- Day 1 – Trailhead to Gunn Basin
- Day 2 – Gunn Peak attempt, Gunn Point, and Tailgunner Peak
- Day 3 – Wing Peak, hike to Trailhead
George, Jim, and I took advantage of the couple of nice days in the forecast to head into Gunn Peak basin in hope of climbing Gunn Peak and the other minor peaks in the basin. After meeting in the Starbucks parking lot in Monroe on Monday morning, we headed out to Baring. It was nice to have such a short car ride to the trailhead. We shouldered three day backpacks and headed out to find a log across the river. The log crossing used for the last several years had washed out. George and Jim found a new crossing 200 yards up river. Due to the extra wet weather lately, the logs were pretty slippery.
After the log crossing, we had to bushwhack until we found the old trail. Turned out there was a massive wind storm in recent years that took down many trees. We would spend the next 3 hours climbing straight up hill working our way through down trees. Progress was very slow.
We final hit the rock buttress and started our long traverse. This part of the trail rarely resembles a trail. It includes down climbing into a waterfall.
And climbing up rock faces.
After several hours, we finally got our first view of Mt Baring.
Eventually, we came to the slide alder basin. Thankfully, it still had lots of snow in it. Travel final got a lot faster.
Within no time we were at a saddle on the ridge and enjoying views of Gunn Peak and Wing Peak.
We began looking for a suitable flat spot on the ridge but the frigid winds drove us down into the basin. George and Jim found us the only camp spot not on the snow.
As I began to look around I realized just how beautiful this basin was. It had craggy peaks all around.
We were able to have dinner out in the rocks next to camp as long as we had all our clothes on. Soon after dinner, we all retreated to the tent to escape the winds. George and I opted to make hot water bottles to help warm our sleeping bags.
Sometime during the night, the winds died and we woke to blue skies. Perfect climbing day. Before long, we were packed up and heading for Gunn Peak. It was fun to have a climb so close to camp. After only 15 minutes, George and Jim were assessing the route up Gunn Peak.
After another 10 minutes, we were roping up.
After booting halfway up the snow couloir, we headed into the hiding chimney and began climbing up to the upper snow fields.
I was on the end of the rope. By the time I reached the upper snow fields, George and Jim had setup our belay station. It was the only partly flat spot around so it would have to do. Lets just say I have been in roomier belay stations.
Our next belay station was a whole bunch better.
In no time, we found ourselves at the tiny notch between the Main and East Gunn summits. There was only room for two people at the tiny notch so I found a comfy spot in the rocks to have a snack. Things were obviously not going well at the notch. Jim and George were having a lot of discussions on how to proceed. The late snow pack had left a 70 degree, hard snow slope where our heather ledge was supposed to be. The exposure had to be frightening because neither George nor Jim was willing to take a shot at the snow slope.
After my snack, I convinced the guys to climb the East peak instead. Within 15 minutes, we were all sitting on the east summit analyzing the route on the Main summit. Obviously, we would have to return after the snow melted.
We had hoped for a long summit stay in the sunshine but the frigid winds were back. We quickly retreated to the lower snow slopes and out of the wind.
While on the summit, I had received a few messages from Jim Aga informing us that our sunny weather forecast now had rain in it. Not too concerning.
By the time we were off Gunn Peak and unroped, the clouds were building.
We decided to climb all the peaks around the basin starting with Gunn Point (I have no summit pictures from here. It was a tinny, tiny summit.
On Gunn Point, we got another message from Jim Aga saying the rain was coming. More than expected.
Within 20 minutes, the clouds started to spit on us. This didn’t stop us from climbing Tailgunner Peak. After all, we were very close to camp. Once we hit the summit, the rain was getting a little more serious. We had hoped to climb Wing Peak before heading back to camp but we soon decided to head for the tent.
By the time we got to the tent, the rains were getting more serious. Looked like we were in for a storm. We verified the tent was firmly staked before diving inside. We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the wind to knock the tent down. Good thing we didn’t camp on the ridge.
Sometime during the night, the wind stopped. When I got up to pee in the middle of the night, I could see the stars starting to poke through the cloud layer. I was so excited to wake to the sun shinning on Wing Peak.
Our original weather forecast had predicted today to be rain in the afternoon. With the weather coming in yesterday, who knew what we were going to get today. We wanted to climb Wing Peak before heading out to the car so we rose early and packed up.
Once back at the saddle in the ridge, we put our big packs in a tree well and loaded summit packs for the climb.
Wing Peak looked to be a pleasant snow climb on the ridge line.
The snow was very firm. Thank goodness for crampons. Once up the first slope, the snow steepened. We roped up and proceeded to front point up the ridge. After clearing the last snow field, we thought it was a rock scramble to the summit. As we approached the summit, we found this snow field blocking our ledge.
With no way around the snow slope, we deciding we would have to cross it. Thankfully, the snow wasn’t rock hard. It was actually perfect for crossing.
Our easy scramble to the summit had become roped climbing. For the final 15 feet, we opted to stay roped. The exposure was pretty high and the rock was a little loose.
Finally, we were on a sunny summit. Wing Peak turned out to be our favorite climb of the trip. Definitely spunky.
We ended up rappelling off the summit, roping back across the snow slope, then rappelling the steepest of the snow on the ridge.
This rappel brought us to some steep rocks. I was not excited about front pointing down the snowy ridge so I went looking for a route down the rocks. We were able to scramble rock all the way down the ridge.
We quickly repacked and then headed for the car. The route back was half the time of the route up. During the last 2 days, the log across the river had dried up nicely making the crossing quite pleasant. We decided to return in July for Gunn Peak.