[TR] Northern Pickets - Challenger Arm route beta 7/4/2010

[Manacus]

Trip: Northern Pickets - Challenger Arm route beta

 

Date: 7/4/2010

 

Trip Report:

Route beta for Challenger Arm Bushwhack:

 

My girlfriend and I made our first trip into the Pickets in early July. Snow cover was heavy, and there was still some loose slide activity on higher slopes. Bugs were characteristically bad, even when hiking on snow and glaciers! We were out for 8 days with 2 days of drizzle at low elevation.

 

This report will just give some information on Challenger Arm, as we didn’t see much concrete beta on the route posted on this website before we left for our trip. Most prior reports complained bitterly or simply said it was not that bad, but nothing specific.

 

In our experience it was not that bad, but we needed to do a bit of routefinding in places. The surprising challenge for us was how long it took us to get out to Challenger once on the arm. Terrain is BIG here. The snow cover and cornices on ridges prevented us from staying high in some places, forcing us to one tedious low traverse (although we did see some occasional remains of cairns, so we were not the first to go low), although overall, I'm sure the snow helped us, even if soft at times. Although Challenger Arm is one of the most beautiful high routes in the Cascades, I don’t think it is the easiest approach to Challenger (although it may be the most free of objective danger). A large slide/cornice came down across the tracks of another party on the Whatcom traverse while we were up there (Whatcom traverse would be best done in early morning in early season).

 

Here’s the beta with map (sorry, couldn't embed it in text):

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/timbillo/NPickets#

 

Big Beaver to 5700 ft. on the arm: 3+ hours walking

 

Leave the Big Beaver Trail exactly where the trail to the Big Beaver Campsite goes in to the east (so you’re traveling west off the trail). You will be about 50 yards uptrail from the shelter. Set your altimeter. Contour at 3600 ft. elevation from Big Beaver Trail through easy open forest with huckleberry understory. You’ll quickly cross a little creek enroute. About 10-15 minutes later, you’ll cross the main creek at the base of the Challenger Arm slope at about 3600 ft. This should put you near the right of the two leftmost main streams that come down that hill slope (visible on map). Look for them if you are unsure, because this is the key to the route. They should appear as brushy defiles and will be visible through the forest on either side of you as you head uphill. Start hiking uphill from here, between the two stream gullies. There are some patches of Devil’s Club down low that are easily avoidable. Forest is beautiful and open here with some old growth hemlock. You’ll wish it could be like this all the way up, and you’ll start thinking maybe it is, until you hit a mossy cliff band at 4370 ft. Here, head climber’s right towards the stream gully which is quite deep here. A faint steep climber’s trail heads up along the edge of the stream gully (on your right), with the cliffs on your left. At 4480 ft., you’ll be above the cliff band in more easy forest. This is where we first hit snow. Snow was gone when we returned 5 days later, and understory was thankfully not too brushy.

At 4700 feet you’ll see another band of cliffs. Work your way diagonally up to the right, still below the cliffs, crossing the main stem of that righthand stream at 4800 ft. (which is very easy, even during snow melt, gully is very minor). You’ll hold onto a few slide alder stems here. Look for a huge old yellow cedar. It is the biggest tree in the area and sticks up above the canopy. Keep working your way diagonally up to the right across the stream from this tree (probably no big deal if you don’t find it), still below the cliffs, but clearly working into a weakness. You’ll find an easy brushy ledge/ramp system that continues up to the right and through the cliffs at 4900 ft. or so. Now you are in open montane/subalpine forest. There will be young trees and huckleberry to push through in the next section, but visibility is good and hiking not hard. From 4900 ft. at the top of the cliffs you’ll start to diagonal upwards climber’s left, back towards the stream you just crossed (now above the cliffs). You’ll see some boulders in this open subalpine area. You’ll be going up left across them as you diagonal back towards the stream.

There is a very minor steep/cliff band at the top of this open area at 5200 ft. Climber’s right of the stream (now a waterfall, or series of brooks coming over this minor cliff band), there is a little treed, brushy rib that easily takes you through the minor cliffs at 5200 ft. Just to the right of the rib, there was a small log that had been carried by an avalanche and rested parallel to the cliff edge, held back by some small trees growing along the cliff edge--I used this landmark on the way down). Now above these minor cliffs, you are home free. There was a small rock wall in front of us once above the minor cliff band, but easy steepish, open subalpine walking to the left or right takes you up and around it. We chose to go left and the walking immediately became easier and more open the higher up we went. We avoided going up steep slopes to the ridge on climber’s left (which continues directly to the flat area at 5700 ft.) and in stead let the ridge funnel us up to the same 5700 ft. flat area, with the ridge to our left the whole time.

Finding this route on the way down was a bit trickier. Mainly finding the entrance point at 5200 ft. was tricky (might flag it and remove flagging on your way back), and the entrance to the ramp at 4900 ft. A bit of poking around and we found it no problem, retracing our steps almost exactly, for a very pleasant (non-devil’s club, non-"tooth and nail" scrambling, with only minor schwacking in a few places) route down. The area looked very different on the way back as virtually all the snow had melted under the trees during this hot, sunny week.

 

This next section took about 3 hours with a lunch break, but could probably be done more quickly:

Once on the arm at 5700 ft., we tried to continue up the ridge until we hit a steep exposed snow and a cornice. We backtracked and headed across open steep heather, blueberry, and talus climber’s left of the main ridge (the south side of the arm). The way was fine, but hot, tedious, and buggy (you can see the bugs in all the pictures we took in this section!). We descended to a snowfield (probably talus later in summer) at 5400 ft., and then back up again traversing up and climber’s left out of this gully/bowl (some steep slick grass and blueberry here), and then contouring on a bench over to the next very deep canyon (all visible on map). Easy but steepish blueberry slopes took us quickly upslope to a point where further westward progress would not be inhibited by the aforementioned canyon. Easy subalpline walking took us out into an open bowl where we set up camp.

 

From here on out, the walking was amazing, but took at least 4 hours to point 7300 (minus breaks). We stayed below the ridge (south side), working our way back to the ridge above Eiley lake. Above Eiley lake there is a crucial climber’s trail down to the lake. The ridge does not continue around (unless you like chossy 5th class climbing across a very deep notch that doesn’t show on the map). The trail down is marked with a cairn. Easy walking back up to the ridge and over to Wiley Lake. Awesome camp on ridge just before you get to Wiley Lake. The key to crossing Pt. 7300 seems to be a gully/notch up the southeast side of the summit block (without needing to climb to the top of the block), that leads over and down to easy slopes on the other side.

 

This is a stunning area, and a great backpacking trip even for those who do not wish to climb anything or walk across glaciers. You can head to point 7300 and turn around, completely satisfied, having taken in some of the best views of the northern Pickets possible, and 360 degree views of the northern N. Cascades.

 

Let me know if this route description is helpful for you, or if it ends up being impossible to follow! I'm sure there are many other ways through, but hopefully this will help you avoid some of the frustration other parties seem to have encountered!

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Bug nets essential. Even when camped high on snow. Bugs invaded our beta mid at night.

 

Approach Notes:

That's what this report is...

[Juan Sharp]

I second much of what is said here, especially in the first two paragraphs of actual route description. We descended this path on Friday after ascending to the climber's left on a parallel rib this past Wednesday. The approach described here is better than what we went up because you avoid a good set of cliff bands beginning at around 4,700'. Getting up through these cliff bands was not so bad, but getting down them could be a bitch.

 

Worth noting is that, when the snow is gone, there is considerably more trail above 4,800' than we expected to find. Once you hit the above-mentioned mossy cliff band (I had it at about 4,500' coming down), you can bear right and parallel what is now a mostly dry, rocky stream bed for about 250' OR actually get in the stream bed as we did coming down.

 

From the point where you exit the stream bed and move to the climber's right, a pretty good trail will lead you up and then back left and up to a flat spot that is at 5,250' by my altimeter. You'll know you're there because someone cut some pretty big trees leaving stumps. Odd. From there, a good climber's trail takes you all the way up to the ridge where the real work begins. Follow Nelson from that point on.

 

We did not summit Challenger or even quite get to Eiley Lake as a storm with rain, snow and thunder pounded us beginning Thursday mid-day and continued through the night leaving 2" of snow at 6,200' and no visibility. We camped at a tarn at 6,200' and hunkered down. Late on Friday morning, seeing no relief in sight, we "tarned around." Totally soaked. We made it to the boat ramp on Friday night and finished off the last of the Jack Daniels.

 

PM me if you want more detail. Manacus is absolutely right about the scale of the area. To us this seemed a more significant/difficult approach and peak to reach than Fury via Access Creek/Luna Col.

 

John Sharp

 

P.S. Has anyone noticed than a particular male ranger at Marblemount bears an uncanny resemblance to Kenny G. with a haircut?

Edited August 30, 2010 by Juan Sharp