[TR] Index - Mt. Persis / Mt. Index Traverse 2/10/2007

[zoroastr]

Trip: Index - Mt. Persis / Mt. Index Traverse

 

Date: 2/10/2007

 

Trip Report:

Just a few snaps from a longish but wonderfully solitary trek from the summit of Persis over to Index. Erick Johnson and I saw no other trax all day!

 

The ridge between the peaks was mostly like this, with lots of little "problems" to figure out. Can you find Waldo in this shot?

 

Here's Index from about the midway point; most of the hard work is done. There's nothing technical on this one, just a few steepish slopes and cornices to avoid, but mostly spectacular scenery and a nice "alpine" feel.

 

The weather was perfect: warm, slightly overcast, but with constant views of distant Rainier, Puget Sound, and even the Downtown Seattle skyline. --a terrific slog!

 

Gear Notes:

Both crampons and snowshoes are a good idea for this one, not so much for steepness, but in order to maximize your efficiency of movement.

 

Approach Notes:

One frustrating note: because the barely-discernable approach trail is so nasty with blowdowns, punchy snice and other annoyances, after getting to within an hour or so of the top of Index, we turned around so as not to have to repeat the approach trail on headlamp. Sucked, too, because all the hard work was done, and the rest was just a jog! Serves us right for taking a late start, I guess. We'll be back to finish it off next week, weather permitting.

Edited February 11, 2007 by zoroastr

[chesterboo]

zoaster, Nice work. that is nice country back there. I went back there 2 years ago and got about as far as you did before we needed to turn around. We dropped down into the valley on the west side inbetween the peaks and traversed towards index. It looks like you stayed on the ridge most of the way. We went with less snow too and had to go over allot of annoying scree fields.

[MisterMo]

Cool Photos.

 

Where did you turn back? Before the low pass at the head of Anderson Creek?

[zoroastr]

Here's a shot from Persis, taken earlier in the day. The circle shows our turnaround point, just before the top of the last bump on the ridge. It looked to us like we had about an hour and a half left, but it was already 2:30 PM, so we u-turned. Made it back to the car before dark [whew!]...

[Weekend_Climberz]

Nice :tup:

 

Those photos are great :tup:

[Alex]

how would skis fare on this traverse? make it faster? it looks fairly level but if they save you an hour or two, might be able to complete the thing?

[spicoli11]

That does look like nice for skiing!!!

[zoroastr]

I'm not a "two-planker" [alas...], but from what I've seen others do on skis, I'd say you could "skin" about 70% of this one. You'd get some awesome turns off the top of Index, and I'm sure there must be several descent routes that would drop you practically to the valley floor if you wanted to traverse the entire route, and maybe use two cars.....

[MisterMo]

Here's a shot from Persis, taken earlier in the day. The circle shows our turnaround point, just before the top of the last bump on the ridge. It looked to us like we had about an hour and a half left, but it was already 2:30 PM, so we u-turned.

 

Probably about right. It takes me an hour plus from your little circle on da heatha in da summa.....

 

I think skis would work better than snowshoes for that but there wouldn't be much cool downhill skiing save a couple of spots

[pete_a]

where did you start from to do this trip? just curious...i'm not too familiar with how one accesses the persis/index area. thanks!

[AllYouCanEat]

I tried to ski index. We were going for that cool couloir in the becky, seen in the above photo. It was cliffed out so we climbed and skied another, but not from the summit. We just went in cross country to that side of the mountain. It was a fun schwack, crappy skiing except for the couloir which dead ended on a ridge. The schwack was equally fun on the way out.

[zoroastr]

Just before the town of Index, we took a right on Forest Service Road #62, drove about two or three miles through the most hideous clearcuts i've ever seen, pulled over, walked another couple of miles to a "trailhead" that was really nothing more than a small, vague gap in the trees--I had to be convinced by Johnson that this was actually a trail he'd already hiked before I'd commit a boot to it. If you want exact directions, mail 'Ejohnson' on CC.

[Bug]

Or you can skip Persis and go up the drainage to the south. Follow the stream to the headwall and climb the steep slabs or snow to the right. Once you are up this part, go up and left around the cliffs. Definately take skiis.