[TR] McGregor Mountain- North Side 5/15/2004

[JoshK]

Climb: McGregor Mountain-North Side

 

Date of Climb: 5/15/2004

 

Trip Report:

I was hoping Forrest would supply us with a humorous TR including a breakdown of the various ski/boot carrying methods we used on this trip, but, alas, it seems it is up to me. Considering this trip happened a week ago I have barely enough interest to write it up, let alone inject humor into it

 

Anyway, last weekend ForrestM, Gordy and myself ski-climbed McGregor mountain. McGregpr is a peak that many have probably not heard of. It is located very near Stehikin and rises above the south fork bridge creek valley. From Stehikin access is fairly reasonable and there is a route to a lookout on the south slopes. The north side, however, is a different ballgame. No trail enters the basin beneath the north side of the mountain and the only reasonable access (save going through stehekin and up and over rainbow lakes pass) is to enter from SR20 on the bridge creek trail. You follow this for several miles and then branch off onto the rainbow lake trails. Once in the wide basin where the drainage you want heads west, you just start going up. Thank god the snow cover had started so schwaking was kept to a minimum. I would imagine this valley is unpleasent without snow.

 

We quickly set up a camp about 4pm on saturday and headed up the mountain around 4:30. I think the summit was reached shortly before 7:30 if I recall. The clouds began to roll in and the temperature began to drop. Fully expecting a lousy ski down we took off. Much to our delight the snow was actually very surprisingly good. The entire descent of 3500 feet or so probably took 20 minutes tops.

 

Soon we were back at camp where Forrest cooked us up a gourmet meal. We all enjoyed a nice long night of sleep and slept in the next morning. The walk out was long, but not that bad. It only took us just shy of 6 hours, which I think was quite fast considering the terrain and conditions. It took us much longer on the way in for routefinding, etc.

 

Gear Notes:

Skis, Skins, normal backpacking stuff.

 

Approach Notes:

Bridge creek trail starts on snow. You start to lose snow near fireweed camp. It is pretty much snow free until a mile up the rainbow creek trail where it alternates (annoyingly) between snow and trail for what seems like forever. Nearing the basin beneath the rainbow lakes pass it becomes solid snow.

 

The definitely crux of the trip (at least I thought) was finding ways to get across the various rivers. The first log crossing on the bridge creek trail is still intact, but nothing else from that point on is. Forrest was the trip hero for finding us a big ass tree across bridge creek that had recently bit the dust.

 

Wading would not have been an option. I think the S fork of bridge creek would be best desribed as a river most places. It was flowing fast and high.

[klenke]

Nice. A good ski mount, that's for sure.

Some pictures featuring McGregor:

From the NE (from Silver Star Mountain)

From the north (from Mt. Goode) and south (Lake Chelan)

[sverdina]

From Goode:

[Blake]

Well done josh. I have some friends who climbed it on the main route last summer and spent a day or two skiing the Sandalee Glacier, which the main route cuts across the top of. The Stehekin side is a steep trail for ~7 miles then about a mile of quite exposed class 3. Did you guys make it all the way to the summit Antenae?

 

 

Hey Klenke, I don't think that Goode is visible in your picture that is looking from Lake Chelan up the valley. I'm 90% sure that you are seeing Booker/Buckner/Librarians' ridge leading to the McGregor summit.

 

Here's another shot of McGregor, and also one from the top.

 

[JoshK]

Yes, I'm pretty sure I remember seeing an antenne (the weather was moving in, it was late, and the snow was hardening, so we were on the summit all of a couple of minutes)

 

I know we were certainly on the true summit, you could tell that.

[Mark_Husbands]

sverdina-

what's with the Indonesian?

[sverdina]

sverdina-

what's with the Indonesian?

 

My formative years were spent in JKT. Used to sing the "Puncak" song as kids.

[klenke]

Blake, you said: "Hey Klenke, I don't think that Goode is visible in your picture that is looking from Lake Chelan up the valley. I'm 90% sure that you are seeing Booker/Buckner/Librarians' ridge leading to the McGregor summit."

 

You are 100% wrong. That is definitely the top of Mt. Goode showing in the bottom picture here. Compare the mountain's form with this picture taken from the south (from Saska Peak). It stands to reason that if you can see Lake Chelan from Mt. Goode then you can see Goode from Lake Chelan. Simple logic. You can't see Goode for very long on the ferry boat. You maybe have 10 minutes to view it before nearfield mountains obscure it.

[Blake]

Klenke, your picture that is taken from the lake appears to be from a point near lucerne, and before passing moore Point/Round mountain. If this is the case then I guess you are right, Goode can be seen from Lake chelan, just not from Lake Chelan near Stehekin. Do you have a pic that is taken from the Stehekin landing looking up valley at Sahle/boston/Booker/Buckner? the outline of Booker and Buckner appear very blocky and look quite similar to your shot of Goode from along the boat ride.

[klenke]

The point at which the photo was taken looking up at Goode is wherever that sliver of lake is that shows in the top photo. You can see the same concave-up ridge on the west side of the lake in both shots. Also, I think you are right in the sense that that dark mass between McGregor and the lake sliver is Round Mountain. And thus, more of the lake extends toward Stehekin and McGregor than can be seen in the photo. Ergo, the sliver of lake visible is the section immediately south of Round Mountain and east of Lucerne.

You are right that Goode can't be seen from near Stehekin. When I mentioned earlier that the photo was taken from not too far out from Stehekin Landing, I was incorrect. I know it was taken on the return down-lake not too long after leaving a dock. It must have been the Lucerne dock I was remembering, thinking it was the Stehekin one. And this is obvious now, for if it truly were taken from near Stehekin you'd see signs of civilization on that near shore on the right. All this is further proved by the second shot of yours above looking down-lake from McGregor. Doh!

[Blake]

Yeah, the round hill visible in your pic from Goode and visible in the foreground on that last picture is "Round Mountain" and you can even see the evidence of the recent fire there. I'll have to look out for a glimpse of Goode while riding up next time. Pretty amazing that such a large mountain can only be seen from so few spots. I don't think the summit is visible from any road.

 

 

Here's a view of Macgregor from Stehekin landing