[TR] Mt. Terror - North Face (Buttress), Stoddard Route 7/20/2008

[JoshK]

Trip: Mt. Terror - North Face (Buttress), Stoddard Route

 

Date: 7/20/2008

 

Trip Report:

With the high pressure system still firmly in place, Wayne and I decided it was time for another trip to - where else? - The Pickets! We climbed the North Face Stoddard route (named such in the Beckey guide). The climb is also commonly referred to as the North Buttress.

 

We approached the climb via the Terror Creek "trail." While there is technically a trail in most places, we decided it was more appropriately refered to as "the way" since it takes basically the only path that goes without seriously f**king yourself. Four miles on the old road grade leads to the start of a few miles of traversing through old growth to the crossing Terror Creek. Terror Creek is crossed on a very large OG (aka Original Gangsta, also aka Old Growth) tree. It's unmistakable as Wayne pierced a giant 8 foot spear of wood through a crack in the tree right in the middle.

 

The next section of the approach is a hill climb I can only describe as impossibly steep. It's not fun. Upon reaching a saddle, a wooded ridge is followed up in to Terror Creek basin. This section also has steep parts, and plenty of chances to be sucked in to gullies and what not. After reaching the basin we had the good fortune to be able to take advantage of this year's mega snowpack, and crossed on easy snow to a bivy just uphill of the Chopping Block.

 

The next morning we woke early, put on our crampons and traversed the Cresent Creek cirque beneath the western half of the Southern Pickets. We ascended to the Ottohorn-Himmelhorn col and descended the glacier on the north side, contouring down to the toe of the North Buttress of Mt. Terror. The glacier has a shrund and some impressively large cracks. Thankfully there was enough snow that we were able to take a straightforward path. A small step across a moat allowed us to access the bottom of the buttress.

 

Anybody who knows Wayne (or knows of his exploits) will know that he likes his ridge crests. Taking nasty 3rd class ledges or bypassing sections on the crest for bypass gullies wasn't in the plan. We stuck dead on the crest of the buttress and the climbing was flat out awesome. This appears to be the same line taken by Stoddard in 1984, as he described the same type of climbing and the crossing of the false summit gendarme that we did. The rock is very solid by any Cascades standards and while not technically stiff, it is fairly consistent 5th class on the ridge crest. A few cruxes along the way added some "wow, that was sweet!" moves, including a great exposed step around a corner (5.7-8??), a nice section of textured face (5.7?) and an easy 5th climb up a shark-fin near the top. After the false summit, 3rd (maybe a little 4th too) class scrambling leads to the summit. We were not able to locate a register.

 

A couple of rappels brought us down to the notch between Terror and The Blob. We were lucky enough to have snow filling the descent gully back to the basin. Without snow I can only guess at just how shitty this gully must be. Our final reward was the hike back to the Bivy. The sun was at a perfect angle to turn Cresent Creek's snow filled basin in to a solar toaster oven. Back at the bivy, a safety meeting slowly brought me back to sanity after having my brain fried by the shiny white hell.

 

The next morning we began our descent with an impressively early 10:30am alpine start. This approach sucks less going downhill, but still sucks - a lot. The impossibly steep hill basically becomes downclimbing in a few spots. Once back across Terror Creek we let our combo of cockiness and tiredness get the best of us. We lost the trail and violated the principal we had so diligently stuck to up until then - always find the trail. Instead we did the typical "well, let's go up or down, we'll hit it eventually." Bad move. Within 30 minute we were wandering through ever steepening old growth discussing the fact that we were going to be trashing out Goodell Creek in the dark. Thankfully we hit a stream bed that you cross on the old road shortly before the road-end bivy.

 

We started climbing up the wash and literally 30 seconds before we were set to start schwacking down the drainage again I hear Wayne yell that he had wandered on to the old road. Great success! Beer and chips awaited us back at the car, along with a large group of late middle aged women at the group campground. They were yelling something at us on our way out, but we couldn't tell if they were hitting on us or threatening us. We did see they had a mammoth table of booze. We drove off before we became cougar bait or dinner for them.

 

In retrospect, this climb is an absolutely classic. It was one of the most fun routes I have done. The combination of scenery, exposure, great climbing and solid rock is hard to beat. The mammoth approach and long cirque traverses make the climb a serious physical undertaking, but it was well worth the soreness and collection of "cat-fight" scratches all over the legs we were rewarded with. Thanks again to Wayne for the great climb and partnerage. Oh, and thanks again to the Pickets for giving so much, and taking so much in return!

 

(Pictures to follow...)

 

Gear Notes:

Fairly standard small alpine rack. A cam up to 3" did come in handy in a few places. We used a 60m rope doubled up, which is what I would recommend.

 

Approach Notes:

STAY ON THE TRAIL. No matter what, if you lose the trail, spend the time to find it again, even if you have to backtrack. Plan on spending a full day on the approach. Even if you do it in less time, you'll likely be pretty beat by the time you make your bivy.

[AllYouCanEat]

Oh man, I was hosed on that approach once. So fun. At least we found it on the way out.

 

Nice trip.

[sparverius]

nice work. We must have just missed you guys up there. Were you able to follow a trail coming down to Terror Creek from your bivy near the chopping block? We ended up going mostly straight down and didn't see the trail until the OG crossign of terror creek.

 

[TraverseFiend]

Wow, great climb. BTW the approach/deproach isn't so bad for the non-koolaided. Looking forward to your pics.

[JoshK]

Finally out of the forest and in to Terror Creek Basin:

 

Colonial, Davis, Snowfield:

 

Triumph and Despair. Accidental 1600 ISO = ugly.

 

Western side of the Southern Pickets from bivy:

 

Chop, chop:

 

Alone, aloof, dramatic:

 

Shrundage coming down from Ottohorn-Himmlehorn Col:

 

Mustard Glacier:

 

Wayne rounds the corner lower on the buttress:

 

I thought these rocks looked cool. Fury in the background:

 

Sorry for the lack of more climbing photos. We were climbing straight in to the sun, which made looking up difficult, let alone taking photos.

[ivan]

woooooord!

 

and i only have another week and a half of family vacations left to endure!

[Tony_Bentley]

Funny we did the same thing. That trail is hard to follow and left us with another night out and a short hike down Goodell.

 

Nice work gents.

[G-spotter]

Dot ist gut.

[Marko]

Nice looking climb Picketeers!