The Mox Peaks, known in Beckey as the Twin Spires (NW and SE), are located in the American Chilliwack Mountains in the North Cascades near the Canadian Boarder. When Fay climbed both peaks in 2006, she referred to them as “Hard” and “Harder” Mox instead of “Easy Mox” and “Hard Mox”. I could not agree more. Not only are they difficult to access but they are technical peaks with convoluted routes. And the climbs are long. You wouldn’t want to leave camp without a headlamp.
We headed off for the town of Chilliwack in Canada on Sunday afternoon. The plan was to stay in a hotel and then all meet up at Starbucks on Monday morning. We were joined by Kevin K, George, Kevin L, and Lisa. The drive to the trailhead from here was only 30+ miles but the last 6 miles were on a very potholely road. I took us 90 minutes to get to the trailhead. We were truly in the middle of no where.
The 6 of us were eager to get on the move. Part of today’s adventure would involve scrambling up the Depot Creek waterfall, one of the tallest in Washington with almost a 1000 ft drop. Within the first 30 minutes of hiking, we missed a critical turn and soon found ourselves in a bog. The GPS showed our trail 200 feet above us. A little off trail hiking and we were back on the old road.
When the road ended, we found ourselves in the Boarder Swath then we stubbled upon the boarder obelisk, Monument 65.
We signed in at the trail register and headed up the abandoned Depot Creek trail. It seemed to take forever to reach the waterfall where we all put on rain gear and headed in. Thankfully you only need to scramble about 50 feet in the spray of the waterfall. Fixed ropes aided in the scramble but the rock was still scary slippery. I chose to crawl up the last 20 feet.
From here, we scramble straight up hill for 800 feet. It was a class 3 trail. We finally reached the Redoubt basin and started the long run to Lake Ouzel. We lost the trail several times. When we had an opening with a great view of Mt Redoubt, we settled in for a break.
Eventually, we came to the lake which was not completely melted out. We found nice dry camping on the moraine with near by running water. As we set up camp, the clouds began to come in.
Jim Aga was our ground crew for the trip. He informed us that clouds were coming in with a little rain. By morning our camp looked like this…
We couldn’t see 100 feet. Jim Aga said the clouds were with us for the day but would be clearing by evening. We could not climb in clouds of this nature so we all went back to bed. We did need to move camp up to the Redoubt Col which would take 3-4 hours but there was no hurry.
Around noon, the clouds cleared a little so we packed up camp and headed to the col. Once we hit the glacier, the clouds had come back in. We roped up and followed tracks from a party of 2 which came down from the col earlier that day. Luckily, the Redoubt glacier is very flat so there is very little crevasse danger.
About the time we got camp setup, it started to rain again. Trapped in our tents for dinner, we all tried to come up with alternative activities. This one was beginning to really suck. Jim Aga assured us the sun was coming. And he was right. About 10pm, the clouds started to break up one more time and by morning, I awoke to a view of Mt Challenger. There is nothing better.
It was so nice to not have to eat breakfast in our tent.
The six of us were headed to Easy Mox by 6:30am. We knew we had a long day ahead of us and 6 climbers on a technical route can be slow. Kevin Loper lead out over the Redoubt glacier heading directly toward Mt Spickard.
The other rope team followed with Mt Redoubt in the background. What a beautiful area to climb.
The crux on Easy Mox is gaining the ridge. The route goes up the headwall at the low point in the ridge then there is a long exposed ridge run to the summit. George drew the short straw and led the 2 class 5 pitches up the headwall working to avoid the wet, slippery rock.
Climbing the headwall went very well. We did a combination of climbing on prusik and belaying.
Once we had all climbed the headwall to the low spot on the ridge, we took a break and discussed the route data. We decided on doing running belays with 2 rope teams. Jim would lead out and place protection which would be utilized by both team.
The final 100 feet of ridge contained horns that we needed to work around so we downclimbed the ridge to a lower ledge…
… then Jim lead up a class 5 pitch to regain the summit ridge…
From here, everyone was belayed back up the ridge…
The final pitch was a short, exposed class 3 scramble. We stayed roped.
As we headed off the summit, we were grateful to have 3 ropes with us. It allowed us to setup 2 single rope rappels and a fixed line which got us off the summit, down to the ledge, then back up to the ridge crest without having to wait for a rope. It was very efficient.
We were able to get back to the low spot on the ridge with one very long running belay. In the end, Jim had to get very creative with protection. One piece involved placing an ice axe tightly in a rock crack.
From the low spot, we were able to reach the glacier with a single, double rope rappel. We got back to camp just before dark. As we ate dinner, we discussed the next day.
Jim and I felt this was our only opportunity to climb Hard Mox. It needed to be climbed from this high camp and we were not hauling a bunch of climbing gear up here again. Lisa and both Kevin’s were satisfied with climbing Easy Mox and wanted to sleep in the next day, then hang around camp. George had banged his ankle on one of the rappels and needed to wait until morning to make his decision.
When 6am came, it turned out to be just Jim and I heading out on Hard Mox. As we started the long traverse to “Col of the Wild”, we discovered a party of 4 ahead of us. Jim and I took advantage of the track they left in the snow.
We traverse under the south side of Easy Mox, then turned to head up the “Col of the Wild”, the col between Easy and Hard Mox.
From Easy Mox yesterday, we could not see anyway out of Col of The Wild. Hard Mox looked to be a vertical face. But once at the col, you could see a rock ledge that lead up and right which matched the route description.
Hard Mox was typically climbed from the south side which meant scrambling out of Col of The WIld, going over the Ridge of Gendarmes, descending to the base of a gully which lead to a high notch on the west ridge of Hard Mox. From there, it would be 2 pitches of class 5 climbing and a scramble to the summit.
We took the ramp leading to the right out of Col of the Wild passed the snow patch described in Fay’s trip report. Entered a gully where we began scrambling up and right towards a notch in the Ridge of Gendarmes. We did rope for a class 4 wall. I was tired from the day before and did not want to make a climbing mistake.
It was amazing to follow the series of short ledges that went right than left than right again and so on … The ledges created a ramp leading to a short rock slab at the base of the notch in the Ridge of Gendarmes.
We could see none of this from Easy Mox yet it was right there in front of us.
The Ridge of Gendarmes was correctly names. Pinnacle after pinnacle ran down the long ridge. We could hear the party of 4 in front of us. We did not want to get behind them in the gully so we took this opportunity to take another break and reread Fay’s trip report and Beckey.
Gaining the correct gully was a lot hard than we thought. There are several gullies that lead out of the very small flat spot below the west ridge of the summit block. All gullies had barriers we did not want to deal with. While on lead, Jim got about 50 feet up and over two of the gullies. We reached a bad spot and decided to pull the plug on the climb and return to camp. While trying to find something to rappel off, Jim found a hidden ledge that lead directly to a rappel station and the correct route.
I took lead from here. Jim needed a break before we hit the real climbing. We could here the party of 4 on the summit. Our timing was really good. We would be able to clear the gully before they rappelled to the small high notch. This would help us avoid rock fall.
Jim started leading up the first pitch from the notch which had the highest difficulty rating but Jim found it quite pleasant since the rock was mostly solid. Hard Mox is known for its lose rock. As Jim reached the first belay station, the team of 4 was starting their rappels to the small notch. We basically traded places. It worked out perfectly.
We were also able to get beta on the 2nd pitch which came in handy.
The 3rd pitch was an exposed class 3 scramble. We stayed roped. Jim was happy to be roped. The ridge was awfully loose.
In short time, Jim found himself looking at the summit.
We had arrived at 3:30. Knowing the route back to camp, we estimated we could stay on the summit until 4pm and still get back to camp before dark. We relaxed and enjoyed the roomy summit.
At 4pm, we packed up and started setting up our first rappel. We could be back to the small notch with 3 single rope rappels. We found ourselves standing at the notch in just over an hour. We were doing really good on time.
Then we had our second major problem of the day, as we were pulling the rope, it cleared the rappel station and then started to free fall to the notch. Then it stopped. It was stuck. The face above us was virtually a slab and some how our rope had found the one crack at the top of the slab.
Jim gave the rope a quick pull. It was 20 feet above us and stuck. We had to have the rope to rappel the gully. As Jim gave the rope a more hardy pull, a chuck of slab, about the size of a hardback book, at the top of the crack was ripped free from the headwall and shot right at us. We only had time to brace our heads, helmet up, and prepare for impact. As the rock whipped past my eyes, I had a brief sense of relief and then I saw the rock shatter into pieces as it hit my knees.
It was at this moment that my next adventure began.
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