[TR] Trapper Mountain - North Face 9/13/2008

[austineats]

Trip: Trapper Mountain - North Face

 

Date: 9/13/2008

 

Trip Report:

This being my first post here, I haven't figured out how to attach photos to this. I loaded them and they are in the Gallery, labeled "Trapper Mountain". My apologies because, of course, every really just wants to see pictures.

 

 

Trapper Mountain, which should not be confused with Trapper Peak, was off my radar until a few weeks ago when I made a call; my intended partner had other plans, his partner bailed on him the following day and then we wound up doing the route that the bailing partner had proposed. Looking back on the whole thing, I think we were set up. My first edition of Beckey's green guide doesn't list this NF route. My recollection, from looking t a more recent edition rates it as mostly class three with rock to 5.2 or 5.4 something like that. A descent down the standard route (SW ridge) would be implied I guess.

 

Our start from the Cascade Pass lot is late, very late. The ranger at Marblemount isn't keen on giving us a permit at 3pm for the bivy spot at Trapper Lake. Another obvious bivy site would be at Pelton Basin, which has a few campsites about half way to the peak. Better yet is the obvious ridge plateau that one must cross below Pelton Peak. One crosses into Trapper Basin and virtually into Alaska. The land is wild. We saw 6 bears on one day of hiking.

 

After dumping our gear on a rock, which we hoped that bears couldn't climb on to we headed up hill. The first half hour is spent slogging up a steep and loose scree hill. My favorite! The toungue of snow is perfect for hiking up. Low angle except in a few short steps where it only reaches 50 degrees for ~15'. This snow climbs steadily for ~500'. The large, right leaning ramp is obvious and easily traversed. Avoid the first chimney (unless of course the prospect of a frightful, chimney, choss-fest intrigues you).

 

The desired chimney is obvious. Fun, rarely clean scrambling awaits the lucky adventurer. This system gains ~1200' consistently 3rd/4th class with a decent stretch of low 5th in the middle. We roped for 2 pitches and were on the summit within 3 and 1/2 hours or so of leaving the meadow.

 

The summit has fantastic views or Formidable, Boston, Buckner, Ptarmigan Traverse etc. We found a summit register with a bit of looking. We noted 3 other registrants since 1986, hmmm, this is when we started thinking that we'd been set up. Then came the descent... hmm, which way down. We probably spent 10 minutes trying to determine which was the least dangerous direction to head down. The standard route, SW Ridge, was circuitous and loose but got us down to snow on the back side. More bear sightings and route finding got us back to camp by 6 pm.

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Helmets! A small set of nuts and a few runners should do it. Maybe one or two pieces to two inches. Crampons and an axe.

 

Approach Notes:

Easy trail half way and decent most of the rest. Traverse far west on saddle above Trapper Lake before dropping down to avoid nasty slide alder bushwhack.

[dberdinka]

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Nice TR by the way