[TR] Southern Twin Sisters Traverse - Kloke Peak (register placed), Twin Crest, Saddle Slab, Shirley, Trisolace, Barbara, Nancy, Last Sister 08/03/2024

[JasonG]

Trip: Southern Twin Sisters Traverse - Kloke Peak (register placed), Twin Crest, Saddle Slab, Shirley, Trisolace, Barbara, Nancy, Last Sister

Trip Date: 08/03/2024

Trip Report:

Ever since our climbing mentor Dallas Kloke died on the Pleiades in 2010, @Trent, @sepultura, @Kit, @John_Roper and others in the local climbing community have been thinking of ways to honor a man who had given much during his 50 years of pioneering ascents in the Cascades and beyond.  These dreams became a reality in 2022 with the naming of Kloke Peak (formerly Hayden) in the Twin Sisters Range.  The Twin Sisters were near and dear to Dallas's heart and he completed many first ascents in this area over the years.  The peaks are also visible from his house in Anacortes, adding a bittersweet element to the commemoration.  Like all worthwhile climbs, the naming process was difficult, involved and several times seemed to almost come to a complete stop.  Imagine my surprise then when I got a call from the Everett herald on an October morning, deep in the mountains, letting me know that the WA State Board of Geographic Names had approved our proposal.  Or, months later when a friend texted me a photo of the Gaia map with "Kloke Peak" prominently displayed on the summit, meaning that the US Board of Geographic Names in Washington DC had also approved our proposal.  Surreal. We just needed to get a register up there to really make it official!

Fast forward to this summer.... when @Trent and I managed to find three days to get away to the range and place the register.  We toyed with the idea of a full traverse of the range (Dallas style!) but the time and effort for that was a bit more than we were willing to undertake in the heat and humidity.  So we settled to starting from Green Creek (thanks @dberdinka!), climbing from the cars up through the Cinderella/Little Sister col.  We dropped a bit on the backside and cached our gear, heading over to Kloke Peak in the early evening to place the register and marvel at the rugged appropriateness of Dallas's namesake.

KLOKE PEAK!: (below)

Steve had done an admirable job of prepping the register, complete with laminated photo, newpaper article, Rite in the Rain logbook, and Pelican case.  All secured with cord and pitons.  Please leave it up there!  When the book gets full, bring it down and let me know.  I'll be the keeper of it and hike up a new book as needed.

After savoring the view for a time, Steve and I headed down to camp at an unnamed lake south of Cinderella.  It felt as if we were the first people to camp there, almost no sign of anyone, except for a random rock hammer we stumbled across the next morning as we left camp!

Soon after finding the hammer, we began the quest to bag the rest of the peaks south of Cinderella. We knew it would would be a big day, but the heat and humidity made it even more taxing than we estimated.  It was a 14 hour+ whirlwind day for us to climb Twin Crest, Saddle Slab, Shirley, Trisolace, Barbara, Nancy, and Last Sister.  There was a lot of 3rd and 4th class along the way, some loose rock, a lot of solid rock, and a bit of head scratching so as to not carry all our gear up and over all the peaks. Sometimes this meant linking improbable ledges on the west side of the peaks.  Sometimes it meant backtracking after scrambling a peak by the "easiest" path.

  We had left the rope behind in a effort to save weight, but I would have been happy for it on the "easy" route up Trisolace (photos of it way below).  This was probably very exposed 4th or low fifth terrain, but we couldn't see an easier way, even on the way down.  Careful there!  Also careful on the summit ridge of Trisolace.  I dislodged a large rock right at the summit and it nearly took me with it.  As it was, it pinned my leg and @Trent had to come over quickly, and carefully roll it off and down the mountain.  Whew!  I sat for a time getting my heart rate and breathing down, cursing myself for letting my guard down, even for a moment.  It was not lost on me that this was the same type of accident that took the life of Dallas.

Steve on Trisolace.  I eventually got up the gumption to follow him:

Me, a few minutes after my mishap with the large rock:

And somewhere along the traverse:

The day wore on and we got further and further south and farther from Kloke Peak:

As the sun dipped towards the west at last we were on the Last Sister, looking down at the Step Sister.  Steve had already climbed it, but I hadn't.  Camp looked so close at Heart Lake (it wasn't, as we would soon find out). There was a brief period, as we neared the col between the two peaks, that I considered heading up and descending to camp in the dark.  But then I slipped, fell, and went into full leg cramps on both legs!  My day was done, I was totally spent.  And so we went down surprisingly far to the surprisingly rugged Heart Lake, barely finding about the only decent campsite on the west side of the lake as the light failed.

Step Sister as we hike down to Heart Lake:

Our camp at Heart Lake the next morning:

The next day was going to be a long one (14+ miles) and hot, so we didn't have much time to rest after the marathon peak bagging tear the day before. As the sun came up we were soon moving down through the brush below Heart Lake to an old logging spur that took us down and across the South Fork Nooksack.  Here, we grabbed the PNT and followed the elk up valley, surprising a trail crew along the way that hadn't seen many people in awhile.  Sort of as we expected, it got really hot as we hit the Elbow Lake trail up and over the ridge back to our car.  But we had beer stashed in the river and chips in the car.  It could have been worse!

I would really like to hear of others' stories of climbing Kloke Peak.  Even if you don't post up a TR, feel free to post your experiences in comments below!

Gear Notes:
Ice axe, helmet, leather gloves. Many will want a rope on Trisolace. Footwear and clothing you don't care about.

Approach Notes:
In Green Creek (thanks Darin!), out Heart Lake and PNT to Elbow Lake and back to Middle Fork Nooksack.

[Bronco]

Nice work you two and great tribute to Dallas!

 

[JasonG]

Thanks @Bronco!  It was a bit rough this morning...made a few edits throughout the day today...

[dberdinka]

I don't think a Kloke Peak summit registry is going to get too full anytime in the near to distant future.

[JasonG]

Probably true!

[olyclimber]

20 hours ago, dberdinka said:

I don't think a Kloke Peak summit registry is going to get too full anytime in the near to distant future.

Make a TikTok , get some sick drone footage,  call it the best in Pacific Northwest, climb it in your Ugg boots.

[JasonG]

When we finally get out in the hills together @olyclimber, remind me to tell you about the "rescue" on Sauk of a lady way up by the summit, at night, in November, in the snow, wearing those slippers (software won't let me spell their name!). 

[olyclimber]

😂 I forgot I blocked that word!  But apparently it doesn’t block admins

[Alisse]

@JasonG happy for you to have been able to get out so much this summer! I wish I could have reacted with a "love" for this TR. Excellent story and glad you walked out safely.

[JasonG]

Thanks @Alisse, I definitely can't complain this summer! I will try and put up a few TRs from the road trip with the family to high points earlier in June and July. Areas that don't have much exposure in the database....

[plexus]

Thanks Jason and Steve for doing this. All of it, from getting Kloke Peak renamed, creating and placing the summit register and most importantly, embarking on a Kloke-esque adventure to commemorate it. 

I don't think I ever would have climbed Step Sister or Last Sister if not for a hand-drawn "Dallas" map. Heck I still have a whole guidebook of those for Mount Erie that I will keep forever even if I haven't lived in the PacNW for two decades.

 

IMG_5864.HEIC

Edited Monday at 04:52 PM by plexus

[JasonG]

LOVE it @plexus!  Thanks for the topo photo, the story, and the kinds words.  Dallas was such an influence on so many of us, it was the least we could do.  Let me know when you are back in the PNW and want to go up Kloke peak!  Would be a reasonable day with light packs....

[sepultura]

Nice, very pleased to see you guys getting a proper summit register on Kloke Peak. And for all your efforts to get it renamed in honor of Dallas- strong work Jason! 
Real happy I got to do the Sisters Traverse with Dallas way back in the 90’s. That range always has a special place in Dallas’ heart.