[TR] Mt. Formidable - South Route 8/10/2014

[lizard]

Trip: Mt. Formidable - South Route

 

Date: 8/10/2014

 

Trip Report:

View South from Forbidden Peak 2 weeks ago: where good climbing ideas are born.

Dave and I started at the Cascade Pass trail head around 1:30 on August 9,2014 (my birthday) heading for Mt. Formidable. Less than 5 hours to Kool Aid Lake, at a relatively relaxed pace. Encountered some nasty loose gullies on the way to Cache Col. I would go higher and look for a more solid route if I were to do it again.

 

 

 

Cache Col was in fine shape.

 

 

Panorama from Cache Glacier; Torment, Forbidden, Sahale, and Buckner. Yum!

 

Kool Aid Lake and our objective.

 

 

 

Nice views from Kool Aid Lake.

Goats on ice

 

 

Dave Bale

 

Snow finger up to Red Ledge. A step into the moat made it relatively easy. I was surprised at how convenient the ledge was given the looks of it from Kool Aid Lake.

 

Lovely heather benches on the traverse between Red Ledge and the Middle Cascade Glacier.

 

Early light on the Middle Cascade Glacier up to Spider-Formidable Col. No problems on the glacier.

 

View South from Spider-Formidable Col. The heart of the North Cascades.

 

Down climbing South from Spider-Formidable Col. I don't enjoy down climbing steep snow, but it was easy enough.

After the col, traverse South for a ways and climb above a nice bivvy spot to the obvious notch. I highly recommend looking for a footpath in the heather to the left (West-ish) of the nasty, nasty loose gully and save yourself the headache of that sh!t; we found it on the way back.

 

Cross the South face past the prominent buttress and head toward true summit on the left (West).

 

Lots of of steep choss. No real technical climbing, but we definitely stayed vigilant and got a stiff workout balancing on the loose rock. We opted for the ledge route just East of summit gully for final ascent, I don't know if it was any more solid. Wiser people might have worn helmets.

 

 

 

Steep choss.

 

 

All told a birthday great trip with no problems. Just rugged, long and hot. Some of the best views in the North Cascades. A lot of smoke toward Stehekin. We saw a bear heading up the Middle Cascade Glacier heading for the Col. She turned up a steep side gully when she saw us and scrambled up and over in no time. Made me feel whimpy. From Kool Aid Lake to summit about 6 hours, then 10 hours back to car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons and ice axe. Sun protection. Headlamp for the journey out. We did not use a rope. Bottle of wine for the nice sunset at Kool Aid Lake.

 

Approach Notes:

Beware the rangers at Cascade Pass.

Edited August 13, 2014 by lizard

[Whatcomboy]

Dang that's a nice little trip.

[DPS]

Very nice. Juan and I saw you and Dave descending the East Ledges from the NR on Forbidden a couple of weeks ago. We said 'hi' but I guess you guys didn't hear.

[JasonG]

Beware the rangers at Cascade Pass.

 

Do tell, although I can guess.

 

Great looking trip, a fine way to celebrate a birthday!

[Alex]

So does the route go past the prominent buttress in your pic, and then up the snow couloir/gully to it's right? Or where? Or is the prominent buttress the left skyline in that pic?