[TR] Mt. Goodie - NE Buttress 9/4/2011

[AlpineK]

Trip: Mt. Goodie - NE Buttress

 

Date: 9/4/2011

 

Trip Report:

Climbing the NE Buttress of Goodie has been on my mind for years. A cool looking climb in a somewhat remote area of the Cascades. Throw in an approach that looked like a pain in the ass. What could be better? Fortunately other climbers I know share this view.

 

I haven't done a multi-day climb in the North Cascades National Park for some time. As a consequence I'd forgotten some details about registration. We ended up signing in at Marblemount instead of self registering. A crack of 11AM start from the trailhead, no problem. In any case tanstaafl and I made it to the crossing of the North fork of Bridge Creek and lost enthusiasm for brushwacking and scrambling.

 

 

Our plan involved climbing the route the next day, but adding the mandatory brushwack and scramble sounded over the top. Instead we spent Saturday scrambling to high camp then resting.

 

Camp

You'll noticed we brought a tent and sleeping bags to camp

 

NE Buttress

I marked the main route, but the route includes climbing/scrambling to the Goodie Glacier then glacier climbing.

 

At about 6AM on the 4th we left camp. Route finding wasn't too bad heading up to the base of the buttress. Eventually we reached the moat, and swiched into rock climbing gear.

 

 

The route isn't too hard. We ended up simul-climbing and swaping leads when the leader ran through the supply of gear and slings

 

Climbing on the route

 

We didn't see anybody on route till we reached summit and ran into folks doing a multiday ascent and carry-over.

 

Summit Shot

 

After a brief rest we looked at the clock and figured we'd better move since camp was a long way below. Our descent involved a combination of downclimbing with a handful of rappels. We were pretty psyched to make it to the glacier while daylight was available. Getting out of rock shoes was nice, but then we started down the glacier. At this point a combination of exhaustion and lack of a clearly marked path set in. We wandered on the glacier trying to remember how the hell we'd navigated through the icefall in the morning. The sun was going away and we were traversing. Eventually I found a route through the icecliffs but it really was dark at that point.

 

We scrambled to a point where we knew a cliff separated us from the tent. Daylight sure is nice while climbing. Eventually some hard reality set in and we realized the tent was out of reach until the sun returned. After some stumbling we found a spot that was somewhat flat and somewhat protected from the wind to hunker down. Sitting still in the cold for 7 hours, no problem

 

Eventually the sun returned and we saw our tent about 200 yards from us. After a bit more downclimbing we finally got the dinner we missed out on. We agreed to take advantage of sleeping bags for a bit but then hit the road.

 

Goodie

 

Logan

 

The descent to the river really enhanced the fun factor. We saw a chute that avoided a bunch of brushwacking and headed down it. From reading the guide it sounded like there was an alternate route through the lower cliff bands above the river. We started crawling through tangled webs of tree branches until I noticed we were cliffed out. A bit of swearing ensued. Eventually I saw a line where a scramble through the band of trees might return us to our original ascent route. Sure enough it worked out

 

Marked Routes

The red line marks our ascent and green marks the descent. I put an x where we realized we were cliffed out.

 

Once down to the river we ate a 2PM lunch then started the march to the car. We didn't see it till 11PM but we sure were happy when we did.

 

The peak sure is cool, and I'm happy it's off the list. On the other hand car camping and cragging near the road sure sound nice right now.

 

Edited September 8, 2011 by Feck

[DPS]

I think being benighted only to see the tent the next mornng is a Cascades ritual on this peak.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I think being benighted only to see the tent the next mornng is a Cascades ritual on this peak.

 

Yes, that was classic. :-)

[spionin]

hilarious. the summit picture might as well be captioned "motley crew".

 

i love reading reports where people have all sorts of unintended adventures, route finding shenanigans, tent-less nights, gear loss, time shortages, etc... and yet still make it sound fun and have good humor about it.

 

right on. and thanks!

[Juan Sharp]

It seems that it's becoming a bit of a ritual unless you carry over. =;-)

[cdrbond007]

Great report! We were there the day before and bivied on top. That group of 4 (2 gals, 2 guys) was below us and bivied on the ledge. Got some pictures of them (I assume) summiting from Storm King at about 12:30.

 

[ryanl]

Way to go you two!! Sounds epic in all the right ways.

[olyclimber]

nice Kurt! sounds like you had a GOODIE TIME!