, but they are the only pants that really fit me much at all since I am 6' 9" love those Scandinavian brands haha. In a soaking rain or soaking bushwhack they will not stay dry, but on a big mountain where everything is ice and snow they are great. If they do get wet though they dry very fast. If I ever do a soaking bushwhack I actually just wear a pair of quick dry basketball shorts with gore tex gaiters.

Trip: Mount Fairweather - Carpe Ridge Trip Date: 06/16/2024 Trip Report: Coming off the heels of Eli's awesome climb on Carpe Ridge, Sarah and I also climbed this route from June 13-16th. It was a very historic year on Fairweather to have two parties climb Carpe within just a few weeks of each other, considering the previous ascent of Carpe Ridge prior to this year was the Smileys back in 2013...11 years ago! I already wrote a full length trip report on my website that can be found here, but I'll include the route topos we made below and a few brief notes. The PDF can be downloaded for a complete route overview on one page. Flew into Fairweather Glacier with Fly Drake, and made it to 10400 foot camp first day. Big 5700 foot day with full 40 lb packs. Followed the historically done route the whole way traversing left initially, climbing the narrow couloir and following the rocky ridgecrest before following open snow slopes right of the crest from 8000 to 10400 feet. Snow below 7500 feet was firm and awesome. Perfect crampon booting. Above that was isothermic slop. Put snowshoes on at 8k. After waiting a full day at 10400 camp due to active snowfall (8-12 inches), on day 3 we traversed right to bypass the big cliffs above the 10400 camp, then climbed up steeper but good snow all the way to where ridge narrows at 12k. The historic route of going left around these cliffs definitely does not go anymore...huge overhanging ice serac shedding crap constantly. Continued up past small flat 12400 foot camp, fell into crevasse at 12500 feet, slogged through deep drifted powder from there to 13400 feet, made it to south peak at 13820 feet and camped at 13700 foot low saddle between south and main peaks. Day 4 climbed to summit and descended standard west ridge/north basin route to 9800 foot LZ for pickup early morning on day 5. Ice nose was climbed by traversing the blue ice left of the aerated white ice wall that would crumble at the slightest touch! Had historically good weather. After we flew out there was even 3 more days of awesome weather which we used to try and climb Devils Thumb. More on that later. Carpe Route.pdf Gear Notes: Team Gear - MSR Advance Pro UL 2 person tent: This is the lighest alpine tent you can get. It's small and sucks to be in especially with my 6' 9" height, but critical for its durability and low weight. - One 60m half rope: Since we would not be descending the route, no rappels would be needed so only one rope was brought - Two standard snow pickets: One per person - Ortovox Pro snow shovel - Six Petzl Laser Speed Light ice screws and V thread tool - Small set of stoppers and a few small cams from 0.2 - 0.5 inch: We did not end up using these - Six single length runners and two double length runners with 2 wire gate biners each - MSR Reactor stove - One medium and Two mini fuel canisters: The non winter mix canisters did not perform very well, but the winter mix one we had did quite a bit better. With the great weather forecast we had, we felt comfortable bringing this low amount of fuel. My Personal Gear - Gossamer Gear Mariposa 60L Pack: This is my favorite pack money can buy....period. - Big Agnes Lost Ranger UL Sleeping Bag (Just the orange inside section rated 20 degrees F): This modular sleeping system has two separate bags. Combined they are rated 0 degrees F but using just the inside bag gives you one of the lightest 20 degree bags out there. - Thermarest NeoAir inflatable sleeping pad - Big Agnes Third Degree foam sleeping pad: I always double up with a foam pad when sleeping on snow in case my air pad punctures. If you cannot fix the puncture you're fucked without a backup foam pad. - MSR Denali EVO Snowshoes - BD Couloir Mountaineering harness - Pulley and MicroTraxion with prussiks and three locking carabiners - BD Cobra Ice Tools with BD Spinner Bungee leash: This was my first time using these and I liked them well enough for mountain objectives. - 1 Liter Nalgene water bottle with insulator - Petzl Sirocco helmet - One BD Z-Distance trekking pole: Lost in crevasse :( - La Sportiva Olympus Mons Mountaineering Boot: This is the only good mountaineering boot big enough for me - BD Stinger automatic crampons - Good pair of glacier glasses - Small plastic bowl and spork Personal Clothing - Under Armor wool base layer pants - Fjall Raven G1000 Pants - Polyester base layer T shirt - Under Armor Wool long sleeve shirt - BD First Light Hybrid Hoody: Great soft shell that fits my large frame perfectly - Columbia Yocum Ridge shell jacket: I did not end up using this - Cotopaxi down vest - La Sportiva Primaloft Insulating coat: Can't remember the exact model of this coat but it was my main big puffy. Only needed it twice for a short amount of time - Balaclava - Rab Endurance down mitts - BD Gloves - Three pairs of socks Food - Five Peak Refuel freeze dried meals - Small box of Cherrios and ziploc bag of dried milk powder - Two small bags of beef jerky - Two small bags of M&Ms - Six small packs of Fruit Gushers - Four Natures Bakery Fig Bars (AKA Barely Edibles) - Two small Shot Blocks - One Tube of NUUN water enhancers Approach Notes: Fly in to 4700 feet on Fairweather Glacier with Fly Drake. GIve this guy full respect...he deserves it!

Hey Eli, thanks for the write up on Carpe...hoping we can fly in tomorrow. I just noticed this report you have for Lincoln, and was wondering if you, or anyone else here knows if Tom S is still the only person who has completed the Difficult 10? I'm trying to finish them myself...hmu if you're interested. Cheers!

Great work guys, I really should go back to finish the second half of the traverse over to otto. I guess you didnt find the great natural shelter bivy I constructed about halfway between Degenhart and Terror, ~50 feet below the saddle crest on south side. Sheltered us from 12 hours of rain without a drop hitting our sleeping bags! Glad to see people getting after it! You even climbed Pyramid the right way...that OW didnt look enticing so we traversed left and went up the upper S gully instead...much easier class 3 in case anyone else doesnt want to climb an OW or some sketch 5.10

Full report can be found here: Mount Hunter West Ridge

Thanks Jason, is there any way to be able to show the original size of that photo? The photo isn't high enough resolution to read the notes.

Sorry about the duplicate report...this site is still as confusing as ever...

Trip: Mount Hunter - West Ridge Trip Date: 05/31/2022 Trip Report: I climbed the west ridge of Mount Hunter from May 29 - June 1 just last week with a summit on May 31st. The route has changed drastically from the days of old, here is a good beta overview of the ridge if anyone is interested. We took 3 days on route with two nights at the 10650 col for a big 4k foot summit day. Weather has been fantastic in Alaska this season making for a carefree, worry free ascent (mostly lol). I'll get to writing a detailed trip report on my website soon...just figured I'd share these route notes for now. Conditions were mostly good, but afternoons on the lower ridge started getting scary when the stepp snow softened considerably in the hot sun. Summit temps were in the mid teens with very little wind. Photos at the link below. Photo Gallery Gear Notes: Two 7.3mm twin ropes, 4 cams 0.5 - 2, set of DMM nuts, 5 UL screws, 3 pickets, 20 degree sleeping bag, 6 single slings and 1 double. Extra TAT Approach Notes: Snowshoed to base of ridge from landing - 1.5 hours.

This is an amazing trip report. Gets me wanting to do another pickets trip!

Starting in 2020, they began making a few big mountain boots big enough for me (euro size 50) and I bought the Olympus Mons Cube with the tech binding toe bail integrated into the boot. Score I thought, but I realized the heel couldn't lock. Everyone on here says to just climb in your AT boots, but alas, we still live in the stone ages where AT boots are not made big enough yet for me (I need a Mondo 34). I find myself looking for a way to ski with my new Cube boots...I don't have much experience skiing free heeled, but the terrain I'll be on is mostly 15-25 degrees in steepness...hopefully easy enough to be doable. Might give those Voile's a try though, thanks for the thread everyone!

Looking for a partner to climb gunsight peak with starting Sunday and going to Wednesday next week. Also will be climbing sinister while up there. Ideal route is the gunrunner traverse but open to others. Hmu at mlemke100@gmail.com

Holy cow you had completely different conditions than we did. Looks like a lot of fresh snow fell after our may 26th climb. You were sinking through a crust? Damn the snow was hard ice the entire way for us!! Front pointing from start to finish. Nice work getting this one done

Nice photos! I did the nf of Buckner and horseshoe on June 8th... Wonder if it was our tracks you saw?

@jon, @olyclimber, @JasonG Yeah that's the kicker...the photos are not hosted on NWHikers. There is an easy linking system to any one of 4-5 external web album hosts. Flikr, Google Photos etc. If photos must be uploaded to the same site you are making the trip report on, it can be made possible to make it as easy, however you'd have to compete with Google's photo uploading system and speeds, AND have a very quick and easy way to link photos into the body of the trip report. It would require a huge amount of work. You also will need a large database capacity which will increase hosting costs. Summitpost is having a huge issue with this. They have so many photos on the site it costs $2000 per month to host. This ultimately will lead to the death of that site in the near future. My recommendation would be to avoid requiring photos having to be uploaded to CC in order to build trip reports (although you can still make it an option). I actually believe that leads to sites dying out in the long term as we are seeing on Summitpost.

Please note this TR is copied from NWHikers. JasonG as you may be aware after chatting with a couple friends of mine, the editor for formulating trip reports, especially the image insertion tool is far superior on NWH. Actually, I believe NWH is the best site in the world for formulating TRs. Feel free to PM me if you'd like to chat more about this. I would be happy to help improve the site if I can.

Trip: Buckner Mountain NF, Horseshoe Peak - North Face Trip Date: 06/07/2018 Trip Report: Who: Josh Lewis and I What: North Face of Buckner and Horseshoe Peak. Bulgers #82-83 for me When: June 6-7, 2018 With good weather in the middle of the week, and Josh recovered from his surgery he had late last month, who else to call and invite for a mid-week climb of two Bulgers neither of us had done before? Leaving Renton at 10:30am Wednesday, I made the now routine pick-up of Josh in Lynnwood, and after a quick stop at the hardware store to buy some 90 degree aluminum angle bar (for more pickets...I lost most of mine on Lincoln Peak) we drove out in my van to the Cascade Pass TH (well, the gate at mile 21). Although we made it to the gate one mile beyond the Eldo TH, it is now gated AT the Eldo TH for more repairs. This earlier closure to the road took effect yesterday morning just fyi to anyone going up there. We began the walk up the remainder of the road for 1.5 miles to the Boston Basin TH at 3pm Wednesday, and hiked the somewhat brushy trail all the way to 5,600 feet before hitting any snow! I couldn't believe how fast everything was melting. The snow however began extremely suddenly and within a matter of 50 vertical feet went from nothing to 5 feet in depth! Here I switched out of my approach shoes and into my boots, and we continued up the Quien Sabe glacier, passing a large Mountaineers Group along the way who were all camped at roughly 6,200 feet. We broke trail through the fresh snows of the past week, following the mostly hidden existing tracks all the way to the Boston Sahale col, where we planned to bivy for the night. To my surprise however, the ridgecrest bivies were all still snow covered, so we opted to continue over to the Boston Glacier to camp. We still had a couple hours of daylight left, leaving us enough time to made the tricky scramble (tricky with big mountain boots that is...) up the ridge towards Boston Peak and onto the upper reaches of the Boston Glacier. Small cornices remaining on the ridge made the traverse a bit more interesting, as we had to traverse small ledges below them on the east side of the crest, with 1000+ feet of air below us down to Horseshoe Basin! We made it to the Boston Glacier, and descended 500 feet to the first flat spot, and laid out the tarp for our bivy. We cooked dinner and melted snow and despite the haze/pollution/high clouds, the sunset was still a nice sight. We set the alarm for 4am. Totally dry below treeline! Large group we saw in Boston Basin Sharkfin Tower Sahale Peak Traversing to Boston Glacier It was quite chilly in the morning (granted we were camped at 8,000 feet), so we were slow to get out of our sleeping bags. We even had some frost on our bags and tarp! Eventually, by 5:45 am we roped up and started the traverse across the upper Boston Glacier to the north face of Buckner. Crevasses were easy to spot and navigate around, and most had large snow bridges covering them. We passed beneath the north face of Horseshoe Peak along the way, and once at the base of the route, we unroped and simply continued ascending solo, passing around 4 small bergschrunds on the lower part of the face without difficulty. Here the steepness increased to 45 degrees as we continued climbing the perfect snow that took front points beautifully. We took small breaks here and there when we had a chance (rock ledges, slightly softer snow etc) and made it to the summit ridge just over two hours from leaving our camp on the Boston Glacier below Boston Peak. The final 200 feet of the face offered the steepest terrain, approaching 55 degrees, which was also the most insecure snow. Soloing this section got my heart racing a little more! We left packs on the ridge, and traversed to the eastern summit of Buckner, bypassing a large gendarme on the south side descending 40 feet or so to get around. We decided it is worth ascending both summits of Buckner since they are likely impossible to determine which is the highest. After a quick stay on the east summit, we returned to our packs and finished the last 30 feet to the west summit and signed the register. Plenty of snacks were consumed as well! Our bivy at 8000 feet on Boston Glacier Boston Peak Boston Glacier and Forbidden Josh finishing the route Western summit from the top of the north face route Josh on his way to the east summit Looking down the north face from the west summit By around 9:30am, after over an hour on the summit ridge visiting both summits, we began descending the SW slope, dropped 1000 feet or so and curved right onto a the snow finger leading up to Horseshoe Peak. We ascended this 30-45 degree slope to its highest point where it dumped us off on a large ledge 100 feet below the summit. I swapped into my approach shoes here for the summit scramble, and we worked our way leftward, around a small buttress and into the loose gully leading up to the notch just east of the summit. Then we scrambled up the left-leaning ramp on the south side of the slab, and I solod the short, one move wonder 5.2 finish to the top. Josh was right behind, although since he didn't have approach shoes, the final move was slightly harder for him, but still no problem. We watched from the summit as clouds began to slowly roll in from the west, now obscuring Jburg and Eldorado. We decided to start the long haul back quickly as to avoid a potential whiteout. Horseshoe Peak in the middle Josh making the final move Buckner from Horseshoe We made a long descending traverse across Horseshoe Basin, dropping to a low point of about 6,600 feet, then ascended the ramp and onwards up 1000 more feet of snow back towards the Sahale camps at 7,600 feet. We then traversed over to the Sahale Arm, where we saw a couple skiers and a large Nols group coming down from Sahale Peak, and ran down snow slopes directly to the Cascade Pass Trail, bypassing Cascade Pass itself and in quick time, made it back to bare ground, where I was very happy to once again be not wearing my boots. As always, the stupid trail dragged on, with much annoyance until we reached the parking lot, which is now bare of snow. Only the last switchback just below the parking area still has some snow on the road, but I wouldn't expect the road to be open for a while still. The 2 miles back to the van were nice, as we caught up with the couple skiers we saw and chatted with them for a bit. Upon returning to the van at 4pm, I saw everyone parked at the upper gate had a notice the road was now closed at the Eldo TH and we could still exit at the gate there, but to close it behind us, as it was just "dummy locked". On the way out, milk and muffins awaited in Marblemount, and unfortunately with deteiorating weather for Friday (today) we decided not to attempt Tower and Golden Horn and just return to Lynnwood/Renton. All in all, another great trip with Josh. We ascended 5,500 feet, then descended 500 in 6ish hours Wednesday and 3,200 feet gain, plus the hike all the way out in just over 10 hours on Thursday with packs, and managed to get both peaks. I call that a pretty good success! Gear Notes: Boots/Crampons, one technical tool, bivy gear Approach Notes: Boston Basin - Quien Sabe Glacier to Boston Glacier and traverse to NF of Buckner

Hey Bri, also longtime WA climber here. I am looking for a VW mornings regular partner as well, however I tend to be in the mountains a lot this time of year, so can't definitively commit to the same day every week haha. If it's raining I'll be down for a gym sesh once or twice a week. hmu if interested!

I did Silver Star the day before you on Friday afternoon and had to plow through all that fresh snow on the upper part of the route. I remember looking down Silver Star creek and thinking "glad I came over Burgundy Col...its bone dry down there!"

Btw...geosean if you ever want to do south hozomeen hmu!

Hey! I was one of the guys up there on the 12th! Nice work man that sounds like a great trip adding on crater mountain. I'm surprised the headwall lasted until now it was melting out fast!

Trip: Jack Mountain - Nohokomeen Headwall Trip Date: 05/12/2018 Trip Report: Well, I am back from 4 months in south america, and didn't waste any time starting my quest to finish the Bulgers this summer. After hearing Fletcher's report for Jack mountain via this route, Jake, Josh Lewis, Elaine, and Steven joined me to climb the Nohokomeen headwall knowing the conditions would be good. In short, we had a very successful, fast ascent of the route and topped out on number 79 for me. Now for the slightly longer version... I picked up Josh in Lynnwood in my van and met Steven and Jake at the Highway 20 closure late Thursday night May 10th. Elaine was with us as well. Around 630am we started biking the 4 miles up the road past the closure, passing by a line of cars waiting for the road to open for the summer at 10am. Too bad they couldn't open it 4 hours earlier! In the cold fog, we biked along, and after just 25 minutes or so we reached the east bench trail, locked up the bikes and began the 8 mile walk. After a few hours we reached the point to leave the trail and started up the steep slopes towards the upper Nohokomeen Creek basin. at 4500 feet we hit continuous snow, and everything below was not too bushy thankfully. We crested over the ridge at 5000 feet and put on our snowshoes here to finish the approach traversing into the basin, and making our way up to where Elaine, Josh and I decided to camp at about 6000 feet elevation in a small snow gully sheltered from the wind just above the base of the glacier. Jake and Steven, who would climb the route as a separate team of 2, decided to continue on all the way to 8000 feet to camp on the glacier...something I had no interest in doing haha. It was a beautiful afternoon with amazing lighting on the Pickets directly across from us. East Fury and Luna stole the show from our tent view! Elaine decided to skip the remainder of the climb, but Josh and I woke up at 3:30AM, ate a quick breakfast and by 4 we were off, following Jake and Stevens tracks 2000 feet up the glacier in the glow of twilight. At 6am, we reached their tent, and awaiting us was Jake and Steven, who were just about to begin up the route. At this point the sun was just rising and our eyes were glued to the red glow lighting up the landscape. Mount Baker was particulairly stunning along with the Hozomeen Spires and the Pickets. Jake and Steven decided to sleep in a little, which worked out great with timing as all 4 of us began climbing the route together. Unfortunately for Josh, one of his crampons broke at the beginning of the headwall, so he was forced to wait it out and return to our tent. Jake, Steven and I then all solod the route, alternating leads and kicking steps. It only took us an hour and a half to climb the headwall from their high camp at 8000 feet and we reached the summit at 7:30am. The snow conditions were nothing short of perfect as we easily kicked great steps the entire way up the headwall. Steepness averaged 50 degrees with a couple short spots at 60 degrees. Once on the ridge, it was a beautiful ridge run to the summit only 150 feet further. On the summit we ate our snacks and enjoyed the spectacular views for 30 minutes or so. There was a brisk wind but not quite enough to chase us down real quick. This was my 79th Bulger, and the first one in 2018 for me. I couldn't really do any while in South America lol. We made quick work of the descent and was back at the base of the headwall in an hour. We used our same steps on the descent which made it feel very secure. We packed up and were snowshoeing back down in no time. We reached the east bench trail around 2pm, at which point my feet were in serious pain from wearing the mountaineering boots so long, and I was glad to switch back into trail runners. The 8 mile hike back was uneventful, and Jake offered to run ahead and drive my van back so we could all get a ride back to the Ross Lake Trailhead saving us the bike back on the road, which now was full of cars. Once we were all back, Jake and Steven returned to Seattleland, while Josh, Elaine and I proceeded to Winthrop for Mexican food, and to prepare to climb Robinson Mountain the next day. More on that climb in just a bit... Gear Notes: Brought 30m rope and pickets but didnt need them. Crampons and one quark were all I needed. Approach Notes: East Bench Trail for 8 miles. Continuous snow began at about 4500 feet

If the flight costs 525 dollars per person I will probably be out. We will likely walk into little Switzerland from Petersville instead and climb the granite spires around Pika Glacier

Wow, this knowledge would have been worth more than solid gold at the time! Thanks for sharing I guess I get what I deserve for not researching really anything before setting out haha

http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8025335 - Bears Tooth Also, More photos from this trip can be found here: http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8025775 I agree the Beckey Route is a classic and worth the long approach! I just may have to return to actually do it!