[TR] Twin Sisters- Green Glacier Area 9/3/2005

[dberdinka]

Climb: Twin Sisters-Green Glacier Area

 

Date of Climb: 9/3/2005

 

Trip Report:

I can't help it. I keep going back. Good rock, true wilderness all less than 30 miles from home, it's hard to resist. After five trips I think I might be done for this year though.

 

Side Stream of Green Creek

 

 

The Mythic Wall while impressive sits fairly low in the drainage of Green Creek. Above the glacier at the head of the valley are numerous peak and spires composed of that gritty, sold Twin Sisters olivine.

 

Several weeks ago Tyree Johnson (Ti - cause he's hard like Titanium!) and I hauled overnight gear into the valley intent on knocking off a couple new routes. Fourty feet up a new line on the Mythic Wall I promptly dropped a block that chopped Ti's rope in half. Ooops! Sorry Ti.

 

Lesson number 1: Don't force new routes through steep walls of loose flakes.

 

 

We retreated upward then scrambled back down to the valley floor where we found a great campsite just south of the creek around 3300' in elevation.

 

Stovepipe and Green Glacier

 

 

 

The next morning (9/3) things had socked in sufficently to disuade more intelligent people from attempting new routes with 85' of rope. Luckily I managed to threaten Ti's ego just enough to convince him to wander across the glacier in a whiteout and climb a sweet little pinnacle I had been eyeing since my first trip to the area.

 

The climb turned out to be great. After scrambled some solid 3rd and 4th class slabs off the glacier we climbed a short pitch of 5.4 up a chimney. Ti lead a final rope streching (85') pitch to the summit. The rock was bomber and the face got progessively steeper and narrower leading to an incredibly small summit fin. One of the cooler summit pitches I've ever climbed. Two rappels and some downclimbing got us back to the glacier. For lack of a better name we called it The Stovepipe.

 

Ti leading the summit pitch

 

 

Ti on Summit

 

 

The Beer Shrine beckoned and by the time we got back to camp the forecast rainstorm had started.

 

The East Face of Skookum Peak might be the largest wall in the range at about 1200' in height. Rad Roberts and I returned on September 7th with the optimistic plan of doing it in a moderately long day. Five hours after leaving the car we roped up at the base of a stellar looking finger crack. Two long pitches of fine climbing (5.7) led to lower angle and unfortunately rubbly rock in the center of the face. After simuclimbing through the junk we climbed two more steep pitches on good rock directly to the fine summit. Shortly after arriving a fighter jet cruised by no more than 200' out and dropped a wing for us. Based on the summit register this was only the 4th ascent since 1996! (FYI both the NE and W ridges look excellent)

 

Green Glacier and E Face of Skookum

 

 

Worried about descending back to the east we (I) decided to head down the west side and pick up the logging roads near Dailey Prairie. Five long hours of talus hopping and bushwacking later we finally reached the roads around 8 PM. All that was left was 12 miles of logging road back to the car. I wanted to cry. Rad remained annoyingly optimistic. Thanks Rad for an exhausting but excellent trip.

 

Lesson #2: Don't ever assume that the unknown descent route is better than the known descent route.

 

It still blows my mind that this is only 30 miles from my house. Motivated climbers could easily climb the Mythic Wall one day, camp out and then link the SE buttress of Cinderella with the Stovepipe and get back to car in time for pizza and beer (A stop at the North Fork Beer Shrine is mandatory). Have fun!

 

Gear Notes:

For Stovepipe. 1 rope and small rack to #2 Camalot.

 

Approach Notes:

Hike Elbow Lake Trail ~1.5 miles to switchback at 2650'. Traverse into woods crossing Hildebrand Creek at 2600'. Immediately ascend to 2700' and begin long traverse into valley. After crossing several dry streambeds climb to 2800' keep traversing then drop down through open forest to the Green Creek at 2770'.

[Dru]

[EWolfe]

Most Excellent.

 

Your comment at the end is advice I am most certainly going to take!

[To_The_Top]

Nice!

[jordop]

Please post a "Berdinka Cathedral" photo showing all known routes, belay stations, ratings, burger stands and strip clubs

[tyree]

Nice TR Darin! Thanks for motivating my ego , nice work on Skookum

[whiplash]

Nice job! I'm glad to see that someone else is in there enjoying the great rock and exploring some new lines. We climbed the Northwest ridge (from the notch by Jaws Tooth) of Skookum a few years ago by approaching from the Hamilton side and recommend it as a good climb also. Will have to try and get in there before long and get on some of the stuff your putting up.

[Rad]

Apologies for the optimism. There are worse things in life than bushwhacking and logging road slogs.

 

Thanks for an excellent adventure Darin. I think there may be other lines on the E face of Skookum that are more sustained... maybe next year. Send a CD of photos when you can.

 

Radrigo

[dberdinka]

The Green Creek Valley in all its Glory

 

[Blake]

Nice photo Darin, better bring chest waders to get in there now though. Maybe a community tyrolean could be arranged.

[treknclime]

A Chinook jargon word that has come into general use in British Columbia and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. It has a range of positive meanings. As described in the FAQ from Skookum, the word can have meanings from 'good,' to 'strong,' 'best,' 'powerful,' 'ultimate' and 'first rate.' Something can be skookum meaning 'cool' or skookum can be 'tough.' A skookum burger is a big hamburger, but when your Mom's food is skookum, it's delicious.

 

Source: Skookum

 

Looks like ya'll had a skookum trip!