[TR] West McMillan Spire - West Ridge 8/31/2013

[HighLife]

Trip: West McMillan Spire - West Ridge

 

Date: 8/31/2013

 

Trip Report:

BIKE TO MCMILLAN: A Human Powered Adventure From Bellingham To The West McMillan Spire.

 

With a perfect 3-day weather window, I packed my pack and biked the 70 miles to Newhalem. I tied my bike to a tree at the end of the pavement on the road to the Goodell Creek TH, hiked 1.5 miles up the road to the TH, then the 4 miles to the climbers turnoff where I made my camp for the night.

 

Left camp at 7am, climbed hard. Made the summit by 1:40pm. Raced nightfall all the way back to camp. Made it back to camp with 30 min of light left- the perfect amt of time to cook up instant mashed potatoes.

 

Location (Elevation): Time Elapsed / Split / Real Time

 

Day 1:

 

Bellingham (200 ft) : 0 / 0 / 06:30am

End of Pavement (500 ft) : 7:00 / 7:00 / 01:30pm

Climber's Turnoff "Camp" (1,600 ft) : 8:38 / 1:38 / 03:08pm

 

Day 2:

 

Climbers Turnoff "Camp"(1,600 ft) : 0 / 0 / 07:00am

Heather Bench [top of hill climb] (5,200 ft) : 1:57 / 1:57 / 08:57

Arrive West McMillan Summit (8,000 ft) : 6:40 / 4:43 / 1:40pm

Depart West McMillan Summit (8,000 ft) : 7:00 / 00:20 / 02:00pm

Heather Bench [top of hill climb] (5,200 ft) : 10:54 / 3:54 / 05:54pm

Climbers Turnoff "Camp"(1,600 ft) : 12:24 / 1:30 / 07:24pm

 

Day 3:

 

Climber's Turnoff "Camp" (1,600ft) : 0:00 / 0:00 / 07:30am

End of Pavement (500 ft) : 1:30 / 1:30 / 09:00am

Bellingham (200 ft) : 8:30 / 7:00 / 04:00pm

 

 

The Southern Pickets

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Steph Abegg stephabegg.com

 

 

 

Mt Fury

 

Inspiration, Degenhardt, Terror, Shuksan, and Baker

 

 

 

 

 

Back home safe!

 

Gear Notes:

Hard snow on Terror Glacier. Crampons and running shoes made a sketchy mix. Glad to have brought ice axe.

Edited September 11, 2013 by HighLife

[JasonG]

Glad you had a safe trip! We saw you pedaling your ass off just outside of Concrete and wondered where you were headed with the climbing gear. Pretty cool.

[Woodcutter]

Yeah man> we met you at breakfast time as you were heading up from Godell Cr.

Excellent effort. Someone was alive up on top of one of the 'Macs that night & I did wonder if it was you.

Jake

[mthorman]

Awesome job man! I love the combination of the various different sports.

[Sol]

[olyclimber]

Love it!

[ivan]

self-propelled adventure

[rob]

Cool!! This is the kind of stuff I like to do, we should join forces!

[wayne]

Thats awesome, except for the idea of pedaling that far with a pack? Did you have panniers or something?

[Whatcomboy]

That is a good climb. Did the dog ride a bike?

[bedellympian]

Doesn't look like there are paniers on his bike in the picture. I've done 40+ one-way with a backpacking pack and it wasn't ideal but it works better than you would think. Paniers are awkward in their own way. My preferred method is throwing the pack in a baby-haulin' trailer. Makes drivers way more respectful of you, although up hills are a pain in the butt.

[trumpetsailor]

Nice work, Highlife! Great to meet you at the Terror Basin glacial lake outlet on our way up. Thanks for the knowledge, too.

 

Woodcutter - we were the party of two atop West Mac for the night. Were you the blinkers on the N. Ridge of Terror (I guess we met you in Goodell Creek that morning?)? We thought we saw lights at Picket Pass too.

 

Sublime evening/sunrise.

[HighLife]

How was the traverse? Did you make it to Hannegan pass TH?

[HighLife]

I wish I had paniers. Not having them sure made it harder to stand and my butt sore. I think they are now on my Christmas list.

[HighLife]

The dog is pretty tough, but she stayed at home on that one.