The morning was another cloudy one but dry. We headed up the steep slopes to the ridge at the head of Bachelor Creek. We were anxious to see the avalanche devastation. After wending around a bit at the top of the basin, we came to our first scramble and slide through fallen trees. It wasn’t until we got into the forests though that the really thick avalanche debris appeared. We actually dealt with it pretty well, following a faint path here and there through sections of the mess. We did plenty of crawling under and over fallen trees and eventually ended up getting in the old growth forest on the right until we got beyond the debris. Then, we hiked down to the creek and spied the trail on the other side of the creek. Feeling proud and relieved, we continued our march out. We passed a party camping nearby who, I thought, said we were mostly done with the difficulties. This certainly wasn’t true. Though there is a trail the whole way, there’s plenty of invasive brush and log crawling and hopping. The descent out Bachelor Creek felt really long; I’d imagine the ascent would be quite taxing. Finally, we started switchbacking steeply down, a sure sign that we were entering the glacier valley of Downey Creek.
We rested at Downey Creek and finished up all of our food and prepared for the final trek out. Michael prepared an ugly brew of iodine water and gatorade that had the appearance of mud. He grimaced sourly when tasting it. I didn’t fill up my water here. I had a reasonable amount left and didn’t trust the water here. The Ptarmigan is so high and goes through so many glaciers that we filled our water directly from glacier streams which are pretty safe.
The hike out Downey was uneventful. We were back in deep dark forests winding in and out of smaller stream gullies feeding the larger creek. When we saw the signs announcing the wilderness boundary, we got really excited that we were finishing the climb. Then there was the road and the car. Man, it hit us suddenly – six days, six glaciers, five major passes, and five peaks later, we were done!
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One extra interesting tidbit of information is the effect that the Ptarmigan had on my hiking clothes! I抳e worn the same clothes for like the past 4 years, an REI pair of adjustable pants, a white North Face polypro long sleeve shirt, standard wool socks. Well, each one of these garments (including my backup pair of socks) pretty much disintegrated after getting back home. My pants randomly started forming holes (not rips)! Dirt was ground in sufficiently into my shirt such that nothing, save perhaps gasoline, would get it out. Of course, my socks had holes worn in them. So, I gave my great reliable apparel an honorable burial when I got home.
Posted 7 years ago at 3:58 am. Add a comment
After another great night of sleep, we were ready to head out for Dome. Again, Michael and I set out first and made quick time across the glacial slabs towards Dome. There is a trail for a bit but of course it fades out fairly soon in the rock. We’d picked our route the day before and it called for heading straight across to a small buttress, then heading up and hitting the glacier where we could put on our crampons and rope up. The morning was unlike any of the others during our trip – quite cloudy. The clouds were hanging low, but still above the peaks. Clouds occasionally covered the summit of Dome Peak and Glacier Peak to the south was almost always obscured.
Traversing the Dome glacier was straightforward. We were aiming for a prominent notch to the north of the summit of Dome. The only crevasse crossing was traversing up to the notch and it was easy, especially after dealing with much bigger glaciers like the LeConte and the Dana glaciers.
At the base of the notch we climbed up with crampons still on thinking that we might have to climb up more snow that was visible above the notch. This snow was actually the top of the Chickamin glacier and we didn’t have to cross it. Instead we headed up the top of the notch and began scrambling up Dome Peak. The walls steepened dramatically in front of us and we moved left, almost in line with the tip of the Chickamin glacier. The rock on dome is an inviting off-white color but is mighty loose!
So we climbed carefully up and eventually arrived at what looked like the summit. At first, we thought this was a let down, but we needed to just turn hard right to see the true summit further up. More scrambling got us to the final pitch to the summit – a nice thrilling short step and then an exposed catwalk to the true summit.
We lounged around on the summit for a really long time, watching the clouds slowly lower on us. Below, we saw the other two parties approach the notch, climb up, and eventually arrive on top. So we had a 100% success rate on Dome Peak this day. Michael and I had ideas of traversing over to the southwest summit which is a really sharp point attained by an exposed ridge traverse. Due to the weather, we decided to descend instead and see if the weather improved along the way and, if so, try a climb of Dynaflow Tower.
At the last moment we decided to try it. We stashed our stuff at the lip of the glacier. Michael decided to lead this one and the opening pitch looked awesome – super solid granite. It was indeed a lot of fun, moderately easy, low fifth class climbing. The belay for pitch two was a really small ledge on the north ridge. Michael led out on the left side of the ridge and was gone. The clouds again had begun to sag down on us and the upper part of the climb became obscured. There were moments where Michael appeared to not be moving for long periods of time. I was getting pretty cold up here and got impatient to start moving. Michael had good reasons to move slowly though.
The second pitch transformed to quality and safe granite to this scary loose stuff. It looked solid enough but it wasn’t. On top of that, there were these lodged shards of sharp rock here and there just waiting to explode and come raining down. Michael had to be very careful in avoiding these mines. It was easier for me because he was able to point out these trouble spots from above. The last belay was about 30 feet below the summit.
The final pitch was even worse – super loose crap! So, in the end, Dynaflow Tower is not a recommended climb. We made delicate rappels and an odd self-belay scheme concocted by Michael got us back down to the glacier.
Back at Itswoot Ridge, everyone had packed up and headed down to Cub Lake. Actually, one of the parties actually made a push to get down to Downey Creek (that must have made for a long day!). The weather was still cloudy but pleasant. We decided to take a rest before packing up. Michael eventually grabbed his sleeping back to lay on. Thinking that looked pretty comfortable, I did the same. Soon enough, conversation started to dwindle and we fell asleep. A couple hours later we awoke and fearing that we’d get rained on with our stuff scattered here and there, we packed up really quick and headed down to Cub Lake.
It felt good to have all the glacier and rock climbing of the trip done. But we still had a big objective in mind that lay right before us: The climb up to the ridge at the head of Bachelor, then back down into the valley which was reputed to be full of downed trees from an avalanche. Then, it was the brushy trail down Bachelor Creek. After that, it was another six or seven miles out Downey Creek.
Posted 7 years ago at 3:05 am. Add a comment
We awoke to yet another clear day. Everyone else was up as well. Michael and I were usually the ones to set out first (we got up earlier and didn’t bother with stoves) so I got my things ready to go and packed up. Michael hadn’t come over to my camp yet so I took the time to take some sunrise pictures. I had plenty of time since Michael had overslept some! No problem there, as a physician adviser to the Lewis and Clark expedition said, “Men need their rest. And the rest means prone!”. We actually repeated that quote a lot. Our only real rest was at night; each day was packed with peak climbing and traveling which took its toll. A few minutes later, Michael showed up and we were off.
The day before we tried to spy a trail leading up to Spire Col but didn’t have much luck. We concocted a plan, however, on how to deal with the glacier. Our plan was to hit a left trending snow field with distinct gray-splotch markings on it and then to cross over the majority of the crevasses to the far left side, and then gain a prominent wide fin of snow that would probably lead us to the col. There is a decent trail through the vegetation, past several falls, and then peters out in the talus under the glacier slabs. Using our previous plans, we were able to pick a way up through the talus and slabs and ended up in the exact spot that we wanted – the gray-splotched snowfield.
We put on our crampons and headed up. The going was quite easy, what looked nearly vertical yesterday was actually about 30 degrees. The snow became quite icy as we exited on to rock. We decided to follow the rock up, still wearing crampons, to its end. The alternative was to downclimb about 200 feet back to the glacier. Heck with that. Climbing up saved us a good bit of elevation though it also led to more crevassed terrain. The going was totally manageable though and we were able to cross over and then easily make our way to the snow rib.
Sure enough, we were able to follow the snow rib up to Spire Col. We took a break here while checking out our options for a climb of Spire Point. From a distance, Spire Point is impressive! The Beckey guide mentions that the route is 4th class. Cascade climbers know what to make of that! We packed up again, got the rack and rope ready to go and headed up the glacier to the base of Spire Point.
We exited the glacier and scrambled over to the north face. I decided to take the lead on this climb and headed up. The first pitch was quality 5.4 and I stopped at a small but comfortable belay spot at a rap station. The second pitch led us over to the left. I headed out again up similar slopes and came to the crux move – an exposed, hard to protect, sloping slab that was about 30 feet long. The slab wasn’t very steep but it sloped over the cliffs on the left which made it awkward. I had a pretty bomber sling at the base of it and tenuously headed out. We were in boots, this would be distinctively easier in rock shoes, and had to really pay attention to foothold. The holds appeared as needed though and I was soon at the top, the belay for the final pitch. I think I rated it 5.7 (boots).
The final pitch looked easier. Indeed it was, but I thought it would end up being 4th class, it was more like 5.2. What looked like to be a super exposed final summit move was actually pretty comfortable with a nice ledge on the right. Soon enough I was on top. I saw other White Rocks Lake camp companions heading up the glacier below and let out a holler. They were able to see me and hollered back! Michael then quickly came up and we enjoyed the summit.
We downclimbed the last pitch then rappelled the remainder of the route. Our next objective was to get back to our packs and then down to Itswoot Ridge, the traditional last camp for the Ptarmigan Traverse.
Probably my least favorite part of the trip was the descent to Itswoot Ridge. It was long, loose, and dusty. At one point, I decided to take grassy slopes down. Michael got disgusted with the potential slipping and opted to slide the rest of the way down on scree. We caught up with the remainder of the parties who were already down at the ridge. We set up the Betamid tent and then scrambled inside to escape the sun. We ended up laying around for at least two hours and let the most intense sun diminish. We then went about the usual tasks of cleaning up and getting ready for dinner. After dinner, I opted for a bivy site on a rocky outcropping on the ridge that had perfect spots for sleeping. Yeah, it was rock but it was flat as a pancake and there was even a small depression for your feet! One of the parties headed down to Cub Lake to camp but the other two were planning to climb Dome Peak. We spent the last few moments of daylight checking out the route and making plans for the following morning.
Posted 7 years ago at 2:34 am. Add a comment
