[Fletcher]

I left home in Redmond at 6 on Wednesday morning and after the long drive out to Winthrop, Michael and I began hiking up Wolf Creek at 11:30. It was a sunny day with summer heat.

swollen North Fork Wolf Creek

Luckily there is a bridge

paintbrush

We set a relaxed pace during our 10 mile hike in, all we needed to do was make camp that day so no rush. Which was good, because I was tired and felt like taking it slow. Only a couple very small patches of snow along the way, and numerous blowdown but none that was difficult to navigate over. As we neared Gardner Meadows we heard a deep grunting noise that we figured was a bear, but never saw it.

approaching Gardner Meadows

Michael arriving in Gardner Meadows

We pulled into the first campsite and decided to set up. We had the place all to ourselves. It was about 4pm. We had all evening to relax and wander around.

camp

Gardner Meadows has some nice campsites

looking towards Gardner

That evening we got a fire started (a rare luxury on climbing trips) and made some dinner. Around 8:30, Heather arrived to join us the next day. We sat around the fire chatting until about 10:30, then crashed. It got chillier than I thought it would that night which I thought would bode well for us and firm things up for our morning ascent. We were up by 5:30 and hiking up the grassy slopes above the meadows by 6. The weather looked great, but we had to move quickly as thunderstorms were forecasted for the afternoon. After some discussion the night before, we decided to go for North Gardner first.

morning alpenglow on Abernathy

starting out

We easily navigated ourselves northwest of camp to the big bowl basin below Pt 8487. At the base of the bowl, we put on crampons and ascended firm snow straight up below the highest point. Eventually we transitioned to very loose scree and took that up to 8487 where we got a first look at our objectives.

the bowl

view of Abernathy across the valley

Heather leading the way

steep

scree

ridge to 8487

North Gardner

pretty awesome morning in the North Cascades

We took a food break and dropped some unneeded gear, then we set out for the ridge run to North Gardner. What a fun ridge! Not really difficult anywhere but we encountered a little bit of exposed class 3. A piece of cake really. We sat on the summit of North Gardner at 9am, 3 hours from camp.

ridge to North Gardner

scrambily section

Micheal and Heather with pt 8487

more scrambling

getting close

Heather just below the summit

Micheal arriving at summit

North Gardner register entry

Bonanza and Glacier

Gardner

view east

view west

lightning strike on register tube

We did not sit on the summit for long, as we had another peak to climb and it looked like the weather could be slowly changing. The traverse back to Pt 8487 was simple. We grabbed our gear and began descending back into the bowl.

traverse back

gear cache

Micheal and North Gardner

not yet dude!

We opted to drop down to ~7600 ft and traverse below the cliff bands, rather than traverse high on the ridge as it is supposed to be tricky and problematic with snow. Our route went great.

we traversed the scree above the snow

traverse

looking back

As soon as we rounded a corner, it looked like we could go up, so we did. We kicked steps up snow for a couple hundred feet, then climbed up a rocky rib that was fairly solid.

looking up our route to Gardner

Micheal beginning ascent of Gardner

terrain on Gardner

nearing the summit with increasing clouds

summit

lady bugs

We made the summit around noon. By this time, it was pretty obvious that the forecasted thunderstorms were beginning to take shape. We could see rain showers to the north and east.

East Gardner

North Gardner

looking south

rain over the Pasayten

summit shot

register entry

We did not hang out long. The descent to camp was the fastest in recent memory due to being able to "skri" thousands of feet down.

Heather skriing Gardner

almost back to camp

We all got back to camp and packed up for the hike out. Heather took off before Micheal and I and probably hiked out in half the time. As Micheal and I left the meadows we heard the roll of distant thunder but despite of this never got rained on during our hike out. The last couple of miles to the car resembled some death marches I have done in the past. The drive home was long but very much worth it. Great trip! ~24 or 25 miles ~lots of gain

[RichP]

Gotta love those Gardners. The meadows are superb for relaxing before and after the summits. I'm digging that hammock setup.

[wildernessed]

Nice and good beta for the area.

[rocknclimb]

Nice work

[Yet]

Nice! Love the Gardners! I resemble the "not yet Dude" photo!

[Roly Poly]

Great to see that Michael's knee recovered so fast.

[PorcupinePhobia]

Thanks for posting

[Gimpilator]

Nice trip! I've never seen a lightning strike on a register tube before. That's pretty cool! Just one more now and you're caught up to me.

[Anish]

Twas a lot of fun!

Fletcher climbing toward North Gardner

Fletcher and Michael climbing

North Gardner

Michael headed toward North Gardner

Looking across to Gardner

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I haven't really looked closely at doing this, but that ridge traverse to North Gardner looks really cool! Looks like a great view of row upon row of peaks. Thanks to all for sharing your pics.

[Bryan K]

What a fun looking trip you guys!!!!! So many peaks, so little time

[Michael Lewis]

Sorry I'm so late! I'm still working on the video. I went to a friend's wedding yesterday. The Gardners did drain me but they were easier than I expected and my knee didn't give me much problem. Very pleasant in that meadow and surrounding views. The approach in and out just sucked though. I'll try to put something on SP as well. Here's some of my pics

Full creek

first glimpse of Gardner Meadows

Gardening

cozy camp

Chillin' at sunset

fire circle

Alpenglow

stripey

hidden waterfalls

crack addict

North Gardner

Drinking from the streams

Gardening gloves on Gardner

Anish and Fletcher chilling on Gardner

Thunderstorms chase us out of the meadows

vertebrae and sacral bones

Garden near Wolf Creek

Thanks again Fletcher for taking me out there and Anish for joining us at the meadows. it was a good time.

[Michael Lewis]

Here's the vid:

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[Blowdown]

Awesome climb, trip report, photos, and video. Nice work!