[TR] North Cascades - Mineral Mtn High Route- a trip into a Caldera 07/14/2024

UpperSkagit_JC · July 19

Trip: North Cascades - Mineral Mtn High Route- a trip into a Caldera

Trip Date: 07/14/2024

Trip Report:

K and I decided to try the Mineral Mtn High Route for our annual trip together, documented beautifully by Roland Tabor, and then by a few cascade climbers thereafter. Correct me if I'm wrong but we might be the first all female team to do this long schwack.

We decided to complete the route counter clockwise, starting with a bivy on Ruth and ending with a bivy on Easy peak.

At an alpine start of 12:30 pm, we started our hike to Ruth and casually crawled to the bivy sites, happy that a breeze alleviated us from the summer heat. We shared the bivy with a kind stranger and discussed the route ahead while watching the alpine glow light up the snow around us.

By 7 am the next day, we were leisurely making our way down, curious to see what sort of bushwhacking was previously dubbed "blue collar" by Climber Kyle. It's a good name, don't get me wrong. I generally like hanging out with blue collar folks, so maybe this schwack would be a fun experience.

In retrospect, we should have walked a lot faster and started a lot earlier. Finding our way to Chilliwack Pass was easy enough, but venturing up the flanks of Mineral was a stout challenge. Thrashing and pulling ourselves up steep, thickly forested slopes we would emerge into brief open patches covered in sticky sap to recollect ourselves. The leaves in the NW create the sap to prevent too much water loss, and it was on every leaf we touched. "What the hell...." either one of us would shout to each other, really just to keep tabs on where the other person was while completely emersed in huckleberry bushes and thick fir.

The first gully was not difficult to cross, but the second had us stumped. Luckily, we had beta that the crossing was around 4700'. We climbed down past a dry waterfall and found passage at 4700', thankful for this information. The rest of the route was manageable but long. At some points, we had to choose between a consequential schwack or a quick class 4 scramble. Some moments were just pulling on anything you could see to aid up the climb.

To gain the ridge by Mineral, we climbed a steep fin instead of a gully. Navigation eased once on the ridges of Mineral where the lush subalpine danced in a light breeze. We were happy to see plenty of water all along the route. The shoulder is a series of subalpine benches, a simple task to master after the morning's schwack.

By 530 pm, we were 300' from the stunning summit of Mineral and decided to camp at the summit instead of pursue Easy Peak that night. So we spent the rest of the evening with our toes basking in the sunset light, watching Shuksan yawn...

At 3 am, I sat and watched the sun rise. By 5 am, we were heading down from the summit towards the next saddle. The flanks were still snow covered although massive glide cracks and holes were forming. The snow was steep and suncupped, but we found passage on skier's right and hurried our way towards Easy. Easy peak and ridge earns its name, having long stretches of subalpine scenery and moderate slopes to climb.

We walked down Easy on the unmaintained trail and waded across the Chilliwack with our boots on. The hike out felt long, hot, and slow but that felt appropriate given that this was a tour of a long extinct caldera.

A wonderful trip!

The Mineral route as seen from Ruth and Ruth snow coverage IMG_20240714_154305.jpg.b81e9caaf016c325b67323a6a4cc9351.jpg