Mt. Buckner

[gravitywurks]

Anyone done the North Face of Buckner recently? Any beta on the route? What's the ice like?

Also, it sounds like the Sahale arm approach is better than Boston Basin (for a 2 day). Any thoughts on that?

Thanks for any info!

[Kyagpa]

I climbed the N face of buckner last year in early july and would almost recomend that strong climbers do it in a day via Sahale Arm. When we climbed it it was all snow for the most part and not really all that steep. It seemed to be more of a glacial tour than a climb since the climbing is only like a thousand feet or so. Dont get me wrong it is a great trip to do, and I would recomend it to my friends. When we did it we camped on upper sahale arm (there are many sights there and a toilet)we climbed Sahale that evening and watched the sunset it took about 25 min from camp to the top. We then woke at first light and se off over sahale then on to the east side of the ridge crest on boston peak traversing high until you reach the point where the Boston Glacier meats the peak (not far from the summit couple hundred feet or so). then its a long traverse across the glacier toward the N face of Buckner routfinding was interesting generally trending down untill directly below the face (aprox 500 feet below where it steepens). We then headed directly toward the face and once on it we moved left thru a couple of rock bands to avoid crevasses on the main face once past we moved back right on the face and climbed the mostly 40-45 degree snow until the angle eased and we made a rising traverse to the left and then stait up to the summit. the register on the summit has or had a copy of the picture in the Becky guide of the decent route (sw face I think). you can then trverse around horshoe basin gradually losing altitude until you reach a wide gully that narows up higher an will lead you back to camp at the base of the sahale glacier. Note: The gully you come back up to camp is a wee bit nasty be sure to get thru there at least by noon or soon after. near the top It vears of slightly to the left. Good luck and have fun!

[mattp]

Many Cascade "ice" climbs don't really become ice until late season. I don't have first hand knowledge of this one, but I would guess that it might not really become icey until September or so, and from what I've heard about the Boston Glacier, I believe the approach will be reasonable although you might have to cross a 'schrund.

[daylward]

Check out the report of our trip up the face last October at: http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000004.html

[Dru]

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&safe=off&ic=1&th=7b0d2d1b1918c66e,4

[dakobed]

My coworker did Buckner's NF June 30. Snow was reported to be very mushy, making the slog across the boston glacier to the face slow and strenous. Otherwise the access and climbing were straightforward. Descent was all snow and fast.

This face has been melting out in late season in recent years. I went to do it in August a few years ago and there were huge sections that had melted out. Since the rock on that face is choss, I'm not sure it's worthwhile in such conditions. I'm surprised dan didn't encounter drier conditions when he did it in october last year. mattp is right that it will be more of an ice climb later in the season, but be aware that with this year's low snowfall, it will probably melt out. Another victim of global warming, I suppose.

[Ragu]

We were up there on June 23rd, and as Dakobed mentioned the Boston was soft and strenuous. Some of the crevasses were starting to open, and we crossed fairly high. The face itself was in perfect condition. Our crampons barely made any impression, as the route was in the shade all morning. We reached the base at 9:00 am, and hit the last several hundred feet in the sun. These last 2 pitches we were able to kick some decent steps. Good luck.

[Ragu]

One additional note to your question about ice... while we didn't break through the crust on the lower 2/3's of the face, we were able to shove pickets straight in without much effort. We didn't encounter any ice to speak of...

[Doug_P]

We climbed the N. Face this last weekend. We crossed over the col via Boston Basin and spent the night on the Boston glacier. Traversing the glacier was beautiful but uneventful. We were on the route at 6:15 and topped out at 9:00. The snow was frozen perfect at that time. Had a great time.