[TR] Goat Mountain - SW route 03/31/2018

[JasonG]

Trip: Goat Mountain - SW route

Trip Date: 03/31/2018

Trip Report:

 

The last hall pass before our Canadian Hut trip was put to good use this past Saturday.  Goat has mocked me for decades as I've gazed north from the ski area and tours out of Heather Meadows.  No longer!  

 

In the winter a Goat tour starts pretty low.  So, with the cold breath of the GRAVEDIGGER on our backs, we skinned from the start of the Hannegan Road a bit over two miles to the start of the Goat Mountain summer trail.  Toiling upwards on a fine day we ran across cougar tracks from the day before, a few minutes before Shuksan burst into view at treeline.  Those would be about the only tracks we would see until we gained the Twin Lakes Road on the north side of Goat. 

Sefrit:

 

We reached Goat col about 4-5 hours after leaving the cars and started to skin the final 600 feet to the true summit of Goat, which is the eastern one marked on the USGS quad.  Soon, however, we realized that skis were going to be a liability with the wind slab cooking on the south aspect of the peak and dropped them in favor of booting to the summit. The proved to be a smart move, as significant wet slides swept this face below the ridge between the time we ascended and descended.  We were able to effectively mitigate the hazard by sticking to the ridge in the trees and rocks.

Tomyhoi watching us on the ascent:

 

The summit was glorious on this still spring day and we spent a half hour snapping pictures and admiring the view.  Unfortunately we couldn't linger long, since half of our party waited at the col and we had a long slog out the Twin Lakes Road ahead of us.  Downward!

The final few feet to the summit:

Southern Pickets:

Ruth and Triumph on the right:

Sefrit again:

Nooksack Tower:

Tomyhoi again:

Seahpo and Jagged Ridge:

West Goat:

Then it was time to ski!

The lower we got the worse the snow was (and it didn't start out that great), until it was horrific breakable crust.  At least we had nice views of Goat:

The happy(ish) crew, minus me, before things got really ugly:

One last look at GOAT:

Gear Notes:
skis, ski crampons, light axe if going for true Goat, a slogging attitude.

Approach Notes:
Hannegan Road to Goat summer trail to Goat col to Twin Lakes Road to ruin.

[Trent]

Nice! Good warm up for breaking trail at Fairy Meadows!

[BK9]

Fantastic Photos!

[olyclimber]

AWESOME!!! Love the shots.  Love it all.

[JasonG]

Thanks everyone!  If you're a photo snob like me you may want to click on the first photo in the TR and then cycle thru them using the arrows.  This shows you much higher resolution versions than what is visible embedded above. 

You need to see them at their full frame glory!

[Chris Hopkins]

24 minutes ago, JasonG said:

Thanks everyone!  If you're a photo snob like me you may want to click on the first photo in the TR and then cycle thru them using the arrows.  This shows you much higher resolution versions that what is visible embedded above. 

You need to see them at their full frame glory!

That's a cool feature with the photos. Beautiful Terrain.

The dude in the Healey Hansen jacket and his partner look familiar to me. 

Have you been up to the east side North Cascades along hwy 20 and met a guy that looks like an old curmudgeonly, homeless crack addict? That would be me.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Chris Hopkins

[JBo6]

2 hours ago, JasonG said:

click on the first photo in the TR and then cycle thru them using the arrows. 

Holy shit.  CC.com has a photo viewer now!  Whoever added that nice work!

[lunger]

looks like a cool route.  tempted to follow your tracks sometime. and as always, nice pics

"The happy(ish) crew, ... before things got really ugly"

do tell.  did a happy-hippy-skippy ski descent down to the road encounter the cold hard face of shrubby reality? Or is that road uphill both ways?
or perhaps avy debris nightmare? 

Edited April 8, 2018 by lunger

[JasonG]

On 4/5/2018 at 10:51 AM, Chris Hopkins said:

The dude in the Healey Hansen jacket and his partner look familiar to me. 

This was his first tour ever in the Cascades!

[JasonG]

30 minutes ago, lunger said:

"The happy(ish) crew, ... before things got really ugly

Ha!  I should say ugly for us softies.  Just really terrible breakable crust over old debris.  In the grand scheme of Cascadian suffering it was a paper cut.  And you are welcome to join us anytime @lunger!  Say the word and you'll be on the email list for extremely moderate adventures.

[Kameron]

Great TR, beautiful photos as usual. Lots of terrain for mind-surfing out there, like Sefrit, whoah!

[Eckels]

Awesome pics! Any chance you took one showing the whole north side of the ridge connecting Goat to mamie, and/or one of Chardonnay and it's ridge connecting to Granite?