[TR] Silverstar Mountain - Complete East Ridge 07/18/2020

[Michael Telstad]

Trip: Silverstar Mountain - Complete East Ridge

Trip Date: 07/18/2020

Trip Report:

 

Over the weekend Gabe and I ticked off another Wa Pass obscurity with the East Ridge of Silverstar. Apart from a two part NWMJ story (P1 and P2), Allen/Layton's Wa pass traverse, and a few comments from Scott Johnson we had very little specific beta on the route. I'm curious how many people have climbed this route. 

It proved to be quite the adventure and I feel like it would be a shame to take that from the next party to go up there. So in order to preserve the adventure and mystery of the route I've decided to be vague on specifics and heavy on photos for this TR. 

 

Here are a few notes that I wish I had known before heading out.

 

1.)Don't rely on Mudhole lake as a water source, the first spot we pulled from was rank and clogged up our filter really badly. We should have expected that... 

 

2.)Expect just enough terrible rock with enough frequency to be stressful. 

 

3.)Don't expect to find prefab bivy spots along the way. The only one we saw was the one we made.

 

4.)The lichen grows thick in these parts. 

 

Now here's the photo dump.

Day 1

 

Mudhole Lake AKA Horseshit puddle

Long way to go

Silver Moon and Varden creek spire, the 3rd "major" summit along the ridge

Finally able to see the meat of the ridge

Our nice little sloping bivy

 

Day 2

Started the day with a rappel and stuck rope.

Looking back at Silverhorn and Silver Moon, as well as many other gendarmes and sub-summits 

Summit at last! 

Traversing back to Burgundy col

 

Gear Notes:
Singles .2-4, Doubles .3-2 and a bunch of slings. 1 60m rope and 30 ft of tat. You could bring less of everything if you soloed more of the ridge, we roped up earlier than most other parties.

Approach Notes:
Take the unmarked horse packing trail a few hundred feet up the cedar creek trail. Just keep following the ridge to infinity and beyond.

Edited July 21, 2020 by Michael Telstad