[TR] Silver Star - Burgundy Col 6/23/2007

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Silver Star - Burgundy Col

 

Date: 6/23/2007

 

Trip Report:

 

For three weekends in a row my plans have been shot to hell. This weekend was our "backup" to do Fuhrer Finger from two weeks ago, and last weekend was supposed to be Shuksan. Our Fuhrer finger team searched for a decent weather alternative and settled on Silver Star peak.

 

My friend and I carpooled up to WA pass Friday night. The weather sucked all the way in. Darrington, Marblemount, Diablo Lake... it only good worse. We were afraid we'd be SOL after all. There was a break in rain finally just after Rainy Pass. It didn't look promising though.

 

We arrived at the Lone Fir campground at around 10 pm and threw down a tent and crashed. Unfortunately cars were rolling in for the next 90 minutes... spaced just enough to keep us from falling asleep. Then one group of oblivions in the next site lit a friggin' bonfire and began carousing until I went over to ask them to STFU... time 1 am.

 

It rained on and off all night and finally stopped before dawn. I got no sleep. When my alarm went off at 4am, I was relieved.

 

We headed to the turnout on Hwy 20 at 5 and met two other climbers who drove up later and hit the trail. The sky looked OK - could go either way. It was cold, all the peaks had a dusting of snow, and there were whispy clouds all around. One group was there to climb Burgundy Spire and opted out after looking up at it from the road.

 

The downclimb from the embankment sucked because we didn't find the "trail" down (we found it coming back). The stream crossing was a piece of cake. Then began the brutal, steep, scree slog up to the col. It got worse and worse. We had one routefinding issue up high - where we lost 30 minutes because we waited too long to traverse right.

 

The snow ramp down the col was steep and hard. We faced the slope and backed down. A Mountie party of 5 was there descending a hand line from a picket.

 

 

We traversed and ascended to the scramble route and met 2 guys coming down. There were no crevasses open and we never roped up. The Mountie guys actually got there as we did and headed up first and set up a handline.

 

 

 

We scrambled to within 30 feet of the summit - all fun easy class 3 stuff, and then waited out the bottleneck at the last 30 feet.

 

 

There is one or two moves - class 4 or low 5 right there. Once the bottlenece cleared, we summited.

 

 

 

The weather had gotten better all day. The views were awesome. There's still a lot of snow up in the surrounding mountains. Most of the peaks were clear of clouds - but not Baker or Shuksan (at least the peaks we believed to be those two mountains).

 

After the Mounties rapped down, we followed. One other group of 2 was ascending at that time. So, a total of 13 people on the mountain on a glorious day.

 

 

 

Regaining the col was easy. We had a few good but short glissades. From the col down to the TH was completely brutal and unforgiving. My knees hate me.

 

All in all a damn fine day.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe, rope, helmet. Carried crampons but never really needed them.

Edited June 25, 2007 by KaskadskyjKozak

[counterfeitfake]

Nice, way to stick it out! Looks like it was beautiful from your pics. I was in the group who looked at the clouds and the dusting of snow on Burgundy and bailed. We spent the weekend climbing Outer Space and Colchuck instead. Not a bad backup plan but I have to wonder what the rock would have been like up on Burgundy.

[plexus]

Curious as to why the Mounties rappelled? I like the summit bouldering moves myself.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Curious as to why the Mounties rappelled? I like the summit bouldering moves myself.

 

They had two beginners with them - first timers on any alpine rock.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Nice, way to stick it out! Looks like it was beautiful from your pics. I was in the group who looked at the clouds and the dusting of snow on Burgundy and bailed. We spent the weekend climbing Outer Space and Colchuck instead. Not a bad backup plan but I have to wonder what the rock would have been like up on Burgundy.

 

The dusting of snow we all saw in the morning melted out by noon. The rock was pretty dry by then.