TR - Lincoln Peak (9,080+) - Lincoln Assassinated

[Tom_Sjolseth]

 

Photo courtesy of John Roper

 

This weekend, Fay Pullen, Paul Klenke, Sean Martin and I summitted Lincoln Peak (9,080'+) via the only known route (The X-Couloir, as John Roper has dubbed it). Lincoln Peak is one of the Black Buttes, a subsidiary summit of Mt. Baker, and is on the Washington Top 100 x P400 list. Only John Roper, Don Goodman, and Silas Wild have finished this list. It is a variation of the Bulger List which omits the Volcanic sub-summit 800ft prominence rule and relys strictly on elevation and prominence.

 

This was my third attempt, and Paul, Fay, and Sean's second.

 

Fay picked us up at Sean's house in Seattle. We made a quick stop for breakfast in Burlington, then drove up the Middle Fork Nooksack Road to the Rankin Creek Rd. We were able to drive all the way to the current road's end at ~3600', adding some sweet new slide alder markings to Fay's paint job (thanks Fay). I'm not sure the extra 500' and 3/4 mile was worth it, and I'm pretty sure Fay isn't either, but it was fun.

 

After having used the Rankin Ridge approach the past two attempts, we decided to try something different this time and walk the road to its end right below the basin. This turned out to be the right choice. From road's end it's a 2000' gain to the basin through fairly easy forest. After 3 hours of pleasant walking on solid snowpack, we reached camp at 6,000' on an island of conglomerate with great views over to Lincoln and Seward, the Twin Sisters Range, and Heliotrope Ridge.

 

We got to sleep early in the blazing heat, and attempted to get a few hours of shut eye before our planned wake up time of 2:30AM. This would provide us with the window we needed to avoid the sluffalanches, rockfall, and numerous other objective dangers that plague this route.

 

At 3AM we started up towards the bergschrund. On past attempts, the bergschrund was easily bypassed on the left side, but this time a huge moat had opened up and we were forced to find another route through. The schrund was open quite a bit, and there was one weak looking snow bridge on the right side that looked OK. Paul and Fay probed around for an alternative route on rock to the left, but ultimately decided to follow Sean and I over the exposed snowbridge above gaping cracks (protected with 2 pickets).

 

Above the 'schrund, it's easy climbing on moderately steep snow for about 500' (#1 in above photo), before crossing over an arete (dramatic knife-edge in early season). The arete this time was fairly benign. We then made a traverse to the first crux gully, a very narrow 50+ degree constriction between huge conglomerate cliffs with an avalanche runnel running right down the center (#2 in above photo). We simul-climbed this pitch to the top, making quick time to avoid being hit by sluff. At the top of this gully we encountered rotten, unprotectable snow that eroded away with every step. It was very tough to make progress through this section, and we were very careful. This ate up some time.

 

After the first gully, we encountered the second knife-edge snow arete, which was [thankfully] far less pronounced than on our May attempt (#3 in above photo). Klenke led accross this arete to a tiny, fragile rock island with about 1500' of vertical drop below us. Paul belayed the rest of us accross so we could regroup before the final steep snow gully.

 

The final gully (200', 45 degrees - #6 in above photo), although superbly exposed, posed no great challenge other than psychological. When I heard Paul's rebel yell, I knew we only had a rope length to go before all four of us stood together on the summit.

 

The final summit scramble (again extremely exposed), was partially snow-covered 4th class, crumbly volcanic conglomerate.

 

And finally after all the planning, blood & sweat, lost pickets, and 5 attempts between us, our ecclectic group of climbers stood on the summit of one of the least climbed mountains in the state. The summit, an aerie perch barely capable of holding 4 climbers, is a great place. The views were 360 degrees of pure awe. Lincoln's proximity to the Puget Sound, Vancouver, Mt. Baker, the Cheam Range, and the rest of the Cascades and Olympics makes it an unbelievable vantage point. The view of Mt. Baker was second to none. Lots of little climbers down there.

 

Our trip down took 7 hours. 11 rappels got us down (7 on deadmen pickets, 4 on rock horns). Our final rappel was over an overhanging full-flowing torrent of a waterfall guarded by a gaping crevasse at the bottom. Both Sean and Fay were completely soaked and had to immediately head back to camp (thankfully only a 30 minute walk away). Meanwhile, Paul and I made it out a bit on the drier side.

 

65 year-old Fay Pullen, an amazing woman of superhero proportions, continues to amaze me. She was with us every step on this climb and didn't seem shaken one bit. Congratulations, Fay for such a great achievement in your climbing career. Fay only has one peak left to climb to finish the Top 100 x P400 list. WOW. My hat's off to you, Fay.

 

Thanks to everyone for making this trip happen, and thanks to Klenke for the invite. This was a long time in the making for all of us, and such a sweet victory in the end.

 

And nothing could wipe the smile off our faces.

 

I didn't take any photos this time, but Klenke and Fay did. Paul intends to write up a TR with pics soon (in which case we'll combine them into one thread).

 

EDIT: We didn't find a summit register, but we did place one. We logged every name in it that we knew had summitted (approximately 20 people going back to Fred Beckey and team in 1956). We know there are probably others who have climbed it, and would be interested in hearing from people that have.

[marc_leclerc]

That sure looks like fun... where abouts is this mountain?

[DPS]

Niiiice!

[Bill_Simpkins]

It is on Mount Baker.

[klenke]

It is on Mount Baker.

Almost.

In this case, it is more correct to say Mount Baker is "on" Lincoln Peak. Lincoln Peak (the Black Buttes in general - Colfax, Lincoln, and Seward) predates Mount Baker and is the remnant rim of a much older andesite volcano.

 

A trip report of my own making will appear in its own thread sometime in the next couple of days. The pictures Tom attached to his report above are NOT for this weekend's climb and so therefore aren't that relevant.

[layton]

Lincoln Peak is a PROUD ascent in the cascades fer sure!!!!

NICE JOB