[TR] Goat Rocks- E. Side Traverse 7/31/2006

[Mark_L]

Climb: Goat Rocks-E. Side Traverse

 

Date of Climb: 7/31/2006 - 8/5/2006

 

Trip Report:

On the week of July 31 to August 5, my wife Margo and dog Zeke left the horse ghetto at Conrad Meadows with the intention of doing a tour of the entire Goat Rocks. One could do a very scenic hike which circles the entire Goat Rocks but unfortunately, this requires crossing into the Yakima Indian Reservation, which is forbidden and posted with many signs reminding one of this. We hiked up to Surprise Lake in cold, windy and sprinkly weather, which was a good alternative to the hot, dusty and horsefly infested conditions that one would encounter in warm weather. After undergoing interrogation by a ranger who was coming down the trail and reassuring him that we were not going to do anything illegal like camp near any water bodies, let the dog off of the leash or trespass on the reservation, we finished our hike to Surprise lake and wondered how we were going to do a loop trip.

 

The next day the weather looked much improved and we hiked to unmarked trail that leads to meadows under Mt. Curtis Gilbert. Here is the area below the Meade Glacier on Gilbert.

 

 

The following day we traversed into the head of Conrad Creek.

 

 

There is a lake below the Conrad Glacier. The Beckey Guide shows the glacier flowing into the lake but not any more.

 

 

We climbed above the lake to the divide between the Conrad Glacier and the Tieton Glacier beneath the Goat Horns.

 

 

The Goat Horns actually look like they could be good climbing, with massive jointing and crack systems.

 

 

We descended the lower part of the Tieton Glacier and descended a glacial valley until we could cross to the next drainage which came off the McCall Glacier beneath Ives Peak. We had a nice camp on a moraine.

 

The next morning we climbed this valley to the col between Ives Peak and Old Snowy.

 

 

The descent from this col was horrible shale, dinner plates that slid out from under you when stepped on, but we made it down unscathed and descended to the PCT.

 

Our route now followed the PCT across the top of the Packwood Glacier to where the trail is literally blasted into the Goat Rocks Crest.

 

 

After this, our route descended to the North Fork Tieton River trailhead. The next morning we ascended the seldom traveled (by humans) trail to Bear Creek Mountain. We camped in the basin beneath the summit and the next morning we climbed to the top and viewed our entire route that we had done over the last 7 days.

 

 

All that was left was the horrendous, dusty descent to the horse ghetto.

 

The Goat Rocks provides some excellent, scenic, easy alpine wandering, especially once you leave the horse trails.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

ice axe

[Otto]

That looks really nice, Mark, thanks for the photos. Fun rambling up there, it seems. The Goats Horns look to be worth a closer look all right.

 

I could look at a map, but is that Tieton Glacier the origin of the Tieton River that flows down past Naches?

[Mark_L]

It is, along with the Conrad, Meade, McCall and Ives "glaciers". They're more like stagnant ice patches now, although the Tieton Glacier has a real bergschrund at the top. The Tieton glacier was quite large at one time judging by the huge moraine along the valley beneath it.

[Dave_Schuldt]

Looks like fun!