[geyer]

With my knee still bothering me from last weekend's Mount Fernow day trip, I did what any sensible person would do and decided to r̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶u̶p̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶k̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶l̶ ̶b̶e̶f̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶s̶k̶i̶ ̶s̶e̶a̶s̶o̶n̶ strap a knee brace on and climb an 8422' heaping pile of choss! THERE WERE GOLDEN LARCHES AND A WEATHER WINDOW, DAMMIT! Dates: October 6-7, 2018 Distance: 20.8 miles Accum. Elevation Gain: 5600' Total Humans Seen: 9 humans (7 female) and 2 dogs, Larches: yes. yes. absolutely, yes. This weekend had been reserved for larch hunting for well over a month, maybe even two months, but somewhere along the line, communication halted between parties and I was left with only Surafel and myself to hunt down this precious golden commodity. The original goal was near WA Pass, but Surafel was out there on Friday and reported that many of the larches were still green. Curious, indeed. I threw out some ideas and we landed on an area that I had been to last year and had noted the abundance of larches - the Saska/Emerald basin. Interesting coincidence that I only visit this place when my left knee is in shambles. With all the route to the basin being on-trail, we were not worried about time and got a relatively late 11:40 am trailhead start. The roads driving up are nearly flawless, which is a complete dichotomy from the Phelps Creek road of last week. The trail starts out in an ashy burn zone, which Surafel could not stop ogling over how amazing it would be to photograph in the winter. (Surafel likes black and white photography a lot - you can sample his photography here.) We cruised on through the North Fork Entiat trail for miles without saying a whole lot until we got to an opening where larches to our left near Fern Lake started to poke through. Travel suddenly got much, much slower.

Short glimpses of views on the N Fork trail got us excited

The next part of the trail is a 1000' switchbacking climb to meet the Pyramid Mountain trail. Just as we approached the trail junction, a light dusting of snow appeared and - GASP - larches! I don't know about you, but the second I reach one of those larch groves on a sunny day, it's like I'm a kid on Christmas morning again.

WE STRUCK GOLD!

We reached camp sometime around 4 after lollygagging in the open meadows and larch groves, taking pictures of absolutely everything. We set up camp in a nice established grassy campsite among golden larches. And then I decided there was still plenty of time to summit Emerald. 2 hours to go up and down 1600 feet? Yeah, totally doable, even with allotted time for all the larch pictures I would be tempted to take.

double flare

Cardinal

endless larches

Pk 7398 on Cardinal

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saska aka chosspile

Emerald

Up I went, with my knee slowly deteriorating. I had been pretty sure that the right route was a gully off toward the Saska side, but since I had seen people coming down from a gully on the Cardinal side, I decided to give that a shot. How many times do I have to learn this lesson to essentially trust no one!? I made it up to the ridge and noted a few things - (1) the lighting was friggin' incredible (2) the climb to the summit from here was nearly vertical with smooth slab and a few cracks to the summit [i.e., not an option] (3) the backside (east) was covered in snow and ice, but chossy and doable. I decided to test out my routefinding on the east side of Emerald by making some questionable moves across icy terrain and hitting the NE ridge. I left one pole behind, thinking it would be simple scrambling once I hit the ridge... oops.

Heading up emerald

Choral Peak

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like ducks in a row!

Here, I started up the east face of the NE ridge, ascending a series of snow-covered ledges, making sure to jam my fingers as deep into the nearest available crack before testing my footing on the next position. There were some 4th class moves in there. I attempted to cross the crest of the ridge to the west face once, only to find a near-vertical drop. I had to downclimb back to the ledges and found myself in a bit of a pickle. If I kept going up, my best option would likely be to descend on a different route, because clearly this wasn't the standard one. But would I even be able to make it to the summit to get that option?? I heard a party of two talking on the summit above me and then heard them leave the summit, which was all the confirmation and confidence I needed. I was going for it.

you can see that horrid burn zone on the Ferry Peak ridge that I hike 2 years ago! Nightmares...

Did I mention that it was icy?

The north side of Cardinal

I was essentially past the point of no return with the light fading quickly. My only obstacle was a short, but snow and ice dusted chimney move - very exposed. I made my first foot placement and felt my shoe slip. Crap. Deep breaths... A few years ago, I would have been losing my sh##, much to the detriment of the climbing, but I have been in much worse scenarios and have learned that staying calm and keeping your head clear is the best way to get out of a jam. Always easier said than done. I made the first foot placement, secured my hands 100%, and got my left foot up waist high on a nice nub that I used to push myself up through the chimney and up to the summit. Success! It probably would have been fun and easy scrambling in the summer, but the ice was a serious hazard.

Saska Ridge with some nice larches

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Jedi light sabers above Glacier Peak

Bonanza

Cardinal all lit up

I spent a good 10 minutes enjoying the last light of the day and snapping pictures of everything in sight before heading down the scree to catch up with the party ahead of me. I caught up to them and asked if they could tell Surafel that I was going back up to fetch my 2nd pole. 400' of ascent later, only a faint orange glow remained of the light. I turned on my headlamp and scree skied the next 600' down. It would have been a nice cherry on top of a successful climb - to not lose any gear, that is - except my pole got stuck between two rocks and snapped... sigh...

looking down at camp

little sub peak on Saska

Saska bathing in light

Another look back to Choral and the Larch Lakes area behind

I got down to camp in the dark, boiled up some spicy ramen and got my tripod out for astrophotography. A perfectly clear, still, and windless night!

Clear night skies. Illuminated golden larches.

Later, I went and chatted with the party who had been on the summit before me at their campfire, and it turned out that I recognized them from social media (well, their dog mostly ) It was the border collie's 11th or 12th Bulger ascent! The next morning, I awoke not to sunny skies as the forecast called, but a blanket of grey with a small sliver of orange to the south. I waited out the morning, enjoying the stillness of it all, when suddenly, the clouds lit up in a tie-die array of pink, yellow, purple, magenta, and orange. It lasted all of two minutes, maybe, before returning to gray.

Some colors building to the south... but will we get any?

Answer: A resounding Yes!

The rest of the morning was spent packing and heading out the way we came. Until next year, larches (Or maybe next weekend... )

[Ski]

cool. some great images there.

[Nancyann]

Sweet trip! You had so much nice lighting on the larches, cool sunburst photos too!

[rubywrangler]

What? You got a sunrise?? I considered going over there but didn't think 2 days was long enough to explore! Anyway, really beautiful photos! I especially like that one of the larches on Saska ridge.

[cartman]

Great photos especially of the larches. Really good to see that this area was spared.

[Bootpathguy]

[Hiking_Husky]

Hey, I was the guy in the party of 2 (Grant)...glad our summit conversation helped motivate you up to the summit! Awesome talking mountains with you, and some amazing pictures here. Emerald was Omak's (the pup) 12th summit, and the next day he got his 13th with Saska. He's quite the mountain dog! Oh, fun story. I left my hiking pole about 0.25mi back from camp when I was coming back from Saska. Nothing like you had to endure, but still kinda annoying. I commented to my climbing partner "bet it's going to break now" after hearing your tale of woe. Sure enough, about 1mi from the trailhead I slipped on the log crossing of a stream, put out my pole to regain balance, and SNAP. Guess moral of the story is, if you leave a pole behind, it simply wants to be left there (else it'll get angry)!

[Hiking_Husky]

[rubywrangler]

[Hiking_Husky]

No offense taken, and I totally agree...Ava has more Bulgers than I do (my 34 to her 39). Just awesome seeing folks getting their pups out to enjoy the mountains too! I know a tired dog is a happy dog

[ozzy]