[ozzy]

Derek(rocknclimb) and i were set on tackling this choss pile on saturday. He was bringing Jamar along with him so it would be a 3 man team. It started kinda sloppy because i slept through my alarm and was 1.5hrs late picking them up from the park n ride in Everrett. Sorry dudes. We were in my car so we planned to park at the YAB TH and walk the road the remaining 2+ miles to twin lakes th. As luck would have we heard a truck coming up and Jamar asked him for a lift and we all got in, hell yeah! His name was Donavan, a local Hunter and avid mountain biker, thanks man! We got to the TH soon enough and were off to the great choss pile in the sky. It was pretty hazy all day because of the fires but not overly hot. As we were approaching high pass we saw a huge chunk of snow calve off from right below the summit! It rumbled the whole valley and fell all the way down and crossed the route we would be taking! We were all in awe. We gained high pass within the hour and took a break to observe our route on this nasty looking beast!

Gloomy morning at twin lakes

First view of obj

Look at the very top 2 snowpatches on the summit, the one on the left chunked off and you can see the fresh dusting on the rocks below

Break time at high pass

The route descends shortly from high pass to the basin trending northwest, we aimed for a snowpatch that was just below the ridge. Oh sh##! Another part of the snowpatch calved off when we were about 100yds from the fall zone. We heard several small rocks and saw a basketball sized rock roll well below us! That will wake you up. We gained the ridge no problem and found the gully easily and started the climb. Down low the gully is loose but it definitely gets worse as you get higher. We stuck really close together to minimize the rockfall danger. If there was another party above while in the gully it could get ugly real easy, luckily we had the mountain to ourselves! The whole south slope of this monster resembles a martian desert landcape, it was an otherworly climb. It is a beautiful mountain but also a gnarly choss pile, lol. I really enjoyed this climb especially having Derek and Jamar tag along. We all had a blast on this mountain, i havent laughed my ass off like that for a long time!

In the basin pretty close to the rockfall

Jamar

Our gully

Derek and Jamar coming up

Jamar is amped! Or he really loves flowers.

Derek not so amused

Upward and onward

Martian landscape

Climbing

The end is near

Radical dudes

We made it! Summit brews!

American border peak

The glacier on the north side

The Pleiades

Cheers!

Down to the basin from whence we came

We stayed on the summit for 2hrs and made our way back down. There were spots where it was unavoidable to cause some sort of rockfall but we stuck close together and made it back down without any problems. And wouldn't you know it we were able to hitch another ride back to the car! Hell yeah!Thanks Derek and Jamar for the awesome trip and baggin a sick peak we gotta do it again boys!

Negotiating

It was a good day

Derek and choss monster

In the basin

In the basin

Jamar

Back at the lakes

[rocknclimb]

Such a fun trip. Thanks for the good company Ozzy and Jamal.

Twin Lakes

Jamar nearing High Pass

Ozzy at High Pass

Traverse to the notch

Lower gully

Jamar and Ozzy in the Gully

Ozzy rocking the choss

Endless shale

Ozzy on Larrabee

Jamar enjoying the choss

Ugh

Smoky summit views

Ozzy on the summit

Border peaks barely visable

Jamar heading down

Heading back to Twin Lakes

Chilling after a successful summit

Another great day in the mountains!!!

[CarriesNineFires]

Here's to you for getting at it. Those mountains are there for a reason, right?

[Gimpilator]

Nice job guys! That's a lot of smoke.

[mtn.climber]

Choss + smoke = good times!! Way to get it done. Too bad the views weren't better.

[KTizzle89]

Nice dude! didn't look as bad as I was imagining. Just kind of a loose sloppy mess

[Brushbuffalo]

If there was ever a mountain that is safer when done solo, that is the one. Glad none of you got beaned. Trivia: You saw smoke from BC fires, I saw flames. I was bivied on top of Larrabee the August night that the Mt. Baker Ski Area's employee lodge burned down in the 1980s. At first I thought they were just having a big bonfire of slash. The company rebuilt and occupied the replacement building at Heather Meadows in time for that Fall's opening day.

[Magellan]

Crazy good!

[Frodo Barefoot]

Hey Ozzy, if you recall - which way did you go after the gully? Was up there 2 weeks ago and gave up at 7,300 after exiting gully on climbers right and noticing a few massive cairns on the left side.

[ozzy]