Unbeknownst to me, 19 years ago Jim gave a “guided trip” of Mt Cruiser gift certificate as a wedding present to our friends, Mike and Kerry. This last week, they cashed it in.
Kerry’s grandfather was in the climbing party which had the first accent of Mt Cruiser. It has always been a dream of hers to climb in her grandfather’s footsteps. This trip became extra special when Kerry’s son, Cody, was able to join us making this a multi-generational climb.
Although Kerry, Mike, and Cody are all hikers with some mountaineering experience, none of them had experience doing alpine climbing. What they lacked in climbing experience, they made up for with positive, upbeat attitudes.
In the weeks leading up to the climb, Jim and I learned that the snow-pack in the Olympics was about a month early. We would have September conditions instead of August. That would not be good. The route to Cruiser required ascending a steep loose gully. Without snow, we would be forced to climb in the dirt. Rock fall was sure to be a big issue with a climbing party of 5.
Jim floated our concerns out to the group secretly hoping they would not be set on Mt Cruise. Their responses still showed excitement and included the two most important phases… “it will be an adventure” and “we trust you two and will do whatever you think is best”. They definitely had the right attitude and would need to have complete, blind faith in us.
We headed out last Tuesday in the middle of the heatwave. Even though the hike into Flapjacks Lakes is mostly in the trees, we roasted.
Despite the heat, heavy packs, and low chance of success, our group was surprisingly upbeat.
When we left home Jim gave us a 10% chance of success. The last mile of the hike to the lake, I gave myself a 5% chance of making it to the lake without heatstroke.
As we arrived the lakes, Jim, Kerry, and Cody dropped packs and went looking for the perfect campsite. Mike and I were more than happy to just watch the packs. After nearly an hour, they returned with the perfect site in mind. It was private with a stream running through it. Complete luxury.
After we setup camp, Mike went to work fixing Kerry’s boot. The sole was coming off. He came up with a great solution. First, he tied the sole on with Kerry’s power ribbon. Then he put duct tape over the ribbon to protect it. Somehow, the shoe made it through the entire trip. All the way back to the car.
Over dinner, we discussed our strategy for the next day. Everyone was still gun-hoe on attempting the dirty gully with complete understanding that we might turn them around at any minute or take one look at it and say “no way”. We did some packing before going to bed early. We set a 5am alarm with hope of being on the trail shortly after first light.
The next morning, our camp was humming with positive energy. I wish all climbs started like this. Kerry was so excited to be finally attempting Mt Cruiser. This was something she had been dreaming of for well over 30 years.
We visited as we hiked the trail towards Gladys Divide. Then Needle Pass and the dirty gully came into view. It was as bad as we thought it would be. It didn’t seem to slow the enthusiasm in our group. We took a break to discuss strategy and give some instructions on how we were going to attempt this thing.
We moved slowly and methodically. Jim and I worked our way up. Side-by-side with several feet between us. Cody followed Jim while Kerry and Mike stayed close to my tail.
We checked in with the group several times. Was anyone scared? Did anyone want to quit? Their excited was unwavering. Jim and I chocked it up to the unknown. They had no idea how bad this could get.
After some tense situations in the middle of the steepest part, we could all see the top of the gully. This part was almost over. They beamed with excited while Jim and I started to think about how the hell we were going to get back down that thing. Oh well, that was a problem for later in the day.
The next hurdle was to climb over Beta. The climbing was class 3 and exposed but very solid. No one had any trouble ascending its walls. I think we were all so excited to be stepping on something solid.
From the summit of Beta, you get your first look at Mt Cruiser. Kerry was quick to pull out her hat and start taking pictures. She has photos of her grandfather wearing a hat just like this.
We rappelled the notch off of Beta. It was safer and it gave Jim a chance to go over rappelling with everyone. They all had some experience but, in some cases, it had been years since they had touched a device.
We worked our way down and across the bolder field just to scramble up the other side. None of this was pleasant terrain at all.
When we reached the next col, everyone got a good look at the route to the summit. It looks completely impossible from here. Even though both Jim and I had climbed Cruiser before, we stood there wondering how we were going to get up this thing.
In no time, we were at the start of the route. I looked at the time and we were still doing ok. We had everyone bring headlamps because we knew once we started up, we were going to keep going. And the one thing neither of us wanted to do was hurry with a group of newbies.
I lead up the class 4 gully and fixed a line. Jim then worked with each person instructing them how to climb on a prusik. This was a great place to practice this. Our plan was to set another fixed line on the summit ridge, and we wanted everyone to have done it is an area with less exposure.
One by one, I saw their heads popup at the top of the rope. Everyone had smiles on their faces. No one seemed scared in the least. I guess we would keep going.
Next was the fun obstacle in the climb. Wiggling through the cannon hole. So few climbs offer you the opportunity to climb through a cannon hole. It is truly a hoot.
Things were about to get serious. We had reached the class 5 exposed climbing. All the ropes came out. Jim organized the gear and got ready to start the climb. We gave everyone instructions on what was going to happen. They continually asked for clarification until they felt comfortable with what was coming. And then Jim was off.
Cody was next and then I was heading up. When I reached the tiny belay station, Jim and I discussed things and I lead up to the summit with Cody belaying me while Jim belayed Kerry and Mike up. Before we knew it Cody and I were sitting up on top.
Then Kerry arrived. Tears filled my eyes. I was so excited for her.
Mike was next with Jim close behind.
We were all on the summit. We took pictures. Ate something. And did some organization for our decent. Even though the morning had become afternoon, we didn’t want to hurry anyone off the summit. This was a very special summit.
We retreated in the same order we had arrived. Jim led the rappel but was careful to make sure Mike was setup before heading down. One of the things we learned from hiring guides was how to set someone up on rappel before you leave so no mistakes are made.
We all waited our turn to rappel down the face of Mt Cruiser.
Eventually we were all off the face.
It was off to the cannon hole. Cody took a fabulous video of his mom working her way down.
Soon we were all above the gully, rappelling back to where we had left our gear. And then we were at the base. Changing back into more comfortable shoes and filling up on water. We had already been on the move for 10 hours and we were a long way from camp, but this group was still all smiles.
We worked our way back over the nearby crag. Then over the summit of Beta. Carefully picking our way down the slope to hopefully avoid another rappel or scaring anyone.
Then came the dirty gully. This scared everyone. We couldn’t rappel the top. There was way too much loose stuff and no place for people below to go to get out of the rock fall. We would have to descend at least for a while.
It was slow and awful. Actually, worse than I thought it would be. We were all working together to move down without knocking a rock on the person below us.
When we reached the worse part, Jim and I started looking for something to rappel off of. If we continued down climbing, someone was bound to get hurt. We hoped that one rappel would get us around the corner below and out of the worst of it.
Success! The rappel ended around the corner. The person below was safe from rock fall. One by one, we were able to move people to the rappel station while keeping the rope out of the dirt and way from falling rock.
Once off the rappel, we were able to individually work our way back down to the trail. The fear of falling rock free from our mind. Now we just had to avoid hurting ourselves as we descended the boulder fields.
Kerry was the first to hit the trail. You could hear her clear up the slope. They all knew the climb wasn’t over until we had our feet on the trail.
When we had all arrived on the trail, there was a mini celebration. Somehow, we had pulled it off. It had taken almost 14 hours and we still weren’t in camp, but we had done it.
On the hike back to camp, the hills were lit up with alpenglow. One of my favorite things about arriving back to camp just before dark is the color hitting the mountain peaks. It is just so beautiful.
We all arrived camp without our headlamps but quickly put them on. We were all super excited to have a stream running through camp. Everyone was at least a quart low on water.
We celebrated through dinner. Such a hard day of climbing and our group was still laughing and talking about how fun it was. They were hooked. It takes a usual person to find such joy in a day full of so much discomfort.
We got to bed before 11 and slept until 7. Our morning was slow but full of laughter. Everyone had aches and pains. Our bodies were not excited about hiking out to the cars. Thankfully, there was lots of conversation and we were at the cars by 3pm.
As we loaded into our cars, I knew this was only the beginning of climbing with these three. But no trip in the future would be the same as this one. This was their first taste of alpine climbing. And frankly, all future climbs were going to seem boring in comparison. Mt Cruiser has it all.