Peakpimp Posted August 17, 2008 Posted August 17, 2008 Trip: Mt. Buckner - South Side Date: 8/14/2008 Trip Report: This being my first TR please bear with me A couple of weeks ago I received some exciting news that my regular alpine partner Dan was sending his fiancee to Michigan to see her family for a whole week! We quickly made plans to finally head back for another try on Mt. Buckner as we were denied on a previous trip in the summer of 06 on account of poor weather. We planned to leave Tuesday night after I got off work and thankfully the manager was out of the store that day allowing me to switch my standard 11-8 shift to a 10-6:30, score! I promptly arrived at Dan's place at 7pm. He and I were to be accompanied by our friend Randy who had been with us for Three Fingers and Mt. Adams, a fairly competent mountaineer I thought, although that assumption would soon be tested. We quickly loaded the gear while Dan exchanged some sweet parting words with his better half before heading out. Still needing that beloved back-country permit we decided to camp at Marble Creek campground on cascade river road Tuesday night so that I could drive down and grab one as soon as the ranger station opened on Wednesday which I did promptly. We were on the trail to cascade pass around 9am. snaffelicious After the tedious switchbacks up and over Cascade Pass we stopped for some water at the falls coming down from Doubtful Lake. The wildflowers were in full bloom! Still unable to locate Beckey's "miners path" to the upper horseshoe basin we simply scrambled up the falls. We set up camp in the upper basin and settled in for some JB Rye and music from Dan's portable Ipod setup... not a bad way to spend the evening! Morning with Ripsaw Ridge and Mt. Buckner over our camp. After a quick traverse of the upper basin we were soon ascending the snowfield on Buckner's South Side. Randy chose to stay at camp as he felt he lacked the energy to accompany Dan and I to the summit. Obligatory Summit Pics That's one big ass glacier After Dan showed me up with the standing glissades down the snowfields we headed back across the basin to camp. Upon reaching camp we quickly noticed that Randy had packed up his stuff and left! It had been our plan to ascend up to the Sahale Arm to head back to the car although it didn't look optimal to us from the basin so Dan and I had decided to scramble back down the falls the way we came up. Needless to say we were pretty upset when we arrived to find him gone, I mean seriously who leaves their party out in the mountains to head off alone? I had hidden a spare key near the car for an emergency so we hoped that he had headed for the TH to hang out and wait for us there. We quickly packed up the rest of the gear and made our way down the falls to the lower basin. At the bottom we passed a party of two climbers spending the weekend in the Cascade Pass area that said they had passed a lone fellow on the trail headed up the pass around 11am who claimed to have left his party and was headed back to the car, we were very relieved that to hear he had made it down safely. We hustled back up Cascade Pass and did the last few accursed switchbacks down to the TH under headlamps where we found our friend awaiting us in the car as we had suspected. We wearily berated him for leaving us up there although he partially redeemed himself by driving us home while my exhausted ass passed out in the back seat. Gear Notes: Crampons, Ice Ax, Partners that won't bail on ya. Approach Notes: Still couldn't find the miners path to the upper basin. The scramble up the falls was fun though. Quote
SPS Posted August 27, 2008 Posted August 27, 2008 Many thanks for the post. I had been thinking about going in there a couple of weeks ago but hadn't seen much on the route. The post inspired me to give it a try last weekend. My pictures are here: It took us a bit of time to find our way out of lower Horseshoe Basin but we eventually found our way up. Some pictures of the route we followed out of the basin are included in the picture set. Quote
Peakpimp Posted August 27, 2008 Author Posted August 27, 2008 Nice pics sps! Nope ivan no beer but maybe I should plan a creep spot to hide some from partners who would bail to raid the beer stash eh? Quote
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