[TR] Fortress -> Buck- Buck Creek Scramblefest 8/12/2004

[rock-ice]

Climb: Fortress -> Buck

-Buck Creek Scramblefest

 

Date of Climb: 8.12-14.2004

 

Trip Report:

Thursday morning my long time instructor of all things peak bagging, Eric Willhite, woke me up with the sounds of his shufling feet. Before I was truly conscious we were in the car.

 

We left the Buck Creek TH around 10o'clock. Already we could tell it was going to be a warm day. At each creek crossing for the next three days we paused to dunk our heads and Dozer, Eric's malamute, would lay down, pack and all in the cool water.

 

Dozer at packwood lake last year.

 

We dumped our gear a couple hundred feet below Pass No Pass, left Dozer with some water and headed up the heather slopes of Fortress. If you take any line through the heather and then talus slopes you should be ok. Keep some what to the right hand side of the face. It will become very clear why when you see the wonderful snow patch hidden on this side. The snow is a welcome break from the choss all around. At the top of it resume grovelling up a particularly loose gully. From here slant left towards the summit. Just below the top Eric was on a ledge traversing left and he knocked his head. When I arrived on top he had blood down one side of his face. It wasn't too bad but looked really cool. Some happy birthday. This was kind of ironic because whenever I would comment on how small his pack was he would say, "what do you think I'm carrying a first aid kit or somthing?"

 

The next day we moved further along the trail to Buck Creek pass, from where we took the High Pass trail East and South. Along the way to high pass we scrambled up Liberty Cap (10 minutes off the trail) and Mt. Cleator. The top of Cleator was invested with these horrible red flying ants, which we hadn't seen until that point.

 

Since it was only 11 we decided that we would move up our plans to climb Berge and Buck, so instead of climbing them the next day on our way out we figured we'd cruse up and bag them. We left Doze to swim and sleep at a tarn Southwest of High Pass. A short traverse and a 1000 foot climb found us sitting perplexed atop Berge's South Ridge. After much discussion we concluded Berge's true summit lay to the Northwest across a small basin. Scrambling to the summit was a blast, but we wern' there long for the fire ants owned this mountain top as well.

 

With that we dropped the 1000 feet we had gained in order to reach Buck's Eastern slopes. We hydrated at a small creek which drops Precipitously to the East towards the valley floor. The slog up to a centraly located gap is fairly simple despite some tricky looking bits. Just stay to the middle of the face and you'll be ok. At this gap there was a lot of confusion about which summit was the highest finally we concluded it was the middle one. I am not yet sure it was the true summit, but it was certainly higher that the North summit.

 

The view of Buck's many summits. Klenke's picture from the gallery.

 

By the time we dropped back down to the valley floor the sun was beginning to set, which made the climb back over and then down Berge's south ridge a little more bearable.

 

That night I kept Eric up with my shivering. I didn't want to be burdend with a bag and thought a bivy sac would be enough. So at first light we were gone. We reach the car around noon.

 

Day One: 5,874 Elevation Gain

Day Two: 5,666+ Elevation Gain

Something like 35 miles on and off trail

 

Gear Notes:

Had:

Ice Axe

Crampons (didn't use)

Bivy sac

 

Shoulda had:

Camera

sleeping bag

 

Approach Notes:

Plenty of water along the trail to Buck Creek Pass, but there is very little from there until just before High Pass. This would be a very unpleasant traverse in September when the snowfields have finally stopped giving water.

[klenke]

I believe the North & Middle summits are within 5 feet of each other in height. The South Summit is definitely lower than the North & Middle even though it looks higher when viewed from the west ridge saddle (where the above photo was taken).

 

Another pic or two...

[russ_cunningham]

Sounds like a great trip! I was up there on 8/8-8/10 last week with a friend and we basically did the same thing you guys did. We made our camp at the base of fortress on day one. On day two we hiked from there to buck creek pass then to high pass, and then scambled up to the south ridge of berge. Our goal was not berge, so we droped into the valley, watered up, and slogged up to buck Mt. Once at the summit area we to were a little confused as to which summit is the true one. We had a couple of old trip reports which said that the middle summit is acutually the highest (although it looked much lower than the one to the right) so we went for the middle one. Once on top we were everjoyed to find a summit register, and it also appeared that we were then on the higest point. By that time is was already five o clock so we booked out. At the valley floor, we decided that it would be much more exciting to traverse around the opposite side of berge back to high pass, so we headed north. On the way we came across a small sliver shaped lake, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to lose the clothes and get rid of some stinky grime! (One of the best things I've ever done!) Once on track again the sun was starting to threaten the prospect of a cold and hungry night in the middle of a boulder field, so we piled down some chocolate covered espresso beans and proceeded to hawl ass! We ran into some route finding issues as we tried to down climb the north butress of berge. We did eventually find our way off (with only one 3-4 class down climb) and it became clear how we would make it back to the trail at high pass. We scrambled up another boulder fall which was about 1000 feet gain, which took us about 50 minutes. By the time we were at the top of the ridge the sun was down but there was still enough light to see high pass, and all we needed was that trail before it was totally dark. With more ass hawling, and a little more blister forming, we finally found the trail. We could then take it a litte more easily and stroll down the trail with our headlamps. We finally rolled/limped into our camp at the base of fortress at exactly 11:30pm (before midnight!).

The next morning we layed around in the sun for several hours, and didn't break camp until noon. Probably the hardest thing about the whole trip was that I had the absolute worst blisters I've ever had. Blisters formed after the first three miles on day one, and by the time we got to fortress they had popped and started to bleed. I decided to let my partner go on and do fortress on his own while I tryed to make my feet capable of the following buck Mt day. I layered on the duct tape and decided to tough out the suffering. The whole next day I was walking with a modified step in order to relieve pressure from my heels, and in retrospect, I think it probably slowed me down quite a bit. When the trip was all over and we were at the car, my heels were essentially open wounds with blood and puss flowing out. I have to admit that it looked pretty hard core! All in all however, this region of the cascades really is one of the most beutiful areas I have ever seen, and it made all the pains (and mild starvation) worth while.