JonParker Posted yesterday at 04:48 PM Posted yesterday at 04:48 PM (edited) Trip: East Fury - North Buttress Trip Date: 06/29/2025 Trip Report: In the couloir leading to the buttress from its east side, the drawbridge is up. It’s hard to think of a route in the cascades that I haven’t climbed that I was more excited to try. From Luna col the position of upper snow arete looks insane. And the photos in this 2017 report don’t hurt: https://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/topic/100747-tr-mt-fury-north-buttress-6232017/?tab=comments I was lucky to find a partner inspired enough to take a day off and put in the considerable effort to get out there and check it out. Saturday was a little cloudy and not too hot, which kept things relatively smooth on our way from big beaver to Luna Col. Even though I’d seen it before, the first sight of the northern faces of the southern pickets that rewards the grind up to -6400 was literally breathtaking. I let out a little pious whoa. The last mile or so took approximately forever but we arrived well before dark, 11.5 hours after drop off. A ghost set up our tent. From the col the couloir didn’t look too promising but wasn’t obviously impossible so we proceeded to go for it the next morning, leaving camp at 5am (4:30 might have been better). As in the trip report from 2017, we trended left on the descent to Luna lake, which worked well. From the lake we traversed W and SW, bottoming out around 4500’. At this point we could see the snow was not continuous in this first couloir and quite a bit lower, maybe 15-20 feet, than in the 2017 reference photo. We found a ~5.0 exit onto slabby rock and got up to easier ground. Continuing up we traversed as quickly as possible across the exposed face to the entrance of the main couloir. From below it still looked worth trying. But only about 200’ up it we encountered a hidden moat spanning wall to wall, just above where I am in this photo. It was tall and unnervingly hollowed out. Questing up and left on the rock for a bypass was fruitless. I found steep slabs without much pro. And transitioning from boots and crampons to rock shoes while exiting a tenuous snow location onto a narrow rock stance turns out to be very awkward. At 30m I ran out of rope (folded 60m half), placed a piece and down climbed on top rope back to the snow. We down climbed the steep snow back out the couloir. About to down climb to the first couloir. Looking up on our return to Luna lake I thought, hmm, we came down that? It looks improbably steep but is actually reasonable. All throughout the cirque there was surprisingly little activity given how warm the day was. At camp 12 hours after we left the evening was unpleasantly hot and buggy and I impatiently awaited the reprieve of dusk. In the meantime there was some helicopter activity near Outrigger. I hope everyone involved is all right. The heat was considerable already at 7am the next morning when we began our descent. I used crampons but there really was no hard snow to be found. We took a long break at the stream by Luna camp and it seemed then that we’d make our 5pm taxi in plenty of time. One small delay occurred when we saw two bear cubs climbing to the top of a tree right off of the trail. Mama wasn’t making herself seen or heard, so we backed up a little, made a bunch of noise and gave them a few minutes to clear out. We didn’t see the cubs again and did see the mother a little bit off trail, not acting aggressively. Checking the time. As the afternoon miles went by we realized that we were slipping behind and had to really push to get there right at 5pm. The driver was very nice and encouraged us to take the time to cool off in the lake. I don’t know if I have it in me to try this route again but if I did it would have to be possibly even earlier in the calendar, and in a year with above average snow pack come June. The west side alternative doesn’t appeal much to me, the photos from Steph Abegg make it look like overhead exposure would last a lot longer than it does while traversing in from the east. Gear Notes: Crampons, ax, whippet, 60m half rope, single picket, light rack and some bail gear Approach Notes: Big beaver to Luna col to Luna lake Edited yesterday at 07:31 PM by JonParker 1 2 2 Quote
JasonG Posted yesterday at 07:51 PM Posted yesterday at 07:51 PM Well done surviving an attempt on that one! It was on the list until it I saw it firsthand in 2007 and realized I wasn't nearly tough enough.... but maybe it was the massive/serac rockfall that strafed the approach while we watched, or at least that was the mental excuse I used all these years. 1 Quote
JonParker Posted yesterday at 08:12 PM Author Posted yesterday at 08:12 PM 20 minutes ago, JasonG said: maybe it was the massive/serac rockfall that strafed the approach while we watched Yikes, yeah that would do it. I’m curious was that on the west or east side of the buttress? Quote
JasonG Posted 23 hours ago Posted 23 hours ago Hmmmm....important distinction....let's see....I think the west side? Quote
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