[TR] North Cascades - Silver Star via Burgundy Col 7/26/2009

[Didgie]

Trip: North Cascades - Silver Star via Burgundy Col

 

Date: 7/26/2009

 

Trip Report:

Undeterred by the ever worsening forecast our group of four headed to the North Cascades to climb Silver Star this past weekend.

 

It was quite the adventure. Driving up through Marblemount everything looked very wet and there were big clouds in the mountains. We also saw evidence of a recent mudslide. And the forecast continued to call for daily thunderstorms. Hmmm. We reached the TH at ~4pm. It was hot, muggy and the weather was questionable. While we searched for the trail and pondered our options two friends of M2's and Em's came scrambling up to the road! They had just attempted to climb Burgundy Spire and had been dumped on twice. They mentioned the word firehose... Given the lateness of the hour, the iffy weather and the uncertainty of water at camp we decided to car camp at Lone Fir.

 

The night was clear, the stars amazing. Under faint protest from Kim we got up at 3am the next morning, and when we set off at 5am there was not a cloud in sight. In about two hours we climbed the steep trail to the first campsite, which turned out to be quite mozzie infested but had a great view of Liberty Bell. We ran into two guys who showed us that there was a small creek with flowing water a mere stone's throw from the trail! Although I am not sure if that creek flows permanently or if it was flowing thanks to the recent downpours.

 

From there we hiked up through steep dirt, scree, slabs (with Em grumbling something about how she loves snow) to Burgundy Col. Looking towards the East we could see clouds starting to build, but they didn't look threatening at this point so we decided to carry on. A short rappel down the steep snow followed by a bit of down-scrambling on loose stuff (more grumbling from Em) brought us to the snow traverse (very happy sounds from Em). From there it was quite easy going, no crampons needed. We roped up for the glacier and started up towards the summit. There were a couple of crevasses to our left and at the top of the glacier all the snow had melted off except for a band on the right side. The clouds were starting to look more threatening but appeared to part and move past either side of our mountain, so we decided to set the saddle as our goal for the day.

 

M2 did a stellar job leading the upper, steep section of the climb on the glacier, which was tricky as the snow was shallow and crumbly. She even took a bit of a slide once when a step broke, but Em who was behind her was in self arrest and helped stop her in a flash. We reached the saddle at ~1pm. As we were enjoying the view and well earned lunch and pondered whether we should scramble the last 300ft to the top (it looked so FUN!), a loud ka-BOOOOM from the Heavens reminded us that maybe that wasn't such a good idea.

 

We retreated rather hastily down the glacier as thunder continued to rumble around us. Thankfully we never had any of that electricity in the air feeling! M2 punched through a snow bridge with one leg but extracted herself with a little tug on the rope. We filled up water on the traverse, then headed for the col under ever more threatening skies. A short but unpleasant snow/mud/crumbly rock scramble brought us back to the col. Looking West we saw the weather brewing in the mountains. All we got was a pleasant drizzle that kept us cool on the long, steep, knee-jarring hike back down to the car.

 

Back in camp we checked back in with our camp hosts, who were the nicest camp hosts ever and had been more than willing to be our emergency back up - they would have sent in the troops had we not returned by Monday morning! Then it was on to dinner and bed. After large quantities of breakfast in Winthrop the next morning we hit the road for the long drive home.

 

Summary:

Excellent trip despite the missing last 300ft

Excellent crew

Car to car 14 hours

Shortening the rope on the steep snow traverse was a good idea

Got the decision making right regarding weather, phew!

After two days of hobbling we now all have GIANT quads

 

Gear Notes:

Ax

50m, 9.5mm rope for rappel and glacier travel

 

Approach Notes:

2 hours to the camp on the bench

There is water at the camp on the bench - and lots of bugs, too

Burgundy Col has room for on tent and two, maybe three bivys. Snow to melt for water is 20ft down.

Soon the snow bridges on Silver Star Glacier will have melted to the point where crevasses will be open all the way across, making the climb difficult if not impossible.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Didgie