Black Peak lies in the vicinity of Rainy Pass along the North Cascades Highway. At 8970', it makes for a fine perch from which to view much of the North Cascades. The approach begins at the Lake Ann trailhead, elevation 4850'.
After the long drive from Seattle, Craig and I left the trailhead at 915 and worked our way up toward Lake Ann. After a couple miles there is an intersection with a path that leads down to the lake - we stayed right and walked the trail above and to the east of Lake Ann and then finally on to Heather Pass. From Heather Pass, Black Peak and Lewis Lake are visible as was the majority of the route we would take to the summit. We descended 300' on talus to Lewis Lake at 5704' and then walked the obvious trail up to Wing Lake gaining 1200' in the process. Wing Lake lies in a great setting in a basin filled with turning larches and with Black Peak looming directly overhead. Wing Lake had a thin layer of ice covering it and there were still two large icebergs floating at its west end.
We traversed around the north side of Wing and then ascended talus and scree to the col at 8000' along Black Peak's south ridge. We followed a climber's path north up the ridge and then entered a large gully just to the west of the ridge line that brought us up to 8650'. We then followed a series of easy ledge systems to the NE. We came to a spot where we could see directly down the NE ridgeline at 8900' and turned left up the last 70' to the summit. There is 15' of class 3 and then it's easy class 2 the rest of the way. Evidently there hadn't been a register on the mountain in a number of years as reported by several other people. However, we were lucky that Fay Pullen had been there 3 days earlier and had decided to drop one off. We signed in and kicked back on the summit for nearly an hour before deciding to descend.
Back at Wing Lake and having plenty of time, we took another long break while soaking up some of the last summer-like weather of the year. After 30 minutes; reluctantly, we picked ourselves up and hoofed the last few miles back to Lake Ann and then on to the truck making it back just after 6 PM.
Great time to fit in a North Cascades trip just a few days shy of October ! Speaking of Fay Pullen, I wonder if she ever posts on this site. Her Pack and Paddle reports are worth the price of a P&P subscription.
drock
Far as I know, she isn't posting here. But thinking of posting on WTA. She definitely gets out a lot! Keep running into her name on summits, shortly before we get there. One of the NW's most interesting climbers.
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