[TR] Mt Challenger - Challenger Glacier 8/9/2012

[matsfredrickson]

Trip: Mt Challenger - Challenger Glacier

 

Date: 8/9/2012

 

Trip Report:

Day 1 (8/9/12): Steve, John, and I set off from the Hannegan trail head just before 9 am. We stopped for a bite at Hannegan Pass and continued on to the Chilliwack River crossing. Two logs were conveniently spanning the river and we were able creatively cross them.

 

Crossing the Chilliwack River

 

After another quick break at the river we headed up a nice climber’s trail toward Easy Ridge. The going was very steep and a little slow but we weren’t in a hurry. We arrived at the top of Easy Ridge and hiked for another half hour before finding a great campsite with amazing views.

 

Sunset

 

 

Day 2 (8/10/12): We awoke to find our camp just above the clouds that gathered in the valley and we were treated to a great sunrise.

 

Sunrise

 

After some breakfast we packed up camp and started off toward Perfect Pass, our destination for the day. After scaling Easy Peak we started descending the ridge down snow, rocks, and vegetation. It wasn’t too long before we found our progress stopped by the Perfect Impasse. Steve had some good beta on getting past the impasse without needing to lose 1,600 vertical feet to go beneath it. We backtracked one hundred feet or so and scrambled up some rocks. We saw some white rocks perched on their side above and figured this was the way across. I dropped my pack and scrambled up to check it out. It looked good to me so I went back, grabbed my pack and the guys, and we were on our way again. Some 4th class scrambling took us across the impasse and we were at Perfect Pass at noon.

 

Perfect Impasse

 

Our original plan was to go for the summit of Challenger on the morning of the third day but we decided to go for it that afternoon since we didn’t really have anything else to do. We set up camp, ate, and took a good rest before setting out.

 

The first obstacle was getting down onto the glacier as there was a large cornice all the way around the rock rim. We were able to hop down a few feet to a flat spot and set up a rappel. This took us about half way down to the glacier and some 4th class scrambling took us the rest of the way down. We quickly set off across the glacier as we wanted to be back at camp before dark. Navigating the glacier was fairly straight forward, it was somewhat broken up with several massive crevasses but getting around them was easy. After a couple hours of glacier travel we scrambled up to the single rock pitch, which Steve lead. He belayed John and myself up and we took turns posing on the top for pictures.

 

Summit shot

View from the summit

 

A quick rappel down and some more scrambling took us back to our gear and we set off back toward Perfect Pass. We more or less took the same route back and had some great photo opportunities along the way.

 

Photo op

 

Back below Perfect Pass again, we scrambled up the same stretch of rock that we scrambled down and then we were able to get onto a mellow rock ramp which took us to our previous rappel anchor. We boosted Steve over the cornice and he helped pull us up just as night was falling. Some dinner and celebrating was in order before we hit the hay.

 

Eatin'

 

 

Day 3 (8/11/12): All we had to do this day was walk. We knew we need to get back to our first night’s camp at the very least so we figured we would just walk until we felt like stopping, likely at the Chilliwack or one of the campsites between the river and Hannegan TH. We got the river in the early afternoon and stopped for a good rest. We ran into a group of 3 guys headed for Challenger and shared our experience with them. I hope they were successful! At 3 pm we left the river and were back on the trail. I wanted to get back to the car that evening so I set out on a pretty brisk pace. We passed the first campground and decided to stop at the next one and decide how far to go. This one looked full so our only real option was to go all the way to the car. We took rest on top of Hannegan Pass and started the long descent. This seemed to take forever (doesn’t it always?) but we finally made it back to the car about 7 pm.

 

 

Gear Notes:

Ice axe, aluminum crampons, picket for crevasse rescue, 4 draws for the 4 pins on the rock pitch. I would recommend bringing a helmet as we dislodged many loose rocks while scrambling.

 

Approach Notes:

Hannegan pass -> Easy Ridge -> Perfect Pass -> Challenger Glacier. Same route back.

Edited August 17, 2012 by matsfredrickson

[timmy_t]

Thanks for the TR. I just sent a PM with a couple of questions, if you have time...