Tony had been planning a week long trip in the Olympics for seven of us. When the weather turned bad in the Olympics, we all decided to head to Eastern Washington for clearer skies and less rain. Our group of seven became eight when Tony’s wife, Suzie decided to join us.
We all meet in Wenatchee for lunch on Saturday as it was centrally located: Tony, Suzie, and Eric came from Oregon, Kevin and David from Bremerton, and Lisa, Jim, and I from Bellevue. The drive to the trailhead was almost 2 hours so we headed up the trail late in the day, happy to be hiking in the sunshine.
The plan was to only hike a few hours up the trail. So when we stubbled onto a beautiful forest camp on a creek, we all quickly took to setting up our tents.
Day 2 was our big day with full packs. The plan was to hike up Pyramid Peak and then head cross-country to camp in a high basin near Grouse Pass.
By early afternoon, we had all arrived at the summit of Pyramid Peak which is an old lookout site so we had lots of room to spread out and enjoy the view.
David had brought along a radio antenna so he spent sometime connecting with the outside world.
From the summit, you could look straight down on Lake Chelan.
After a long lunch, we all headed cross-country to the near by basin just above Grouse Pass.
While the rest of the group dropped into the basin to find a camping spot, Jim, David, and I scrambled up Squaretop Peak, directly above camp.
From the summit of Sqauretop, we could hear our group visiting in camp. We quickly scrambled back down in the basin to join everyone for dinner. Jim and I pitched our tent on a high rock knoll with endless views.
Jim and I want to take the next day to try and climb Cloudcomb Peak.
From the summit of Squaretop, we took a good look at the route Fay had sent us and we decided it looked terribly loose and grungy. From where we were camped, Jim decided he wanted to try a different route. We had no beta so it would definitely be a risk but what the heck.
David decided to join Jim and I on our adventure. After only 30 minutes, we had reached our first route problem, a cliff that we could not get down. We ran the ridge until it looked like we might be able to get down the other side. After another 2 hours of puzzling through grassy, loose ledges, we gave up and took a break.
We would have to find a place to rappel off the ridge. Jim remembered seeing a gully back along the ridge. We returned to the gully and found an easy rappel down into a moat which we down climbed until we could get on the snow.
It was now early afternoon and there was no way we would be able to climb Cloudcomb Peak.
Jim wanted to get a closer look so if we came back he would know if this route went. David agreed to accompany him on his fact finding mission. I decided to start to return to camp via a longer, less direct route which definitely looked a lot easier than the way we had come.
I watched the guys until they were out of sight and then I headed towards a potential snow couloir at the low spot in the ridge. I was back up on the ridge within the hour. If only we had come this way at the beginning of the day.
I decided to hang out on the ridge for a couple of hours to see if Jim and David returned anytime soon.
In an attempt to get a better view of Cloudcomb, I found a beautiful ridge run to a high point.
I spent another 45 minutes carefully scrambling the ridge until I reached my high point. I was rewarded with a fabulous view of Cloudcomb’s pinnacles.
With a straight shot to Jim and David’s route, I decided to give a hoot and see how close they were. With no other peaks in our way, we were able to exchange acknowledgements quit easily. After a long break, I hooted again and found them right below me on the snow field. I quickly packed up and headed back to the low saddle on the ridge where we regrouped and started our decent back to camp… the long way.
Our decent took us right over Grouse Pass. Jim and David got a good look at the Grouse Pass Pinnacle. They decided to climb it in the morning.
We returned to camp as everyone was eating dinner. We exchanged stories of our day.
On Day 4, we packed up camp and headed up to Grouse Pass. At the pass, we dropped packs, pulled out our climbing gear, and headed up to the pinnacle for some morning fun.
Jim, David, and Tony wanted to do a class 5 route. Jim took a first try.
After several minutes of dealing with the loose rock, Jim retreated and David took a try.
David carefully picked his way up the loose class 5 gully only to find himself at a 5.9 step.
After several minutes of analysis, David made the moves needed to find himself on top.
In the meantime, the rest of the group scrambled around on the other pinnacle.
Before long, David, Tony, and Jim were all standing a top the pinnacle beaming with adrenaline.
We still had a couple hours of hiking to reach Saska Basin, our camp for the next 3 nights.
As we hiked, it began to sprinkle. Then it decided to rain. Real rain, not just eastern Washington rain.
The rain stopped minutes before we reached Saska Basin. Perfect timing. Nothing worse than setting up a tent in the pouring down rain.
It was still early so several of us headed out to climb Gopher Peak. Jim and I had tried to climb Gopher 13 years ago when we first met. Back then, we actually turned around when it got dark.
After a long traverse and a loose gully, David, Lisa, Jim, and I found ourselves on the summit of Gopher Peak. Great view of the area. The summit was so flat, we could have easily got all our tents up there.
That night, we got our weather forecast from Jim Aga. The next day was going to be filled with rain and high winds. Not great climbing weather.
In the morning, the skies were mostly clear when we got up. By the time we were packing up for climbing, the clouds had dropped and socked the peaks in. At least we weren’t in the cloud. I hate that.
After much discussion, we decided to go hiking.
After a hour, our hiking group had dwindled down to Lisa, Eric, Jim, and I. We decided to try and follow the trail to Emerald Park. This would mean hiking through the burned forest from the Wolverine Fire in 2015. It was shocking how some parts of the trail are still ash. The fire must have been so hot when it came through this area.
We decided to play a new game, “Find The Trail”. This was a lot more difficult than you would have thought. At different times, we had to stop for several minutes to look for evidence of the old trail.
After a couple of hours, we located the trail junction to Emerald Park and the old junction sign.
On our way back to camp, the clouds started to lift and we were able to see the summit of Gopher Peak.
Once back in camp, we found ourselves with nothing to do. It was too early to eat dinner and way too early to go to bed. The cloud had socked in the peaks again. The temps had dropped considerably. But the winds never found us. Our little basin had us sheltered from the high winds that we could hear whipping through the trees.
This was a good time for a fire. Climbers definitely don’t sit well. They fidget. Until they see blue sky.
Everyone was in their tents before 8pm. Our forecast for the next day was windy and cold but no rain.
We woke to blue skies but it felt like October. We all froze until the sun hit our tents. The wind was still whistling through the trees but we were all ready to climb Cardinal Peak. We had been looking at it from camp for the last few days.
Everyone was in a good mood. Happy to be getting out of camp.
Cardinal Peak had a little of everything. Screen gully. Snow field. and a ridge run.
My favorite.
We found out later that this was Eric’s first real alpine scramble. No wonder he looked so happy when he reached the summit.
Eric was definitely hooked on climbing.
We returned to camp by lunch time. After lunch, Eric, Tony, and Suzie packed up and headed out.
David, Lisa, Kevin, Jim, and I decided to climb Emerald Peak directly from Saska Basin. Emerald was equally fun with a very short class 3 scramble near the top.
In Jim’s effort to get the best summit photo, he scrambled up the near by pinnacle.
We had hope to climb Saska Peak from here. They share a ridge. But none of us could see any route so it was back to camp.
Tonight the wind did find us. By morning, there was ice on my helmet. The temps had dropped some more. It was now mid-November. I was done. I packed up without breakfast and hit the trail. I was ready for a shower and real food.
We were all at the cars before noon making for a very nice drive home.
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