Last weekend, Jim and I headed out on a trip up North Gardner. I missed North Gardner last year when I got sick and had to head home. Jim was eager to repeat North Gardner since he climbed it over 10 years ago in a frigid, gale force wind which even left him too cold to spend more than 5 minutes on the summit.
We under estimated the trail approach to Gardner Meadows. Supposedly, 9 miles and 2200 of gain on maintained trail. With all the ups and downs, the gain turned out to be just under 3000 and the trail clearly hadn’t been maintained in several years.
After climbing over more than a dozen logs, we finally arrived Gardner Meadows. Not sure which was more exciting to us, getting out of the harsh snow brush (or whatever you call those crappy bushes hanging over the trail) or seeing the rolling meadows with views of Abernathy Ridge.
We found a beautiful dry camp on the edge of the trees and meadow directly under the main Gardner Mountain. We arrived to a biting wind which was so cold that mountain margaritas were out of the question. Now that’s cold.
We awoke to high clouds but no wind. The clouds were clearly breaking up (at least we wanted to believe they were). The ascent of North Gardner was quite delightful. We started up grassy meadows which gave clear views of the entire Gardner Meadows. It’s no wonder hikers brave the trail to camp here for the weekend.
Once we reached the upper basin, we headed up the snow leading to the false summit and the ridge of North Gardner.
The snow went quickly and we soon found ourselves enjoying the views of the near by peaks. This was our first look at the North Gardner summit and the long ridge run to get there.
The ridge started with a climbers path which ended at every horn leaving climbers to come up with their own way across. On the other side of the horn, the path would reappear.
The rock on the ridge crest was mostly red with these weird bands on green rock running through it.
After reaching the summit, we took our shoes off to enjoy the sunshine and mountain views.
We had not seen another person since mile marker 2 on the trail yesterday so you can imagine our surprise when we saw someone coming up to the summit in 1970’s running shorts and a tee shirt. His first words were “I am glad to see you guys. Where am I?” . Seemed like an incredible strange question.
He was a trail runner who was aiming for the summit of Main Gardner but over shot it. He was a smoke jumper assigned to the Winthrop base. 3 hours and 45 minutes from car to summit. Climbed the snow in tennies. Crazy.
As he exited the summit, needing to get back to the trailhead before dark because he had on headlamp, he commented on how amazing the North Cascade were. He said “I am from Colorado and we don’t have mountains this rugged and beautiful”. Made me feel how lucky I am to live in such an amazing place.
Complete Photo Galley
You must be logged in to post a comment.