[TR] Buck and Fortress - Buck Creek Pass and High Pass 8/23/2015

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Trip: Buck and Fortress - Buck Creek Pass and High Pass

 

Date: 8/22/2015 - 8/24/2015

 

Trip Report:

This has been a summer of non-technical summits. Between the low snow pack, the weather, and wild fires I've had to repeatedly go to Plan B or even Plan C. This weekend the Wolverine Creek and Goodell fires sent me up to Trinity to bag a couple of top 100s left on my climbing partners and my to-do list.

 

We arrived to a smoky Trinity Saturday morning and head up the Buck Pass trail. The plan was to haul heavy packs up to High Pass for the night. Upon arrival we found a couple of surly guys with their dog spread out widely with their two tents over the two prime camp sites and very unfriendly. We moved away from them and found a couple reasonably flat spots between water rivulets flowing from the tarn at 6800' and near the base of our route. The hike in was about 13 miles with 4500' or more total gain with the ups and downs. My flask of bourbon hit the spot. During the night we heard quite a bit of rock fall nearby from a steep gully with lingering snow and ice.

 

Smoky haze on the approach to Buck Creek Pass:

 

Moonscape closer to High Pass:

 

Rock-strewn camp at tarn:

 

Bright and early we negotiated the nose of the rock face above the tarn and looked for a gully to get us up to high ground with views of Buck. We ended up taking one gully too far which just caused more work and some backtracking. Eventually we worked up to 7600' to a col NW of Buck. We dropped onto pumice scree, traversing left above the cliff bands and dreading the 1000' feet we were about to drop and have to regain immediately. We dropped down, staying left on higher ground until we crossed the creek that drains N into Buck Creek. From here we ascended more pumice and rock bands until 7400' then traversed climbers right until we were forced to pick a gully up and got a view of the summit block of Buck. There is still a good sized snow field here and it was bullet-proof. We opted to cross it with crampons for efficiency then picked a line to the right of the scar on the middle summit and topped out.

 

Approaching Buck from High Pass:

 

Snow field below Buck's summit:

 

KK Summit salute \m/

 

View towards Clark and Luahna from Buck:

 

After enjoying the summit a bit we headed back to camp. Reversing the 1000' feet back to the col at 7600' was not as bad as we were dreading. At camp we packed up and reversed our high traverse from the previous day back to Buck Creek Pass and picked a spot by the wonderful spring (and only source of nearby water). I rewarded my second day's effort with some of Kentucky's finest and we all bullshitted until 9:30 or so.

 

The sound of music en route back from High Pass:

 

During the evening and night deer continually pestered us and none of us really slept that great. The random and inexplicable snorts were the worst - never heard deer do that before. The rockfall from the previous night was preferable and soothing by comparison.

 

We got up a bit groggy and packed up. One party member headed down to the cars, and the remaining three dropped to the way trail up to Pass No Pass. We stashed overnight gear here and headed up the standard approach to Fortress. At the snow patch below the summit block we headed up the standard gully which involved a couple hundred feet of loose bullshit. One party member opted to sit that out. On the summit my partner and I planned to head back with a 20 minute gap between us to avoid a rockfall injury or death mishap. I went second. On the way down I changed tactics and followed cairns and boots to skier's right of the gully and from there spied a class 3 line over blocky terrain that was much more palatable.

 

Snow patch below summit block on Fortress:

 

About the clearest view of Glacier we got on any of the three days:

 

Summit p0rn from Fortress:

 

We continued on down the mountain and trail and arrived at Trinity at 6pm. The parking lot was almost empty and our car had a fire closure notice stuck under the wiper blade. As we changed and sipped a brew the ranger pulled in and told us about the advancing Wolverine Creek fire, now encroaching on the Entiat valley. We headed out and checked out with the Chelan Sheriff half way up the Chiwawa River road, thankful to have bagged these two peaks before yet another fire closure.

 

View of the fire smoke plume of the advancing Wolverine Creek Fire from the Chiwawa River Road:

 

Gear Notes:

Crampons and ice axe.

 

Approach Notes:

No snow on approach. Plenty of water. Plenty of smoke.

[ivan]

wierd to see smoke clouds like that outside of the tent