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Fletcher Member
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Posts: 1870 | TRs | Pics Location: kirkland |
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Fletcher
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Sat Jun 27, 2020 2:59 pm
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Got out with the boys this week for an athletic overnighter into the Southern Pickets. With a tight weather window opening up, we set our sights on Terror and Degenhardt. Wanting to summit both peaks on approach day, we knew we needed to start early. The road to the Goodell Creek Trailhead is currently closed, so we parked at the gravel pit labeled on the topo that is maybe a quarter mile away as the crow flies. From there, we bushwacked up to the trailhead and entered the jungle at 3am. The brush was wet and we were all thoroughly soaked within minutes. The stars visible up through the trees suggested that the day would dawn clear. Morale was high.
The creeks were raging and the two major crossings before Terror Creek were challenging to cross without wet socks. We followed good climbers trail beyond the Terror Basin cutoff for maybe a quarter mile until it disappeared. About an hour of heavy bushwacking followed; its a true Cascades Jungle in there. The devils club is often thick and the blowdown is massive. There are many, many places where it looks like you could fall into the center of the earth and never be seen or heard from again.
first glimpse of The Pickets up Terror Creek
Crossing Terror Creek was my biggest worry going into the trip, but a well placed log with nice girth made that crossing the easiest of the day. From there, we easily located the climbers path that climbs a steep 1800 feet up to the ridge that eventually leads to Chopping Block Camp. The air was humid and we were sweatin.
Terror Creek crossing crossing Terror Creek steeps water on fungi art The Chopping Block Triumph and Despair McMillan Spires
Breaking into the alpine renewed the stoke, as it always does. We made it to camp well before noon and took a nice long break. By 12:30, we were dropping into Crescent Creek Basin for our traverse towards the West Terror Gully. It was hot.
breaking into the alpine The Chopping Block Crescent Creek Spires, The Rake, Terror, and Degenhardt Stoked up the West Terror Gully
The gully was easy, and we soon found ourselves welcomed to a refreshing breeze at the West Terror Notch. Dustin lead up the short section of low 5th class, then we all headed up the longer chossy class 2 ridge. Views were epic.
the technical step belays off PeeWee! easy section but beware loose rock Fury
Eventually the route pops over a minor rib and requires a short but exposed class 4 traverse to bypass some gendarmes. The last few hundred feet to the summit from here are more serious. Class 3+ and exposed but solid.
popping over the rib 4th class traverse coming up the last few hundred feet nearing the summit almost there
The summit of Terror is a very, very airy horn of rock with room for one. We all scrambled over one at a time to tag her. Serious pucker was had by all!
Terror summit Dustin on the summit Elephant Butte, Mac Spires, and Inspiration with Jack and Crater Chilliwacks, Luna, Hozomeens, and Prophet The Fury's and many more you name them Degenhardt in the foreground E Fury and Luna framing the Chilliwacks Terrorizing relief
We enjoyed the views for a bit, then headed down. The descent back down to the notch went well, then we all downclimbed the gully and promptly began slogging up towards Degenhardt.
slogging to Degenhardt what a place
This is when Im going to use our sleep deprivation as an excuse as to why we couldnt figure out how to get up Degenhardt. All we had with us was a vague route description and we couldnt get it to make sense, although the route is actually fairly straightforward. Kyle and Jake eventually said F@#$ it and headed back towards camp. Dustin and I remained determined and tried to tease out a sketchy route up the west face. Dustin boldly lead up a snow finger that I wouldnt consider messing around with without a top rope. After spending a good amount of time poking around, he came to the conclusion that this was a dead end. With waning daylight, we rapped off the west side of the mountain and slogged back to camp for some much needed dinner and sleep. We vowed to return in the morning.
trying to find a way up Degenhardt worse than it looks in this picture evening light evening light pickets sunset
We slept in until 8:30 the next morning. Bad idea with intentions of going back up Degenhardt and forecasted weather already clearly moving in. Kyle and Jake decided to hike out and Dustin and I quickly geared up and dropped back down into Crescent Creek Basin. The night before we hypothesized that the southern pinnacle and Degenhardt was the summit. We also saw some nice lines through the snow that would grant access to that side of the peak and decided to go up that way. This wasnt correct, and ended up making Degenhardt a lot more difficult than it should have been. For starters, the snow lines we glimpsed the night before were much steeper and gnarlier than we thought. Steep, with glide cracks to dodge everywhere. The higher we climbed, the steeper it got, and the scarier the runout got. Dustin is much bolder than I am, and kicked steps up this entire section.
doesnt look so bad here, but this got very steep with scary runout
We eventually topped out on the steep snow (thank god) and could tell that we werent too far below Degenhardt's south pinnacle (which we had hoped was the summit). We eyed a junky class 3 gully that we climbed up, which lead to a steep 20 foot section of class 4. At the top of this, we found ourselves at a comfortable spot to set up a belay below Degenhardt's southern spire.
looking down the class 3 gully 4th class step
Dustin then lead out again and picked his way up the spire. The wind was really picking up and it was apparent that the weather was moving in. I was ready to bail. From the top of the spire, Dustin reported that this was not the summit but the summit was close and looked easy enough to get to. I agreed that we should press on. The climb up the spire was incredibly exposed and exhilarating. From there, we protected a short and easy traverse pitch and scrambled up to the summit. Success!!
Degenhardt summit from the southern spire Degenhardt summitshot Degenhardt views Degenhardt views Degenhardt views Degenhardt views
We snapped a few pictures and then it was time to get out of there. A short scramble brought us to the one rappel station. One rappel later, we were packing our ropes up and slogging back to camp.
looking back
We chowed down some food at camp and began the knee pounding descent to Terror Creek. It actually wasnt as bad as we feared. The bushwack back down Terror Creek was a little rough until we eventually picked up the climbers path and followed that all the way out. We got back to the cars before 7pm. Best trip of the year so far.
a giant cedar near Terror Creek
~26 miles
~11,000 ft of gain
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Bluebird suffering optional
Joined: 22 Jan 2014 Posts: 199 | TRs | Pics Location: United States |
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Bluebird
suffering optional
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Sat Jun 27, 2020 6:23 pm
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congratulations all on your badass trip. im super envious you were so close to the chopping block, as i have an enormous lady mountain boner for that pile of rock. 🏔
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7216 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Sat Jun 27, 2020 7:09 pm
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Wow, you guys were really moving to get that in so quickly. Steep snow rarely looks that way in photos but the video shows how steep those gullies really were! Congrats.
And I love the tree photo at the end. I don't see such large boles on cedars very often. That tree rates high on the "gnarly" scale.
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Midnight Slogger 'Schwack Job
Joined: 04 Aug 2017 Posts: 96 | TRs | Pics Location: Greater Cascadia |
I loved this trip report--and so good to see Dustin Trails making an appearance.
Well done all around, comrades.
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geyer Member
Joined: 23 May 2017 Posts: 462 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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geyer
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Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:07 am
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My buddy and I went the same weekend last year and you guys had a lot more snow and heavier flow in terror creek than we did! Great work getting up those two. That chopping block camp is pretty sweet, huh?
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Stefan Member
Joined: 17 Dec 2001 Posts: 5084 | TRs | Pics
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Stefan
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Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:33 am
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ozzy The hard way
Joined: 30 Jul 2015 Posts: 475 | TRs | Pics Location: University place, wa |
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ozzy
The hard way
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Tue Jun 30, 2020 8:17 pm
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Ho lee chit!! Damn what a gnarly trip! That area is still a mystery to me, cant wait to get up there someday! Hopefully lol!
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
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Gimpilator infinity/21M
Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, WA |
Pretty damn cool. Have been enjoying all your recent reports and videos.
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