Challenger/N. Pickets 2007

July 15 - 21, 2007

The trip was supposed to be ~7 days to the northern pickets. Sunday hike into hannagan pass and down into the chiliwack river valley, from there across the chiliwack onto easy ridge, over easy peak and on towards perfect pass allowing us access to the Challenger glacier and Challenger. We were then supposed to continue into the Luna cirque, onto Luna ridge. From there we were going to climb Mt Fury, possibly do a day trip to Picket pass, Luna peak, and then hike out to Ross damn via Access creak. Hiking in at Hannagan and out Ross damn would be an atrocious shuttle so we decided to set that up before hike in day. On Sat July 14^th.Brandee and I were going to do a hike and I convinced her to go up towards Marblemount and hwy 20. She agreed, and accompanied by another friend Colin we set out to do Maple Pass and Heather Pass, leaving my car at the damn. It was a beautiful hike, a perfect warm up to the long road that lay ahead, but unfortunately it was only on about 3 hours of sleep. I felt sluggish and tired. But at the end of the day, the take out car was set. For the dropoff Eileen, a coworker of Eileen, and Brandee drove us up to, and hiked with us to Hannagan pass. As a group we had a casual hike up to the pass, with L, T, and I hauling full packs and the others good ole day packs, making all of us jealous. At the pass we dropped our packs, hung out, finished climbing Hannagan Peak and came back down to the pass. After a nice good bye, and oh did we appreciate the company and help with the car shuttle, we continued over the pass and down into the Chiliwack while the others headed back to the trailhead and then Seattle. So now we had only one car … at Ross lake. We didn’t want to consider the scenario of having to go back to hannagan trailhead. With the help and extra climb it was onward of 5:00 when we reached camp in the valley. We rested for 10 and decided that it would be advantageous to get onto Easy ridge. We hiked onwards to the Chiliwack for the ford (L pictured). Per excellent beta we found the climbers trail to the river about 5 minutes after we came into sight of the river, forded, and then found the climbers trail immediately on the other side of the ford (about 50 yards downstream of easy creak). The only excitement was me in just over knee high deep water losing my balance and almost plunging into the river. T and L were on their toes about ready to dive in, but I sacrificed my feet and righted the ship and made it still with a dry torso. So up to Easy ridge – just over 2 k in gain starting at 6:00 pm, should be plenty of daylight. After 400 feet we started slowing drastically and I bonked soon thereafter. Who knows, I could have been out of shape, it could have been the lack of sleep, it could have been lack of water. I finally gave up the rope and started “talking in tongues” freaking out T and L to motivate myself to the ridge. Just after sundown we made it and I was useless and unable to eat. This, I feared, was going to be a long trip.

Monday we woke up to a gorgeous camp on the ridge (view from camp looking back across the chiliwack towards copper ridge) and I felt much better. I could stomach food and water and felt pretty good. T kept the rope so the good spirits could have been my lightweight pack! Over easy peak with clouds rolling in and out on down around a buttress to ascend back to perfect pass. We didn’t know what was going to happen on the way when we would get to the, as Becky describes, a “minor obstacle.” We continued down around the buttress and I slipped on the snow caught my balance and carried on. At that moment T asked, “are you ok?” I thought, pffft, of course, replied “yup!” and carried on without breaking stride. Moments later I looked back and T and L were lagging behind, I waited for a tad and only then did I realize that T was not talking to me but to Lucas who had slipped on the snow, caught some speed, and self arrested on his left arm on top of smooth granite rock, skinning two left fingers and his elbow. DAMN! It was good that it was only surface wounds, but damn it looked like it hurt (and based on Lucas’ choice words, I think it actually did hurt as well). We continued to a nice stopping point to clean it up and bandage it up, and ironically that stopping point was the impasse (that “minor obstacle”). We were hoping that there would be enough snow that we could pass right on over, but no such luck. We tried a variety of different approaches and the one that finally worked was climbing up the buttress a bit. Finding a shelf that gave us access to the impasse gully on a slight decline, climbing up the gully, to another shelf that allowed us easy crossing of the stream and a relatively easy out. Nothing more than class three/four, but with 60 pound packs, and mountaineering boots, we were a tad fearful. Owing to the consequences of a possible fall I led into the gully (L was in no shape to lead), the others followed and then I led up the gully out onto the other side. It wasn’t the cleanest, fastest, or best route, but we all made it (pictured is me looking back down the impasse from where we exited). The 2000 feet up to perfect pass reminded me of the day before but we made it for sunset and all felt pretty good.

Tuesday we woke up late (L and T pictured with Challenger glacier/summit in the background) getting a bit extra rest from the 2 days before, and headed out across the Challenger. We decided to forgo Whatcom peak for some reason. We were tired, wanted our rest, and wanted to conserve our energy for the escapades that lay ahead. The glacier went smoothly, we dropped our packs on the arm, headed up with or climbing gear and summited mid afternoon. Again, I had to lead the final summit pitch, which was protected with some fixed pitons and we all enjoyed our time on top. Ever since I hiked on Copper ridge a few years back I had dreamt of doing Challenger. I just thought that it was too far away and too remote. Well now I was here and I was going more remote. It was surreal. I thought the climb had it all, even if “it all” includes one tough, long ass approach! On the summit we got sopped in and scurried along off the summit to our packs and on down the glacier. I think we headed N sooner than most parties and found a rock outcropping that had a perfect camp – flat platform, water, and the most unbelievable views of the Luna cirque, including all of the N pickets and Luna. We all were giddy that evening watching the clouds roll in through the pickets, enjoying our day and camp (Luna cirque and our eventual route from camp on Challenger arm). We were in heaven and on perfect schedule. With a great view of our next task we planned out our route and went to bed hoping for an early morning as we were now all recouped and feeling strong with the panorama view pictured below.

Wed we woke up to rain, rain, sun, and then more rain. The weather gods were playing with us. It would rain and then give us hints of clearing up, only to throw another rain shower at us. We tried to wait it out and at about noon we were getting antsy. We busted out the cribbage board and played a couple games, ate some more snacks, and I saw the barometer go up a tad amidst decent weather. LET’S GOOO! So we through everything together and headed for Luna Lake to try to stay on schedule. Well, about 30 minutes out of camp it started pissing and when it became a full fledge poor, we found a nice rock shelter and hid under the fly. When it finally stopped raining, we hurried onto the moraine, set up camp on a sandy bar in the moraine and called it good. It as a comfy camp, but we were wet, and it was dry (i.e. no water). We were fine though and spent the night. That night T went “CRAZY” and started punching the side of the tent claiming that we were being attacked by the shadow of a bunny rabbit. What wasn’t crazy, just awe striking was the calving and rockfall from above …. All night long. That was spectacular (only because we were out of harms way).

We woke up Thursday to the same weather as Wednesday. We were going stir crazy and decided to go for it earlier today than yesterday. We had to start moving up into the cirque and going was going to be tough. We didn’t want to do it in rain. We went through some of the areas where there was noticeable rockfall (from the previous couple nights????), which enticed us to maintain a pretty good pace. We got up to the lake and it started raining. NOOOOOOOOOOO! We made another shelter using a great rock and waited it out – about 90 minutes. With that rest we started up from the lake and gained Luna ridge about 3 hours later. No prob. We set up camp just below the ridge and decided to try to climb Luna. Weather was rolling in so we were hedging. With most of our gear safe and dry at camp I enticed everyone to go up, but unfortunately at the summit it was all clouds, with a bunch of rain. You can see how enthused T and L are at the summit! We went back to camp (pictured below) hoping the front would pass and getting our hopes up for Fury.

That night we heard the rumblings and grumblings from the S picket range. We woke up to sunny skies and decided to go for Fury. We tried to find the route, ended back up at the pass and then decided that the best way was to drop a 1000 feet and climb up. Upon doing so, we decided to move camp and upon doing so weather moved in once again. We decided that the best decision was to pack it out since we weren’t too keen on continuing in the rain, didn’t know how long it was going to last, and decided that we were going to have to hike out tomorrow anyway. So we continued down a steep snow gully and then into the worst bushwack of my life. It started raining and the going was slow, arduous, and miserable. We were all completely soaked and tired and I was on my a$$ numerous times due to the slick plants and logs. 5 hours later we arrived at big beaver river, but this was just a tease because we had to ford it and there was no obvious way. We finally found a recently felled tree and did a classic 4 point crawl over that. After a stopover at mile 39 camp for a much needed fire to dry everyone and everyone’s gear out we continued early in the morning to Ross lake to try to hitch a boat ride to the trail head. Almost immediately someone offered us a ride. Was it because we looked so pathetic? Maybe, but they were great – giving us a ride and great company to boot! Saving us the extra 6 miles and 1500 feet of elevation gain/loss (or whatever it was) was a lifesaver! Thanks so much.

With beer in hand and a stop at good food in marblemount we made it back to Seattle to enjoy some more rain, dinner, and sleep on a comfy bed. All in all even with the drag of the weather, great company, great location, great climbing trip. Lucas' Description