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Gimpilator
Member
Joined: 12 Oct 2006
Posts: 1488 | TRs
Location: Edmonds, WA
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After Heather returned from her AT hike we noticed a good weather window so we hit the Phelps Creek trail with 6 days worth of food. We went up to Leroy Basin and made camp there. Then we hiked up Seven Fingered Jack before dusk.
 7FJ  7FJ summit from false summit  Fernow  Gloomy Basin below
The next morning we hiked over a pass and dropped down to a tarn and then skirted around a buttress to reach Gloomy Basin. Instead of traversing a loose moraine we skirted around the backside of it. We could see the steep slabs of Fernow above.
 alpenglow  Fortress and Chiwawa  tarn  loose ground  Genius, Dumbell, Greenwood  Genius  Dumbell  Gloomy Glacier  traversing past v-gully  the route above
We gained the upper plateau bench by ascending/traversing below cliffs to the right of a v-shaped gully. From the upper plateau we ascended scree to slabs and then scrambled up to a heather slope in the middle of the slab face. We traversed the heather and small trees and then scrambled up more slabs along the right side of a small waterfall stream.
 Gloomy Glacier  steep slabs
Below some cliffs we crossed the stream to the left side and then scrambled up more slabs to an upper talus field trending diagonal right and then we came to a snowfield. From the snowfield the chockstone gully was visible above.
 snowfield  chockstone gully
We scrambled up under the chockstone and then we were on the upper southeast face. Ledges trended northeast across several gullies. We traversed all the way to the east ridge where we could view Copper and then found blocky rocks with some exposure to scramble up to the summit. This route was rather slow going due to all the talus and we didn't return to camp until near dark.
 traverse ledges on southeast face  Copper  exposure below the summit  Fletcher solo   Bonanza  Copper summit  panorama  Fernow 61/100 and 51/100  ledges  tarn
On day three we had hoped to do South Spectacle Butte, but it was still on fire and the route passed very near a fire which we could see was moving up the slope. No thank you! I checked out the summit of North Spectacle instead.
 7FJ ascent slope  Buck  Wolverine Fire on South Spectacle  Ice Box above  Freezer  lower Ice Lake  North Spectacle  Buckskin  Maude  7FJ  Fernow  Pinnacle  Emerald and Saska  South Spectacle north face  north face  Spectacle Buttes
On day four we started out by hiking up Maude and then checked out Freezer as well where we spotted some nice ptarmigan.
 smoke in the valley  Maude alpenglow  ascending Maude  Glacier  Maude south slope  7FJ  panorama
After Freezer hiked over to Ice Box. We ditched some gear below the access gully and then hiked up nice class 2 all the way to the summit of Ice Box. There was a pumice slope below the final saddle.
 52!  Dome and Sinister  Clark  Maude summit  Maude from Freezer  Ice Box  Ice Box above  slope up Icebox  pumice below the summit  Ice Box summit  Spectacle Buttes  Maude and Ice Lakes  Ice Box summit  panorama
After Ice Box we hiked over to Carne and signed the summit log. Our original 6 day plan had included Old Gib, but weather was apparently moving in so we rushed down to the car at the end of the fourth day. It started pouring rain the minute we got there.
 pumice  pumice  Carne  a bear!  looking back from whence we came  Carne register
Here's some route lines.
 route map 1  route map 2  route map 3  route map 4
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https://www.youtube.com/c/Zogador
https://www.summitpost.org/users/gimpilator/25744
http://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ClimbListC.aspx?cid=2650&sort=elevft&u=ft&j=-1&y=9999
Keep climbing mountains and don't slip! |
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Fletcher
Member
Joined: 29 Jul 2009
Posts: 1655 | TRs
Location: kirkland
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Really awesome you guys! Bummer about South Spectacle, looks like we will have to go back and get that one together  |
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Redwic
Unlisted Free Agent
Joined: 23 Feb 2009
Posts: 3247 | TRs
Location: Going to the Prom(inence)
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Distel32
Member
Joined: 03 Jun 2014
Posts: 961 | TRs
Location: Edmonds, WA
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mehitabel
archyologist
Joined: 23 Mar 2009
Posts: 519 | TRs
Location: the Emerald City
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Looks wonderful! We signed the Carne register yesterday and I was kind of excited to be the next one signing it after you!
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toujours gai toujours gai |
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Triton
Member
Joined: 26 Aug 2009
Posts: 54 | TRs
Location: Duvall,WA
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| Terrific! Has the road to the trailhead improved at all? |
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Jim Dockery
Member
Joined: 12 Sep 2007
Posts: 3088 | TRs
Location: Lake Stevens
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Great trip & pics! I love Gloomy Glacier & larches 
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jimdockery.com |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007
Posts: 6773 | TRs
Location: Stuck in the middle
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Sure, why not do them all as long as you're out there!  It took us two trips to get those in and I was wiped on both.
One of my favorite parts was scrambling up the slabs to Fernow, partly because they looked impossibly steep from a distance but turned out to be relatively easy. I love it when things work out like that.
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Mid Fork Rocks • flickr |
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mbravenboer
Member
Joined: 20 Oct 2013
Posts: 1379 | TRs
Location: Seattle
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Nice to see a report from that area! The larch trees are looking great!
Does somebody know if the area is officially open? I was surprised to see any report from there, because I assumed it would still be closed. The FS has only published a verbal description of the remaining closure, and I'm having some difficulty understanding it.
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3848411.pdf |
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Malachai Constant
Member
Joined: 13 Jan 2002
Posts: 14885 | TRs
Location: Back Again Like A Bad Penny
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Good work, a friend and I spent a whole day trying to get up Fernow and finally had to Truro back short of the summit due to lack of light. It was far shorter from Holden. Love the area which was shut off for much of the summer.
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"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn |
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Gimpilator
Member
Joined: 12 Oct 2006
Posts: 1488 | TRs
Location: Edmonds, WA
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mbravenboer
Member
Joined: 20 Oct 2013
Posts: 1379 | TRs
Location: Seattle
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| Thanks for the info Gimpilator! |
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Brushbuffalo
Member
Joined: 17 Sep 2015
Posts: 1723 | TRs
Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
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Great to see Heather is back out climbing! ( i can guess she is in shape  )
I am a little bit surprised to see that the Wolverine fire is still at it.
All that pumice is from one of Glacier Peak's large explosive eruptions around 13,000 yrs before present (BP.)
Much of the volcanic ash seen in various places in our travels in the NC is from those eruptions, not Mt. Baker, Rainier, or MSH. The ash is usually buried beneath a few cm or more of sediment and forest duff (unless uncovered due to a bit of surficial erosion) and is light gray and gritty when rubbed between the fingers. Watch for it in your travels east, southeast, and northeast of Glacier Peak, and consider that the large eruptions producing it, and the pumice Adam shows in his pictures, would have dwarfed by an order of magnitude the justifiably famous 5/18/80 eruption of MSH.
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Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still |
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Michael Lewis
Taking a nap
Joined: 27 Apr 2009
Posts: 611 | TRs
Location: Lynnwood, WA (for now)
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| So beautful. me must do sum dae |
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n16ht5
Member
Joined: 21 Jun 2010
Posts: 592 | TRs
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| Wow. |
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