[TR] Southern Pickets - Mt. Terror - North Buttress 7/29/2009

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Trip: Southern Pickets - Mt. Terror - North Buttress

 

Date: 7/29/2009

 

Trip Report:

4 days of Terror on the “Wild” Side

 

Silas Wild approached me about possibly climbing the N Buttress of Mt. Terror in the Southern Pickets. Silas had taken 22 trips into the Pickets over the years, climbing every peak in there (including Terror). At 61 years old, Silas hadn’t been roped up for seven years, so he was a bit apprehensive about the whole idea. Nevertheless, the idea was his, and I thought it would be a good plan to try and make it happen. Besides, there was some gear that got left behind by a rescued climber several weeks back, and we planned to retrieve it.

 

The N Buttress is a route I have wanted to climb for a long time, and going in there with a veteran Picket explorer made it all the more attractive. Back in 1961, a friend of my Dad’s, Mike Swayne, made the first ascent along with Ed Cooper, and Charles Bell. In wool and boots, these hardmen ventured off into the unknown and conquered a very serious alpine objective. There were no Beckey guides to tell them where to go, or how to approach. There were no route topos highlighting the approximate route. There were no rock shoes to aid their ascent like we have now. They used hemp rope and primitive protection. It is unbelievable what these guys did.

 

On the morning of July 26, Silas and I set off for our approach up Terror Creek. For those of you who haven’t ventured into this area, Terror Creek is one of the toughest, steepest approaches in the North Cascades. 5 miles of overgrown trail is followed by a heinously steep climb up the Barrier followed by a traverse of two huge basins. With a starting point of a mere 800’ above sea level, we climbed to a camp in Crescent Creek Basin at 6400’. By the time it was all said and done, we had gained more than 6000’ in hot conditions with heavy packs. OK, it was just me who carried the heavy pack. Silas took full advantage of the fact that there was food, a sleeping bag, two sleeping pads, a tent, and a full climbing rack awaiting us in Crescent Creek Basin camp. It was only fair that I let the “old man” carry the lighter load.

 

10 hours after leaving the car, we arrived in a hot Crescent Creek Basin. We were not alone, however. Three climbers arrived shortly before sunset after their own climb of the North Buttress. We spoke with them about the route before retiring early for the night.

 

Interesting cloud formations from camp.

 

More cloud formations.

 

Triumph, Despair, and North Despair from camp.

 

Day 2 began with a 5AM wakeup call. Silas was itching to get moving given the forecasted upper-90 degree valley temperatures. We set out from camp around 5:40, traversing the Crescent Creek Basin to the base of the Himmelhorn-Ottohorn Col. From here, it is a 1200’, 40 degree climb to the Col, topped off by some class 3-4 rock. Views to the surrounding peaks were amazing. Classic Pickets material.

 

The traverse to the base of Himmelhorn-Ottohorn Col.

 

Silas climbing up the gully beneath the Himmel-Otto Col.

 

The views from the col.

 

Silas climbing rock at the head of the col.

 

Fury and Luna from the col.

 

From the top of the Himmel-Otto Col, we descended about 1600’ on the Mustard Glacier. The glacier was only moderately broken, and featured bulletproof ice in places. We passed by the recently climbed “Thread of Ice” leading up to the summit of E Twin Needle. This is a route I’d like to come back for next season.

 

The view down the Mustard Glacier from the Himmel-Otto Col.

 

Steep snow below the col.

 

Silas crossing a snow bridge on the way down the Mustard Glacier.

 

Me with Picket Pass beyond.

 

From the base of the hanging glacier, we traversed towards the toe of Terror’s N Buttress. Most of the traverse was on firm snow, with the last 100 meters of the traverse on completely bulletproof alpine ice. Our aluminum crampons sunk in a matter of millimeters in the hard ice. With no snow or ice protection, this traverse was a bit tense.

 

Silas traversing steep, bulletproof snow on the way to the base of the N Buttress.

 

At the moat, we hopped across to the rock on the lower buttress. From here, class 3-4 slabs led up to the hanging snowpatch where I filled up my Drom bag with 6 liters of water. I knew there was a chance we would be bivvying on route, and from what we could see this would be our last water source for 2500’.

 

A look ahead to our route.

 

We continued to climb on exposed class 3-4, attempting to find the start of the Stoddard Buttress route. After climbing a low fifth, leftward trending ramp, we found a ledge leading to some rotten rock that would allow us to gain the ridgecrest. Silas was not comfortable with the prospect of climbing on the rotten rock, and so we retreated, downclimbing back to the start of the N Buttress proper.

 

Looking over to the Twin Needles from low on the route.

 

From here, we decided to belay the class 3-4 pitches, even though the protection was sparse. One might argue that a better strategy would be to simul-solo this portion of the route for safety, but nonetheless, we decided I would climb a rope length trailing the rope behind me, then toprope Silas up. This worked out fine, since we were not under any time constraints. I was carrying a sleeping bag and sleeping pad, and knew that our chances of bivvying on route were good, so I felt perfectly comfortable taking our time.

 

Silas climbing low on Terror’s N Buttress.

 

Somewhere on route.

 

The climbing on the middle buttress was never harder than 5.6, and mainly firm. On the upper buttress, however, the climbing became a bit harder, and the rock became more licheny and looser. We kicked and prodded every hold before relying on it. Soon, the rock became steeper, and a licheny pitch led us directly up the crest onto a knob. We read reports of this being 5.8+, but we found it to be around 5.7, but dramatically exposed and licheny to boot. This was some of the most exhilarating climbing on the route.

 

Silas climbing on the middle of the N Buttress.

 

Silas, all smiles.

 

Silas waving from the belay.

 

The Mt. Fury massif.

 

More smiles from Silas.

 

Me leading a steep pitch below the knob.

 

From the top of the knob, we remained entirely on the ridgecrest. Dramatic exposure and amazing views continued to impress us. Soon, we found a ledge to bivvy on, about 700’ below the summit. We settled in around 8:30 under perfectly clear skies and watched the most beautiful sunset unfold. Definitely one of the best moments I’ve ever had in the mountains.

 

Beautiful ridge climbing on the upper buttress.

 

Mt. Fury at dusk.

 

Luna Peak.

 

Sunset over the Northern Pickets.

 

Silas enjoying a beautiful sunset from our bivy ledge.

 

Moonrise over the Southern Pickets.

 

Sunset from my sleeping bag.

 

Day 3 dawned, and we knew we needed to get an early start to beat the heat. Even so, we didn’t wind up moving until 8AM. We just didn’t want to leave our little slice of heaven. From our bivvy, we followed the ridge up to where the N Buttress meets the Stoddard route. We traversed a ledge to climber’s left, with great views to McMillan Spires and Degenhardt. From here, a mid-fifth class pitch led us back to the ridgecrest. Once on the ridge, we found some terribly rotten rock, up to 5.7 or 5.8. It took some prodding to find solid rock, but we eventually did. After this pitch, we found the most exposed pitch on the entire route. A perfectly solid ridgecrest climb at about 5.5 or 5.6. It looked improbable from below, but actually turned out to be the best pitch of climbing on the N Buttress. The exposure was incredible!

 

The upper buttress and Mt. Terror’s true summit.

 

Sweeping views from the upper N Buttress.

 

Silas on the ledge leading to the last 2 pitches.

 

Silas approaching the final pitches.

 

The dramatically exposed final pitch.

 

From the top of this pitch, we traversed climber’s right of the false summit on class 2 terrain, then downclimbed some class 3 to get to the standard W Ridge route. From here, we scrambled up onto the true summit. Again, the views were incredible.

 

Silas traversing the false summit.

 

Views to Degenhardt, Inspiration, and the MacMillan Spires from the summit.

 

Looking along the crest of the

 

Southern Pickets from the summit of Mt. Terror.

Being that there was no summit register, we spend little time on the scorching-hot summit, and began our descent. 5 rappels (3 in a cruddy gully) led us back to camp.

 

Rappelling the dirty gully on the way back to camp.

 

When we got back to camp, the deer flies were out in droves, and the temperatures were the hottest I’ve ever experienced in the mountains – bar none. My altimeter watch with weather station read 104 degrees!! This at 6400’! WOW. We sought shelter in the talus jungle, but shade was a rare commodity. Silas eventually found a big boulder that offered some shade, but little relief from the blazing temperatures.

 

104 degrees?!

 

Once the temps cooled down (around 8PM), we laid down to go to sleep. I wasn’t able to get to sleep until about midnight, before which I watched meteorites, shooting stars, and dry lightning all around us.

 

Day 4 had us up at 5AM to begin our descent. The temperatures and bugs were not a problem until we got down to the Barrier, at which time the deer flies came out in droves and the temperatures skyrocketed. We made it back to the car amid blazing heat, thankful for another great trip into the North Cascades.

 

I’d like to thank Silas for tagging along with me on this trip, I learned a lot from him. He is truly one of the Pickets pioneers.

[olyclimber]

 

 

nice one once again tom!

[wayne]

Wild time in the mountains!

[Pilchuck71]

Awesome report and photos! Nice work.

[scheissami]

Sick!

 

Love the photos....all the pron this month has me itching to get out to the Pickets for the first time.

[trumpetsailor]

YEAH! Thanks for the stoke. Lucky, lucky guys! .

[Doug]

Beautiful TR! Thanks!

[t_rutl]

kick ass man

[off_the_hook]

Fantastic TR! You've put together a highlight reel of awesome Pickets photos the past couple weeks.

[goatboy]

You are PROLIFIC in your wild, remote trips, Tom. Nice work.

[Ponderosa]

great photo journal

[zoroastr]

Awesome location, great climbing narrative, very nice photos--on behalf of armchair alpinists everywhere, THANK YOU!

[John_Scurlock]

Wow Tom, those first two shots are outstanding. The rest not too shabby as well.

 

Silas was asking me about this today, just so happened I was through there for something else on the morning of July 21 and shot this:

http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/115553683 - there's a big version in there, click on the word 'original' below the image to see it.

[climbaround]

Nice work guys and great photos (thanks for the link to the great overview John). The climbing sounds great, but not the heat - I'm a total wimp in that regard!

[tazz]

Dude..........

 

[sparverius]

well done. Wonderful photos. Thanks for getting Steve's gear. That means that Steph, Donn, and I are off the hook.

[Off_White]

Great TR and photos. I've never met Silas, but I've admired his activities all over the Cascades for a long time. Good on ya for getting him back out to such a wild place.