[TR] - Ptarmigan traverse-extended finish 7/16/2008

[Iggy]

Trip: - Ptarmigan traverse-extended finish

 

Date: 7/16/2008

 

Trip Report:

Wanted to do the Ptarmigan again but was detered by the mared exit with 8-9 miles of road walking. My partner Jack Barben found a post by Lowell Skoog about the "extended finish" out to

Holden. This sounded interesting and I would also be able to get Sinister if our plan worked.

We left under sunny skies and a stellar forcast. Even the nasty dirt gully on Mixup arm was filled in with snow. As we came over the shoulder of Mixup we met Art, Brett, and John going in to do Formidable.

 

It was easy traversing getting up to the Red Ledges. A bit of steep snow and then around the corner and over to a relatively smooth Middle Cascade Gl.

After descending the Spider-formidable col we decided that if we were going to make our pickup we needed to skip one of the peaks here. since Spider is so near the col we decided to do Formidable and followed Art and the gang over.

We spent an hour exploring the "shortcut" Barben col and then used the normal route where we met the other guys on the summit.

I really liked the ridge before LeConte and we thought about camping there but decided to head down to yang-Yang lakes for the night. It was beautiful and not the bug infested swamp of my memory.

The next day was our only cloudy day of the trip. We climbed up to LeConte and made the long traverse around and up the glacier to the col leading to S.Cascade Gl. Here we dropped our packs and followed a GPS over to the base of Old Guard. The W. Ridge was a nice scramble and about the most solid rock of the trip. It cleared a bit on top and we got our first glimpse of the potential crux of our trip, up, over, around and down Dome to the Chickamin Gl. and the base of Sinister.

From this vantage point it looked as if huge crevasses blocked an exit onto the Chickamin from above. The other way through would have been over the Elephant head col but that looked like more rock climbing than we wanted with full packs.

We descended old Guard and walked down to the S. Cascade Gl. to do the S. slope of Sentinel. This was approached via a very manky snow bridge that exited onto a slab covered with ball bearings. Having survived this we proceeded up to the top via some of the most rotten rock in the range. We didn't bring our cameras because the view was the same as from Old Guard. To our surprise there were 7-8 goat in the col about 75-100 ft below the summit.

We continued down to White Rocks after passing a very taciturn

10 man group from NOLS. They crossed the gl in front of us without so much as a wave. We finally yelled hello and they said they just had come from Dome via the standard road slog. At this point I really din't want to do that road.

Down at White Rocks we had great views and decided our next move over dinner.

This had been a very exhausting day. The next day would be a "rest" day and we would only climb over Dome and maybe camp at the Dana-Dome gl. col leaving the day after to explore the feasability of descending the Chickamin.

When we got to the col we had a choice of "resting" at noon and roasting in 80 degree glacier heat or just carrying over Dome and seeing what happened. As you can imagine the rest day was cut short. We summited Dome as you can see with "Jack on Crack"

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/medium/Jack_on_crack-Dome.JPG[/img]and had the celebratory Ritter Sport for the effort (660 cal).

We were happy to find a way through the crevasses down the Chickamin to a camp at the base of Sinister.

After summiting Sinister all we had to do was "walk" over the Sinister-Gunsight col and we were home free.

After getting down we packed up and hiked up to the col. We had a little issue with crumbly clay over slabs and had to protect this to feel secure with the loads.

The rest of the trip was beautiful but was indeed an "extended" finish. South of Sinister is open country up, around and through

Ross pass then Totem pass

Lots of snow, scree, up, down and an occasioanl bear brought us to Canyon Lake after another 12 hr day.

This was the end of the difficulties but not the end of the trail. We still had 21-22 miles to get out though the rest would now be on trails.

Leaving canyon Lake we easily got on the trail and followed it over and around to Miners Ridge. Having lunch on the shoulder of Miners Ridge one can see back to Dome-Sinister and then turn around 180 degrees and have a spectacular view of Glacier Peak

trough the trees.

The walk on the back side of the ridge was miles of flowers and

non stop views of Glacier.

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/plab/data/503/medium/S_on_Miner_s_Ridge_toward_Plummer_Mtn.JPG[/img]

 

We thought we still had another night out but appeared to be making good time. The trail was good but we were getting pretty tired and footsore. We decided to make a push for Holden in the hopes of a shower and bed.

Finally 13 hrs later we arrived in Holden and were treated to free showers, food and an invitation to sleep in the geologists tents.

The next morning we caught the bus to the lake and got a boat to get to our ride at Fields Point.

 

This was a great trip with great weather and should be considered

for those repeating the Traverse. We had great snow closed crevasses and would recommend doing it in mid to late June at the latest in a normal snow year.

Thanks to Lowell Skoog for the beta. It beat the hell out of a road walk even if it was 52 miles( per TOPO).

 

 

Gear Notes:

30 meter rope, crampons,hard hat,picket, and a little pro if you want to do the crack on Dome (#3 camalot"). Maybe a small rack for the unexpected such as the Gunsight col.

 

Approach Notes:

Drive to Cascade Pass and start walking.

[Le Piston]

Rod, you are an animal! I really wish I could have gone with you. Sorry for the mix up on schedules. Nice trip report and pictures. It looks like an awesome trip.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Nice sounding trip!

 

Is that the only register on Sinister? The one pictured below was up there in 2006. Notice the first ascentionists..

 

[Iggy]

I believe there were some other parts of notes but I didn't see that. It would have been notable.