[TR] Sloan Peak - Corkscrew 11/17/2018

[geosean]

Trip: Sloan Peak - Corkscrew

Trip Date: 11/17/2018

Trip Report:

Fred and I took a romp up Slan Peak on Saturday. It had been a while since I had summited anything so it was great to get on top, plus there was a bit of early season adversity that made it just hard enough to be sweet. We expected slogging through powder on the north side, but there was a nice rain crust above about 5300'. The east face traverse across the "heather ledges" was also better than anticipated with fairly good step kicking snow. Some rime ice on the scramble made it pleasantly spicy.

 

Rain crust on the approach to the glacier, photo by Fred:

 

Me in the rain crust, on the descent, photo by Fred:

 

Fred on the traverse on the east face, on the descent:

 

Fred near the summit:

 

Fred looking smug on the summit:

 

Me descending, photo by Fred:

Gear Notes:
Axe, crampons, glacier gear, snowshoes for training.

Approach Notes:
Bedal approach, it was a bit brushy, seems worse than the Sauk if the river crossings are OK.

[JasonG]

That's an impressive November ascent!  Cool.

[mountainsloth]

Love that route. It’s been a season of giving this Autumn. I’ve been surprised by our sunny weekends. 

Edited November 25, 2018 by mountainsloth

[Off_White]

Nice, thanks for the report. Excellent job making use of the atypical November weather. 

[John Frieh]

Great TR. How long did the approach take before you broke out of the brush? How was the road to where you parked?

[Josh Lewis]

Thanks for posting this TR for inspiration to a great climb. Sloan Peak is officially on the fun-dar.

[geosean]

On 11/27/2018 at 11:29 AM, John Frieh said:

Great TR. How long did the approach take before you broke out of the brush? How was the road to where you parked?

Sorry for the delay, the road was a bit potholed but no big deal; that late in the season it wasn't especially brushy, pretty open forest really. It opened up by 5000', the worst of the forest was below 4000'. We didn't follow much of a trail but there was flagging all over.

This might be a decent winter route if you could count on safe conditions on the east face traverse. I recommend the Sauk River approach.