alpenho Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 Trip: North Cascades - Hannegan-Big Beaver Haute Route (Challenger/Luna) Date: 7/15/2007 Trip Report: First I need to thank my wife and Kevin's girlfriend for helping us with the shuttle on this one - this saved a ton of time, so thanks ladies! On 7/15/07 Kevin, Tom and I started out at Hannegan TH with the aforementioned SO's, who along with one of my wife's co-workers accompanied us up to Hannegan Pass, time of hiking departure 11AM Yikes! After a quick jaunt to Hannegan summit, we said our goodbyes and busted our butts down to the Chilliwack ford and up to Easy Ridge just as darkness was falling. 7/16 we hiked along Easy Ridge to get to the Infamous Impasse. In my excitement to get there, I took a stupid fall on a snow crossing, which turned into a slide across a smooth rock face before I was able to stop where it turned to snow again. The rock took a significant amount of skin off my left arm and fingers, so we had to attend to first aid for this before proceeding with the crossing. We got through the impasse using a ledge system about 100ft above the pine ledge - no fixed pins were seen so we used our own stoppers and cams to protect. Once out of the impasse we made the grunt up to camp at Perfect Pass. 7/17 After a leisurely breakfast we took off across the Challenger Glacier, reached the NE Ridge, dropped our packs and got the summit. The bridge over the schrund was narrow and getting pretty thin but with the colder weather it was still passable. Camped on Challenger Arm on a sweet knoll perched above Luna Cirque. 7/18 Woke up to rain, stayed huddled in the tent playing cribbage until we had a significant break in the showers then packed everything up and made a mad dash down into the Cirque. Rain started like mad again so we ducked under an overhanging rock with the tent fly until it passed, then dashed again for the sand flat between the lateral moraines above Lousy Lake, where we made camp. 7/19 More rain. packed up quickly for a mad dash up out of the Cirque on the other side, skirting under the the NE Buttress of Fury, we ascended the snow fans to where the S Lateral moraine connects with the cliffs. Made it up the talus to Luna Lake before we were blasted by more rain and had to do the rock/rainfly shelter until it passed. During the next clear period we headed up the ridge to the E of Luna Lake, to reach Luna-Fury col to make our next camp. After setting up, we climbed up to Luna summit for some views of nothing but whiteout. 7/20 We thought the weather was improving so we made a short-lived attempt to get to the summit of Fury. After getting pounded for the last 2 days, when the weather started getting ominous again we decided to bail, and with our trip window coming to an end we made the call to just start hiking out. Little did we know what we had in store for us exiting via Access Creek, and several wet brushy hours later finally found Big Beaver Cr, crossed on a log and made it to the trail. At 39-mile camp we managed to build a fire with wood scrounged from the under-sides of downed trees, and soon had a roaring furnace to begin semi-drying our soaked gear. We finished our supply of whiskey and passed out. 7/21 hike to Big Beaver boat camp. As we straggled through we must have looked pathetic because one of the campers there offered us a boat ride to the dam. Guy from Laurelhurst, if you are reading this - thanks a ton, you really made our day! Stopped at GOOD FOOD and gorged on grease and our gear that Kevin was smart enough to stash. Great trip, even though we were denied Fury and the weather sucked for the last 3 days Approach Notes: Access Creek is hell. Quote
alpenho Posted July 22, 2007 Author Posted July 22, 2007 Thought this pic might be informative - our route through Luna Cirque. The snow ramp leading from the bottom of the cirque up to Luna Lake requires a fast traverse due to objective hazards dropping from above, and the very top may be cliff when melted out in late season... Quote
Whatcomboy Posted July 22, 2007 Posted July 22, 2007 Good report and cool pics. Rain must have been a drag. Quote
Toast Posted July 23, 2007 Posted July 23, 2007 We considered the line you took up, but nix'd the idea for the far moraine. It maybe added an hour total but avoided that objective hazard. Nice work Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.