Spickard/Redoubt TR

[SReno]

The bushwhacking tails of the Spickard approach were a bit exaggerated. The path to the talus slope leading to Ouzel Lake is easy to follow, if not somewhat overgrown and occasionally blocked by minor blowdowns. Er...I mean, that approach to Spickard is a real pain in the ass. We camped at the col above Silver Lake at about 7300', getting on the glacier directly from camp. The glacier was in good condition with most of the crevasses visible and easy to avoid. The schrund, however, was too gaping for us. It looked like someone had negotiated the 3-foot gap 3-4 days before, likely when the gap was much smaller or before it opened. We opted to get on the rocks directly from the schrund. A couple of 4th class moves on sketchy, loose, crappy rock led past the poorest section and got us to the ridge. Man, what a cool spot! We used slings along the ridge for pro and made two short rappels to get us back to the schrund on the return. The high camp is well worth the effort.

We tried Redoubt via the Redoubt Glacier from Ouzel Lake on the 27th. I sunk to my thigh in a crevasse on the low-angle portion leading to the 7200' plateau. The slope looked totally benign, but closer examination and probing revealed a lot of hidden crevasses. Being a party of two and not wanting to cross the mine field during the hot afternoon, we opted to turn back. It was disappointing, but we both had no doubts about it being the right choice. Will definitely return to complete Redoubt in the future.

 

 

[dkemp]

Yay! Spickard!

[obsydian]

We are planning a trip in a couple of weeks.

1-Would you recommend the S ridge or SW couloir for August 14 weekend?

2-What do you think chances are of passing mine field to redoubt with two rope teams of 3 early in AM and returning later?

 

Thanks

[SReno]

1) I'd agree with the others who posted that the Silver Glacier is climbable year round, if you're prepared for some blue ice. We found the iciest section just out of the col at about 7600'. After that the crevasses were visible through firm snow. If you can, I'd do the Silver Glacier route and forget the others. It is a classic NW climb. The SW couloir looked pretty gross with lots of loose crap.

 

2) By August 14th you'll likely be able to see the crevasses we couldn't. The slope might require a bit of meandering, but would be doable with 2 rope teams. If we'd had one more person, we would've continued. With 2, though, it just wasn't worth the risk.

 

Have a great time, you're in for a great trip. Post something when you get back.

[obsydian]

Thanks for the answers, one more question about the approach.

What did you mean by the approach? ugly? better than expected? Should we bring pruning shears?! Thanks

[klenke]

Comments from someone who just was up there:

 

1. With a higher clearance vehicle or a car whose paint job you don't care about, you can drive an extra mile or so to a wide parking area (where the road wyes; right fork going over the creek). The trail follows the road for a few hundred yards. At a junction, go left along the road that goes into the forest. In about 200 yards the road will come to a T-junction. Go right. This is the start of the "trail." It follows a very old overgrown road all the way to the border. It is very muddy in places for the first mile so I advise not bringing approach shoes unless you don't mind getting them muddy.

 

2. The Depot Creek Trail is easy to follow all the way to above the headwall at which point it becomes indistinct but goes between the talus and the creek on the northeast side of the valley. There is a brushy section before the headwall (lots of salmonberry treats!), but you won't need shears. Someone's already done that.

 

3. The trail up the headwall is steep steep steep!

 

4. Eventually (about a mile before the lake) the trail will fade when the slide alder brush begins amidst talus. At this point, angle upward to the slabs at far left. Traverse these slabs high above the brush. DO NOT THINK you can find a way through the brush just because a possible passage appears for a short stretch. This is the mistake we made (going both ways). GO HIGH AS I SAID. You won't be sorry.

 

5. There is plenty of water at the lake

 

6. There is no snow going up to the saddle NW of Spickard. The talus blocks are lame for climbing on.

 

7. The North (Silver Lake) Glacier is in fine shape for climbing on. You can get on it right away from the saddle (some initial low angle ice sections to deal with) or descend toward Silver Lake to go up the left side of the glacier. This route avoids most of the crevasses but small rock fall could be a hazard (it was for us).

 

8. We did not rope up for the ascent. There were two of us. You do not need the standard three on that glacier if you go up the left side.

 

9. Don't worry about the bergschrund at the top of the glacier headwall. You don't have to go that high. You can exit the glacier at the deep notch on the NE Ridge and complete the climb on the other side of the ridge (solid class 3 and 4). Climbers who get sketched out easily in class 4 gullies may want a belay.

 

10. Descend the South Route of Spickard to get back to camp. Descend the south side of the ridge toward Mox Peaks to the notch that allows you to get back into the large basin WSW of Spickard. Go north across the basin back to the incline that leads up to the saddle northwest of Spickard and then descend back to the lake. If you don't do this, you may get cliffed out above the lake.

 

11. The Redoubt Glacier is in fine shape for climbing on. The ice sections at the low end can be bypassed or skirted. Above these it is almost completely neve all the way to the saddle southeast of Redoubt.

 

12. With heavy packs, it took us 4.5 hours to go from car to lake (we parked at the end of the road mentioned earlier) and 3.5 hours to go the other way back to the car. Use this for reference. You may take longer or you may not.

 

I have put pictures in the gallery. Click here.

[Redoubt]

klenke said:

 

12. With heavy packs, it took us 4.5 hours to go from car to lake (we parked at the end of the road mentioned earlier) and 3.5 hours to go the other way back to the car.

Those are admirable times in and out, and I don't doubt them for a second, but those are faster than an average team will be able to do, even from the parking spot at the wye. Just so no one gets misled, most parties will take longer. Having been in there a couple of times, and knowing others who have as well, I'd say 7 hours is a more typical time to get from the car to Ouzel Lake.

[obsydian]

Klenke, great beta! Did you also go and do Custer/Rahm in a day? Which route? Or combine with Spickard in one day? Also,what were your times on Custer/Rahm and/or Spickard?

[Dru]

obsydian said:

Klenke, great beta! Did you also go and do Custer/Rahm in a day? Which route? Or combine with Spickard in one day? Also,what were your times on Custer/Rahm and/or Spickard?

 

and how many witnesses and gps did you have, and is your dog's name registered on cc.com as one of jon's avatars?

[klenke]

No witnesses. No GPS. And the really hard thing to do is not look north the whole time. We simply didn't want to lay eyes on...on...well, Canada!

 

Anyway...more details for Smooth Black Volcanic Rock:

The two of us left Ouzel Lake at 6:00AM. It took us roughly an hour to get to the saddle northwest of Spickard whereupon we dropped down toward Silver Lake. About halfway there Custer comes into view. We debated the necessity of bringing technical equipment up Rahm and Custer but ultimately decided against it. This turned out to be okay. The rock on Rahm and Custer is so loose it doesn't provide for good belayed climbing.

 

After a break, I'd say we left our stash below the east side of the North Glacier around 8:00AM. We angled up and over to the hanging snowfield below Rahm. Ugly talus. All along I was worried about the cliffband below the snowfield. I couldn't see a viable way up it. Tom wanted to go up the canyon on the right side of the cliffband. I suppose this could have gone but it looked pretty steep and wet once we traversed above it. As we got closer and closer to Rahm we began to see a steep gully going up and left through the cliffband. See here. This turned out to be very feasible. We explored the left fork in the gully but it ended at a headwall where ALL the rock was loose. Since we didn't have a rope, etc., we went back to the right fork and ascended some class 4 (5.0?) for about 15 feet. Once above that, it's easy though a slog all the way to the summit. We were up on the summit of Rahm around 10:30AM.

 

From the summit of Rahm it is obvious that the Rahm-Custer Ridge is the way to go to get over Custer. This ridge is class 3 with intermittent exposure along the crest. It's also loose, so one needs to pay attention. In fact, Tom slashed his wrist open pretty good whilst arresting a short sliding fall on this talus. We were guessing three hours to get to Custer's summit but it only took two hours. As we were approaching Custer an impasse up its NE side looked more and more real. We saw two staggered gullies that looked like they each allowed upward travel but it didn't look like it would be easy to get from the lower gully to the upper gully without doing some class 5 climbing. However, as we got closer, I noticed the 20-ft transition was not a face but a horn with a short class 4 access step behind it. So as it turned out, the transition was easy. See here. The rest of Custer went without incident but I will say that it was very crappy rock.

 

We descended the loose and crappy talus of the south side of Custer to the South Ridge and continued on that (exposed class 3 for a few hundred feet) until we arrived at a talus field. We then descended directly toward Spickard, eventually arriving at steeper slabby terrain just east of the glacial remnant on this side of the valley. Large interesting crevasse on this glacier. The slabby terrain is easy to pick one's way down. We arrived back at our stash about 7 hours after we left it (~3:00PM).

 

From the stash, we headed up the North Glacier of Spickard on its far east side. We first went up the snow right of the slabs but then finished on the low angle slabs to the snow at its top. Small to mid-size rocks kept sloughing off the glacier just above the slabs. Two grapefruit-sized ones barely missed Tom. Once on the snow (we did not rope up at all), we did end-arounds of a couple of crevasses until we met up with some older tracks in the snow (these tracks came up obliquely from the Spickard-Custer saddle. We then made one iffy snowbridge crossing high up (my probing ice axe met little resistance) before exiting the neve at the deep notch on Spickard's NE Ridge, whereupon we climbed on the other side of the ridge then intermittently on the ridge crest all the way to the summit. This was class 3 and 4. After what we had been through on Custer, we found it to be quite solid. We freeclimbed it. Note that it is not necessary to ascend the glacier all the way up to the schrund at its top. Take the aforementioned notch at left.

 

By around 6:00PM we were signing the register and off to downclimb the South Route to get back to Ouzel Lake. One essentially descends the south side of the SW Ridge toward Mox Peaks. When you get to the deep notch in the ridge that allows access back to the WSW Basin of Spickard, get into this basin and then stay high above it to get over to the incline that goes up from Ouzel Lake to the Custer-Spickard saddle. If you descend too quickly toward the lake, you'll get cliffed out (you'll see this when you're at the lake earlier). We got back to the lake at 8:30PM (14.5 hours round trip). Rahm, Custer, and Spickard can all be done in a day if you travel expeditiously.

 

If you want some extra excitement for another day, you could try the North Ridge Route of NW Twin Spire (Easy Mox). It doesn't look that hard.

 

[There are more pictures in the photo gallery.]

[Ursa_Eagle]

Nice TR Klenke!

[obsydian]

klenke said:

 

Anyway...more details for Smooth Black Volcanic Rock:

You guys are awesome! Will let you know how it goes when we get back.

[obsydian]

SReno said:

Have a great time, you're in for a great trip. Post something when you get back.

 

Wow, what a beautiful area, the view South from Spickard is about as good as it gets, viewing all of those North facing glaciers. We had a good trip, was surprised at how good of shape the trail was, we were expecting worse. Climbed Spickard on the 2nd day in clear weather, saw Klenke & friends signed in the register, which needs replacing.

 

Then the clouds came in on the 3rd day, went up Redoubt in a whiteout, took an extra hour to get to the flying buttress, felt out way up the steep gulley with terrible loose rock, couldn't tell that the gulley went all the way (we were within 50' of the slot but believe it or not couldn't see it, thought we were at a headwall as we headed left onto a snow patch. We felt around for a bit, I climbed the 4th class notch and face on the left, topped out on the ridge, checked things out for about an hour trying to figure out where we were. Finally a break in the clouds, saw the summit block, climbed up the ridge and found the route, climbed down and guided the rest of the team by voice. Finally everyone was on the shoulder after two hours in the fog, rest of climb uneventful, summit at 3pm. Beautiful view of Baker and a couple of other peaks sticking out of the cloud layer. Only saw a couple of entries in the register, didn't see Klenke in there, maybe on a back page, the register seems like folks are signing in all over the place, several entries from the N Ridge route. Back to camp in a whiteout, next day clear as we came on home. Great trip, spectacular views. We are psyched

 

Thanks for everyones beta, came in handy.

[klenke]

You didn't see my name in the Redoubt register cuz I taint been up dere.

 

Glad to hear you had a nice trip. You must have been on Redoubt the day we were hiking into Golden Horn. It was overcast until about 3 or 4PM Saturday over there by Rainy Pass. Sunday was picture-perfect though. The forest fire smoke stayed hidden until after we were done with the view-taking.