[TR] Mt. Goode - Northeast Buttress 7/4/2009

[AlpinWeiss]

Trip: Mt. Goode - Northeast Buttress

 

Date: 7/4/2009

 

Trip Report:

Thought I'd finally post a Trip Report up here rather than just reading them:

 

Last year Ty and I talked about Mt. Goode, but I decided I wanted to watch things blow up in the sky over Seattle instead. This year we were both on-board for the arduous trek in to my second nine-thousander which can’t be seen from any road (Mt. Logan being the other).

 

Goode and Storm King:

 

We got an alpine start from Seattle on Friday and started hiking down the PCT from Bridge Creek trailhead. A quick 9 miles and almost 2,000 feet of elevation lost took us to the North Fork of Bridge Creek (3hrs). We hiked up the North Fork to about 1.5 miles past Grizzly Creek (Grizzly Creek Camp is partially washed out and the trail is brushy past there). We forded the North Fork without any problems and ascended a snow slope to the approach slabs. Easy but exposed climbing up slabs lead up to header/alder slopes and into a bivvy site at 5100’. The site was nice, but infested with mosquitoes (as all of the North Fork seemed to be).

 

Fording the North Fork of Bridge Creek:

 

Another alpine start (4am wakeup) started us up more slabs and onto the Goode Glacier. Navigating some crevasse issues and climbing some glacier ice in aluminum crampons on sneakers (exciting) we got to the base of the NE buttress. We soloed the first pitch to the buttress crest (4th / easy 5th) and not knowing what was around the corner roped up. We ended up simul-soloing many, many pitches of 3rd and 4th class (~1000+ ft). As the buttress sharpened we started putting in some gear and simuling up easy 5th class on the wonderfully exposed buttress. The climbing here is truly excellent; very similar in style to the West Ridge of Forbidden, but A LOT more of it. Following the beta we moved right off of the buttress and into the “Black Amphitheatre.” This was supposedly the crux of the climbing (5.4) but I didn’t notice it getting any harder or easier. From the large grassy ledge we took the right arête which had some of the best climbing on the route. It’s hard to go wrong climbing on the buttress as there are many different options all of which are easy – we opted mostly to stay on the arête proper for purely aesthetic reasons. We simuled the entire route never feeling the need to pitch anything out – it’s very consistent in grade throughout (except the easier 3rd/4th sections).

 

Getting to the Buttress:

 

The "crux"

 

Fantastic Ridge Climbing:

 

I accidentally lead up to a false summit so we downclimbed a short section (25ft) and then headed up to the true summit. We made it to the summit at 1:30pm. After a short break taking in the views (you could actually see the boot-track up Eldorado from the summit) we simuled down one pitch and then made three raps until we could traverse to the “Black notch.” From there a short and easy but very exposed traverse and downclimb took us to two more rappels into the SW couloir. After that, we downclimbed a lot of loose dirty rock to a snowfield on the south side. It was a long traverse around to the Goode-Storm King Col. At the col we cleaned a lot of old nasty rap slings and added a new one before making the rappel down to the far west side of the Goode Glacier (lots of loose rock on this rappel). Some glacier routefinding took us down to the slabs and heather and back to the bivvy. (8.5 hours up. 6.5 hours down).

 

Hiking back to the Goode-Storm King Col

 

It’s a helluva long hike out after that. All in all a spectacular route and a magnificent mountain. It’s well worth the long approach and all the mosquito bites.

 

More pictures up here:

 

 

Gear Notes:

We brought nuts, a pair of hexes and .5-3 cams.

If I were doing it again I’d leave behind the #2 and #3 (some beta indicated the #3 to be very useful, we only placed it once or twice)

Al Crampons, Approach Shoes, and Ice Axe

 

Approach Notes:

Long and Hot along the PCT; Lots of Mosquitoes in the North Fork. We forded the North Fork without any problems.

[chimbo]

Sounds like a very rewarding climb. Any idea if Goode is regularly climbed?

[Off_White]

Nice TR, thanks a bunch.

 

Yes Chimbo, it's a popular route.

[tvashtarkatena]

Sweet.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

I gotta do this one. Thanks for the TR!

[tytyler]

Yeah, what a sweet trip!!! Been on my list for years....thanks for coming along!

 

some more pics...

 

www.flickr.com/photos/tytyler37/

 

www.flickr.com/photos/tytyler37/

[sambataro]

Nice work guys! Know thats been on your list for a while.

[ivan]

you don't happen to find joshk's trangoes in the n fork of bridge creek did u?

[belayerslayer]

:tup:

[JoshK]

Nice job, that is a great climb. I know the feeling of the "fun" glacier ice in tennis shoes action, being forced to use mine after the great trango-toss of 2008.

[breadbox]

Nice TR! Any regrets about the approach shoes?

[AlpinWeiss]

Didn't find any Trangos on the way in . Definitely don't regret the approach shoes - wouldn't have been worth bringing the boots for a short easy ice step and the approach shoes dry quickly enough.

 

If I did it again I'd either bivy on the summit or carry-over. The descent back to the Goode Glacier is really long.

[breadbox]

I did a carry-over of Goode in '02, with Sahale and Forbidden. Definitely the way to go.

[mattp]

I thought down-climbing the route itself was "definitely the way to go." It was almost as much fun as climbing up it, easy, fast, and meant we didn't have to carry over. We left camping gear at the ***** spot below the glacier, hiking boots and axe for the glacier, and climbed the route in rock shoes. Whatever you do, its a great route, eh?