Triumph on Triumph (7270'); Despair on (the route to) Despair

On Tuesday 7/27 after work Ryan, Lucas and I set out for our long trip of the summer. The intentions were to set up a car shuttle and hike from Thorton Lakes TH to Baker river TH, climbing many peaks and traversing other terrain features on the way: Triumph – Despair – Mystery Ridge – Hagan – Blum - and others? This would have been a great trip but it didn’t turn out as such for various reasons, but still was a great excursion with interesting ‘deviations.’

Day 1: We left Seattle Tue after work and did the car shuttle. We stopped in Marblemont to fill out the climbers permits and discovered that Lucas had a flat. After spending an hour taking off the flat (thanks to the fact that it had rusted onto the axle) we decided it would be prudent to fix the tire before heading out. We couldn't find a closer tire fixing station than Sedro-Woolley. We drove around on a doughnut at 25-30 mph for what seemed like 3 hours looking for a place to pull over and sleep until morning. During this time we got pulled over on suspicion of DUI. The cop thankfully believed our (truthful) story and didn’t even ask for our docs. We went on our merry way and pulled over on a dirt road threw out our pads and sleeping bags and went to sleep at 1:30 AM. Was this an omen for the rest of the trip?

Day 2: Up after a bad night's sleep, we fixed the tire, and then stopped at the bunny hatchery in Marblemont for a famous cinnamon roll. But going on what would be the theme of the trip, they were sold out. C’est la vie, we went to the TH and started hiking. Thorton lakes was a good trek on trail, we bypassed the first lake headed up to the second, and then went to the col allowing access to the E cirque of Triumph and descended to the outstanding bivy site for camp. On the right, Lucas is traversing the 2nd lake heading up to the col in the distance. The left is our bivy site on the knoll, with the col just up and right from the knoll. All in all it was a good day (minus some bonking on the 1200’ ascent to the col) with ample time to hang out at the bivy.  Total elevation gain - 3780; loss - 680.

Sunset over our bivy with gorgeous view of the pickets.

With all the haste of the trip and all of us forgetting our tripods, the only pic of the three of us... at our first bivy.

Day 3: Because of our lack of sleep the previous night and some level of bonking the previous day we didn’t get up too early and had a relatively late start, which was a mistake. The plan for the day was to climb the NE ridge of Triumph and descend into the N cirque for access to Despair and the rest of the trek. So we packed up camp headed over to the base of the NE ridge. As in the pic on the left the cirque was ideally filled with snow to make for easy travel and access into the gully leading to the base of the climb (triumph is the prominent peak; route is the far ridge line heading right from the peak). We climbed to the notch leading to the N cirque, dropped our packs, and commenced the climb. Climbing was as advertised. Continuous exposed class 4 with a class 5 move thrown in every once in a while maxing out at 5.6 or 5.7. The route was awesome – full of exposure, mostly fun climbing, and incredible views of the pickets and more. In the pic on the right, I am leading one of the class 4/low 5 pitches. However, Lucas led the few pitches with 5.+ moves since I was dehydrated and cramping, letting the exposure get the best of me, and was just plain “not feeling it.” Everything went well, but for a less experienced party of 3, the 6-8 pitches took quite a while. We finally topped out at the summit at 5:30 to extraordinary views. We had a bite to eat (lunch) and almost immediately started the series of what seemed to be 73 rappels (I think it was more like 18, but I didn’t count). Again with a party of three this took forever (many trip reports claim the rappelling takes longer than the climbing) and we were about 400 ft from the base of the climb when darkness hit. Slowly we made our way to our packs arriving at about 12:00 - a LONG day in our climbing shoes. Even with the long day this is an aesthetically pleasing, enjoyable route and was hands down the highlight of the trip – it is known to rival Forbidden in its grandeur, however the approach slightly detracts from the climb. All I wish is that we would have been a little more expedient. Back at our packs, we just threw our pads and sleeping bags on flat-ish ground for another poor night of sleeping starting at 1:30 AM.  Elevation gain - 1700; loss - 1330.

looking back at our little bivy knoll (far left halfway down pic under the col leading to Thorton lakes side.)

The East face of Triumph

Ryan attacking the most difficult section

Heading up the final class 3/4 face to the summit.

Rappelling after a long day.

The E cirque, late in the day. Mt Triumph and its ridges adding their imprints with their shadows.

Back at the base of the climb where I slept. Of course it was dark when we arrived after the climb.

Day 4: We immediately tried to access the N cirque from an easily accessible notch in the NE ridge. We started down climbing very steep snow (with protection; pic right) and made it about 250 feet below the notch. Below us appeared to be a maize of cliffs, steep snow, and some more cliffs. Guidebooks had said that obtaining the cirque was doable, but with no detailed information we were at a loss. Because of our pace, not knowing how to get to solid ground, and not wanting to spend another uncomfortable night out (likely on snow), we decided to bag the traverse and head all the way around Mt Triumph to triumph pass and try for Mt Despair via the standard approach (triumph pass). We climbed back up to the notch, retraced our steps to middle Thorton lake and headed up to a beautiful easy going ridge above the lakes (where bonking again ensued). Pic left is Lucas and Ryan descending from the col heading toward the ridge emerging from between the lakes. We ended up stopping at a great place where we decided to, again, sleep under the stars after a relaxing evening recouping and finally being able to relax.  Elevation gain - 1810; loss - 1820.

Climbing back up on the steep snow.

The far ridge to be ascended from the lake.

Looking up the ridge.

Thorton peak above; upper thorton lake with cool ice formations below.

Rest and relaxation for Ryan.

Up to this point it was beautiful weather - sleeping under the stars (or actually bright moon).

Day 5: We started following the description to triumph pass. We started descending just under Thorton peak and made our way around a buttress off of Mt Triumph (buttress shown on the left). This is where things got interesting. I noticed the snow getting steeper and harder beneath me. I didn’t feel comfortable and stated down climbing to get on talus/heather below when I slipped. I remember being amazed at the my acceleration downward because of my heavy pack. Not being immediately able to control the fall I was sliding over rock and heather in no time where my axe finally caught on some heather, or maybe it was a tree root. With a burst of adrenaline I hopped to my feet having nothing more than a scratch on my wrist, counting my blessings, and acquiring a new appreciation for the elements. We continued onward to the pass. We made a descending traverse to 5000 ft. Here I read our route description to say “climb cliffy timber to the pass.” Lucas and Ryan wanted nothing to do with cliffy timber (fair enough – it looked scetchy), nor did there appear to be a straight forward was through the cliffs. Ryan and Lucas preferred to go down below the cliffs and regain all of the elevation on terrain that looked completely manageable. So we did the obvious thing and split the difference - down climbing through some steep timber. This took forever and a day to try to find a route that didn’t cliff out that we could descend. Meanwhile weather rolled in and started raining. Eventually we made it to the proper aspect after waiting out the rain in sheltered areas and finding a 'manageable' route down. On the right I am descending the final 4 feet to "solid ground." A 1200’ ascent with intermittent rain led us to the pass immersed in pea soup and/or rain. The rain finally gave up and we had a reasonable evening with good views of Despair. We hoped that by morning the weather would be less intimidating and we could at least make an attempt for Mt. Despair. On the left is my tent looking north to Despair beyond triumph pass.  Elevation gain - 2250; loss 2640.

Lucas and Ryan right about where I took my slide.

Camp at triumph pass towards the south.

Despair with weather rolling in late in the evening. Our moods had changed to dreary black and white.

Day 6: I woke up to the alarm at 5:30 and saw nothing but pea soup. At 6:15, it was the same. Pic on the left our typical view throughout the morning, looking back to the south . We finally decided at 8:30 that the window of opportunity had passed and we should start heading back towards the car. Dejected, we slowly packed up camp and started retracing our steps to the ridge above Thorton lakes. Not wanting to climb that crappy steep timber we opted for more of a brushy bushwack. We traversed under the timber and then started uphill once traversing was not leading to a change in scenery. The next 2 hours were sheer hell to be kind. We climbed up the same steep slope that we descended but instead of through old growth forest, amidst thatched hickory, cedar, slide alder with  underlying skunk cabbage, heather, huckleberries, and brambles just after it had rained. Frequent cursing, crying, and wishing of curling up and dying was the norm. All I could think of was my yoga instructor preaching to "ignore any feeling – they just come and go." Well, the feeling of being in hell finally passed after an hour. Then it took an hour to get out of purgatory and onto talus with our route in hand. We carefully retraced our steps to the ridge, decided to hike out since weather didn’t appear to be improving (and since we needed to leave tomorrow anyway), and made our way back to the car by 7:45. Hightailing it to Good Food, we were highly disappointed when they were closed by the time we arrived along with nearly everything else on hwy 20. We found a place for eats in concrete and home by 1:00 AM.  Elevation gain: 2520; loss - 5350.   Totals for the trip.  Gain - 12,050; loss - 11,816.


All in all it was an interesting trip. Lots of good and lots of bad. We were privileged enough to climb a premier route on a great mountain. But by choosing that route, I hindered the ability of doing the whole traverse in that the route was out of the way (given that we couldn’t descend into the N cirque). On the flip side I would have regretted not doing that route the rest of the trip, but, as always, hind sight is always 20:20. With that said we had a phenomenal climb learned a lot and experienced even more. We’ll come back much more prepared if we’re to do this again.