[TR] Redoubt- South route (Depot Creek) 8/18/2006

[Suz]

Climb: Redoubt-South route

 

Date of Climb: 8/18/2006

 

Trip Report:

Just a quick conditions update if anyone's still looking to get up there this season...

 

Left Friday morning, crossed into Canada, drove by Chilliwack Lake and parked a little before the first main parking area, and started hiking at noon. Walked about a mile to the start of really bad road, then got to the uphill cutoff and upper trail/road no problem. Thanks to whoever put up orange flagging - seems like the situation has improved drastically since the TR from 2004 (but thanks for the map!).

 

Beckey's description is a little odd, but when you finally break out of the trees (standard routefinding through blowdowns), the waterfall is right there. "Unforgettable", indeed! Beautiful. We used the cord left there to get up the very-slippery slabs, but they were dry enough on the way down to do without. Flagging and cairns helped show the beaten way up to the meadow.

 

Nice campsite just at the edge of the meadow, but it's another 2 hours or so to the lake. Saturday went up to the lake, then up the over-cairned ledges to the glacier, around a few cracks to the upper flat area, and camped at the col to Bear Lake. The glacier is still in surprisingly good shape - nice squishy ice for light-but-not-sharp aluminum crampons.

 

Sunday we followed the Beckey directions and picture easily, noticing another abundance of cairns on the way up the uppper gullies. Rap slings at the top made us worry about the left-behind glacier gear, but the scramble to the top was straightforward.

 

**Absolutely beautiful up there, by the way!!** Fun to see the North Cascades from an unfamiliar perspective - Challenger, Luna, Baker, Shuksan, even Rainier was out, way down on the horizon. Anybody know what the pointy peak is to the north that's framed by Depot valley on the way out?

 

Down was straightforward, too - I imagine the rap slings would be useful if the weather was wet or for less-experienced or crowded conditions. LOTS of loose crap to knock down. We packed up camp and headed back down to Ouzel Lake, then walked out Monday.

 

Nice to do in four days - it's an amazing place, and we had it all to ourselves. Definitely still in fine condition to head up there. Have fun!

 

Gear Notes:

Standard glacier travel gear

 

Approach Notes:

All's well.

[G-spotter]

Anybody know what the pointy peak is to the north that's framed by Depot valley on the way out?

 

Williams Peak