Forum Index > Trip Reports > Star Peak and Courtney Peak, Feb 17-18
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Eric Gilbertson
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Eric Gilbertson
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 4:24 pm 
Star Peak (8,690ft) and Courtney Peak (8,392ft) Eric Gilbertson (solo) Feb 17-18, 2019 Feb 17 – Ski from Twisp River Sno Park to West Fork Buttermilk trailhead, snowshoe to Star Lake, climb Courtney Peak, camp at Star Lake (19 miles, 3:30am – 6:30pm) Feb 18 – Climb Star peak, hike/ski back to car (20 miles 5:30am – 5:30pm) A good weather window was shaping up for the long weekend east of the crest that I wanted to take advantage of. The snow conditions weren’t predicted to be great, but I figured out routes up Star and Courtney Peaks that avoided avy terrain and were quite safe. I couldn’t find a partner, so planned to go solo. Saturday evening I drove out of Seattle and arrived at the Twisp River Sno Park around 8pm. I soon went to sleep in the car with my alarm set for 3am. I knew it was going to be a long day and wanted an early start. Previously when I had climbed Oval Peak in Feb 2017, near Star and Courtney, it had taken 12 hours to get to base camp. That was with a partner to help break trail, and travelling on skis. This time I would be breaking trail completely by myself and would be going much farther into the wilderness. I also planned to ski only to the end of the road, then continue on snowshoes once I hit trail. It’s much safer going solo to be on snowshoes because they force you to move slower. Thus there’s less risk of getting injured.
The view of Star Peak from Courtney summit at sunset
The view of Star Peak from Courtney summit at sunset
The route
The route
Towing the sled near sunrise
Towing the sled near sunrise
Because the first 9 miles were on road I planned to pull my gear in a sled. I would then ditch the sled at the trailhead along with my skis and ski boots. By 3:30am I was packed up and towing my sled. I skinned up to the end of the plowed road after half an hour and saw a car parked right there. It was where I wished I could have parked, but was next to a conspicuous “No Parking – Snow Plow Turnaround” sign. Past the car the road was luckily packed down by snowmobiles. Last time I’d come here in winter I had to break trail from this point, so hopefully I could move a bit faster this time. Progress was smooth under the bright moon, and I lucked out again that the snowmobile tracks continued on the turnoff road 43-500. However, 2 miles before the trailhead, just as it was starting to get light out, the tracks ended. Here I had to start breaking trail on my own and discovered just how deep and powdery the snow was. I was sinking in so deep that the sled I was towing would not stay upright. It kept tipping into my tracks and flipping over. I’ve never had this problem before. I have a mountaineering partner who names his expedition sled “Paco” and scolds it like a disobedient dog whenever it misbehaves like that. I felt like scolding my sled too, but that wouldn’t have done much good. I finally figured out that if I held the rope for the sled out to my side and pulled with my arm, it would stay out of my tracks and not tip over. It was tiring, but eventually by 8am I reached the trailhead and took a break. There I switched into my mountaineering boots and snowshoes, hid the sled, skis, and ski boots in the woods, and soon started up the trail. It was definitely helpful that I had been on this trail in the winter and summer, because it wasn’t always obvious where it went. With my memory and a GPS route on my phone I made consistent progress.
Finally at the trailhead
Finally at the trailhead
Tricky to follow the trail
Tricky to follow the trail
First views of the north face of Star Peak from below Fish Creek Pass
First views of the north face of Star Peak from below Fish Creek Pass
However, the progress was slow. I was sinking up to my upper shin with every step, even wearing the biggest snowshoes I could find. There were also quite a few blowdowns on the trail, likely from the fire last summer. This area was closed from August til November, and in fact there was still a “Trail Closed” sign at the trailhead. It was buried so deep in the snow, though, that if any ranger asked I’d say I didn’t see it. Most of the trees had burn marks on the bottom, but as I got farther up the valley the evidence of the fire diminished and the forest looked normal. I plodded along for 2 hours, then stopped to check my GPS. It looked like I’d gone about a quarter of the way to Fish Creek Pass, which meant I was moving at about 1 mile per hour. If I kept up that pace I could get there before sunset, which was my goal. As I broke trail farther I noticed my energy got zapped at higher and higher frequency. In the morning I went four hours before my first break, then two hours, then every hour. That day would be one of the highest-calorie days in recent memory for sure. I eventually passed the turnoff point I’d taken in Feb 2016 for the Oval Peak base camp, and continued on in uncharted territory. The trail remained difficult until I soon started getting glimpses of Courtney and Star through the trees. Star looked impossibly steep with huge cornices hanging off the top. Luckily my route would come up the easier back side. By 4:30pm I reached Fish Creek Pass and was met with an amazing view of the Cascades spread out to the west. Cresting a pass is definitely my favorite part of climbing mountains because the views materialize so suddenly.
The view from Courtney
The view from Courtney
There wasn’t much daylight left so I dropped my pack, stuffed some chocolate chips in my pocket, and started up Courtney to the north. It was about a 900ft climb and I was confident I could get up there by sunset. The ridge was wind scoured with patches of icy snow and occasional bushes and rocks poking out. As I got higher I regretted not switching to crampons, and unfortunately had to scramble over boulders in my snowshoes. Nothing broke, though. By 5pm I crested the summit and amazingly there was zero wind. It was still very cold (probably single digits). I hung out for 20 minutes as the clouds turned orange to the west and pink to the east. It’s hard to beat a winter sunset from the top of an 8,000ft peak in the Cascades. I then hustled back down to my pack, hiked down to Star Lake, and set up camp. The weather forecast was for a low of 2F at the lake that night, and it certainly felt cold. I boiled two liters of water to put inside the sleeping bag and that helped quite a bit.
The highest tree on Courtney
The highest tree on Courtney
Colorful sunset
Colorful sunset
More sunset views
More sunset views
I set my alarm for 4am the next morning, planning to get up Star Peak for sunrise. But it was not hard to come up with excuses to sleep in when the alarm actually went off and it actually 4am, 2F outside, and the sleeping bag was still warm inside. My excuse was that it would be miserable to be above treeline in the dark when it was below zero up there. By 5am I started suiting up and was hiking by 5:30am. The normal summer route goes up an avy slope, so I instead descended to the southwest where I could gain the southwest ridge of Star Peak at a low-angle tree-covered slope that was much safer. I crested the edge of the trees on the ridge around sunrise, then followed the ridge up. It was icy and I was glad my snowshoes had teeth along the rim. As I got higher the snow cover got thinner until I eventually ditched the snowshoes and proceeded in crampons. By 8:30am I scrambled the last snowy boulder to the summit, being careful not to get too close to the monster cornices overhanging the north face. It was neat to see the sun first hitting the mountains to the west. While it was sunny overhead, I noticed big clouds pummeling Bonanza and Goode across Lake Chelan. It was very cold, likely below zero, and windy. I think I stayed for just 5 minutes on that summit before I was loosing feeling in my fingers and needed to get moving.
At the southwest ridge of Star
At the southwest ridge of Star
The final summit scramble
The final summit scramble
Back at camp looking up at Star
Back at camp looking up at Star
I scrambled back down the ridge, and by the time I reached my snowshoes I had warmed back up again. I hiked back down the ridge and back to camp by 10:00am. By then it started snowing lightly and star peak was socked in the clouds. The forecast for the day had been mostly sunny, but I guess mountain weather is tough to predict. I had drunk 2 liters of water already that morning, so melted another 2L of snow while I packed up. I was soon hiking back to Fish Creek Pass. Luckily I had had the foresight on the descent from the pass to camp to make low-angle switchbacks instead of plunging directly down. This meant I had an easy broken trail on the way back up. With one final look back at the view I descended down the east side of the pass at 11:15am. The rest of the trail would be cruise control. I wouldn’t have to pause to see where the gaps in the trees were that indicated a trail, or search around for cut logs. I even had a compacted path to follow. I moved pretty quickly, and checked my location after an hour. It now looked like I was moving at 3mph, three times as fast as on the ascent! I continued that pace and reached the trailhead a few hours later. By 3pm I had my boots in my pack, sled and snowshoes strapped on the back, and started skiing out. The terrain was rolling hills for the first 4 miles so I kept the skins on, but for the last 4 miles I took them off and skied down. Except for a few long flat sections that I had to skate ski I generally made pretty good time. By 5:15pm I was back at the car. After a pizza stop at the Twisp Chevron I made it back to Seattle late that night. If you know of other winter ascents of these peaks I would be interested to hear about them! If you want to join for a future winter Bulger peak in the next month PM me. I’m always looking for partners. Link to full report and more pictures

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RichP
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 5:19 pm 
It's great to get a view into an area in the dead of winter that many of us only see in summer and fall. Thanks.

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fourteen410
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 5:49 pm 
Now that's an area you don't see many winter TRs from. Thanks for sharing!

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glenoid
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 7:07 pm 
up.gif I am impressed. Looks wonderful in winter!!

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Jake Robinson
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 8:06 pm 
I can't imagine how difficult all that solo trailbreaking must have been. Looks so beautiful there in winter. Nice effort!

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Nancyann
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 9:23 pm 
What an amazing effort and some beautiful pictures. I can’t imagine being able to function in such cold temperatures. What do you wear to stay warm?

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jdk610
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PostWed Feb 20, 2019 9:44 pm 
Great trip report! Very cool adventure.

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puzzlr
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puzzlr
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PostThu Feb 21, 2019 8:46 am 
Wow, very impressive. Thanks for the rare big adventure report in the middle of winter.

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Foist
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Foist
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PostThu Feb 21, 2019 4:09 pm 
Wow you are a freak. I thought that approach trail was long and tedious enough in summer! I actually took the route you did up Star in the summer. I just studied the topo and picked the mellowest way up. I didn't even know there was a slight "trail" etched into the slope facing Star Lake until afterwards.

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cascadetraverser
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PostThu Feb 21, 2019 10:29 pm 
up.gif up.gif up.gif And you went solo!

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Matt Lemke
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Matt Lemke
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PostSat Feb 23, 2019 4:52 am 
Solo winter camping is a level of masochist and misery I will never obtain! embarassedlaugh.gif That's one hell of a trip!

The Pacific coast to the Great Plains = my playground!!! SummitPost Profile See my website at: http://www.lemkeclimbs.com
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Zloi
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Zloi
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PostThu Feb 28, 2019 10:17 pm 
I echo others--a pretty ballsy trip you'll probably remember for a long time. Great photos! You certainly earned them. Thanks for sharing them with us fainter-hearted armchair winter hikers.

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Alpine Pedestrian
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PostFri Mar 01, 2019 11:23 am 
If you haven't looked at his website, I highly recommend it. Click on his name and then on the website link.

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Brushbuffalo
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PostFri Mar 01, 2019 9:12 pm 
Eric Gilbertson wrote:
I felt like scolding my sled too, but that wouldn’t have done much good
I believe that everyone who has ever towed a "pig" ( sled) full of gear has wanted to curse it. I don't curse, but I sure felt like it! @#$%&!!
Eric Gilbertson wrote:
Luckily I had had the foresight on the descent from the pass to camp to make low-angle switchbacks instead of plunging directly down. This meant I had an easy broken trail on the way back up.
What a good idea! Most of us on far less ambitious adventures would likely just plunge on down the fall line, only to regret it later on the climb back up.

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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wildcat
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PostTue Mar 05, 2019 1:52 pm 
awesome trip! Sorry none of us could make it, super impressed you went anyway. Hope to meet you and climb someday!

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