[TR] Razorback / The Whale (Peak 6559) / Boulder - 3/13/2004

[Stefan]

Climb: Razorback / The Whale (Peak 6559) / Boulder -

 

Date of Climb: 3/13/2004

 

Trip Report:

This weekend found Greg K., Dave C., and myself up Boulder Creek jus SE of Marblemount for an extraordianarilly unusual spring-like Saturday and Sunday typical winter weather like day.

 

The three of us went to Hamilton and picked up the gate key for the Boulder Creek gate at 6:00a.m. Here is the info on how to get the gate keys for the Crown Pacific gates from Hamilton all the way to Marblemount: Drive Highway 20 until just before mile post 77--also just before you cross under the road trestle--and take a left. Then take a slight right on to the road coming off of the road trestle and keep heading north (Scott Paper road) for about 1/2 mile until you come to a little shack and gate. This is the guard that holds all the keys to all those gates. The guard is there from 6:00a.m. until 10:00p.m. every day. The guard will give you a key for your location for a $20 cash deposit, upon which you will receive the $20 when you return the key. It appears they have 6 different keys and each for a different area, so you better know specifically which gate you want access to. The guard has laminated maps but are general overall maps so it is a good idea you bring your map to make sure your map and the guard maps have the same road detailed information. They do not give access to all gates--not even the one up Howard Creek that gives access to the Twin Sisters range.

 

As we were opening up the gate key for Boulder Creek along came Mike T., and Matt B. and we let them in with us. We drove to 1100 feet on the road until we were stopped by a freshly (this past summer) made berm. Mike T. had brought a motorcycle becuase the last time we were up this road it was mountainbikable/motorcycleable up until the Boulder Creek crossing. Well it now turns out there are 26, yes, 26 brand new berms on this road in less than 1 mile in distance--all made from this past summer or fall. Greg, Dave, and I were able to walk faster than Mike and Matt were able to use the motorcycle and so we never saw them again until the end of the day.

 

The three of us headed up the road all the way until the stream crossing coming out of Lake No. 1 at about 4100. We put down all of our overnight gear and headed up for Razorback--also thinking that Mike and Matt would follow us. We decided to do Razorback and The Whale (Peak 6559) first becuase we knew weather was going to deteriorate for Sunday and we wanted to do a shorter ascent day for Sunday, AND we thought Mike's and Matt's goal for the day was to do Razorback. The snow conditions were EXCELLENT! Snow was soft in the trees warranting snowshoes but otherwise in open areas you stayed ON TOP of the snow which made for easy ascending. We made the summit of Razorback wondering where Mike and Matt were???? We left shortly and made a ridge traverse to The Whale staying on the north side of point 5995, descended to lake 5564, going up the SW ridge of The Whale at 5840+, and then traversed directly west ascending a short cliff band. From there it was ascending on excellent snow to the heathery summit of The Whale. We kept looking over at the Razorback for the two other guys and we never saw them--we figured they turned around.

 

We left The Whale and through a series of glissades, snowshoeing in the trees, walking across Lower Granite Lake, we made it back to our campsite on the snow covered road around 4:15. At this exact time Mike and Matt pop out of the woods to tell us they made it to the summit of Boulder! Soon they were on their way down and we made camp for the night.

 

Next morning it was snowing and we left camp at 7:30 following the footsteps of Mike and Matt for about 1/2 way up until we lost their footprints due to the amount of snow and the semi windy summit--it was a semi blizzard. This felt like winter conditions. Sometimes we put on snowshoes, sometimes we did without due to the hardness of the snow underneath. The last section of Boulder required a traverse on steep snow--but the very last section was the trickiest. Due to the amount of snow all the rock was slippery and the very last 4 feet required an aid move--we "hooked" the actual summit block with our ice axe and then shimmied on our bellies to the actual summit to touch the summit. Kind of tricky with snow blowing in your face.

 

We soon were down back to camp by 11:00 and were down to the car by 2:30. We then drove over to the Lake Tyee area (north of Concrete) where Greg and I then walked up peak 1567 (447'P) on the Grandy Lake quad. As we were leaving the area the summits of Boulder and Jordan peaks could be seen becuase the weather had improved. Here are some pictures of Mike and Matt's trip up Boulder Peak:

http://www.mtnmike.com/pics04/BoulderPk/

 

Saturday was excellent! If you were not out, then you missed out!