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Bonanza Peak


DCH

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Hah, the Soviet Route was an old obsession of mine. Might still be, but I haven't fed that particular beast in awhile. Has it ever actually been repeated? Its hard to find anyone who even knows about, much less having done it. I traversed under it once, enroute to the couloir on the SW peak. FYI, that couloir is not one of those that results in late season water ice (silly boys, where did we think we were, the Sierras?). Awesome blueberry picking on the way to the Bonanza-Northstar col though.

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I climbed it last summer along with Maude, Fernow, Copper, and one whose name I forget - Seven fingered Jack(?). Anyway, we camped at the lake and went up the Mary Green, and took a center route through the glacier, not the route in Becky. This wasn't on purpose however. On the way back we tried to go this way but were pushed towards the center of the glacier anyway because of a mondo crevasse. The rock was very exposed, mosty 4th class (in my opinion), the lower 3/4s had alot of loose stuff on shelves. It's a great alpine peak, kinda out there.

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We did the Mary Green a couple years ago, about this time of year. Check out Washington Trails Association's website www.wta.org under Trip Reports, and do a search for Bonanza Peak.

 

It's an awesome climb; the picket-fence knife edge stuffed with scree that makes up the final ridge to the summit will get your heart started! If you can't find it on the WTA website, send me a PM and I can email you the longer version.

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Alasdair - We stashed extra food at Holden in the hiker's hut, they're pretty friendly, climbed Bonanza and came back to Holden. Then ran up Copper from a camp in Holden. Then up to Copper Basin for a camp, next day up to the pass at the head of Copper Basin and ran up Fernow. Then back down, down into the Entiat, up the shoulder of Maude to camp at Lower Ice Lake. Up the easy route of Maude and back to camp (look for the Groucho glasses near the register), then around and up to 7 finger the next day and back to camp. Big last day up and down to the Entiat, back up to Copper pass and back to Holden in time for the afternoon opening of the ice cream parlor.

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DAMN!!!! That is amazing. Did you think about doing a lightweight traverse? I was thinking about doing bonanza and then heading back to Holden, and then going up copper and doing a traverse over Fernow, Maude and SFJ to Phelps creek. Do you see this a possible?

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quote:

Originally posted by haireball:

Bob Plumb made the second ascent of the Soviet Route on Bonanza with Dave Stutzman, back in '78 or '79. Plumb told me the rock was abysmal.

Phew. Well thats it, I'm definitely not going to feed that monkey anything more.

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Alasdair - The amazing part was that at 45 I was the youngest in the group and was breathing hard to keep up with a couple of 50-somethings and one 48 year old. Your idea of a lightweight traverse sounds interesting and do-able. I would save a lot of elevation gain and loss. Up and down and up and down the Entiat valley is work.

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Thanks all for the Bonanza info. We ended up doing some scrambling in the Chelan-Sawtooth Ridge area instead. We decided it might be a couple of weeks early for Bonanza and may have made the right decision (for us, anyways). There were good (but distant, probably 15-20 miles from directly east across Lake Chelan) views of the Mary Green glacier and gulley route and lots of snow still appeared to be filling the gulley to the summit ridge. Our perspective was distant but the view was direct. Anyone else happen to get a look this past weekend from closer up? Anyone climb it? It'll stay on my list a while longer.

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With a view of Bonanza Peak?

 

As for Bonanza, Bob Davis, Ian M. and Jim Nelson did a ridge route next to Mary Green route two summers ago in late July. S.E. or S.W. ridge. I forget which one, but it has a feature called the Yellow Step which the avoided for lack of pro. I was supposed to go (in fact I planned the trip), but my second son was born the night before we were to leave. They did the route, rapped the normal route, and lived to tell about it. Bob can be reached here via BobInc. Jim is PMS. Hope this helps.

 

John Sharp

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quote:

Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman:

Hike Hike Hike. Spy new routes

All those new routes were free soloed by Helmy Beckey in his underwear c. 1965. Fred did not include them in his guidebook cause they were feuding by then [Wink]

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quote:

Originally posted by Dru:

quote:

Originally posted by Cpt.Caveman:

Hike Hike Hike. Spy new routes

All those new routes were free soloed by Helmy Beckey in his underwear c. 1965. Fred did not include them in his guidebook cause they were feuding by then
[Wink]
I know so now I can make my claim since Helmey is in Germany he'll never know [chubit]
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