Vesper Peak

[Jim]

Good times were had by all on a ski trip to Vesper Peak on Saturday May Day. A tree that had blocked the Sunrise Mine road is clear and you get to the trailhead now. As other places in the northern drainages bridges have be demolished from last autumn's flood. The nice bridge over the first creek has been stripped to the two main, creaky beams, which makes for an interesting double tightrope in tele boots. The big creek crossing, which was always interesting, is gone. But due to some great engineering by a party ahead of us its better than the orginal, but unlikely to last storm flows. Thanks guys!

 

While snow still fills the valley below Hadlee Pass there's a bunch of old avy debris that one should avoid for more pleasant skiing. It's the softest snow I've seen up there this early in the year, and going fast. The cornice atop the col is easily avoided via rock on the right.

 

We were joined by 9 other skiers, one very energetic dog, and one hiker (why bother?). The malamute made friends with us as soon as we opened our lunch. Being ignored he managed to find someone's discarded enchalida by sticking half his body into a rock crevice.

 

The ski down was ok, as long as you avoided the minor slides you set off. One alpine touring type was having a hard time of it and got carried, slowly, about 50 yards in a small slide of his own making. No danger, just embarassing. The col was skiable as it was so soft. Another fund day in the sun.

[geoflixclimbs]

The "hiker" did set the steps for all of the preceding "skiers", ascending and descending the peak with grace, speed, and elan, without reliance upon "great engineering" to cross the creek (a well-aimed jump sufficed). He also spent an hour on the summit, photographed the trillium, patted the dog, found a few leaf fossils in the stream bed, and returned to the TH before lunch. Why bother? It's more fun than Mt. Si.

[Jim]

Touche!! Can you go up Ruth Mt. ahead of us next week?

[geoflixclimbs]

Is it worth the hike?

[Jim]

IMO, not w/o skis this time of year. Nice summer hike. Decent ski this time of year, you can yo-yo the peak a couple of times and he coulir from the pass is challenging (for me anyway). It's one of my favorite moderate spring skis and a good day out in the mountains.

[dk]

Can you give me a little more on the creeks? The big creek that used to be unofficially bridged by a nasty old slanty log...is the nasty old slanty log history? Do you think that one is unlikely to survive vigorous melt days? Vesper is a fantastsic set of transitions from nasty miniforest, to green ferny hillside, to mega N basin, mini-gulley, talus field, and fun upper slopes...I love it.

[Jim]

The nasty angled log is history. It is still in the creekbed but has been pushed to the side, downstream, and is now parallel to the main flow. You can cross in the same vicinity where this long now lives, but I doubt the improvised crossing that was put in last week will last one storm flow. Maybe some group will re-install the old log crossing, which is pretty big.

 

Also, there is a creek within 200 m of the trailhead that used to have a simple, 25 ft long bridge. Only a remnant of this remains. Most of the cross pieces are gone, leaving the two main beams with nothing in between. The creek is only about 3 m wide and calf deep so you can dash across, or you can walk on the beams, one foot on each side. Hope this helps, I would still go unless you've got some newbies of sorts. Then again they could think it exciting.

[klenke]

This was Vesper Peak from Big Four on April 25:

[geoflixclimbs]

To elaborate on the bridge-less stream crossing, just look for the narrowing stream between two large boulders approx. 20-30 feet downstream of the logjam. Make the leap from one boulder to the other, grab the rock, traverse left, climb up to the trail, continue the adventure.