[TR] Twin Sisters Range - N to S Traverse 8/24/2012

[KyleB]

Trip: Twin Sisters Range - N to S Traverse

 

Date: 8/24/2012

 

Trip Report:

The last e-mail inspired me to make my first cc.com post. Bare with me.

 

August 24-26 Cinderella Sue, Johan Kayuke Skookum, and myself made a go at a complete traverse of the Twin Sisters Range.

 

Early Friday AM:

-Base of W Ridge by 6 AM

-Summit of N Twin at 7:50, totally socked in

-descent of S gullies toward notch was slow and tedious as we weren't able to aim for the notch by sight. Dropped over onto the glacier and traversed to base of NE Ridge in nice clear conditions as the clouds kept lifting as they hit the ridge from the west. The glacier was in great shape and the moat crossing to gain the rock was minimally marginal thanks to a collapsed snow bridge.

-Summit of S Twin by around 13:00, ate lunch, played some ukulele and enjoyed ourselves. Still socked in.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78939

 

-descended the S gullies toward the basin and camped directly below the W Ridge of Skookum. We had water there and contemplated going for one more summit that day as it was only a little after 16:00. But the route looked more involved and we were unsure of how much we would like to endure another long scrambling downclimb of looseness, possibly in the dark. So, more ukulele and food. It cleared up finally and we enjoyed amazing views of the San Juan Islands to the west until sunset.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78940

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78941

 

 

Early Saturday AM:

-Simul climbing the W Ridge of Skooky took us around 4 hours, and we loved every second. Ukulele music and lunch on the summit, with little Buddha, before descending the S side gullies toward a notch in the ridge.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78942

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78943

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78944

 

We really wanted to find a way down onto the Green Glacier, which looked to be in great shape, and traverse it to just S of Little Sister then tag both Little Sister and Cinderella. But, as luck would have it, we could not find an appealing route to do so. We looked down every single gully in between Skookum and the next un-named(?) peak before Little Sister, which 2 of us scrambled up. Every gulley either dropped a long ways to an even larger drop into an airy, out of sight unknown, or dropped very steeply down several hundred (?) feet of very loose looking faces that didn't inspire confidence or look inviting. There was also a giant moat to engineer a way out of if we did get down there. Our single rope stayed in the bag, and we stayed on the west side of the ridge to a notch below the where the E ridge of Hayden takes off from the primary Sisters Range ridge line. We dropped down into the basin between Hayden and Little Sister's long W Ridge (Thanks to Johan Kayuke Skookum for scouting it out and making us pony up and head towards a steep, icy looking glacier on S side of the basin! It wasn't as bad as it looked, but from where we were scoping it...we had started considering a retreat back to Dailey Prairie.) This glacier got us to a notch in the W ridge of Little Sister by about 17:30 (we spent a LOT of time deliberating and looking for options after the Skookum fun). So, we dropped backs and scrambled up Cinderella Peak real quick and then made the easy walk down to more running water and good bivy sites near Boot Lake by 19:45 or so. Sunset, ukulele, and making a new plan for day 3 ensued.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78945

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78946

 

A questionable forecast, concern for too much unknown (to us) terrain, and the fact that we might have cared more about ukulele than running a really long ridge line in another possible whiteout had us in a pickle. In the end, we decided that instead of taking the high route or the west side of the ridge to Heart Lake to get to the car, we would drop over the Twin Sisters divide near Boot Lake and drop down into the basin of one the upper tributaries of the S Fork of The Nooksack River.

We meandered down slabs with awesome friction, snow slopes, and benches...avoiding steeper terrain and waterfalls while trending back NE. Skirting the last major waterfall (easily a couple hundred feet) on the N side, we gained the impossibly flat basin of the headwaters and had very pleasant, open hiking through rock, swampy meadows, and creekside for a couple miles. Then we walked the creek itself until it steepened, where we traversed (schwacked) huckleberry hillsides SE-ward and regained the drainage after it flattened out again. Lots more stream walking finally brought us very close to the Elbow Lake TH. Stoked to find a trail paralleling the river all the way to the car, we relished the soft manicured path for about a mile before we miraculously found a six-pack waiting for us. The beer really helped me not get bummed when we realized we also had one very flat tire to change before going on a cheeseburger hunt. It was only about 14:00, so life was good.

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78947

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78948

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78949

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78950

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78951

http://cascadeclimbers.com/plab/showfull.php?photo=78952

 

All in all, a great trip with great people. Solid rock on the up for the most part, but the down pretty much sucked with full packs. No raps at all. I rescued the remnants of at least 4 lost balloons that suffered terribly explosive deaths, Johan Kayuke Skookum is the man on the ukulele, and Sue makes some good rum nightcaps.

 

Gear Notes:

-60m half rope doubled up, with one follower on a couple coils while simul-climbing the one peak we used the rope for.

-Set of nuts, #9 hex, C3's 0,1,2 and C4's 0.3-2; Slings: about 8 singles and 6 doubles (used it all pretty much).

-ax for sure

-crampons a good idea in one small spot, but we didn't take any

-pole, rum, and Buddha squeaky toy helpful

-ukulele

 

Approach Notes:

We had the car shuttled to the bridge on FR 1260 Thursday evening and then a great friend dropped us off at the gated bridge going in Rd 38 late Thursday night where we took a nap until 3:30 AM. Up and ready to hike the road, a very generous man came and unlocked the gate around 4AM and offered us a ride to Dailey Prairie. I would not recommend using our exit as an entrance to anyone.

[jon]

I'll fix your images in the morning and PM you some directions.

[samthaman]

So awesome. Looks like a great trip!