Paul B

Yes, I have many photos. I posted a few of them on this website. Thanks for your interest.

Trip: North Cascades - Ptarmigan Traverse Date: 7/17/2013 Trip Report: This is a description of our successful completion of the Ptarmigan Traverse, starting July 17, and ending July 23, 2013. There were 3 of us. We had perfect sunny weather the whole time. I hope this description helps some of you – this is truly a beautiful, epic high country traverse! Day 1: Left Cascade Pass trailhead at 2:30 pm, and arrived at Cache Col by about 7:00 pm. The path up Mixup Arm was festooned with goat hair, and a somewhat too-friendly goat shadowed us much of the way across the ravines leading to Cache Glacier. The snow in the ravines and other areas between rock outcrops approaching the glacier was firm but easy to kick steps in. Nevertheless, a slip and difficult self arrest that drew blood convinced us to put on crampons. Only then did we discover that one of us had a broken strap attachment post, which delayed us by nearly an hour to get it jerry-rigged into working again. The glacier had very little evidence of crevassing up high, and the only obstacle was a 4-ft high vertical step at the very top. The ridge just east and above the Col was snow free so we camped there. Day 2: The goat we had seen the previous day had ascended the glacier as well, and greeted us when we emerged from out tents. Not dangerously aggressive, but a bit too habituated for it’s own good. We packed up and headed down the way trails and snowfields towards Kool Aid Lake. The snow softened quickly, so I only used crampons briefly. Kool Aid Lake was only about 50% ice free, but had dry tent sites near it, one of which was occupied. This party, plus a group of 8 or so young people camped just below Cache Col the first night, were the only others we saw for 7 days. The snow slope leading up to the infamous Red Ledge was firm but not icy, and had good steps carved into it. I opted to do it without crampons, thinking I would not have a good place to take them off at the top of the snow. This was an error, and if I were to climb this snow again, I’d wear the crampons, since it is so exposed and has such a poor runout below. But by stepping cautiously, kicking firm steps and plunging the ice axe nearly to the handle, I made it without problems. We stepped onto the Middle Cascade Glacier when the talus and scree along its left side became difficult. We roped up and ascended the glacier staying mainly to the left, but veering around a few crevasses. The col “100 yds to the left (east) of the obvious col” (as per Becky’s description) was a little higher, and led to a steep but short descent through the gap to the broad snowfields on the south side of Mt Formidable. From here, it was a long traverse over softening snow to the goat paths leading down through the slopes to Yang Yang Lakes. The lakes were entirely snow free, with good, spacious campsites at the far (south) side of the second lake, near (east of) the outlet stream. There were no good sites on the knoll east of the lakes. We looked. Day 3: We crossed the outlet stream and followed good goat trails across the end of a forested ridge to a prominent rockfall with large boulders. We ascended these rocks a short distance, then found more goat paths leading up the steep heather on the hillside to the left to the broad, hilly ledge north of Le Conte. We traversed the ledge upward to the east over paths alternating with small snowfields until reaching a large snowfield where we donned out crampons, only to have to walk with them over yet another rocky rib. Then we roped up for the glacier. We traversed a long ways beneath buttresses marking the beginning of the main part of the Le Conte glacier below Sentinel Peak. We ascended the glacier, avoiding big dome-like upheavals with crevasses underneath. The Sentinel – Le Conte Col was fairly obvious once we had ascended the glacier. We crossed it, then traversed on steep, soft snow towards the upper part of South Cascade Glacier. We crossed a rocky, snow-free ridge that had a scientific monitoring camera setup, and followed cairns leading down the steep east side of the ridge to the flat, upper part of the glacier. The glacier crossing was easy, but when we ascended the col next to Lizard Mountain, we were surprised to encounter a 20-ft vertical wall of snow that we needed to descend in order to reach the White Rock Lakes basin. We opted to downclimb on the rocks to the left (north) of the wall, then step onto the snow below it. This was perhaps the biggest physical challenge of the day. White Rock Lakes were still about 50% ice covered, but there were dry campsites to the left (east) of the outlet, and on the knoll between the two westernmost lakes. Plenty of running water was available. Day 4: A prominent goat path leads from the south side of the middle of the three lakes down through heather and talus to gentler slopes at about 5800 – 6000 ft elevation. Crossed three hard snowfields with water running underneath as well, requiring care that the roof didn’t collapse. The path leads to the broad slope beneath Point 7510 (“German Helmet”), then to a talus slope after passing beneath a buttress. From there, easy goat paths lead up along a watercourse to the snowfields and rock outcrops at the northwest edge of the Dana Glacier. We made a long, leftward ascending traverse up the glacier, without any crevasse encounters, passing to the left (east) of a prominent, sharp-crested snow ridge on the upper part of the glacier, and reaching Spire Point Col. From here our description was ambiguous, so we (mistakenly) went up three gaps further towards the west before dropping through a col and scrambling down the loose rock to the snowfields on the south side of Spire Point. What we should have done was crossed at the original, obvious col, then traversed westward to the third gully on the south side of the mountain. Following this gully on continuous snow lead easily to Ipswoot Ridge, where there were good campsites (dry, and with water nearby) at the beginning (north) end of the ridge. Watch out for aggressive marmots here looking to chew things! Day 5: Perfect weather! We decided to rest and enjoy the scenery rather than do anything strenuous like climbing Dome Peak. One of the most perfect, enjoyable days I’ve ever had in the mountains! Day 6: Packed up and descended the steep headwall below Ipswoot Ridge. There were some goat paths through the heather, but most had become watercourses, and the rock slabs near the steepest part of the slope were steep and slippery wet. We traversed the basin to Cub Lake which was about 60% melted out, then made our way along the north edge over steep snow along the cliff base to the paths on the steep slope leading up out of the lake basin. From the top of the slope, the Bachelor Creek Trail is still good and easy to follow for a while, but eventually is lost in massive avalanche debris shortly after entering the heavier forest with big trees. We found climbers (or animal) paths that seemed to skirt the debris to the north, leading down along a creek at the beginning of the heavy tree-fall, but this eventually petered out before getting below the debris, and we were forced to cross it anyway. We crossed to the left (south) side of the valley, and once finally out of the fallen trees, were able to find a fairly good trail through the rest of the wooded section. Unfortunately, this led out of the forest, into a long stretch of brushfields on the south side of the valley where the trail is very difficult to follow, and thick woody brush makes for slow going. In places the brush is well over head high. We felt our way through this with our feet, and found a big fallen log to cross the creek, but were unable to find any vestige of trail on the opposite (north) side of the creek. So we picked our way through the brush, heading up into a band of big trees, then across more brush, and into another band of trees just down-valley, where the trail appeared again! From here, it was easy to follow the old trail to the confluence with Downy Creek. We walked down the Downy Creek Trail to find a good campsite about 2.5 miles from the junction with Bachelor Creek. Day 7: The Downy Creek Trail has patches of tall brush, wet in the morning, and lots of big, downed trees to climb over, under or around. Otherwise, it’s easy to follow. It was a relief to reach the Suiattle River Road, even knowing we still had an 8 mile walk back to the car. Gear Notes: For technical gear we carried a 9 mm rope, harnesses with prussiks, a few slings and carabiners, and a picket for each of the 3 of us, in addition to crampons, ice axes, trekking poles and helmets. No rock pro – we decided we wouldn’t climb anything we couldn’t scramble. We had one stove with two 22-oz fuel bottles and a 16-oz bottle, thinking we might have to melt snow. However, we found liquid water at every campsite, and used only one of the 22 oz bottles over the 7 days adventure. Also carried full-length sleeping pads thinking we might be camping on snow, but were on dry ground every night, so that wasn’t necessary either. One issue that was bothersome was the need to wear crampons on terrain where we were alternately crossing hard snow or rock and soil. We had lightweight aluminum crampons that aren’t rugged enough for this, and it was sometimes worrisome that we might break them (see below) Approach Notes: For the record, the most physically challenging part of this whole traverse was the bushwacking down Bachelor Creek. Don’t take that part for granted – it was hard routefinding, and very hard going through the brushy sections and all the avalanche debris and fallen trees.