geosean

Hahaha, I did have that thought when we were descending.

I saw that photo, but I hate it, it makes the buttress look terrifyingly steep! Thanks, amazing shot.

Nice trip, thanks for posting! If that had been you plan it would have been a fantastic outing, too bad about not getting you first choice though. It's good to know about the couloir bypass also. Someday I'll pass through that way. On another note, do you know anything about the north butterss of the Rake? Beckey says 4th and low 5th. I'm intrigued but can't find any info except that the Fireys did it in '74.

Trip: Seahpo / Cloudcap Peak - NE Ridge Trip Date: 07/05/2025 Trip Report: After much discussion and planning and two planned weekends that didn't happen due to weather, and even a scouting trip with binoculars, me Fred and Dylan finally climbed Seahpo / Cloudcap on July 4th and 5th. I had been on a mission the last few years to climb Dallas Kloke’s Difficult 10 peaks and completed the list this past winter with Lincoln. Now as part of my midlife crisis alpinist proving I'm after the self declared Difficult 10 Bonus Peaks. Basically anything that the consensus says ought to be on the list but since it's Dallas's list it doesn't change (much like the bulgers). I consider these so far to be Gunsight and Seahpo. We hiked up through the crowds on the 4th of July with heavy packs loaded with all kinds of climbing gear since we didn't actually know much about the route. We passed a lot of day hikers and Ruth climbers that all asked us where we were going with all of the gear on our packs, I grew somewhat tired and only half jokingly suggested we tell people either Shuksan or Icy just to make it simple. Bizarrely then we met somebody who replied that they had climbed Seahpo!! We went up and over Ruth, then Icy just for fun and made camp near the northeast ridge of Seahpo, making camp in just about 8 hours. We had plenty of time to study the route as it came in and out of the clouds and were pleased with what we saw. On a scouting trip a month earlier the route had ample snow on the ridge which we weren't prepared to deal with. On the 5th we were up at 5:00 and hiking just after 6:00, thus allowing for plenty of sleep to make up for a week of extremely early mornings for work for me. No one argued with that concept. We took the Beckey variation of getting on the northeast ridge at the first opportunity instead of the glacier which we assumed would be in rough shape this far into the 21st century. The scrambling on the lower ridge was excellent class 3 with some easy snow walking, then we got to the top of a tower before a major notch. This notch was the main unknown of the entire route since there's not really any good way to scout it and we had no beta at all. It proved to be troublesome. Naturally we assumed we would just be able to rappel into the notch and climb out the other side, but it took us about an hour to discuss, scout for a descent, and then eventually build an adequate repel anchor. You repelled into the notch, over a moat, down some easy snow, and into the moat on the far side. The moats were deep but not wide at this time. We huddled in the upper moat a little ways down from (south of) the top of the notch, where we had scouted the only fusible way out of the notch. There was a groove/gully that looked feasible to climb up and regain the ridge beyond. The plan was for Dylan to rope gun the rock in his approach shoes and me or Fred to kick steps in any snow in our boots. Nobody wanted to bring boots, shoes, and rock shoes. Tom Sjolseth mentioned in the comments of his Jagged Ridge TR that the northeast ridge of Seahpo was 5.6 or 5.7, so we figured we needed to be able to do that at least. Dylan was confident that he could lead up the groove, but I stated not so subtly that I wasn't confident I could follow it. He made it look hard but doable, and got a good belay 55m above at a rap station. I'm not sure I have ever climbed on a single rope cow tail style until now, and me and Fred were very very concerned with how little rope we had left, hollering constantly as Dylan finished out to the anchor. (Naturally as in most of the Cascades pro was very sparse and anchor opportunities more so). There was exactly enough rope left for me to stand at the last stance while Fred made it through the most difficult part that the receding glacier had just vacated before I had to step on to the wall and make the hard moves. It was extremely doable on second but I'm glad I didn't have to lead it. Definitely 5.7R. We all made it up to the belay and determined that it looks solo-able above, so we put away all the gear, never to use it again. The rest of the route above was no more than class 4 if you made the right choices, a couple of times just for ease/fun we maybe made it 5.2. Jim Nelson’s book Classic Cascade Climbs must have forgotten about this first pitch, Tom gets a Redding credit in the book so Dylan is convinced that he intentionally sandbagged the route old school alpinist style, not sure, but the first pitch is definitively mid 5th. The book calls the whole route 4th class. We encountered some pretty solid rock on the ridge, easy steep heather on the south side, and a short cruddy gully crossing per Beckey. As I have discovered on most of the more difficult routes Fred Beckey usually pretty reliable. We crossed the gully on a ledge and followed some heather slopes to a short rock finish to the summit. We launch it around for a while hoping the mistwood break and we would get some views but it was not to be. The route finance straightforward enough that it wasn't a big deal in fog but it's always nice to have a good look around. I found out later that we would have been able to holler across to Tim Halder on Nooksack Tower if we could have seen it. The climbing was easy enough that we downclimbed everything to the belay station then made a double 60m rappel to a horn above the moat, south of the initial groove pitch. From here we made another double rope rappel down to the top of continuous snow at the top of the glacier. The upper randkluft it was melted down to where we could land on rock and simply walk out onto the glacier. This rap was long and extremely steep, overhung over sock and then transferring to overhung over snow, pretty wild! I went first and was collecting myself at the bottom of the rap until I thought about the 30+ feet of more than vertical snow directly over my head, so I skedaddled a ways back to the top of the glacier. We all gathered back at the bottom, stowed the ropes and cruised down the glacier, and back along the ridge to camp. The glacier was chill with just a couple of moat cracks to walk around, nothing I would call a proper crevasse, in fact I would hesitate to call it a real glacier anymore; still potentially dangerous though. We took some time packing up camp and congratulating and thanking each other, caught a few last minute views and then headed back up the slog over the shoulder of Icy, back over Ruth, then cruised down the very familiar route to the car. We hit the car about 8:30 for just over a 14 hour day. More congratulations (real this time since we made it back properly), thanks all around, then back to civilization and “reality”. The holiday weekend made it so I could lounge around and nap the next day feeling glad to have pulled off another very challenging mountain. This one definitely ranks in the difficult 10 peaks in Washington in my book, when taken as a whole. I would rate the mountain above the first pitch as pretty enjoyable scruffy fourth class rock and heather, similar to other Cascade peaks; Jberg, Triumph, Klawatti, etc. I think if there wasn't the tough first pitch it would be a pretty enjoyable mountaineering route in a remote location, to me at least, 5.7 ads a level up. The approach was extremely enjoyable and pleasant, better than any of the Difficult 10. We pretty thoroughly scouted the pitch out of the notch both on the way up and down the route and determined that the way we climbed it seems to be the most doable line. If you want to do this mountain you need to be sure you can climb someone insecure 5.7R for half a rope length. If I had to do it again and it was up to me to lead I would take rock shoes. Gear Notes: Half rack, 2x 60m ropes, light MTN boots or approach shoes and wet feet, axe, helmet, others wore crampons, not I, extra axe and pickets for steep snow we didn't need. Approach Notes: Trail to Ruth, over west Icy (the truth summit now thanks to lidar BTW), down the other side. Follow the ridge the whole way. Dylan ascending to heaven on Ruth: The whole deal with my partners looking badass: Seahpo: From camp: Camping in an awesome setting: Morning. Clouds rose up to greet us: Approaching the line: Atmospheric weather: The lower route calls to us: Fred on rap: First pitch from the notch, Dylan for scale: On route: Easy: Break time on the summit: Part of the register. The pencil crumbled in my hands as I signed us in, so take a new one: Fred on the last rap: Descent of the glacier: Strolling out beyond Ruth:

Trip: Davis Peak - South Route - Skiers Variation Trip Date: 04/23/2025 Trip Report: After reading this recent TR on a skiable route to Davis Peak in the NCNP we had to give it a try. My buddies and I had attempted Davis in January of '22 so we knew what we were getting into with the approach, but a skiable route to the summit that avoided the difficult scramble near the summit sounded awesome, plus it's always great to do a 3000' bushwhack with skis on your back. So the next time we were too sick to work but not too sick to go skiing we hit it up, Wed the 23rd. The bushwhack is bad, but not terrible, there is little undergrowth, just deadfall so it's mostly just navigating. Above 2600' it gets much better. The track Ryan Stoddard and Nick Roy posted is pretty much perfect, when we deviated from it by more than 30’ we regretted it. We hiked to the start of a boulderfield at 4200’ before we could start skinning, which was a bit farther than optimal, but not much, the 4000'-4200’ traverse below cliffs was postholing intermittently, so not ideal. Above 4200’ we cruised on firm snow, making great time skinning. The route up is straight forward hooking around to the west and up to the summit. We didn’t spend long on the summit as the snow was calling, naturally the skiing was over WAAAY too fast and we had to swap out for shoes and walk down, down, down. 12 hours after we started we were back at the car for a hot beer (not used to this spring thing yet). It was a nice route, rugged for sure, but an amazing peak in a spectacular position with views from an interesting angle into the Snowfield group and the southern pickets. Everyone should go do this! Ryan has a GPX on NWHikers No snow in sight, lets get it! Dylan and the Pickets. Gear Notes: Ski gear. Carried avy, axe, crampons. Dark clothes, the forest is sooty, I found work gloves to be nice for the deadfall and burned forest. Approach Notes: Park at the Gorge Creek overlook, at the east bridge abutment there is a trail up, go up.

Agreed, I went up the Nohoko in May when it was just barely still in, and down the south face. Pretty garbagey in my opinion, and I've climbed S Hozomeen. We did loop it via Crater back to the car at the East Bank TH, so that was rad. I've never heard of the east ridge.

Wow, great photos Jason. Thanks for the TR!

Oh yeah, and a special thanks to Jon Luthanen for taking his Sunday to drive up with me and scout the road. I don't think we would have had the guts to try it in a day without knowing the road conditions.

Excellent write up Jason, except I don't remember beer! Did you guys have beer without me? It was a real treat to do such a tough climb and such great conditions with such great partners. Definitely a trip for the metaphorical scrapbook.

This sounds like one of your more relaxed trips, in camp at sunset even, almost like one another person would do... almost. Nice work!

Just did the route yesterday. We were planning to be "sick" and go when we saw your report, it helped inspire us to pull the trigger. Thanks again @Lucas Ng for posting and nice work on the climb! You did a great job reading conditions and getting it; snow routes like this don't come in much in the winter and it was pretty prime right now.

Thanks for the post, love it!! Nice work.

Nice work guys! I had heard tell of the name change but didn't know you had put up a register. I need to get up there, I would love to do the traverse also some day.

Trip: Colfax Peak - East Ridge Trip Date: 01/18/2025 Trip Report: Me, @Albuquerque Fred, and Mike (the 3 amigos) climbed Colfax Peak on Saturday the 18th. We camped at the trailhead and woke up early enough to be able to get beers and dinner at Graham's in Glacier that afternoon (this alleviating thys of the need to eat and food on route). Which was good since it was so cold none of us really ate or drank anything all day. We were able to drive to maybe .5 miles from the summer TH before we stopped at the snow park berm. Others chose to drive past this but I believe it is bad form, the snowmobilers are our friends, let's play well together. All users of the outdoors share more than they differ. The Grouse Creek approach worked well, booting for a short time through the forest before switching to skinning. The skin to Colfax Saddle was easy on firm wind packed snow; some areas required ski crampons so we just wore them most of the time. The wind at the saddle was brutal, making the already cold air almost unbearable. We left skis at the saddle and cramponed over the false summit to the true summit of Colfax. We spent 30 seconds, then returned to the skis in the lee of a rock at the saddle. The sun and shelter were amazing, but we had to descend some time, so back into the maelstrom we went. The ski was actually excellent... If you are a connoseur of ski mountaineering skiing, not laps. Firm wind pack, but smooth, with patches of re-worked powder, and, lower, dust on crust. The exit was amazing, 3 hours total from Colfax to the car with a nice long break in the lee. We called it the best skiing on a mid-winter ski mountaineering trip. So in short, excellent***. Cosley-Houston is out, Polish looked ok, but I'm not good enough to knowuch about it. The upper ice ribbon was continuous but narrow: Baker from Colfax: Gear Notes: Skis, ski crampons, crampons, axe, helmet, glacier gear. Approach Notes: Grouse Creek in ski boots.

Hi all, I bought some ice screws off of somebody on craigslist like 13 years ago and he threw in this thing as well, I assuming is a snow anchor of some sort, but I have no idea. Can't find anything online either. Does anybody know what this is? If anyone can tell me what it is or how to use it they are welcome to have it for free! (unless it turns out it's really valuable) 😉. I have never even carried it on a trip in over a decade.