Jim, Fay, and I started planning this trip over a year ago when we stood 40 feet below the summit of Bear Mountain and had to turn back. It was not climbable from where we were. At least not by us with the gear we had.
Last year, we attempted Bear via the East ridge which allowed us to do a 3 day approach across high meadows and alpine lakes. A beautiful traverse with views of the Northern Pickets. One of the best camping spots ever at Middle Lakes with a view of Challenger from our kitchen.
This years trip would have very little views unless you are into flora. This trip would involve lots of trail miles which would have us leaving the trail almost a 1000 feet lower than where we parked the car. Then we would have to bushwack up a forested ridge to eventually reach the summit ridge, 5000 feet above where we left the car. Definitely not a glamour route but it was functional.
We did a car camp near the Hannagen Pass Trailhead the night before to give us all day to hike the 12 miles to Brush Creek. Not a legal camping spot but it was a beautiful one that we found a couple years prior on our trip out from Crooked Thumb and Phantom Peaks.
The winds were with us so we were free from the smoke as we headed up the 2000 feet to Hannagen Pass. It was wonderful to have a view of Ruth Mountain.
My biggest concern today was baking on the full sun traverse. Instead we got hit by a thunderstorm. By the time I reached Hannagen Pass, I was completely drenched. I was smart enough to stop and put on a pack cover but not smart enough to put on a jacket. I didn’t want to stop that long.
I was so concerned about the heat and then concerned about the rain that I didn’t even notice that I was no longer limping uphill. My climbing stride was back to normal, Yippy!
From Hannagen Pass, we started the long downhill drop. Not only would we lose the 2000 feet of elevation we just gained to get to Hannagen Pass but our camp tonight would be lower than where we left the car. Very depressing.
I am still pretty slow going down hill on a trail. Good thing Fay and Jim didn’t seem to care. They were both just elated that we were attempting the trip. After I got injured in early July, they were both sure the trip was not going to happen this year.
Around 2pm, we came to the infamous Cable Car crossing. Somehow it was still fun though it is losing its charm and becoming more of an annoyance.
We arrived Brush Creek just before 6pm. We discussed going onto Indian Creek camp, another 2.5 miles. But as soon as we saw the camp spot at Brush Creek, we called it a day. It was a beautiful camp next to the river with its own private wading pool. Perfect for soaking my knees.
We setup camp, bathed, and had dinner, all before 8pm. Very unusual for the 3 of us. We didn’t even need our headlamps.
We were on the move early the next day (early for us). We had 3.5 miles to the junction with Copper Ridge trail where we would leave the trail and start our bushwack up the forested arm. Our plan was to do half the elevation today, the map showed a basin just off the ridge which looked to have year round water where we could camp. Then we could do the rest of the elevation gain on our 3rd day with only summit packs.
At the junction, we dropped our trail shoes and extra food, then headed off in the bushes. After 40 minutes of thrashing around, the slope opened up and presented a heavily forested slope. The next 2000 feet of climbing was fairly pleasant.
As we got high on the ridge, the forest thinned and the brush thickened. Another 200 feet and it was time to drop into our basin to camp for the night. As we trashed closer and closer to the basin floor, we were all struck by the fear that the entire basin was full of brush. Was there no meadow?
We were grateful to find a small clump of tall trees in the basin which offered us a forest floor that we could make work. We had to get real creative and do about a hour of landscaping prior to putting up the tents.
We could hear the creek fairly close to camp but it was off in the brush. When Jim headed for water, I though he should take an emergency whistle and headlamp just in case.
In the morning, it felt so good to trade our heavy packs in for summit packs. We had no idea how much brush we were going to find and big packs are a real pain. We started to climb the basin aiming for the east ridge. To our surprise, we popped out onto a heather slope less than an hour later.
This slope was absolutely lovely and went for at least a mile. What a lovely ridge run. Too bad it was so difficult to get to.
From the ridge, we got our first view of the summit of Bear Mountain. We were suppose to have clear weather today but instead it was cold and cloudy. This made the summit very eerie.
Instead of thinking about the scary summit, we concentrated on the fun ridge run. We don’t get these very often.
We found ourselves in the basin below the summit before 2pm. We took time to look at the famous North Face, known to be some of the best alpine rock climbing in the Cascades. If you can climb 5.9 routes and do the difficult approach. The North face looked completely vertical.
Then the clouds cleared again and we got a look at the summit block.
The Northwest ridge looked climbable so we roped up and Jim headed off. He got about half way up the ridge when he announced that the ridge was getting too exposed even for him so back down he came.
After some accessing, Jim picked another route just inside of the ridge and took off again. Soon we were all half a pitch length below the summit next to a elevator shaft in the rock. Weirdest thing we had ever seen. Didn’t photograph well. Just imagine a 6′ x 6′ vertical tunnel in the rock.
The climbing moves off the elevator deck were the crux of the climb. Sometimes I don’t know how Jim does it. Both Fay and I had lots of trouble and almost came off the rock. Glad to be on top rope.
After the crux move, I found myself looking at Jim sitting just below the summit with a huge grin on his face. After being turned back a year ago, he was now an arms reach from the summit.
Fay came up last so we had her climb to the top of one of the high points. Unsure which point was the summit and definitely not wanting to unrope to find out.
The summit was very small. The wind was very cold. But we all fit. Tied tightly together. From the summit, we could see where we had stood the year before. Unable to climb the 40 foot vertical wall. Not sure who was happier Jim or Fay.
Or me… I never had to come back here again.
We had to end our summit stay sooner than we wanted. Both Fay and I were shivering uncontrollable. Time to get out of the frigid wind. We did 2 rappels and then a belayed downclimb to return to the basin.
We strolled along enjoying the ridge run. At one of the view points, we realized what time it was and decided we needed to pick up the pace or we would be returning under headlamp. We weren’t sure we could find our camp in the dark even though all of us had it marked on our GPSs.
We hit our dreary camp just before dark. It wasn’t much but we were all excited to be back. The weather was much colder than expected and no one wanted to bivy out.
The next day, the brush to the ridge was better than we thought but the brush we found on the ridge was way worse. Finally, we were back in the heavy forest. I had been dreading the 2000 foot drop in the steep forest. My knees were tired and not wanting to go downhill. So I turned around and attempted the forest backwards. To every ones surprise, this worked really well. I was able to go backwards as fast as Fay and Jim could go forwards.
After fighting the brush at the bottom of the forest floor, we gathered our trail shoes and food, then head for Copper Creek Camp. It was 2pm and we had 8 miles of trail to cover. We did take time to stop at Indian Creek and soak our feet and knees, clean off the dead pine needles, and eat some lunch.
In leaving Indian Creek, we crossed the suspension bridge. This was definitely a one at a timer.
We took a break at our Brush Creek Camp wishing we could stay here another night. After the cable car crossing, we took off for Copper Creek Camp. 3 miles of up hill trail. We were all there by 8pm. This was a weird trip for us. We never hit camp after dark.
None of us wanted to setup our tents. The weather looked good. We were in the trees. So we just through our bags on a tarp.
Though our camp was at the same elevation as the car, our last day was 8 miles. The first 4 miles climbed 2000 feet. The second 4 miles dropped 2000 feet. The only plus of climbing up to Hannagen Pass was looking back at Redoubt and Bear. If Redoubt sounds familiar, its because I was helicoptered off the Redoubt Col back in July.
It took me 3 hours to do the last 4 miles. When I reached the car, Jim and Fay were waiting. They had already cleaned up. Fay even had time to take a nap. I may not be up to speed going downhill but we were all so excited that I could do the trip.
Complete Photo Gallery
