[TR] Pickets Traverse - Goodell Creek to Access Creek (7/7-13, 2013) 7/7/2013

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Trip: Pickets Traverse - Goodell Creek to Access Creek (7/7-13, 2013)

 

Date: 7/7/2013

 

Trip Report:

Absurd photo dump below...

 

I recently reconnected with an old friend of mine from high school thanks to Facebook. Our lives had taken different courses and it had been nearly twenty years since we last saw each other. For some reason or another, Matt and I soon got to talking about mountains. We agreed it would be neat to connect on a trip into the hills this summer, so we started making plans. Matt had done some hiking, mainly around the Olympics, but had never done any climbing or mountaineering. He had never worn crampons, never carried an ice axe, and never climbed on steep snow. Despite all that, Matt is athletic and told me he likes scrambling, and is interested in getting into mountaineering. So with that, I made a few suggestions, and naturally the Pickets came up. After sharing some photos of past trips into the Pickets, Matt was on board.

 

Being that I had never hiked with Matt and didn’t know where he was at in terms of skill, confidence, and ability to suffer, I decided to not go into this trip with any major goals other than a starting point and an ending point. I had never been to Picket Pass, so that was one goal I set for the trip, but other than that, it didn’t matter if we summited a single peak, this was about us having fun and enjoying some time in the mountains.

 

In the end, despite our lack of goals, we wound up summiting several peaks and traversing a great deal of rugged terrain on our six day traverse of the Pickets from Terror Creek to Access Creek.

 

 

Day 1

 

We left Seattle early in order to get to the Marblemount Ranger Station ahead of the pack to secure a permit. We arrived in the ranger station parking lot at 6:50AM where we encountered one gentleman getting ready to climb the NE Buttress route on Goode. After talking to him for a few minutes and giving him some beta on the route, a group of about 12 pulled up. Good thing we came in early!

 

Getting a permit turned out to not be a problem, and after securing it we headed straight for the Ross Dam TH to drop off Matt’s car. From there, we drove back together in my rig to the Goodell Creek TH where we would begin our trip.

 

Having been up Terror Creek into Crescent Creek Basin a few times, the approach was straightforward (but tedious). Our heavy packs weighed us down, but we took it slow and made sure to stop periodically to tape up Matt’s feet. Matt wasn’t used to carrying heavy packs up steep approaches and he had a new pair of boots, so taping was a necessity to ensure he could manage the duration of the trip.

 

We crossed Terror Creek where Matt had a brief encounter with the water. The usual log crossing was underwater due to high runoff, and we were forced to cross on a much smaller, much bouncier log just upstream. Matt’s pack caught a tree branch as he approached the shore and he fell into the creek, luckily close to shore where the water was shallow. He managed to only get his boots wet, so we sat by the shore for an hour or so to give them time to dry out. Luckily they were new boots and their waterproofing was in good shape and it only took a short time to dry them out.

 

The hike up the Barrier was as usual – steep, dry, and brushy. Matt had never seen forest this steep and was perplexed that there was any sort of climbing path through it. Matt did great though, and before long we were cruising on flatter terrain towards Barrier Camp. We eventually settled down for the night at ~5500’ in the basin below the Chopping Block.

 

 

Day 2

 

We awoke on Day 2 to sunny skies. Matt and I both felt strong, so we decided to go over and check out the NE Ridge of the Chopping Block. Matt had never done any roped climbing before, and was eager to give it a shot despite the fact that the NE Ridge appeared impossibly steep to him from below. We dropped our packs at the col and headed up to the start of the ridge a mere five minute walk away. I led off right and gained a series of benches that headed back left onto the crest where it steepened. From here, it was three very enjoyable, solid pitches of moderate climbing to the summit. Matt did well on the climb and thoroughly enjoyed himself aside from a slight bout with the sewing machine leg.

 

After taking summit shots and enjoying the views for a couple of hours, we descended the SE route and traversed a bench back to our packs. From there, we continued on into Crescent Creek Basin where we would camp for night 2. Crescent Creek Basin Camp was partly covered in snow, and there was barely room to squeeze the two of us in. Without digging snow, we couldn’t set up a tent, so we bivi’d out as we had done the night before. While sitting around camp, I looked up to the ridge and noticed two guys at the Degenhardt – Terror Col. I knew this had to be Chad and Jens on their complete SN Pickets traverse attempt. Matt wasn’t interested in heading up to chat, so I told him I’d be back in a couple of hours and headed up there myself.

 

It was great to hang out with Chad and Jens for a while and talk about their trip so far. They had already climbed three Mac Spires, Inspiration, Pyramid, and Degenhardt and they were now preparing to continue on towards the North where they would finish on Challenger (along the crest the whole way) and hike out Eiley Wiley Ridge and Big Beaver back to Ross Lake. When you think about it, that’s mind-blowing!

 

After hanging with Chad and Jens for a couple of hours, I headed back down to camp where Matt was fast asleep.

 

 

Day 3

 

Day 3 dawned sunny once again, and we headed towards Himmelhorn-Ottohorn Col where we would then descend the Mustard Glacier and traverse to Picket Pass. I had never been to Picket Pass before and really didn’t do any research on how to get there beforehand, so we were “winging” it. I had been through the Himmel-Otto Col on my way to climb the North Buttress of Terror in 2008, so I knew what to expect there, but getting from the Mustard Glacier to Picket Pass proved to be more involved than I had anticipated.

 

The views along the way were stupendous, and we reached camp early that afternoon and had plenty of time to hang out before hitting the hay. Just after sunset, we saw two headlamps coming off the Himmelhorn down into Himmel-Otto Col. We flashed our headlamps at them and gave them a whoop, and they flashed us back. It was neat to be able to watch Chad and Jens’ progress and know we were watching history.

 

 

Day 4

 

Day 4 dawned sunny but breezy, which was OK since the bugs at Picket Pass were pretty thick. Our plan for today was to traverse over Outrigger Peak, and land on the summit of Fury for the night.

 

Again, I didn’t do any research whatsoever on getting to Outrigger from Picket Pass, and it proved to be more involved than I expected. There is one section of knife-edge ridge that we decided to belay, followed by a steep section of rock which we avoided by climbing onto the glacier to the S of Outrigger and climbing its face. Fun climbing here led us to the summit, where we hung out for quite a while. While hanging out on the summit eating lunch, we saw Chad and Jens making their way up from Picket Pass. We waited for them to arrive (which didn’t take long), and we all hiked over to the summit of Fury together. We arrived on the summit of Fury to cloudy, cold conditions. After a group summit shot with Chad and Jens and describing the way Fay and I traversed over to W Fury, they continued on while Matt and I settled in for the night.

 

That evening, the clouds put on a spectacular show for us. These were hands down some of the best summit views I’ve ever had the pleasure to enjoy. Swirling clouds and blowing wind and orange and pink hues and brocken spectres.. it was like sensory overload, and we weren’t complaining. We snapped photos furiously while watching one of the coolest sunsets ever. Matt and I were in awe.

 

Once the sun set, however, things got cold. The wind was blowing at a steady 25-30 and the only shelter we had was an open sil shelter. Not expecting weather that night, we both decided to brave it out and open bivy in our warm sleeping bags – Matt with his 10 degree GoLite bag, and me with my 20 degree Western Mountaineering.

 

About midnight, I heard some rustling below, and asked Matt what was going on. Apparently, his air mattress popped and he was cold.

 

 

Day 5

 

By the time morning rolled around, I had a healthy coat of rime ice on my sleeping bag, the wind was still howling steady, and the temperatures were in the upper 20s (windchills much colder). About 5AM, I got up and informed Matt that we needed to get moving to lower ground. I wasn’t sure if precip was moving in, but it felt moist so I didn’t want to stick around to find out. We hurriedly packed everything up and descended the Fury Glacier in a complete whiteout. The Fury glacier has some huge crevasses on it, so it was a bit unnerving navigating them in a whiteout, but we managed to get to the safety of the basin between Fury and the ridge that leads to Luna-Fury Col just as the clouds started to break. Although the clouds broke down low, Fury’s summit remained in a cloud until late that evening.

 

We stopped and napped in the dry basin below Fury, before beginning the traverse along the ridge towards Luna. This ridge is really fun scrambling with gorgeous views, so we were delighted that there was visibility so we could enjoy it.

 

We arrived at Luna Fury Col that evening around 4 where we ran into two climbers traversing from Whatcom Pass to Goodell Creek. After talking to them for a little bit, we scrambled up Luna where we were the first to sign in for the year (same with Fury). Last time I climbed Luna I couldn’t find the register, and now I know why.. it was not in the summit cairn where I usually look. We signed the register, enjoyed the views, and headed back down to camp.

 

 

Day 6

 

The plan for Day 6 was to descend Access Creek to Big Beaver and camp at Luna Camp. We made quick work of the descent (thanks to having been in Access Creek before), and before we knew it, we were looking for a way to cross Big Beaver Creek. This was the crux. When I went in with Fay in 2009, there was a huge log jam to cross on. I tried looking for that logjam, but was unable to find it. So we walked upstream within sight of the creek to try and spot another way to cross. We probably traveled about ½ mile upstream before I finally spotted a [barely] adequate log to cross on. After crossing the creek, we battled insanely heavy mosquitoes back to Luna Camp, where we decided it would be best to keep hiking out to Ross Lake rather than sit around and get eaten alive.

 

We made it to Ross Lake by 7PM, and crashed at the Big Beaver Group Site which was unoccupied.

 

 

Day 7

 

All we had to do today was catch a boat (which we didn’t have a reservation for) and hike the 500’ back up to the parking lot from the landing. It took us about four hours, but eventually we flagged down a boat. The boat ride back was enjoyable, and gave me time to reflect back on a great trip into one of my favorite places on the planet.

 

 

Photos:

 

 

[wayne]

Thats one hell of a first-mountaineering-trip! Nice photos too.

[olyclimber]

No kidding! Well on your way to the top 10 in TRs Tom, and with great quality too.

 

 

[OlegV]

wow!!!