banos Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 (edited) My Pard & I did the Bailey Trav last week... We had great weather and the trip was fairly straight forward.. The Olympic Mountain Rescue's Olympic Mtn Climbing Guide Bailey Section proved invaluable on the trip. We attempted the Cream Lake bypass via the Stephen Pk high route, but were unable to negotiate the rib of rock separating the two high snow fields needed to cross to attain the far ridge.. I believe if snow levels had been more normal and not 'mid Septemberish' we would have been successful.. As it was after spending all afternoon up on Stephen trying to gain the far ridge we decided to abort.. we then descended the only gully system that would take us down and camped above the lake The notch, lowest on the left, that we passed thru from the Hoh side.. we stayed high traversing over to Stephen Instead of dropping all the way down and coming back up the gully system we decided to stay high taking this route up to the Stephen col Once we decided to abort, we headed down this gully system.. the other gullies all end up unpassable.. note the large tree at top center of gully Our approach to the ridge off the main 'trail' to get up and over to the Stephen Basin concentrated on the centered treeless 'notch' in the ridge pictured below, prior to the 90 degree left turn & subsequent elev gain of the main 'trail' We had a bit of difficulty getting to the goat tred that leads to just below the 'notch' and the easy scramble to the top.. In this link to origial size pic you can see the goat tred leading to it high ridge Cream Lake bypass to Stephen basin My Pard & I determined, after descending from the ridge to rejoin the traditional 'trail' once again, that an easier approach to the ridge may just be heading up the rock slide pictured here (which we descended) that would lead directly up to the high goat tred to easily gain the ridge After about a 500-600 ft ascent I believe the goat tred would be easily picked up and head nearly directly to the treeless 'notch'.. Waypoint of that rock slide gully crossing the main 'trail' and exit point up is: N 47* 52' 24.1" W 123* 37' 23.5" Even if you didn't want to attempt the Stephen Pk Cream Lake bypass the camp up on that ridge is magnificent and well worth the vertical to get there.. FYI.. the Olympic Mtn Rescuers do not recommend the Stephen Pk bypass We did do the high Cream Lake approach as described in the OMR Climbers Guide and while it entailed a bit of scrambling vert, it was pretty straight forward and I would guess much better than the bushwacking involved in the traditional lower approach. After a close encounter with a very large black bear at Cream Lake we ascended on the left of the three gullies east of Cream Lake up into Ferry basin.. After enjoying the beauty of Ferry basin we camped near the saddle between Mt Ferry & Pulitzer The next day was glaciers and scree.. Child's glacier is pretty melted out.. crack dodging was/is in order.. stay high towards the end to avoid thinning bridges As with all the snow conditions the Snowfinger was pretty melted out and took us 3 hrs to negotiate.. there are a couple of bridges that if they aren't gone by now will be soon and will make route finding that much more difficult.. Especially this one toward the bottom of the Dome... It was an awesome journey.. other pics.. A couple of goats led us over the Catwalk.. On the snow behind Pulitzer.. I'd consider scrambling up the center rock then crampon across the upper aspect Nearly forgot.. I want to thank Achyknees, Hoosierdaddy, Steph A and all others who shared invaluable beta.. many thanks! Edited September 8, 2009 by banos Quote
achykneesplease Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 I'm really sorry to hear you got turned back on the bypass. I feel like I let you down. I had more snow on my trip so perhaps that made a difference. From your pictures, It looks like you followed close to the route I did. However, your track appears to have passed above two treed crags before hitting the high point. I actually went just below these crags and contoured farther around to the North flank. Everything on my right seemed steeper so it kept pushing me to the left. Once I was over to the north side, it was just a matter of following some gentle snowfields to the east ridge a few hundred feet below the summit. This photo is looking down toward Stephen Lake with Ruth in the background. I wonder if you were hung up on the steep bits in the left of the picture. The next photo shows my route until disappears around the North side. Do you have a photo showing where you turned back? Quote
AllYouCanEat Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Awesome country. Thanks for the pics and TR. Quote
banos Posted September 4, 2009 Author Posted September 4, 2009 This is as close as I can come... We got to the far side of that upper snow field and the rock was just too vertical in order to connect with the next snow field which lead to the ridge.. and the lower snowfields had no shot.. we could see it all very well from lower down on that side.. just couldn't complete it.. We spent all afternoon on that side of Stephen so we got really well acquainted with it lol.. IMO just too little snow. No worries Achyknees.. We gave it a great shot.. perhaps more skilled climbers could have made the connection.. we just felt it was a bit too exposed for the move required to gain the top of that rock.. Besides.. we got to spend two nites up on that flat ridge camp and had awesome clear mornings both times.. well worth the effort. Besides, walking up thru beautiful Ferry basin from east of Cream Lake was awesome in itself.. Quote
Pete_H Posted September 5, 2009 Posted September 5, 2009 Nice! Porter what were you doing up at 5:30 a.m. you nutjob! Quote
PVD Posted September 8, 2009 Posted September 8, 2009 Thanks a lot for the report. I'm hoping to find time for a variation of this traverse later some time this month. Quote
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