[TR] Mt. Goode - NE Buttress 9/12/2012

[hefeweizen]

Trip: Mt. Goode - NE Buttress

 

Date: 9/12/2012

 

Trip Report:

This is one of the coolest mountain climbs I've done. If you're looking for strictly "multi-pitch traditional rock climbing", don't come here. If you want alpinism, this route delivers. Especially this time of year.

 

There's plenty of info out there, I mostly wanted to let folks know that the upper half of the route has a meaningful amount of snow on it from last Sunday/Monday's system. A survey of nearby north faces showed the same above 8,000'. It's probably not going to melt this year. We cruised the lower half of the route quickly, but we were significantly slowed down on the upper half by snow.

 

We bivied on the summit which is one of the best bivy sites anywhere.

 

 

 

Climbing the Goode Glacier.

Upper third of the route.

Beautiful sunrise on the summit with smoke filled valleys below.

 

Gear Notes:

Small alpine rack to 2", we were happy to have two ice screws and an ice tool each for dealing with the Goode Glacier.

 

Approach Notes:

We went in via Lake Chelan/Stehekin, which I feel had several advantages over the Hwy 20 approach.

 

-shorter

-no penalty elevation loss

-allows you to carry-over and descend out the Park Creek drainage, rather than either an even longer hike or dealing with the Goode/StormKing Col.

-you get to see the unique commuinity of Stehekin and eat at the bakery.

 

[JasonG]

Thanks for the info, I was surprised by the amount of snow on the north side. Were the other faces mostly melted off?

 

That summit bivy is fantastic. Did you get the full snaffle treatment to round out the experience?

[hefeweizen]

It seemed like the other true north faces in the area had a similar amount of snow above about 8 grand.

 

There was a rather large furry creature that I threw some rocks at.

[trumpetsailor]

We climbed Boston on 9/16. N. side of Sahale had the tiniest patches of remaining new accumulation in the shadiest spots. Boston was dry. I'd guess it'll all melt before the next storm?

 

Smoke column over near Agnes was impressive.