[Fletcher]

Sinister Peak was the most difficult peak that I had left to do on the Bulger T100 List. Naturally, I was eager to get in there this spring and get it before the bergschrund crossing onto the Chikamin Glacier became impassable. Jake and I climbed Sinister (+ Dome) in two long days this weekend. Best trip of the year so far!

Short Version Day 1: Slog from the car to Dome Col, summit Dome and bivy at Dome Col. Grueling. Day 2: Climb Sinister and slog out to the car. Grueling. Long Version We drove out to the trailhead late on Friday night. The Suiattle River Road is in bad shape right now and we didnt arrive until after 2:30am. After a few hours of lackluster sleep in the front seat of Jakes forerunner, we were hiking up Downey Creek just before 6. There were some blowdowns on the trail, but the hike was mostly pleasant.

blowdown

A couple hours later, we arrived at Bachelor Creek and took a break. The trail up Bachelor Creek was in decent shape as well. Patchy snow started around 3600 and was continuous by the time we hit 4k. The few sections of slide alder were no big deal at all. I think we used the same crossing log at 4500 ft that I used when I climbed Dome in 2015.

raging Bachelor Creek

Purple Trillium

Jake in Bachelor Creek

Bachelor Creek

Log Crossing

The route ahead

A couple skiers heading in for the Ptarmigan caught up with us in upper Bachelor Creek. We leapfrogged with them all the way to Itswoot Ridge. Nice guys. As it was the first time I did this approach, it was a relief to break out in the sub-alpine in the headwaters of Bachelor Creek.

stoked

nearing Cub Pass

We arrived at the pass above Cub Lake to a still mostly frozen lake below. The plunge stepping down to the lake was nice. Getting around the lake looked funky, so we put our snowshoes on and walked across. Immediately after the lake is a large area of spring avalanche debris. The snowshoes were helpful here.

first view of Glacier

Cub Lake

Jake snowshoeing across Cub Lake

Spire Point above

We finally arrived at Itswoot Ridge at some point in the afternoon. Clouds were rolling in and most of the surrounding peaks were socked in. We took a lengthy break here on the only melted out patch of dry ground. While we were breaking, Matt and Dustin caught up with us. They were planning on doing Dome and Sinister the next day as well. They had planned to camp at Itswoot Ridge but Jake and I apparently hadn't done enough suffering, so we dropped a few hundred feet on the far side of the ridge and started traversing towards the Dome Glacier.

Dome Peak

traversing towards the Dome Glacier

a socked in Dome Glacier

maybe not so socked in??

nope, socked in

We climbed toward Dome Col in a whiteout. I bonked hard on this section, it was the physical crux of the entire trip for me. Once we were on the flats of the Dome Glacier, snowshoes aided our travel, although we couldn't tell if we were hiking uphill or down. Just a couple hundred feet below the col, the clouds parted slightly and we could see where we were going, which boosted moral.

we can see!

a sea of clouds from Dome Col

We had received some beta that the bivy spots at the col were dry. We got there around 6:30. The wind was blowing hard and it was frigid ( a theme that would continue through the night). I had to wear every article of clothing that I had brought in order to stay warm. After eating some food and setting up camp, we began making our way the really short distance towards the summit of Dome. The wind was blowing so hard on the snow slope above camp that it felt like it could take us off our feet.

Jake above Dome Col

Sinister

Agnes

nearing the summit

The summit of Dome was in perfect condition. An easy walk on snow until the final exposed scramble to the summit. This was much easier than when I was up here the first time.

Glacier

Jake getting some Dome

The wind was a lot calmer on the summit and the scenery was amazing. We hung out for an hour, to avoid going back down to the wind tunnel that was Dome Col, if for nothing else.

Eldorado to Buckner

Reynolds

Spire Pt

Glacier

damn

damn

We reluctantly began descending towards camp but the scene just continued to improve.

Jake heading down from Dome

nice

Agnes and Gunsight

Fernow Group

wow

Dinner was amazing on Saturday night. We hit the hay around 11. The wind blew hard all night making sleep really difficult. Jake and I both think we got maybe 2 hours each. We were up at 3:45 and roping up to cross the Chikamin at 4:45. It was cold.

morning

Goode and Black

the schrund crossing

The schrund crossing on the Chickamin Glacier was in perfect shape, trivial. Then we easily weaved our way down past numerous massive crevasses towards Sinister Peak. It was a beautirul morning to be alive in the Cascades.

Jake and a crevasse

Sinister

gcetting closer

Chickamin Ice

Gunsight

our route up Sinister

Sinister was kind of sketchy for us. Instead of climbing the much longer north face snow route, we used some existing snow patches to attain the west ridge lower down. Highlights of our climb included a long traverse on rotten snow above a deep moat (no fall zone) and linking up rotten snow patches with islands of rock on exposed terrain (also a no fall zone). Getting off snow and onto the rock once we were gaining the ridge took some nimble moves in crampons. Once on the ridge, just a little more steep, but much more solid snow, and we were on the summit. It was 6:45am

almost there

Jake and Dome

summitshot

register

our entry

view west

Jake on the summit

me on the summit

Baker

Bonanza

Buckner and Jack

We didnt stay long, we were worried about snow softening in the sun, and the car was a long ways away. Our descent went really smoothly which was a relief.

Jake downclimbing Sinister

Jake downclimbing Sinister

Jake downclimbing Sinister

a big schrund

The climb back up the Chickamin to Dome Col was athletic. It felt like we were in a furnace.

we had to go back up that

looking back

Jake nearing the schrund crossing

current state of the schrund crossing, probably good for awhile

When we arrived back at the col, Matt and Dustin were roping up to head for Sinister. Matt was hoping to get his 90th and 91st Bulgers. To thank us for our trail we broke across the Chickamin, they told us to drink some wine they had in their tent when we passed by Itswoot Ridge. We told them we would oblige. We were packed up and descending the Dome Glacier at 11:00.

Glacier again

Dome ice

slog to Itswoot

Jake getting ready to enjoy some god-sent boxed pinot noir

last look back to Dome

descent back to Cub Lake

The slog back up from Cub Lake was made easier by a skier that had kicked steps earlier that day. We arrived at Cub Pass before 3.

climb up from Cub Lake

Our descent down Bachelor Creek was less painful than Id imagined it would be, which was a relief. We arrived back at Downey Creek at 5:30 and took our last break.

descending into Bachelor Creek

Wolverine?

a raging Bachelor

After stuffing our faces one last time and chugging some cold Via instant coffee, we slogged out to the trailhead in less than 2 hours, arriving at 7:50pm. Feels damn good to have Sinister in the bag. ~35 miles ~11,600 ft of gain ~38 hours car to car

[Jake Robinson]

Tricky log crossing on the way in

Starting into the brush of Bachelor Creek...wasn't bad

Getting above the whiteout on the Dome Glacier

Fletcher Au Cheval

Eldorado to Forbidden in the clouds

Three Fingers and Whitehorse

Fletcher on the summit of Dome

Bonanza

Glacier

Agnes and Gunsight

Bonanza and Copper to Maude

Sunset from camp at the Dome-Chickamin col

Sunrise over the Chickamin Glacier

Doesn't look very far but it feels like a long way...

Final snow slopes to the top

Fletcher's favorite

We carried snowshoes to the top of Sinister

Bannock Mountain and frozen Bannock Lakes

Dome

Glacier

Sinister summit with Eldorado to Black

This crossing didn't last very long (Eric G's tracks from last week)

Looking back up what we climbed

Slushy trail breaking on the way back to camp, very arduous

Fletcher and Sinister

Watching some skiers summit Dome

One last look from Itswoot Ridge

[awilsondc]

I've been looking forward to this report being posted! This should be good... where's my bag of popcorn...

[neek]

Wow, nice. Hopefully you're getting caught up on sleep now.

[xuanxier]

Man that's a burly two-days. Congraz to get this beast done.. After reading it I'm not so sure if my knee would hold had I joined haha. Probably the first snowshoe-on-SInister shot you guys got!

[Gimpilator]

Very very impressive. You guys are pretty burly. Beautiful area.

[raising3hikers]

way to cover lots of ground in 2 days. sinister is in such a great location. I especially like your pics of gunsight

[Magellan]

Frickin rugged! Nice work, and lovely photos gentlemen.

[iron]

great sunset shots.

[Midnight Slogger]

What an inspiring slog--and some of the best pics of skies and summits I've ever seen. Best part of video: Jake's sh##-eating grin on the summit of Dome. Well done comrades!

[Ski]

very nice.

[Brushbuffalo]

Fine achievement, and so fast!

[rbuzby]

Great trip. I'm sure you guys know that Dome is a very important mountain. That steep snow slope coming down from Spire looks like a real fun one. Yikes. The boulder on the summit of Dome that Beckey described as looking like it was placed by a playful deity, fell off sometime between around 1980, and 1993. There has been other erosion of the summit area also. Bob Bolton and I compared summit pics a few years back. It would be nice to try to narrow it down more. I wonder when it actually fell off.

[sound2summit]

Great TR guys! It was fun talking with the two of you at Dome col. I'm really glad that we were able to contribute some wine to help with your death march out of there.

[ozzy]

Hell, that is one ambitious trip! Awesome pics all around, thats crazy runnin into others way out there this time of year! Congrats dudes! Cheers!