[freddyfredpants]

The calendar declared that it was time for more weekend warrioring, and dutifully I heeded the call. I had my sights on Hardy and Holliway, the other side of Highway 20 from last week's adventure. I left Seattle Friday night in low spirits as the smoky soup descended on Seattle, this time from a different part of Canada. My outlook improved as I neared the gravel pile turnout where I spent the night. There was haze, but not too bad. The morning brought clouds and fog, with the occasional whiff of smoke. It was however mostly easy to forget about the fires and enjoy the scenery occlusion from the more traditional source of Washington weather. I parked on the south side of the road in a pullout just before Swamp Creek and got going a little after 6. Easy travel through the forest got me to the south slope which I took directly to the summit less than 3 hours from the car. The summit register is in need of replacement, as the notebook in the PVC tube has become a kind of papier-mâché cam that I did not have the resourcefulness to free. As did a previous visitor, I resorted to signing the tube itself.

Desolation on Hardy's S slope

Undercast

Choss crossing over to the PCT @ Methow Pass

Descent to the east across talus/sandy slopes was straightforward. I took the broad gully at 7000' to bypass Methow Pass and head directly to the PCT which I picked up at 6200'. A short while later I turned uphill a couple hundred yards before Golden Creek and pushed up through mostly open forest to Nugget Lakes. 300' or 400' below the lakes are the most tedious in deadfall and small trees occupying an avalanche slope. I ended up crossing to the north side of the creek for the last bit and soon found a faint trail that took me to the shore of the upper lake. Around this time the overcast skies became lightly drizzling skies, and my view of the upper half of the mountain was blocked. A southwest facing gully looked intimidating in the mist, so I rounded the upper lake to its SE end to gain some perspective. After some snacks I chose a line up the SW slopes, crossing a few slabs and wet brush to finally reach the top of said gully and navigate to the summit in fog, reaching it around 3:30. A few minutes after it started snowing I headed down. Initially I reversed my route, then stayed in the gully which turned out to be a reasonably standard Cascades kitty litter adventure. The lower part held my attention as there were long stretches of gritty monolayer over slab. I tried the other side of the stream heading down. Despite a couple sections of open forest, overall I found it wetter and brushier than the other side so I crossed over the creek and reversed route through the forest back to the PCT, reaching it around 6.

Nugget Lakes

Slabby kitty litter

Holliway summit

Snow in August

Nugget Lakes seen descending Holliway

Golden Horn

Porcupine Tree

Now to get out. You know how when you're driving along Highway 20 and you see a sinewy 30 foot wide gully full of boulders, cobblestones, and gravel emerging steeply from the forest and you think about how bad you just want to stop the car and climb that thing for a couple thousand feet? Me too. I had spied a gully leading over the Hardy Ridge to a saddle which on the USGS map is just south of the point marked 7197'. From the PCT at the avy slope around 5400' I dropped down across the W Fork Methow and made my way over to the deep couloir. It was more solid than I had expected, and I only dropped a couple of big rocks onto shins and feet. Above the couloir the terrain opened up towards the saddle. When I reached this spot the drizzle picked up again. Once over the saddle just after 8 in surprising darkness I could basically see nothing in the mist and fog. I made my way to a west-pointing ridge and took it down forever through forested wet brush and spider webs to the road. The wet sticks on the ground killed my traction and made for slow going, and I emerged onto the road around 10.

Pick your poo-poo gully

I picked the one on the right

Why I opted for this exit over Methow Pass to Swamp Creek I can't say. Maybe I thought the other side would be more open and sandy, like the slope I took to Hardy. Maybe I wanted to be climbing the Cascadian Couloir that day instead. Maybe I just like walking Highway 20 at night. At any rate I knew I wouldn't make it to Mondo for bulgogi no matter how hard I tried, so on went the hair shirt. This was a personal record, 9700' gain for the day. None of the climbing was very hard, though the brush and kitty litter on Holliway added some difficulty. I see the wisdom of those who comment that going when there's snow is the ground is preferable.

[Distel32]

[awilsondc]