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rubywrangler
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rubywrangler
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 1:26 pm 
After considering many possible destinations for last weekend, we decided to check out the snow and larch situation around Stiletto lake. It was my first time to this area, but I'm already looking forward to future meandering when there's less snow. We took the Stiletto spur to the Stiletto peak trail and hit consistent snow around 5800' (a few inches at first, a foot or two at the lake, up to waist deep where the wind has moved it around). Around 6200', we left the trail and traversed below the lookout site and into larch territory to pt 6678. The larches were all shades of green to gold, but a little more on the green side overall. We headed across a very tedious snow-covered boulder field and then up a slightly less tedious snow-covered talus slope to the col between Stiletto peak and Jackknife. Neither the gully to Stiletto or the ridge to Jackknife looked especially friendly in current conditions, so we skipped them both and continued across more tedious boulder fields and some nicer snow covered flats to Stiletto lake. The lake was very windy but luckily the surrounding larches provided a nice windbreak for our campsite east of the lake. The wind died down at sunset but the night was very clear and cold.
unflappable buck
unflappable buck
lunch spot overlooking stiletto & jackknife
lunch spot overlooking stiletto & jackknife
goode
goode
stiletto & jackknife from pt 6678
stiletto & jackknife from pt 6678
tupshin, devore, martin, bowan and a lot of other stuff i don't know
tupshin, devore, martin, bowan and a lot of other stuff i don't know
descending from the col
descending from the col
hock
hock
lincoln butte, gilbert, twisp, hock
lincoln butte, gilbert, twisp, hock
stiletto lake outlet
stiletto lake outlet
On sunny Sunday morning we traversed across more tedious boulder fields and then lovely larch-filled benches to Copper Pass. We only found a couple previous reports of this traverse and they varied quite a bit from terrifying to no big deal. Our group found it to be mostly nbd, sticking to roughly ~6600' per a previous report. After rounding the last buttress, we found footprints and followed them to the trail and up to Copper Pass. At Copper Pass we considered a few different exit routes but the boulder fields and encroaching clouds had sapped some of our motivation so we decided to take the easy way out and headed down the trail through the Copper Creek valley.
stiletto lake
stiletto lake
looking toward twisp pass
looking toward twisp pass
larchy
larchy
another boulder field / copper, gilbert nw, ramble beyond the larchy ridge
another boulder field / copper, gilbert nw, ramble beyond the larchy ridge
looking back at the boulder field
looking back at the boulder field
copper bm
copper bm
gilbert nw peak
gilbert nw peak
many photo stops along the way
many photo stops along the way
pretty larch basin over there
pretty larch basin over there
animal tracks led us through a narrow passage here
animal tracks led us through a narrow passage here
working around the last buttress before copper pass
working around the last buttress before copper pass
climbing up to copper pass
climbing up to copper pass
rainy, frisco, goode, storm king, buckner peeking, corteo
rainy, frisco, goode, storm king, buckner peeking, corteo
blue lake peak
blue lake peak
switchblade, jackknife, stiletto
switchblade, jackknife, stiletto
fall on the left, winter on the right
fall on the left, winter on the right

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raising3hikers
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 1:56 pm 
Nice trip, I was there too on Saturday and climbed Stiletto but came up from the Dagger lake trail towards pt 6420 before going over to the stiletto summit. The boulder fields were definitely slow going. Those must have been your tracks I ran into on my way down.

Eric Eames
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geyer
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 2:21 pm 
My friend kyle (kloria on here) was up there this weekend too -- took a different route I think. Did the area seem busy?
rubywrangler wrote:
Also love that reflection

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Sculpin
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Sculpin
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 2:22 pm 
rubywrangler wrote:
We only found a couple previous reports of this traverse and they varied quite a bit from terrifying to no big deal.
lol.gif Yep, there is that one big gully that is sort of shaped like the Impassible Impasse, with a south wall that requires technical gear along most of its length, and a cliff below. Except you can scramble steep scree and go over the top, or find one of two key breaks in the wall down near the bottom. IIRC the folks who were terrified just made something work in between better routes.

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
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Jake Robinson
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 2:30 pm 
Great pics up.gif and thanks for all the informative peak labels too!

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Backpacker Joe
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Backpacker Joe
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 3:00 pm 
Great trip. Thanks for the pics.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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rubywrangler
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 4:07 pm 
Probably just missed you, Eric. I saw some footprints heading toward the gully on Stiletto. We ran into a couple of people setting up camp at Stiletto lake who had also come up from Twisp pass and they said they had gotten their fill of boulder fields on that route too. Brad, no didn't seem busy. Did Kyle camp at the lake? Aside from those people we didn't see anyone else up there. A handful of folks were heading up the Copper creek trail when were hiking out though. Sculpin, I guess we must have gotten lucky and found one of the key breaks lower down. We just kept traversing at about the same elevation and came right to it.

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kloria
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PostTue Oct 08, 2019 4:11 pm 
Nice photos! I'm surprised we didn't run into you. We did enjoy your boot path between Stiletto Lake and Stiletto Peak Spur Trail. I'm hoping to post some photos here shortly, lots of similar looking shots.

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seawallrunner
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PostThu Oct 10, 2019 8:04 pm 
Beautiful area, and beautiful photos. I was on that trail some years ago ...in the summer. It was Bug City. Goodness gracious, we could not even eat dinner near our tents in the evening, the flies were relentless. Nevertheless, the views were amazing and the weather divine. I would love to return, but only once the bugs are not an issue. Because in the summer, they dominate.

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HitTheTrail
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PostSat Oct 12, 2019 6:57 am 
Nice report on a place with great veiws! up.gif Wildernessed and I did an overnight trip to Copper pass this summer and met a climber on the trail up who told us about a high route to Stiletto (near the top of the last buttress in this photo). After setting up camp we decided to check it out and found a well defined boot path leading over there. The problem was about a 100 yards of exposed rock around the buttress that we were not all that comfortable with. We backtracked down the copper pass trail the next day but I doubt that short area would be a problem for younger more adventuresome scramblers even with an overnight pack on.
rubywrangler wrote:
working around the last buttress before copper pass
working around the last buttress before copper pass

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Sculpin
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PostSat Oct 12, 2019 8:07 am 
HitTheTrail wrote:
The problem was about a 100 yards of exposed rock around the buttress that we were not all that comfortable with
Sorry about the thread drift rubywrangler. Your images are awesome! up.gif I've done the traverse four times, out-and-back on two trips, and after running into difficulties both ways the first time, I extensively scouted it the second time. Heading from Copper Pass, the traverse route goes down the trail onto a meadow bench and then back up. If you try to traverse from the pass, or go over the top, it gets too steep for me. From the meadow bench you soon come to the difficult gully with the continuous wall and an even steeper slope below. At that point you are past the "100 yards of exposed rock" up above you, and you can simply work your way up steep scree to easier terrain and even a bootpath. Or you can find one of the breaks in the wall down below that rubywrangler found, perhaps thanks to animal tracks. The breaks can be hard to find coming from Stiletto, you cannot see them. But if you have to do even one Class 3 move, you are off route. Sight lines are not good for following this route, you are threading through cliffs and continually rounding buttresses and having to re-assess the route. It is harder to follow the route coming from Stiletto, IMO.

Between every two pines is a doorway to the new world. - John Muir
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