[TR] Chikamin Peak (or nearly) - Up the slope from the PCT 10/7/2005

[Norman_Clyde]

Climb: Chikamin Peak (or nearly) -Up the slope from the PCT

 

Date of Climb: 10/7/2005

 

Trip Report:

I had time on Friday for a medium length jaunt. Limitations on start and finish time were my lingering fatigue from a punishing 48 hour shift in Ilwaco, and my need to be back in Seattle by 5:30 pm to secure a table at the Triple Door for the Jimmie Dale Gilmore concert. An alpine start was too unpleasant to contemplate. Weather seemed to rule out cragging as an option. Instead I fell back on an old objective: to reach the reputed location of Arthur Denny's carved signature, circa 1865, on a rock at the head of Gold Creek valley, at the saddle between Chikamin Peak and Four Brothers. I had tried and failed twice to reach this spot on day trips, bailing both times due to fatigue in the summer heat. Heat would not be a risk today. However, weather remained problematic with estimated snow level 5K and the target objective around 6K. The slope in question is 13 miles or so up the PCT from Snoqualmie, then 800 feet of 2nd and 3rd class if conditions are good.

 

I pulled into the lonely PCT parking lot at 8 AM. The only way to complete the route in the time I had was to run part of the way. Vistas from the trail were stunning early on (photos to follow) but quickly gave way to fog. I had printed out a map the night before, apparently just so I could leave it behind; I knew the general location of the route, but would have a harder time knowing where to cut left up the slope with a visual range of 50 yards. Still, the clouds moved in and out at times so I stayed optimistic. Huckleberries were plentiful, keeping the birds busy-- but no longer fresh, having frozen and thawed at least once, alas. The birds didn't seem to mind.

 

The weather held until just past Joe Lake when sleet and then snow began to fall. As the trail rounded Chikamin there began to be a few inches of unconsolidated accumulation. The clouds remained extremely dense; I could not see the upper slopes at all. I made my best guess of where to leave the trail to reach the saddle. The snow was slushy enough not to affect footing on trail or rock; vegetation was another matter. I pulled myself by vegetable belays up wet, icy heather and grass for several hundred feet until stopped by vertical buttresses. I still couldn't see the saddle, the snow was falling harder, and my watch said I was going to be late. With some irritation I turned downhill. I was nearly to the trail again when the clouds parted briefly. Above I could see a reasonably safe looking 3rd class gully. I looked again at my watch and saw I had misread it before--- it was still only noon. Opportunity still beckoned. I turned back up hill.

 

The gully was pretty mundane stuff, chossy, unstable because no one ever goes there (most people having the sense not to); Traversing up slush-covered 4th class ledges on the sides in running shoes still felt safer than precipitating rock fall with each step in the gully bottom. My hands quickly went numb, but it was not cold enough for frostbite so I left the gloves in the pack.

 

Eventually I topped out; alas, no signed rock. I was clearly not far enough south. In fact I was just beneath the summit on its north side. The remainder of the climb was way too exposed to warrant continuing in present conditions. Now it really was time to go down.

 

Descent was fortunately uneventful, there being no partners to suffer from party-inflicted rockfall. I took a small break to pump water on the return, seeing the only other person of the day, a ranger: he and I both startled each other a little in the fog. "You blend right in," he said.

 

I got back to the car by 4, to downtown Seattle by 5:15. Fortunately I had brought jeans and flannel shirt, and was not tossed out as a dirtbag Cascadian at the Triple Door. I had hoped that the men's room would allow me to wash inconspicuously, but privacy was insufficient. I washed my face but had to keep my shirt on.

 

For the next several hours I absorbed copious volumes of food, drink, and live music-- balm to ease the agony of my ignominious defeat in the mountains...all right, not a defeat exactly, but this is only one of two alpine objectives for which I'm three tries, zero successes. I am sometimes my own worst enemy when it comes to success on long solo day climbs in this respect: I have a foolish tendency to combine a distant objective with an impossible time deadline. At least this trip I made it within my time estimate. Better weather-- or remembering to bring the map-- would have enabled complete success. Climbs like this tend to feel more worthwile in retrospect than during execution. I would have liked to get a photo of the signature, but lacking this, the day remains worthwhile. I do feel blessed to live in such a place as this, where I can be deep into the alpine at noon and take in a concert the same evening.

 

Gear Notes:

Trail running shoes

Extra clothes-- kept moving, didn't need them.

Axe would have helped on slushy vegetated slopes, but not really required.

MAP: when I got home, I saw that the map held a clue to success. I turned uphill after the first switchback, which was too early. Ascending just after the second switchback would have gotten me there.

GPS: would have ensured success on this day, but I still think GPS's are aid.

 

Approach Notes:

Early autumn snowfall, a few inches of slush starting about 5500 feet. A good day's sun or rain will take it away.

Edited October 9, 2005 by Norman_Clyde

[Bug]

Cool. And wet it sounds like.....

Gotta love thoese days of silent runing

[Alex_Mineev]

[treknclime]

Is it possible to approach Chikamin via Gold Creek? Can be done in winter...but how about now, without snow?

[Norman_Clyde]

Yes, it is possible; that is the route I took for my first two attempts. It may be a little shorter because, unlike the PCT, it lacks switchbacks. The trail goes straight up the valley, crosses the creek, then becomes very primitive and slow, side-hilling through vine maple, more like glorified bushwacking. Then it proceeds straight up a steep buttress to Joe Lake, after which you can traverse up grassy slopes to the PCT. Though it may be shorter, the Gold Creek approach is more work. Snow is not a factor at this date.

 

I'm still extremely irritated that I didn't bring the map, or at least study it beforehand. If I had just hiked another quarter mile, reaching the saddle would have been a cakewalk.

[Terry_McClain]

treknclime- Check out Mineral Creek as an easy approach. We did that route and it made for an easy approach. I think total round trip dist. was about 12 miles. You pick up the PCT at approx. 4 miles, leave it in another 1/2mile or so at the 5400' notch that drops down to glacier lake.

[Norman_Clyde]

That approach is quite a bit more direct. I may give it a go tomorrow.

[Norman_Clyde]

Edited October 17, 2005 by Norman_Clyde

[Norman_Clyde]

I finally got there via Mineral Creek on Friday. The irony is not lost on me that I drove an additional 110 miles round trip (past Snoqualmie to Roslyn, Cle Elum Lake, Cooper Pass Rd, etc.) in order to avoid an additional 10 miles of hiking. Weather was exceedingly pleasant. I hiked the PCT to the western aspect, then scrambled the most likely looking gully. It was still the wrong one, but as I was no longer climbing on instrument rating, I could make my way down to the saddle on visual. Chikamin's eastern aspect is more aesthetic than the western, but I descended to the west anyway, because my time was short.

I was not able to read the names on the rock. I did a search on NWHikers.net and found a highly informative post by HarryMajors that not only explains the names, but provides historical background. Link

 

Anyone who aims for the summit of Chikamin is advised to do so either for historical interest (i.e. the rock) or for the view (which is excellent), because the climbing is not particularly pleasant. One can climb Chikamin in one day from either Snoqualmie or Mineral Creek, but it might be more fun to camp in the Spectacle Lake area and climb several peaks in a long weekend; Chikamin, Lemah, Chimney Rock, Summit Chief would be reasonable day climbs all from the same properly situated camp. Perhaps one day I will take such a trip, though for October I have only single days off and have had to fit my alpine jaunts into six and eight hour periods.