robertm

Does anyone have any info on the Mission Creek Routes? Any good ones out there? Is the rock as "good" as Peshastin? Thanks

I just climbed this a couple of weeks ago. A large rack should do... we took way to much gear. the A3 pitch had a small wire that was frayed but seemed to have a few more uses left - goes free at 11b if you want to climb it. I took cam hooks thinking I would use them but really didn't. The free climbing is high quality and the rock is great. I fixed the first two pitches in the afternoon with a single 70m. This made for a very casual second day. I don't aid climb so we were slow on the aid pitches. Cool climb.

Jeff, it is a great route. As far as gear goes we took a #3 Camalot with doubles in TCU 1 - 3 and .5 - #1. This seemed to work pretty well. You might consider doubling the #2 size if you want to be really solid. If you are gung ho on the OW you might take a #4. Other than that you don't need a monster rack for this route. It isn't that hard and is doable by the weekend warrior that is comfortable on 5.10a stuff and has a nose for route finding. Slesse is a great route as well. I thought they felt about comparable -- however the descent on Slesse makes the descent off of Bear seem like a walk in the park. Have fun... a cool option if I were making the trip out here would be to Head up Bear and then drop over to Bear Lake for a camp and then up Redoubt and go out through Depot creek. Worth considering for a grand tour of the high country.

What is the right way? Is it to not traverse as far over and head up? It looked pretty steep all along the way. Or were we at the wrong traverse? I guess I will need to climb it again to figure it out. Amezing how that mountain puts a spell on you and you forget the hardships of the approach soon after it is over. Judging by the repeats in the area it looks like it has the same effect on others. Here is what Fred had to say: HELLO THINK YOU WILL HAVE YOUR TIME FILLED ON BEAR IT IS A FAIRLY GOOD WORKOUT JUST GETTING THERE I WOULD NOT WANT TO DO ANYTHING ELSE AFTER THAT, EXCEPT GO SWIMMING IN SOME LAKE WITH PRETTY GIRLS

Moderator - Please Move to N. Cascades

Trip: Bear Mountain - DNB Date: 7/26/2007 Trip Report: Mark Pratt and I decided to venture into the N. Cascades to climb Bear Mountain after I was inspired a couple of years ago on the summit Redoubt looking at the N. Face and DNB. We wanted a long and challenging rock climb and this route served up the goods. The approach begins mellow enough on a road and after about an hour your start navigating up and over huge logs often using them as elevated passage ways across the forest floor. After reading Mike Layton's and others account of being mired in a swamp I was cautious to always try to find the trail which is very faint in some places as Devils Club and Salmon Berry are quickly reclaiming it. Between Little Chilliwack and Bear Camp it is often best to stay close to the river especially if you lose the trail at large stream slides where there is a lot of sand and rock completely covering the trail. The mile or so between Little Chilliwack and the large slide alder patch (which can be passed on a new trail forming by the river) took the longest as it was hard to keep finding the trail and going was slow through devils club and downed trees. It pays to find the trail once past the big slide alder / washout section as the trail is excellent to Bear Camp. From Bear Camp take the left branch and proceed directly uphill. It is not critical to stay on the path - there are some flags here and there - generally you stay on the ridge crest through heavy timber and enter a burn zone. Don't go too far left as you want to come out on a ridge above Ruta lake and the old fire trail will cliff out to the left. It doesn't hurt to stay right when in doubt. After about 2500 feet of fairly easy going you will enter some tough going through Mountain Azaleas. These are like going through a hound dogs hair from the rear end up. Tough going. After about 400 feet of this hell you emerge onto the ridge crest. In a little less than a mile you will will be able to look down on Ruta lake about 500 feet below. I was thirsty and out of water but we spied snow patches above and chose to keep going. It was hot at this point and we took occasional rests beneath the alpine firs. We rounded one sub-summit and ended up climbing directly up to the largest sub-summit (which you aren't supposed to do) but it wasn't a big deal and afforded great views of the N. Face in profile (although, we couldn't see our route the DNB as it was mostly blocked by the Direct West Buttress) From here it is mostly 3rd class down to the bivies at the col which are visible below. We chose a patch of trees about 100 yards from the Col as it was flatter and closer to running water. It did not spare us from the multitude of mosquitos. Out time from Car to Camp was 11 hours (7AM - 6PM). We made some Ramen, Freeze Dried Potatoes and a freeze dried entree and washed it down with Makers Mark. We awoke around 3:30 AM and ate breakfast and left camp around 4:30. The descent down the Col was no big deal (snow all the way to the top) with Aluminum crampons. We used our headlamps for the first hour of the approach finding our way through a fog that had risen from the valley floor. We were hoping this would clear as we climbed the buttress. It was a bit spicy getting across the moat but uneventful. It was now about 6:00 -- 1.5 hours from camp to base. From here I led out a couple of pitches of 5.7/8 to the base of the really cool dihedral pitch. Mark took this pitch. The next pitch went up and slightly left through some loose ground through good rock and a 5.8 roof. I ran it out to the end of the rope and set up a belay. At this point we were above the clouds. Some more great climbing and lead swaps brought us to the traverse - or at least what we thought was listed as the traverse to the "5.6 Ramp" Mark led out on this and never encountered a "5.9 move" as mentioned in the Kearney guide. We traversed almost 100 meters. I took the lead and headed down and across a chasm and up a dubious looking redish dihedral/face. Nothing really looked like a 'ramp' to this point. The next pitch was one of the scariest I have ever led in the mountains. It was steep and loose (5.8/9) with no opportunity for protection. The rock was in a state of decomposition. I was finally able to create a nest of TCUs in a horizontal crack at my feet before comitting to some very exposed moves to heave my way onto a pedastal where I could get one really good stopper for the belay. This lead took about 1 hour and our pace had slowed. It was now around 11 AM and we still had a ways to go and I was guessing we were off route. Mark took the lead up and left around a corner and shouted down that the ground eased up. So we had entered the 3rd and 4th class ground and could see wet slabs wher the snow patch above was melting. Due to choose and wetness we chose to go left up the crest on 5.7/5.8 ground. Some really good pitches on good granite but probably slower. We reached the snowpatch at around 12:30 PM and admired the views toward Redoubt. I took the rack and had to negotiate the snow patch which had created a deep moat where it layed against the rock. I could see the curving crack above and was dismayed that the upper half looked to be full of dirt and grass. I tensioned over into the crack system and climbed until just below where the crack got clogged. I was then able to reach over and climb up over right. This was steep and here is where the Alpine Select was on and Kearney was off. Take the left most of these cracks (5.9/10) do not proceed up the 5.8 dirt crack without pro. From the top of this pitch it was one more good steep 5.8 pitch to the where the Beckey-Fielding route joins and the stellar Dihedral - fist crack. Mark took the rack and charged up this crack. In my mind this is a sandbagged pitch. Some call this 5.8 and others 5.9. It is steep and probably was the most physical climbing of the climb. It would be 5.9 at Index. Although from below it looks like you need wider gear there are many protection opportunities. A couple more 5.7 pitches led up to the base of the famous offwidth and a great belay. Mark climbed up the offwidth for about 20 feet and stepped out and right to avoid most of the ugliness. The north face off to our left was awesome. From the top of this pitch we proceeded directly on the crest. There is a fixed station here where the Beckey-Fielding (North Face) route drops down into a chossy gully. The climbing on the crest has sparse protection but great rock and is mostly in the 5.9/8 range. This is about 2 pitches in length. We thought the lower part was harder than then 5.10 - cracks mentioned by Kearney. This looked like the better option than the Burdo variation off the left (overhanging 5.10 crack system). From the top of this section I grabbed the rack without bothering ot sort the gear and stayed on the crest directly... encountering great 5.6 climbing on solid rock. The summit loomed above as we topped out on the ridge 12 hours after we started climbing. It took about 20 minutes from here to the summit proper of Bear and great views of the Pickets. The descent to camp is straightforward and cush. Takes about an hour. Go skiers left as you descend and you will pick up some cairns that take you around the bowl. If it seems harder than 2nd class you are probably off route. We were back in camp around 7PM. The hike out the next morning took about 7 hours. We celebrated by taking a plunge into the lake. Gear Notes: Medium rack to 3" - doubles in TCUs 1-3 Approach Notes: Devils Club and Salmonberry

We tried the East Face of the Main as described in the then 'hot of the presses' Nelson Select II book. The route had dissapeared and we were forced onto the S. Face of the Main which was only 3 or 4 pitches from the rotten notch to the summit. The west face was of interest but we were scared of the 'offwidth' as described in Select I as we only had to a 3" piece.

Blake, good job on ripping up the 'East Side' of the N. Cascades. GS is a great peak and stellar granite. I sent you a PM with some more detailed questions about your adventure. A couple of questions: 1) How did you approach and deproach Gunsight? I would like to climb Agnes Peak at the tail end of the PT and would envision dropping into Spruce Creek... any issues you forsee or advice? 2) As far as the shuttle from Bridge Creek into Stehikan... do I need to make reservations or can I just wait with $$? 3) I want to get a ride to Chelan on lady of the lake One way. How should I make reservations (if at all) for this as I may not know the exact day I will be exiting? Thanks for your advice... I know you know the ins and outs of Stehikan and that area well. - Robert

Dru or others: Are there other peaks up there worth climbing? I am planning on spending a few days in the area and would like to hit Gimli but also looking at Dag and or others. Any reccomendations appreciated.

Awesome... How was the road? Can a regular passenger car make it or would you recommend a high clearance vehical?

I just climbed that with Fred a couple of weeks ago. He hadn't remembered climbing it but once on the summit realized he had climbed it from the West.

Nice going... I have done the other S. Face route and thought the offwidth/chimney was a grunt. It sounds like there is nothing that wide on this route?

you can drive all the way to the TH for BB or to the end of the road at cascade pass.

check www.theronwelch.com & www.mountainwerks.org Derwanderer & MVS have done some great stuff featuring a variety of NW routes (Stuart Glacier Coulier, Colchuck NE Buttress, Brothers Traverse, Redoubt NE Face, etc.)

True Goatboy.... generally newbies to 5.6 rock are not ready for simulclimbing. Some might be YMMV...

be ready to 3rd class much of the route without belays if you want to move fast otherwise you are in for a multiday adventure. 1 mile of rock climbing is a lot of belays... so as long as you feel that you don't need to belay low 5th class rock go for it. It is not hard but it is exposed and there are some loose sections on the north side. Go into it with eyes wide open and you should be fine.

my .02: - that old snowy route in Nelson's vol. 1 -- loose scree when there is perfectly good trail to the top - west ridge Lundin - too much hiking for some 3rd/4th class.... linking with Snoqualmie makes it a good outing for excercise - N. face of Chair -- much hype and not much ice. NE BUTT is better - Serpentine Arete - a good experience builder with good views to the lake but not that much quality climbing - Ride the lightning - goose egg. dihedral pitch is cool. do that and then call it good because upper pitches are not quality

it looked OK... there was a gash across the middle of the coulier but it looked as if parties were going around the left of it. If it looks sketch you can always do the East Ridge.

Great video... I am sad to say that I shot mostly unusable footage and was properly schooled and lectured on our latest Torment-Forbidden outing. I am now ready to take a steady hand at the rudder of the camera... give me another chance!

you can access from the rock on the climbers right and then traverse above the moat to the S. Ridge notch. Looked good to go. The moats on the NW glacier side would have me more worried but I am sure there will be ways around the difficulties for the persistant.

Cool. Der Wanderer, Climbhigh and I followed in your footsteps on Saturday. Thanks for the steps on the steep snow. We got a 10:30 AM start from the TH on Saturday and bivied at the Nelson spot before the snow traverse. I disagree with those that say Torment is BS climb. The rock was solid and the climbing was scenic. A direct finish would make it cooler. The moat crossing on the notch descent sucked but after that it was awesome ridge running. We took small rack of nuts, hexes and 3 cams. Aluminum Crampons were good to have for piece of mind. If you guys lost a Tikka I found it and would be happy to return it.

Awesome job -- #3 of the blue collar triple crown. You only have Jberg and Nooksack to go (if you haven't done them already.

I did the traverse... check it out. As Fred says "really alpine" http://www.scramble.org/robert/Nooksack.htm Nice job on the route Mike. I think the Nooksack traverse from the tower is one of the 3 climbs that make up the Cascades Blue Collar triple crown: Nooksack Tower Traverse, Index Traverse, Jberg NE BUTT. I still have the Index traverse to do.

it is actually further up the valley under the redoubt glacier... pretty small. the advantage of camping there is that you can descend the easy route via south side and you are at camp pretty quick (coupla hours +) August would be challenging as there might be disconnections at the schrunds... I would never say 'out' as there are many that are 'harder' than me but I would think it would be much more difficult.

done... only for you Drew... since you were kind enough to offer us beta. We did beat your camp to summit time.