[TR] Goode/ Logan - NEB/ Fremont glacier 8/31-9/3

[Val Zephyr]

Trip: Goode/ Logan - NEB/ Fremont glacier

 

Trip Report:

It seems like every year I throw myself at the mountains multiple times on several different routes hoping for just one or two truly memorable adventures where weather, objective, a good partner and general luck line up just right. This was that trip for me this year. Aaron Z and I climbed the NE buttress of Goode and a bonus Fremont Glacier route on Logan over a sunny four day weekend. I don’t think that this trip could have been any better.

 

Aaron had been up Goode 5 years prior and thought that the route was well worth repeating (it definitely is). This time, his plan was to go faster, lighter, bring more food and stay better hydrated so that we might attempt the rarely climbed SER on Buckner afterwards.

 

We left Seattle at 5am Friday and made a quick stop to buy tons of junk food (Aaron somehow survived 4 days on a diet primarily consisting of cake, gummy worms and candy bars). His calorie to weight ratio was far superior to mine (mostly bread and cheese for me). We secured our permits and hit the Bridge Creek/PCT at 9:30ish. Hiking the first ten miles in tennis shoes was a good move, the miles flew by on the slightly downward trail. We stashed our shoes and continued another 5 miles on the north fork trail until directly beneath the NEB. The ford was easy this time of year and we crossed the creek just in time to get the last few rays of sun before it disappeared behind Goode. From there we started on the left side of the slabs. Heading up talus, then slabs, then moving slightly right and up more. We passed the bivies at 5200’ and made camp at the bivy at 5400’. We had just enough time to make dinner at sunset, watch some frighteningly large blocks fall off the icefall to climbers left of our route and pass out.

 

Scrambling to the bivy sites:

 

Alpine flowers on the way to the bivy:

 

Full moon rises:

 

We got going at around 8am and moved quickly under the icefall (thankfully, not the same area we watched crumble the night before, we stayed far to climber’s right of it). Soon we were a WI2 ramp with some fun easy ice climbing. We simuled this using one screw. The ridge is was easy to gain on the right-hand side. After gaining the ridge we climbed to the top in 6 long simul-pitches. We stayed just to the left of the crest for the first 2, then stayed on the crest after reaching a large ledge with a rock. This is where the ridge gets really spectacular. The climbing is fun, solid and the position above the glacier is incredible. Soon I forgot that I had an overnight pack and boots on and was just enjoying moving over soooo much rock! We topped out just after 3pm, enjoyed the view from the top, and began looking at the condition of our next potential objective, Buckner. The SE ridge is another long, grade IV ridge route involving several gendarmes and up to 5.8 climbing. It would be a long day. To complicate things more the descent route is to rappel to the glacier on the north side and descend it to the base of the route. The north glacier had a bergschrund that spanned the entire glacier. We considered trying to get back over the Booker-Buckner col, but we couldn’t see the entire col (we’d see later that it actually had a schrund of it’s own) and that would make for a very long day. We put off the decision for now and began our descent off of Goode. Two raps brought us close to the notch. A quick pitch brought us up to the notch were we scrambled down 50’ and found the first rap, then another rap and we were downclimbing the nasty gully. But apparently not the nastiest gully in all of the Cascades, because between the two of us, we could think of several more places that we’d rather not be. Once free of the loose rock we followed random climber’s paths, cairns and animal trails until giving up and making a straight line to the valley bottom and the Park Creek trail. Somewhere in the woods in started to get dark, we crashed through the trees faster. By the end, I could barely see and was just following the brush crashing noise ahead of me (presumably Aaron, but could have been a bear for all I knew). Finally I hear, “I have the trail”. Hooray!! We finally put on headlamps and started toward 5 mile camp. Conveniently we came out of the trees just 5 min shy of camp. What a great short-cut (joking)!

 

Logan at sunrise:

 

The active part of the glacier is at the left side of this photo, we climbed right of the photo to where it is easy to access the glacier:

 

Easy ice brought us to the right side of the ridge (no moat issues here):

 

Ridge climbing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summit!

 

 

Rappelling toward the notch. It’s a long way down to the valley that we’d come up the day before:

 

Sunny Park Creek side of Goode:

 

We were really tired by now, we discussed options for the next day: Hike out, leisurely hike out in two days, go for Buckner or climb Logan (which Aaron was pretty sure he’d heard enough about the route to figure out the way). I responded that I my goal for the trip was to leave a happy, content pile of mush. He promised that he could guarantee at least one of the three if we went for Logan. We’d both been dabbling with the Bulger list too and didn’t have Logan crossed off yet, so Logan it was!

 

We got another leisurely start at around 8am after some much needed sleep. The route up Logan involved ascending the trail to Park Creek pass which was one of the most scenic stretches of trial that either of us had seen and was a real treat after brush bashing the night before. After the pass, you descend about 200’ then ascend straight up to some meadows and make a long traverse to climbers left until near the base of an obvious tower (of course we were just guessing a lot of this as we were going off Aaron’s memory of route descriptions and TRs and we didn’t have a map for Logan). It worked though! From near the tower it was just up a little through snow and rock to the small Fremont glacier. Then some fun (exposed in places) 4th class scrambling with plenty of helpful cairns marking the way to the summit. Logan was one of the most scenic summits I’ve been on. The whole Eldorado Ice cap is laid out in front of you. We were back to camp in just under 12 hours. We must have accumulated quite a ripe smell by then because that night we were harassed by a herd of deer that must have thought we were a giant salt lick. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. We continually chased off deer that were within 3 feet of our sleeping bags!

 

Scrambling Logan:

 

 

View from summit of Logan:

 

 

Beautiful Park Creek Pass trail:

 

Our final day, I woke up a near pile of mush. The mileage and elevation gain was finally catching up to us. The long hike out should finish the job. Several hours later I hobbled out to hwy 20, a happy, content, thoroughly exhausted, pile of mush.

 

Still a long way from the pass:

 

Happy to be back after a fantastic trip! I haven’t been this exhausted all summer!

 

Thanks for the trip Aaron!

 

Gear Notes:

single set of cams 0.3-2 + yellow link cam

single set of nuts

~8 single alpine draws and 4 doubles

60 meter half rope doubled over

Edited September 9, 2012 by Val Zephyr

[ivan]

[Le Piston]

Val, you're an animal! Looks like a great trip. Thanks once again for posting.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

This climb slipped through my fingers this year due to partner bailure. Wish I could have joined you!

[cbcbd]

Awesome stuff! Heard about the trip idea and was super jealous

 

"(Aaron somehow survived 4 days on a diet primarily consisting of cake, gummy worms and candy bars)."

 

Make that 6 days, I can vouch for the 1st 2. Cake? He must be getting fancy.

[Z-Man]

Great photos Val, great work pushing the mileage on this one. Logan was a pleasant surprise of a great climb, and waiting on Buckner gives me a good reason to go back to Goode again.

[curtveld]

Very solid accomplishments for a 4 day outing!

 

Fabulous photos, especially the old man's beard shot (third to last)

[Skeezix]

Excellent mountaineering!