Mt. Goode

[hakioawa]

Anyone been up the northeast (I think) buttress of Goode? We're thinking about doing it this weekend. Two questions. Whats the best approach, and how the heck do you get down?

[bobinc]

Haven't done it but did the approach some years ago. Using the boat/shuttle through Stehekin saves a few miles on the trail vs the Rainy Pass approach but is more expensive and time-consuming. All reports I've heard on the descent suggest rappelling/downclimbing the NE Butt or using the Goode/Storm King col descent is much superior to carrying over (especially if you walk in from Rainy Pass). There was a thread on this sometime in the non-too-recent past.

[Stefan]

Here is my trip report on Goode this year. Glacial breakup was occurring at that time. My recommendation: it is too late—but I could be wrong.

Goode NE Buttress 6/30/01-7/02/01

I had always wanted to do the NE Buttress of Goode since so many people had said it was a fun trip to do. Lots of class 4, some class 5 and class 3 is what they said on pretty solid rock. Pretty true to their words…..(If you really don’t care about the report at least read the last paragraph in this report. It is the strangest thing Greg and I have ever seen in the woods.)

Greg and I left the Bridge Creek trailhead at 8:45 on Saturday June 30 and walked the trail which was pretty uneventful and made it to the start of the short cross country section in 5.5 hours (15 miles of hiking). We followed the example of how to proceed through the cross country section as described in the CAG#1. (I recommend that you do not do this. We found a MUCH better way through the brush on our way down. I will describe it later.) There is a log down across the stream at this point and easily crosses the North Fork. After that the brush becomes VERY intense for about 150 meters before it breaks out into talus. We stayed to the right of the stream opting to climb on the slabs which went very well and went through some more brush before coming to the Alpen slopes. We camped at 5600 feet on slabs and not at the bivy spot at the last bit of trees. Our camp was a great place if you want to carry over. Our objective was to climb Goode and Stormking and come back to camp.

We left camp on Sunday July 1 at 7:30 under beautiful skies with just daypacks to make the ascent light and enjoyable. We went through the glacier which in my opinion is breaking up badly and did not look like it was going to last for several weeks. However, the snow to the bench had no indication a moat or bergschrund was going to appear soon and looked in very good condition. We did the fifth class climb onto the ridge proper and then did the short slabby section all roped up. After that the climb turns 3rd class for several hundred feet of climbing. Wow. I did not know this. We were basically to the south of the ridge proper and this section went very fast with many heather benches.

We reached a part of the ridge were it blended in with a face and started doing more mid 5th class climbing. This was odd to me because we were about 800 feet below the summit where the books say the climbing starts at about 500 feet below the summit. From here to the summit we were doing a combination of belayed climbing and simul-climbing. I would say we were doing about 50/50. Maybe we were off route, but I came across several old, but looked recently used pitons that were permanently wedged. Shortly after this section we did a traverse on a very broad ledge to another minor ridge that borders the NW face. At this point is where Greg dropped two of my carabiners and a #7 stopper. They are yours if you can find them…….

If we were on the right route, why wasn’t this wide ledge ever described in the route books? The next part of the ridge we climbed had snow on it but was not a problem. We were sometimes on the NW face just below the ridge and sometimes we were directly on the NE Buttress. The climbing is definitely fourth class with some sections of low fifth class in my opinion, however there are holds everywhere. The holds are not as big as the West Ridge of Forbidden, but they are still there.

We finally topped out at 3:30, a little thirsty but glad to be at the top with such great weather. I did the climb in a short sleeved shirt. The summit register said someone had been up there that same day—solo—but we did not know what route the person took.

We came down the Bedayn couloir because the Nelson book recommended it—I was not mentally prepared for what we went through. It was crap. Do not come down the Bedayn couloir. Since we had the rope, we decided to rappel certain sections. We did 7 rappels. This was the third worst rappel/descent in my life—and such it took a lot of time to do. Due to my frustrations it took us 3.5 hours to come down and as such we knew we had to give up on the Stormking ascent.

We traversed around to the Goode-Stormking col and did another rappel to the glacier. From there we got back to our camp sometime just before 10:00 where we moved the overnight bivy to the last section of trees and a better view of the NE Buttress.

The next morning we came down the way we came up from the North Fork EXCEPT we decided to NOT go through the brush as described in the Beckey book. We followed the scree talus/washout as far as it goes down to the North Fork directly below camp. From there it is about 20 meters to the stream through easy brush. We then walked up the stream on rocks for about 40 meters where we crossed and then went another 20 meters through light brush to the trail. The brush is light, and easy on this way across the stream and I highly recommend it over crossing the way the Beckey book describes. To access this way, go about 100 meters up the North Fork Bridge Creek trail after you leave the stand of trees. You should see the washout across the stream, but go about another 40 meters past this sighting, and then cross directly.

The hike out was uneventful and took 6.5 hours EXCEPT for one thing. We were hiking sometime past the Rainbow Lake cutoff trail and before the South Pass cutoff trail. Here I am sweating like it is midsummer New Orleans wearing only shorts and shoes and I come across this man wearing a full sweater and pants and he is carrying a suitcase. Yes, a suitcase. With wheels. At the same time we see him, we also notice his stash. He has 2 other suitcases on the side of the trail. This man also has the largest duffel bag I have ever seen with stuff I can’t see and is even bigger than Greg and mine’s backpacks combined. The man has also brought along with him a metal foot looker about 3 feet long by 1.5 feet in height and width. The man also has a 5 gallon water jug, but we could not tell if it was fuel or water in there. He has no backpack. He has no friends with him. He has no horses. I am flabbergasted by what I see. We get to talking and he says he started at Rainy Pass with all this stuff. Rainy Pass???!!! He said he was going to Leavenworth. What???!!! He also said he started in Spokane. He was about 35 and seemed a little toked up, but I could not tell. I would like to know the friend that dropped him off at Rainy Pass, because this guy had a North Cascades backcountry permit too! To ferry his loads he said it took him five trips to retrieve his stuff. In other words, he would have to walk the trail 10 times!! No backpack. A metal footlocker. 3 suitcases. A 5 gallon water jug. A duffel bag not even a Navy seaman would carry. I would like to see the face of the shuttle bus driver at the Stehekin road when this guy arrives there.

 

[philfort]

Hey Stefan,

Did you get a look at the snow/ice face to the climber's LEFT of the NE buttress? I forget what Beckey calls it, but its pretty much adjacent to the NE buttress, in a sort of gully, and it leads to the ridge between the main and east summits. Did it look any good?

Wow, that guy with the footlocker sounds like a total nut case!

[This message has been edited by philfort (edited 08-28-2001).]

[Mr._Blister]

If glacial breakup is a concern and you really want to do Goode, consider the N.W. Butt as an alternative. We did it instead of the N.E. based on very reliable reports that the river could not be crossed so access to the N.E. Butt was blocked. That was late July in an average snow year, and it was a warm weekend, so the rivers were all cookin'. If you do the N.W. Butt, You can camp at 5-mile campground and do the route as a day climb camp-to-camp. We came down the Bedayn Couloir back to camp. Semi-terrifying descent. The route is III 5.5, and the rock was fine. I did it in heavy leather boots, and my partner, a better climber, led in rock shoes. We approached from Stehekin, took the shuttle, etc. Aluminum crampons and a light axe would be a good idea. 50m 9mm rope too. Small rack of pro to 2" if I recall. And helmets. For sure helmets. Fred describes the route reasonably well.

Good luck. It's a cool mountain.

John Sharp

[This message has been edited by Mr. Blister (edited 08-28-2001).]

[David_Parker]

Don't you know a walking crystal meth lab when you see one!!

[Stefan]

philfort:

Yes, I did see the snow/ice coulouir to the left. At the time I was on the NE Buttress on July 1 it looked like it was in really good shape. Really good. No bergschrund problems whatsoever--and snow/ice went all the way to the ridge. Since this is a low snow year I would suspect that it would last well into later July during a regular snow year.

The guy with the foot locker I heard was talked to by the rangers at Stehekin about 2 weeks later. They asked if they could go through his stuff. He said yes. They found only his worldly belongings. No walking meth lab. The rangers thought he was weird though.

[Mr._Blister]

A real nut case with a suit case.