[Lutzman]

Drove up to WA Pass sunday to try Silverstar and Black Peak. Sunday night I slept near the pass, awoke the next morning early and was on the trail by 6:30am headed for the Burgundy Col/Silverstar Glacier route. Finding a log across the creek was easy. There was a climbers trail that descends directly from the north-most end of the highway, down and slightly leftward to the early winters creek. The trail led me almost directly to a sketchy and slippery looking log that is probably an option in later season with a not so turbulent river, but to my right, up the creek about 40 yards was a better one. After crossing I starting veering left with the aim of running into burgundy creek but went a little too far. the creek was on my right from the beginning. If you can find the actual trail, its pretty much a straight forward, snow free climb up to the bench at 6800. If not, you'll do what I did and climb up the heather slopes, which wasn't nearly as bad as the Smoot guide had made sound. I hit the bench (and snow) after about 2 hours. Took a short breather here, then booted up to burgundy col after another hour. Going over the top of the col was no problem, however, going up it was another story by the afternoon, when the wet slides had come down just about every channel in the wine spires. Anyways, route from here was straight forward across the glacier and up to the saddle.

The only challenge, was post holing up from the saddle to the summit. for some reason, snow was bootable and stable on the right hand side, but on the more direct (more northern) slope, snow was much looser. I veered back to the right and up, made one class 3 move, climbed another 100 feet, made one, sort of exposed class 4 move and that pretty much put me at the summit. I kinda beachwhaled onto the actual block that defines the summit but didn't actually sit on top of it. Too much exposure, Good enough. 5.5 hours car-summit

down climbing was easier than expected. I hauled a rope all the way to the top incase I wanted a rap. never pulled it out of the bag....maybe i'd think differently in later season, but really all the tat was situated below the only seemingly class 4 move I encountered so it was dead weight to me as far as i'm concerned. On the way back across the glacier I wallowed a bit through wet slide territory but all went well. made my final steps back to the car around 4pm 9.5 hours car-car, and never put crampons on all day. Promptly drove to Winthrop and ordered a burger. Woke up the next day with plans of hiking into Wing lake and making an early season attempt at Black, but due to a sh## storm of circumstances i'll refrain from getting into, I flaked and drove to leavenworth. Having to be in the area by the weekend anyways, the enchantments provided a solid backup. That night I pulled into the mountaineers trailhead parking lot around 6pm, was repacked, fueled and on the trail by 7pm. Despite having climbed all day, the day previous, I made good time, made to the lake in 2 hours flat. Just wish I was a half hour sooner, I made it to 5000ft at one of the breakout spots just in time to see the Dragontail and Colchuck Balanced Rock being painted red in alpenglow. At any rate my views weren't bad.

I pitched my tent on a piece of talus, just bigger than my tent that was literally sitting in the lake. Coolest camp ever. I was all set by 10:30, soaking up the solitude and asleep by 11. I was on the move by 5am the next morning with bold aspirations of attempting the North Buttress couloir. On arrival to the moraine I flaked again, on account of wet slides that had come out of seemingly every orifice on the mountain. Maybe next year. Not wanted to go away with nothing, I traversed back over to colchuck glacier, up, and eventually to the summit.

My departure from camp wasn't too late, so snow was ok. breakable crust, bootable, but not too punchy thankfully. Wouldn't want to climb the glacier much later in the day though. Route is pretty much snow free to the moraine (unless you head all the way to dragontail). When you do hit snow, tread lightly, the rock wells are up there waiting for you.

[wildernessed]

The Colchuck glacier in October revealed.

Dragontail, Colchuck, Argonaut, and the disappearing glaciers.

[puzzlr]

That's a couple productive days even if you didn't go where you were intending. Rob -- amazing photo.

[Lutzman]

thanks, I'm pretty keen on operating under impulse, spur of the moment decisions.