[TR] Logan - Douglas Glacier 6/15/2008

[cartman]

Trip: Logan - Douglas Glacier

 

Date: 6/15/2008

 

Trip Report:

Matt, Carla and I went in to climb Logan via the Douglas Glacier this past weekend. We chose this route since it is the shortest way to do this remote Cascade peak, and this time of year is reportedly the best time to do this route as much of the slide alder should still be under the snow. Pics will be forthcoming...

 

We started up the trail to Easy Pass Saturday ~10am. Snow was encountered immediately, but were able to follow the trail for about a mile before it was lost in the snow for good. We had no trouble getting to the basin below the pass on generally firm snow, then booted up to the pass in bright sun, where we had our first view of Logan.

 

We bore right and descended several hundred feet before encountering the trail mid-slope where there was less snow. We booted down to the marker near the creek then turned west along Fisher Creek and into the woods, paralleling the creek quite a ways in snow before finally encountering the trail not far from where we were going to leave it to cross the creek.

 

We found a good log crossing and headed south up valley to the east of the tributary draining the glacier. Note that from Fisher Creek on, this route has LOTS of running and standing water and is going to be Bug Central very soon. In the upper valley is a fair bit of avalanche debris that overall probably made the going a little easier, as it wiped out some of the alder that otherwise would have been obstructing the route. All told, we had no more than an hour of schwacking through the alder, so this was definitely a good time to do this route. In a normal snow year, it would be best done even earlier. Made camp at 4700'.

 

Except for on the far left, the entire basin below the glacier is ringed by cliffs. Klenke's report on summitpost shows a route on the right up the cliffs, but that looked sketchy. Matt thought he saw a route on snow through the cliff band left of center, and we decided we would try that the next day.

 

Sunday we awoke at 7am to find low clouds obscuring everything above the top of the cliffs. We kept checking and eventually started to see signs of clearing. We left camp at 9:45 and headed for our target gully; sure enough, it was a good though steep route entirely on snow to the top of the cliffs. We roped up here for the traverse of the Douglas. From here to the top of the distant couloir (which is hidden behind the left ridge of Thunder Pk. as viewed from camp) the route was a straightforward traverse west, staying high under the cliffs and buttresses above the glacier and then directly up the couloir to its top. Very few crevasses were seen. Matt and I swung leads along the glacier to the col, where we unroped and booted to the top of a very small subsummit, scrambled up the next one to the west and saw the summit was yet still farther over. The rock was the usual mediocre Cascade choss with some large loose blocks. Scrambled off this subsummit into a dirt gully, went down ~50 feet, found a short chimney then more scrambling up to the not-very-spacious true summit. We were the first party of the year to sign in.

 

Rapped off the top bit but in retrospect probably would have downclimbed it. Returned to camp the way we came without incident. Summit day was about 11.5 hours.

 

Pics here (scroll down): http://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7967618&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

[wayne]

Sweet , there is something about that mountain, though it is not exactly obvious what it is.

[zloi]

Nice going. You guys were smart to try it this time of year. I can attest from a trip a couple years ago that Labor Day is a lousy time to go. Crossing the avalanched section was a thorough headache, and after that, major schwacking.

 

-Tom