[TR] Chiwaukum Range - 'Little' Chiwaukum: A Successful Failure 11/21/2007

[tvashtarkatena]

Trip: Chiwaukum Range - 'Little' Chiwaukum: A Successful Failure

 

Date: 11/21/2007

 

Trip Report:

I snaked my arm through the peephole in my bivvy sack and brushed the frost of the lens of the altimeter perched on my cook pot. 9 ° F. My arm shot back in through its hole like a startled tubeworm. Jesus, no wonder I was freezing my ass off.

 

By now the moon was low on the horizon and I had about six more hours of long night to go in my 20 degree bag. No more breathing into the bag; the moisture was building up. The trouble was, as it always is on nights like this; I had to take a piss.

 

I gave myself a count down. Then another. The third one took; I bolted upright. The shock was almost electric, then, strangely, it quickly subsided. Perhaps I was already hypothermic. I stood on the edge of my bivvy, strained for range, grabbed the extra socks out of my pack, threw them on, and dove back into my tiny cocoon of habitable environment. Six more hours of turning the cryogenic rotisserie.

 

Six hours passed, daylight came, and the temperature was still 9 degrees. Then, suddenly, it began to climb. 12. 16. Once in the twenties, I figured it was safe venture halfway out of the bag and start heating water for the day’s excursions.

 

 

Icicle at sunset

 

 

 

Icicle closeup

 

 

The day before I’d hiked into my present camp from the Pine/Wildcat Creek Trails. The snow on the 3 mile road to the trailhead was driveable by Outback. Once I spotted Big Chiwaukum’s broad west face through the trees (I recognized it from previous trips in the area), I left the trail and snow shoed up through the brush which still persisted through the 2 foot snow pack. Anywhere from several inches to a foot of powder covered a firm, compactable, and slightly crunchy base. After finding an open camp with an amazing view near a running stream, I killed the rest of the afternoon punching another thousand feet of steps towards my objective; a little money in the bank for the following day. The snow up higher was waste deep powder, but the terrain alternated between boulder fields and stubby avalanche trees; not great for skiing. I was glad I brought snow shoes instead.

 

 

The Objective?

 

 

 

After breakfast I forced my feet into my frozen Makalus and began to cash in the previous day’s steps. I waded through another 300 feet or so of knee to waist deep snow before gaining the base of a couloir that had slid several days before. Ah, finally something firm to kick steps into. It varied from perfect Styrofoam to powder over rolly polly rocks, but it was a huge improvement over the wallowing below.

 

 

Sunrise

 

 

 

Rainier

 

 

 

Looking down the couloir. Rainier in the distance

 

 

 

Looking uproute

 

 

I gained the summit ridge with 400 feet more to go. A hundred feet later I topped out on what I thought was a false summit and, to my surprise, the terrain fell away in all directions. I’d calibrated my altimeter the day before, and it wasn’t usually that far off. I looked south to line up a photo of Rainier, and noticed that there was a conspicuously higher mountain in the corner of my viewfinder. Hmmm. If Big Chiwaukum is the highest thing around, then what’s that? And, for that matter, why can I see Larch Lake from here? A smile crept over my face.

 

 

Summit cheese. Glacier in the backround

 

 

I’d been lost, of course, and I’d nailed plenty of false summits, but I’d never actually climbed the wrong mountain before. Oh well, there’s always a first time. And there’s also a last time I’ll just trust just my memory, particularly in winter. In any case, ‘Little’ Chiwaukum made for an excellent jaunt and a spectacular viewpoint in a fine area. I’ll be back. Given my navigation this trip, I suppose I’ll have to .

 

 

Hoar frost

 

 

I will post 2 more panoramic views (larger format) soon.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Snowshoes, ski poles.

Edited November 25, 2007 by tvashtarkatena

[tvashtarkatena]

 

Panorama looking uproute

 

 

Baker and Glacier from the summit

 

 

[ivan]

nice - the hoarfrost photo makes me want to call my dealer so i can appreciate it more fully

[sigs2001]

What kind of camera are you shooting with? Nice shots of the ice and mountains.

[tvashtarkatena]

I use a Canon Powershot SD800 IS in a LowePro case. The latter is the most important part of the kit; it's predecessor, which I used to carry in it's stock case, underwent a little field dissassembly when I hauled my pack up a rock face and forget to remove the camera from the waste belt.

[mythosgrl]

Love the pics. Thanks for the stoke.

[Sherri]

Wow, great story! Those pictures gave me the chills. Brrrr!

[Whatcomboy]

Excellent! I always like reading your TR's. You go to some great climbs

[kevbone]

Do you take pictures for a living? You should! Great shots.

[Dannible]

Good stuff. Your description of the cold night sounded familiar. I was out for a few nights earlier this week and since the down in my bag got wet and at some point froze I was colder than I have ever been.

[dmarch]

Sweet hoarfrost pic and icicle pics!!

[Winter]

cool pics! what lens are you using for the close ups?

[tvashtarkatena]

I use the macro feature on the Canon Powershot SD800 IS; a 28-105 point and shoot. I then postprocess (crop, zoom, contrast, brightness, sharpness, whatever) what I think is the most interesting part of the raw image using Digital Image Pro; a discontinued Microsoft product (it's apparently not compatible with Vista - I run Windows). The hoar frost photo is just one small part of the original raw image. I'll switch to Photoshop -a much better product - at some point. Right now I'm stitching panoramas by hand; Photoshop has some automation in that area.

Edited November 25, 2007 by tvashtarkatena

[G-spotter]

AutoStitch is free:

 

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

[pink]

sweet shots titty boy

[tvashtarkatena]

My nips were perked and pointy when I took them.

[pink]

yum

[tvashtarkatena]

Thanks for the autostitch link. I tried it, and this was the result (apologies for the large format; the top one is autostitched (with one manual crop), the bottom manually stitched). Unfortunately, the autostitch program (at least with the demo version that's available for free download) destroys the resolution. If there's a way to prevent this, it would be pretty useful, and it is fully automated. Just load in your photos a press 'go'.

 

[lancegranite]

I was looking at LC yesterday, looks like some great touring out there!

[olyclimber]

nice TR, thanks.

[tvashtarkatena]

I was looking at LC yesterday, looks like some great touring out there!

 

The skiing on it's eastern slopes above Larch Lake would be amazing. The west side terrain isn't nearly as good, however.

[tvashtarkatena]

I was looking at LC yesterday, looks like some great touring out there!

 

The terrain around and above Larch Lake looks fantastic. Access by going over the pass N of LC (not Deadhorse Pass, which sucks ass on both sides).