When we returned from Italy, it took us almost a week to recover from jet lag and get everything put away. Since then it seems like we haven’t stopped. We have come home long enough to wash clothes, plan another trip, and pack.
Mt Logan
During the heatwave, we decided it was a good time to try Mt Logan. We definitely didn’t think that through. It was actually a good time to plan a trip with a lot of alpine lakes. Hindsight is everything.
Somehow, we convinced George and his friend, Bob, to join us on an unconventional approach to Mt Logan. Jim and I have been wanting to climb Logan from the Douglas Glacier. Not sure George and Bob knew we were taking the hardest route.
On day 1 of the heatwave, we headed up to Easy Pass in 85-degree heat. We had it in our minds that this would be the hottest day of our four day trip. Boy were we wrong.
We took our time getting up to Easy Ridge then took a long break before descending down towards Fisher Camp. The views up valley towards Fisher Peak were amazing.
To our suprise, we were in the middle of wild flower season.
We reached Fisher Camp early evening. The guys went swimming in the creek while I laid down inside the tent and killed flies. There were so many black flies.
The next day we headed up Douglas Creek in an attempt to reach the basin below the Douglas Glacier by early afternoon. All was going pretty good until we came to the old landslide area below the basin. It was here that things went south. All we could see was a mile of brush that was easily 10 feet tall.
Jim took the lead and dove into the brush. It was even worse than we thought. Little streams running through the dense thicket and then there were all the down logs that the brush had grown over. Did I mention that the logs were starting to rot out? So every 10th step on a log would give way.
After 2 hours in the brush, we had traveled less than halfway to the upper basin and things were actually looking worse. It was already early afternoon. We had expected to be relaxing in camp by now. We all decided the safe thing to do way pull the plug and turn around in hope of getting back to a decent campsite for night fall. None of us wanted to sleep in this thicket of brush.
It was now the hottest part of the day and we were in deep brush which added all sorts of humidity. Completely miserable. We did get back to the trail in time to hike to Cosho Camp and setup camp next to the river in the trees. Beautiful camp!
We still had 2 days left in our trip so we decided to hike back to Easy Pass and setup our last camp high on the ridge on some snow. This area is all beautiful heather so you can’t camp on dry ground.
We figured if we were high on a ridge we would have the best chance of beating the heat. For some reason, there was no breeze and thousands of mosquitos. Jim and I escaped by climbing as far up the ridge as we could go.
We hung out enjoying the view, naming peaks, and taking pictures until it was time to return to camp for dinner.
The next day, we tried to hike out before it got too hot. Then we spent some time in the icy creek before heading home.
Lehman Mountain
After a couple days of sitting in air conditioning, temps returned to more of a normal August, so we headed out to Lehman Mountain and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. We were smarter this time and went somewhere with lots of lakes. The heat would not be a problem on this trip.
As to our nature, Jim and I didn’t want to do the conventional route on Lehman Mountain. We knew there was a route that would go over the ridge, so we wanted to find it. We had tried this route a couple of years ago but felt that we were too high. This time we would camp lower and approach the ridge from the bottom. Keep climbing up until we found a weakness.
We spent an entire day scrambling up steep grass, mossy rock, crossing scree fields, and looking for the goat paths next to the vertical rock wall of the ridge.
There was no weakness. There was no way over the ridge.
Once we returned to our camp, we looked down the ridge even further and it was obvious, we were still too high. There looked to be an easy climb over the ridge if we just went a little lower.
The mosquitos at camp were so bad that we couldn’t bare to spend another night here. The night before we had eaten in the tent, the bugs were so bad. We packed up and went looking for a breeze and less bugs.
Just above Glacier Lake with a view of the Three Queens and Spectacle Lake, we started to setup camp on a rocky nob with a heavy breeze. No bug could hold on in this wind. The problem was we couldn’t get the tent up in the winds either.
In the end, we settled for a flat camp next to a tarn with a thousand mosquitos. We woke to rain. Hiked out through wet brush with no rain pants. We were completely soaked. At least the rain keeps the mosquitos away. These might have been the worse bugs I have ever been in.
Mt Baker
We returned home the day after Brooke returned from Italy. One of Jim’s friends invited the three of us on a climb of Mt Baker. Brooke and I have been trying to climb Baker for a couple of years now. Longer for me. Last Sunday evening, we headed up to Baker Lake to car camp before meeting up with the group on Monday morning.
Doug, our group leader, has climbed Mt Baker over 80 times. He is a geologist and used to be a guide in the area. At 75 years old, he is still plodding up the 7400 feet from car to summit. Amazing man! And a hoot to be around.
Doug had assembled a great group of people. We started early on Monday morning with the plan of sleeping on the summit. Doug had done it before and said there was a large flat area just below the summit.
The standard route for Mt Baker is the Easton Glacier. Many parties a day ascend via this route. We were all very excited to try the Squak Glacier. Doug had been up here several weeks ago and said the Squak was in great shape. It had the added bonus of no other climbers.
As we roped up to head up the glacier, Brooke asked if she could lead out. We spent some time discussing what she needed to do and then she was off. When things became uncertain, she was eager to ask for advice. She just keeps absorbing everything we say. She has become a dang good climber in such a short period of time.
What a beautiful day to be in the mountains!
Our rope team set a pretty consistent pace and before long we had climbed over 6000 feet. This was the most I had ever done in a single day before and that was with a day pack. Here I was carrying an overnight pack.
With night fall coming, we headed up the last 1400 feet hoping to reach the saddle below the summit before night fall so we could establish a group camp and start to melt water.
Even with darkness coming, there is alway time for one more lesson and a few more pictures.
We reached the high plateau at 9pm a good 30 minutes before darkness set in. We stomped out a spot then setup our tent in stiff winds. Dove in and started the process of warming up. That didn’t take long with three people in a two-man tent. It was a comical experience trying to get the three of us organized so we could eat dinner. In the end, we were tight like sardines but plenty warm.
By 11pm, we had decided the other half of our group must have made camp just below the final headwall. Jim and I had both seen them there as we were heading up.
We woke at 4:30 to footsteps nearby. We thought it was the other half of our group but it turned out to be 15 climbers coming up the Easton Glacier to enjoy the summit at sunrise. We were able to go back to sleep but by 6am we were awake and decided to pack up and head up to the summit which we had all to ourselves.
It was brutely cold but we didn’t care.
Dressed in everything we had brought with us. We were able to enjoy the summit for 15 minutes before freezing.
Mt Shuksan was so beautiful with the haze and sun rays coming through the clouds.
As we were heading down, Doug’s rope team was coming up. They had indeed camped just below the headwall in a protected saddle. We headed down to their tents to wait for them as they finished their climb to the summit.
Just before 11am, we all headed down the Easton Glacier in order to make this climb a loop trip. Doug’s idea. It was so nice to have someone who knew the area so well.
I was leading the second rope team so Doug was doing all the route finding. He had a hundred footsteps to follow but he still had to check every snow bridge. At some point, the bridge would break and you didn’t want to be on it when it did.
I, on the other hand, got to enjoy the views.
After descending 4000 feet of snow, we finally came to all the camps setup at the base of the Easton Glacier. So many people and tents everywhere. Lots of guides and group classes.
We hiked out on the railroad grade. A trail on the edge of a moraine. I had never been on anything like it.
After what seemed like forever, we came to the trail junction we had left the day before and closed our loop. When we reached the car, our feet were definitely telling us we had just descended 7400 feet and it was time to soak in the creek.
Jim, Brooke, and I are home for a couple of days. Doing laundry, sleeping, and packing for the Grand Tetons. We leave on Saturday. On Monday, we head out on the Teton Traverse with Kevin, Maria, Fay, and Beth. Then Jim and I have a few days in Driggs before we pick up George and then meet up with a guide for climbing the Grand Teton. A bucket list item for Jim. We are supposed to summit on our 14th anniversary. Not planned just a happy accident. Stay tuned!