Mix-up peak 6/10

First day of summer break was yesterday for me. What I’ve learned from summer breaks is they pass fast, can’t just sit around. I’ve got a lot of things to get to but figured I’d set myself a standard by getting out the first day, even if my partners were busy. Spent Monday night at graduation for the old seniors and the mounties gear grab so got home at 9:30 and talked to my parents. Originally wanted to do an overnighter and bag magic too but couldn’t take a car on wednesday so I settled on just mix-up. 

Slept through my alarm by 30 minutes but was driving by 3:30 and and at the TH by 6. Later than I would’ve liked but wasn’t gonna do anything better with my day so figured I may as well give it a shot. Biked up the road in an hour and tossed it in the alder. 2 hours later I was at cascade pass with a lot of cobwebs in my face. Followed some goat tracks on the traverse over the cliffs and was soon moving up towards the U notch. There was one old track continuing to cache col but nothing super fresh.

The gully towards the U notch was more melted out than I’d seen in any photos. Brought two ice axes and was glad to have em. Very doable with one tbh but if snow conditions were harder I would’ve definitely wanted both. Traversed around to the V notch and made a few 5th class moves before being on steep 4th class until I gained the hump. Was glad I brought a rope to rappel that. From here I was onto the slabby ledges and had a fun time working my way up. The summit was intimidating but I found a low 5th path onto the ridge. The final move pulling onto the ridge was steep and airy but I felt confident in my holds so took a lil breath and everything was okay. 

Summited around 12:30 and was very glad to see some rappel anchors with fresh-ish tat. Summit register was full but of the few random pages I flicked through, I found Jeff Wright, Fred Beckey, Martin Volken, and most notably, my freshman science teacher. Took a photo and he was pleased to see my find. Enjoyed the summit until 1 and then figured It was time to get off that god forsaken rock. Ooh but the views were pretty cool. First time looking at the middle cascade glacier, I could even see all the way out to dome. Gotta do the ptarmigan this summer I guess.

Anyways, a couple rappels brought me off the summit block, then a lot of down scrambling, then 1 more to the V notch by 2:00. Wrapped around to the U notch and made a rappel down through the top section since there was an anchor already there. Was also this insane cornice thingy that seemed to be precariously balanced. Tried to stay off to the side because I didn’t wanna get killed by some goofy looking snow glob. 

Once at the bottom of the gully, it was a nice stroll with good views back to cascade pass. Saw a group of four goats at cascade pass which kinda scared me. 1 idiot teenager vs 4 mountain goats, I don't think the odds were in my favor. Lucky for me they ran up towards Sahale as I was taking off my crampons so it was a nice pleasant walk to the pass, where I arrived around 3:30. Saw my first humans of the day as a party was finishing the hike towards cascade pass and headed towards Glacier camp on Sahale.

A nice stroll down the trail got me to my bike at 5, and by 5:15 I was at my car. I buzzed a hiker too fast on my bike which he was very unhappy about at first but then we made up and he turned out to be a reasonable guy. A bell on my bike might not hurt. Usually its cars buzzing bikers so was funny to be bikers buzzing hikers. Anyways, Twas’ my bad and we seemed to make up for it. I learned from it. Heres da photos for the populace

 

Mclellan, Enchantment, and Cannon - 6/19

 Started at 6:20. Ran up to Mclellan, snowfree until on mclellan where I very much wished I had more than an ice axe. Summited around 11. Then ran to Cannon where I was in awe of the Druids Plateau. Summited that around 1:20. Then went over to Enchantment Peak where I summited around 3 and took a summit nap. Ran out of food, only eating 100 calories an hour up to this point. Very bad idea. Felt the bonk starting so I ran back down towards asgard and got back to the car at 6 in the afternoon. Nice day out. Also pretty tiring. Also was hungry when I was done. saw goats and marmies.

Black Peak - 6/13

 Ran up this thing. Ran down. 6hrs c2c. Twas a Fun time. Had a nice salted baguette after. Photos below

Ingalls to Sherpa Traverse - 6/14-6/16

Was feeling lazy but people are asking for some beta and I should prolly be less lazy so here it is. This is the summer of getting Asher into alpine climbing so a great objective for us would be a traverse from ingalls to sherpa. One might think to go further but past sherpa it gets much more sloggy and less climby. When I climbed the North Ridge of Sherpa and tried to go over to the col, we hated it so much we bailed down to the creek. I also hadn’t climbed Ingalls or the W. Ridge of Stuart so it would be new but easy terrain for both of us. This would be my first real big trip without an equally experienced partner but given it was commonly climbed easy terrain, I felt it would make perfect sense. 

Asher was with friends in leavenworth so I soloed up black peak on friday before making the drive down. We started on Saturday around 5, hitting snow at Ingalls pass. We didn’t bring any foot traction since microspikes are lame. This would end up being the crux of the trip. Anyways, by 9 we were at the base of the route and a nice simul pitch got us to the top by 9:40. We got back down by 10:15 and were quickly moving back down towards lake Ingalls. 

We slogged along the ridge for a while until reaching the talus below the W. Ridge at 1 and with so much time, took a half hour break to fill up water from a tiny trickle, worried that it would be the last running water of the trip. Sadly for our dumb asses we found a great faucet just 15 minutes after moving again. Anyways, we scrambled up the gully for a while, never roping up. There was definitely snow but it was bypassable, often by going into the moat or just climbing around it. Didn’t feel as classic of a climb as I expected, given the amount of gully time for the thing, I think a more suitable name would be the SW chutes of Stuart. Anyways, I’ll stop the hate. Asher was getting tired so at 3pm we decided to stop at the bivy sites below Long Johns Tower. I still had energy so went over to the mandatory snow patch and kicked in some steps while the snow was warm. We threw in a nut to stash our food bag for the night and enjoyed a very long afternoon.

Day 2 started at 6:30ish. We found a downloaded GPX super helpful. We appreciated the steps in the morning but getting up to long johns tower. I think we went too far climbers left and had a mountain goat kick a microwave sized rock over our heads. That was a bit scary. Eventually we found our way up but this began the even trickier section of snow. With only approach shoes and very steep snow, we had probably 25 meters(???) of steep snow. I took the lead and many chopped steps later with my adze, we were back on rock. From here it was just that big gully traverse to the west ridge notch, where we summited around 12:30. Took a short break before moving over to the cascadian. There was obviously snow on the face up to the false summit, so a rappel and even more step chopping got us to a more used track. 

From here we enjoyed a nice traverse over to sherpa including a rappel, though it seemed it could’ve been avoided with some super airy downclimbing over the sherpa glacier. We reached the base of Sherpa’s W. Ridge at 4 but routefinding errors took lots of time and by 5:15, Asher was tapped out on that flat section below the true summit. I found a way climbers left and soloed to the top, summiting at 5:40. I descended back down to asher and we made a few rappels back to the Col. given it was Ashers first big alpine climb, he just wanted to get down to flat ground so we descended to around 6200 where we found a nice bivy on a boulder and played MnM chess. 

The next day was just a nice hike out. We were able to avoid snow up to longs pass. We had a 3 course meal of brats, crepes, and ice cream in leavy. Twas a fun little trip. Nice to have some time to relax in the alpine.