[TR] South Hozomeen Mountain - SW Route 09/08/2024

[geosean]

Trip: South Hozomeen Mountain - SW Route

Trip Date: 09/08/2024

Trip Report:

 

On Saturday September 7th, me, Mike, and @thedylan drove up to Canada and then darn near back into the US to go for South Hozomeen. We camped at the Skagit River Campground in the provincial park. The next morning we woke up at 4:00, drove a couple of hundred meters (that's what they use up there) to the international boundary and parked near the gate, the NPS implied on their website that it was totally fine to walk across the border, not that anything less would have stopped us. We walked around the gate and into a different country.

 

The couple of miles (that's what we use around here) of trail were immaculate, the NPS has done some maintenance, all too quickly though we plunged off the trail and into the brush and deadfall of the low elevation valley bottom. GPS proved essential through here, particularly at night, but even in the daytime coming out. 

We hit the creek bottom that drains the cirque between South and Southwest Hozomeen as soon as we could, if only just for navigational purposes. The brush was pretty bad but it really wasn't that long, pretty quickly the creek bed opened up and it was easy boulder and occasional slab walking.

 

3000' ish:

 

There were a few easy scramble steps and ample water available in the creek bed up until 4100' where we encountered a waterfall and an impasse. We did a gorilla scramble just climbers right of the waterfall and made it through, although it was ugly. Above that more easy walking and boulders and occasional short scrambles until you hit the beautiful slab walking at around 5800’ I think. 200 or 300 ft below the 6900 ft saddle the slab walking turns into scrambling but it wasn't too bad on the way up, we tried to follow beta that we had but I think it's pretty much follow your nose. 

 

Gorilla Scramble (Reminds me of J-Berg):

 

Slab City:

 

At the saddle our entreaties finally failed and Mike called it a day, he had been not on form for the last hour or two, although we were still moving pretty quickly. If you're just not feeling it this is definitely not the peak to push it on, so he made the right call. I think he was exhausted from riding his bike to the farmers market Saturday morning.

Me and Dylan descended from the saddle, contoured left and crossed through two minor rib notches, then up the rib to the ridge crest at about 7,600’. From there it's basically straight up to the summit which is where it looks like. The route finding was quite straightforward… if there's a notch go through it. Everything since 6900’ looked intimidating and you wonder “how the heck are we going to do that?”, then you just start moving and it falls into place; we both had the same image of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when he does the leap of faith and walks along the easy bridge. It was kind of like that… but the bridge is class 4 here. 

 

Leap of Faith:

 

There was some tricky exposed scrambling on the ridge crest but stuff was solid when you needed it. We soloed the obvious 12’ crux step and finished the scramble to the summit. Over the last couple of hours the smoke had really filled in so we were very glad to be done going uphill, there was no view at all so we just turned around and headed down. It was thrilling to be done but only in a very muted way, knowing that we had to descend for it to count. 

 

Classic Ridge Scramble Shot:

 

Crux:

 

Worth it for the Views:

On the descent to the 6900’ saddle there was a whole lot of “how the heck am I going to do this?” But you just have to start and it all falls into place. I liked this route because there's no dinking around, there's not really any point in route finding or thinking about gear or anything since that's not possible (there is basically no pro anywhere on this whole mountain above 6900’). There aren't any features to the rock, it's just pillowy and jumbled, pretty much any line is as good as the next.

We confirmed that you only need a 30 m rope to do the crux rappel.

We made it without incident back to the saddle, then descended 100-200’ where me and Mike decided to rappel, Dylan down climbed of course. We did a 100’ rap through the worst of the scrambling down to boulders and slabs.

 

Approaching Mike's Nap Spot:

 

After cruising down the slabs and part of the gully we made a stupid decision (possibly my fault). We traversed skiers right out of the gully, across two minor gullies to the forested slope. For some reason we thought this would be more efficient than down scrambling all of the steps and then figuring out how to rappel the gorilla scramble. This was not true. If I were to do it again I would definitely chance the gully and just figure out a rap. 

I've been climbing in the Cascades for 15+ years and this was the worst forest slope I've ever descended. I don't know how it's possible but this had everything that sucks, lots of sharp pokey downed logs, loose rock, deep loose dirt, then lower, brush, but still lots of loose rocks somehow! Wtf!? Even Dylan admitted that it sucked!

 

Pokey Logs, (there was a lot of this):

 

Anyway, eventually we swore our way down the slope and back to the trail then cruised back to the car in Canada. We were extremely thrilled to be done, but the no-see-ums made it impossible to relax with a beer. Me and Dylan washed off in the Skagit River (the lake is too far away), then we made the 2.5 hour drive home to Bellingham.

I think if you could take the gully all the way back down to where it fades into the forest slope the descent could end up being okay, then this climb would be not too bad. The way we did it I will definitely never go back. @Albuquerque Fred has done this three times! What's with that guy!?

This was certainly a very challenging peak, but I would say most of the overall difficulty is just getting to the high country, from the 6900’ saddle up it is one of the easier difficult 10 peaks, but overall it definitely deserves to be on the list!

 

Gear Notes:
2x 30m rope (only 1 necessary for the crux), helmets, approach shoes.

Approach Notes:
Canada, US. Easy trail, then brush. I recommend hitting the gully ASAP and go up.

Edited September 10 by geosean

[JasonG]

Well done on a tough peak!  That exit looks brutal for sure, but sounds like your way in is preferable to going to the lake. 

Too bad about the smoke, that surprised us as well this past weekend. 

What's the deal with @thedylan not dragging a rope for you? Or were you looking for the hardman points? 

 

[geosean]

@JasonG, hard man points all the way. No way was I going to let him solo it and not do the same.

[thedylan]

Sean climbing up to the ridge crest. I thought this was the hardest part, though the exposure on the ridge felt scarier.

Sean dispatching the crux!

[JasonG]

I thought the crux.....was the crux.  But what do I know?  I was on top rope!

[thedylan]

Haha true the crux is definitely harder climbing moves. Maybe I should have said riskiest--a sea of rubble covered slab with subtle changes in steepness and rock quality that required more sustained concentration than any other section (for me).

Jason I have no doubt you would've led the crux just fine if you needed to. You just have less of an ego than Sean and I (aka hard man points).

Edited September 15 by thedylan

[JasonG]

Well, I'm glad you have the confidence that I lack these days @thedylan! 

I hear you on that slabby rubble littered section.  I remember being really glad to be back at the notch after that downclimb (which always seems worse than the way up- We came up this way??!)