TR: Sloan Peak

[russ]

Three of us hiked Sloan Peak Saturday via the Corkscrew route as described in Nelson's guide. We had attempted this route 2 years ago in October; at that time the Sauk was running at mid-thigh level. As I remember it had been raining a fair amount the week before. We ended up turning around in the basin just below the Sloan's north ridge in about a foot and a half of new snow.

 

Saturday was quite different. We came prepared with tennies/aqua socks, but they weren't really needed as the water was only ankle deep for about 30 feet. Of course we didn't know this, so had already changed at the first branch crossing. Hiking through the forest was beautiful,and marred only by a couple of hornet attacks. Somehow I came through unscathed, one buddy was wearing red knicker socks and he sustained 6 of 8 stings on his calves. We couldn't decide if they were attracted by the bright color or offend at his sense of fashion .

 

After the second creek crossing (I think), there's a section of avalanche debris that you have to cross for a couple hundred yards - it wasn't there 2 years ago. Actually, lower down you have to cross about a hundred feet of the run out debris as well. Someone has marked a "trail" with tape which made it easier connecting with the trail on the other side. I think this is one of the largest avalanche pathways that I've seen. It would have been awesome to watch it come down from an opposite ridge.

 

Crossing the glacier was straight forward. We roped up at one point for a 5' section where the snow bridge was about 18" wide. A solo climber had turned around at that point, which I thought showed excellent judgement. It was no big deal with a belay to test the strength, but not worth risking as a soloist. An uneventful scramble to the summit was rewarded by a fantastic 360 degree view. Two other climber joined us on the summit and pointed out many peaks we were unsure of.

 

On the way down we were getting tired, but jazzed that we'd pulled off this fine outing in good style - we should have known that you never let your guard down before your ass is setting in the car... After recrossing the river, instead of exactly retracing our path, we took the dreaded "left fork". You know the one, the one that straightens out the wandering path, the one that going to cut 10 minutes off your return, the one that going to lead to the village of amazons who haven't seen a man in 2 years...whoa, that's another story - back to Sloan.

 

The left path leads us back to what we think is the first branch on the Sauk we crossed so many hours ago - but in an entirely different place. No worry, there's a big fricken log spanning the 50' section of water. We walk across to the far end where the log resting next to a large cedar. so what? as we get next to the cedar it's clear you can't walk around it because it pushes you too far out, and it's to big grab to just swing around. Off come the packs and we crawl - no let's be honest - we grovel past the cedar,hoping it doesn't push our butts over into the river. Once the first guy gets past, do we go see if there's a trail on the other side - no, that would be logical. We all get around, of course to discover there's nothing on the otherside but wonderful Washington backwoods. You know, the ugly kind..lots of devils club..no ground level for 2 steps in a row. We forge ahead for about 50 feet, when we realize what absolute dolts we're being and turn around. Back across the log (grovel,grovel ), retrace to the short cut point. Now on the right path, we head back to the car having easily lost an hour on our side trip.

 

Still all-in-all a fun day. Started at 6:30am, got back to the car at 7:30 pm. Didn't need those headlamps.

[klenke]

Ah, come on! What about the Amazons? Did you come back with any phone numbers?

[chucK]

Cool report Russ. Thanks!