[~*CutebutChossy69*~]

Guess who's back... back again... This trip was my first trip in waaaay too long. The chaos of 2020 swallowed me for the better half of the peakbagging szn (altho one could argue that it truly never begins or ends and is perpetual ... and am I talking about the peakbagging or szn or 2020 chaos? Nobody knows). I waffled about the ethics of posting TRs for some other trips earlier this szn and defaulted to not, but I may do some catchup TRs if I get a wild hair. This trip was a great chance to shake out the ol' legs AND witness the beautiful fall colors this area has to offer. The icy butt meat party was comprised of Andy, Hannah, Jeremy, and myself. I met Andy a few years ago back in the M's basic course but we have never climbed together before. I had never met Hannah or Jeremy before (friends of Andy). We all ended up hitting it off nicely and had a great trip full of lots of lolz! *icy= ice lakes; butt=s spectacle butte; meat=carne hi route -Inspired by Freddyfredpants' Meaty Icy Butts trip

D1 10/3: Phelps Creek Trail>Box Creek Shwack>Carne Hi Route>Upper Ice Lake Had a nice car ride from Seattle to the TH getting to know each other a lil better. Some folks learned about what a power bottom is and others learned what a bull is. We were all pleasantly surprised by the condition of the road getting up to the TH. It was in the best shape any of us had ever seen it! We parked about half a mile from the TH because it was poppin'. Saw a familiar name in the trail register and wondered if we would hear him snoring all the way from Spider Meadows (update: we did not). Got started a lil before noon. Hiked the first mile of the Phelps Creek Trail before reaching a faint bootpath that lead up into the brushes for the Box Creek approach. The "trail" peters out and braids with a lot of game trails and is pretty faint/near non existent in some spots. But, it was fun to be going up some steep terrain with brush. Ahhhh my heart <3 I was at home. Ran into a few small spots of slide alder which made me swooooon even more. Damn, I really missed being out.

It was hot AF and we were all sweating pretty good at this point. We were balking at the heat, yet feeling simultaneously grateful for being in the embrace of fall sunshine. PNWers know we have to soak up all the vitamin D we can before we go into the grey for the next 6 months. We made a quick stop to regroup our party after going through some thicker brush, and I heard the whizzzzz of a hummingbird! Or at least I thought I did Hummingbirds are kind of special to me, so I said to Jeremy excitedly, "Did you hear that?! I think it was a hummingbird!" Jeremy had a disgruntled look on his face (which he later said was due to some internal conflict of whether or not he should admit this) and said, "Uhmmm no that was not a hummingbird, that was me... I farted." I erupted in laughter and said, "Damn Jeremy you really made those cheeks CLAP with that one!!!" We were both laughing pretty good at this point. Andy and Hannah found us as we were still chortling from this hummingbird mixup and we were off again. We busted out into the upper basin area where we could faintly see some Carne Hi route hikers across the way. We emerged into a dream of autumnal colors. I "showered" in the creek to cool off and found a few blueberries to munch on, what a treat!

That's some white ass pumice.

Me looking a lil beat down by the heat, posing with mah larch buddy. I should note that I'm using a mix of pics in this TR, if the quality is really high Jeremy likely took it, and if it looks like a cell phone pic it was one of the rest of us!

Might have made some ears bleed with the high pitched squeal I let out when I noticed the precious tiny bb larches. A short while after this photo was taken Jeremy and I were admiring a dog higher up on the trail, "Awwwww cute!" Then Jeremy turned to me and said, "Oh my god it smells like dog$hit!" The disgust in his tone and on his face was just enough for me to let the dog take the blame. It took everything in me not to crack up laughing and say, "Ahahaha oh actually that was me Jeremy sorry dude," but I really hope he is reading this right now and howling.

Andy & his great smile!

Shade is my fren. We continued hiking up to connect with the Carne Hi Route to make it over to Ice Pass. I was feeling a lil wilted by the heat, but not too wilted to strike this saucy pose:

Probs Andy's new Tinder profile pic. Ladies, just slide into my DMs if you want his #

I was feeling inspired and wrote a haiku about larches while we were hikin- Oh lovely larches Gone are the long summer days Precious time escapes

Final stretch to gain the pass.

J checking out the views. From the pass, I bombed down the scree, talus, and dirt and ran down to upper Ice Lake to try and catch the last of the sun rays on the shore so I could go swimming. I knew damn well it might be the last alpine swim of the szn and I was determined.

Sadly, the setting sun could not be outrun, but I peeled off my laters and jumped into the lake regardless- just as it was engulfed in shade. It was definitely...iCy...hehehe. I knew I would be climbing with Jeremy again after I came back to camp and saw him having a solo dance party to Nelly's Hot in Here. I requested Sean Paul's Temperature and the DJ provided. Nothing like a lil alpine sunset dance party to pay homage to the hot AF approach you just did.

Maude would probs make a good backdrop for a music video.

Larch selfies should be a thing.

They are a thing!

We set up camp and got to cookin dinner for the night. Jeremy is a champ and brought carrot cake cupcakes to share with the group, and we all delighted in the mini sugar bomb.

We stayed up stargazing and writing poetry together, it was so wholesome. I learned how to write a limerick and we spent some time crafting one together. We all saw some shooting stars and marveled at Mars and the nearly full moon before going to bed.

D2 10/4: Upper Ice Lake> S Spectacle Butte> descent via Carne Hi Route

Waking up to Maude basking in some sunrise alpenglow sure was nice.

Made some coffee, had our respective morning "business" meetings and headed out around 7:30a.

Julbo sunglass cases make a great cup. Haha my face really accurately says "I only got three hours of sleep last night." Made our way down to the lower lake pretty slowly as we were all in AWE from the surrounding beauty. We probs took pictures every 30 seconds. So enjoy the next few~

We descended via a trail from lower Ice Lake after taking a million pics, and hopped onto some talus/boulders to start our traverse towards the ridge of SSB. We came to the infamous ditch and picked our way down and back up.

Kept traversing ova-

Dayuuuum fall u really outdoin urself Hit the ridge, donned helmets, and started up. It was pretty junky lower down as noted in previous TRs. The ridge up SSB has about 3 notable gendarmes (side note, what a FUN word to say over and over to annoy your friends "shhhjjjjjaaaaawwwnnndaaaarmmmmmmmm"). The first one you come to is pretty smol, and you easily just skirt around to the right. See below.

Junky and oh so fun! And dare I say it is ... cute... but.. ChOsSy? The second shhjjjjjjaaaawwwndaaaarmmmmmm is more notable and not a smol boi. We thought this one was the one where you find the 4th class ledge to go across and so we started across what we thought was this ledge only to be like uhmmmm yaaaa no dawg I don't think this is that. Andy is a boss and made it go anyway, but I don't recommend it. This second gendarme you gotta mount, so up and over it was. Andy waited for us on the other side. The scrambling up and over was easy, albeit a lil loose. As you are coming down this gendarme you take a few steps across what I am going to call a choss "chockstone" as it is comprised of a mound of scree and dirt and loose rock that seems to be overhanging a nice hole (you can go see for yourself) that drops down over the ridge a bit on one side and a steep gully on the other. No pictures of this one, sawee, in hindsight I realize that probs would've been pretty helpful The third gendarme you come across is the 4th class ledge one. So just keep that in mind! Easy moves, a lil loose, but just test your holds. The ledge is clear, and is on the right side of the gendarme. The whole ridge you pretty much just stay climbers right of it or on top of it as you ascend.

Pic of the 4th class ledge here, seen on descent.

iss chill

The ridge has fun scrambling overall. I was in my happy place scrambling and boppin along the ridge.

Comin up to the summit-

Some wonderful ass peaks.

Dakobed <3

of course she deserves a close up!

Tahoma <3 We swallowed and gobbled some summit cupcakes!

Summit creamin'

Jeremy wondering, "Now where I have seen this shape before.... hmmm..."

Hannah is a fan!

Must document a good hair day~ Took some nice group summit shots!

~*Spectacular Butts on Spectacle Butte*~ Check out our "wholesome" poetry we collabed on that I mentioned earlier in the TR:

Actually it was mostly Jeremy hahahaha. We f*cked around on the summit for probs close to an hour and then headed back down.

We tried to cross the ditch higher up optimistically thinking it would be "easier." That turned out to be false. It was pretty deadpan+kitty litter, and one party member earned their deadpan dirt glissade badge. Thankfully they were okay with the exception of a finger abrasion.

Where we crossed.

Fall AF.

Comin back over some talus, you can see the 3 gendarmes on the ridge of SSB pretty nicely in the background here. Made it back to lower ice lake and Jeremy took a dip before the wind picked up too much. Actually, he got out of the water right as the wind picked up! hahahah.

We made our way back up to the upper lake to break down camp and head out.

I almost jumped in this picturesque pool but it was too windy and I PABed out. But I started my photo album for my future career as an influencer so it's ok.

We made it to camp, shoved some food in our mouths, and broke down camp. We headed out via the Carne Hi Route. We def weren't setting any FKTs this weekend but we were happy to be out in the larches for as much time as possible.

The Carne Hi Route as a descent def has some gain, but is definitely beautiful and worth checking out. A highlight from the descent was when we took a little break- I sat down and put some chapstick on my sunkissed lips and took in the amazing views. There was a delightful breeze, and suddenly I felt dirt in my eyes and on my lips and thought, "Hmm I didn't think it was THAT breezy..." I looked over three feet to my left and saw Andy shaking the dirt out of the socks he had been wearing all weekend. Even better is that this was not the last time on the descent that Andy sprayed me with his foot dirt thx bro :P (he apologized profusely and actually seemed to feel really bad so I hesitated including this in the TR but I really was never offended and just found it hilarious so I am editing to include it now for the lolz)

Pasque~

Jeremy is bringin sweaty back YEAAAP

Made our way down the last stretch of the Carne trail and "sang" Zero by the Smashing Pumpkins to keep ourselves entertained. Made it back to the cars after dark ~ 7:45p (told you we weren't settin any records). Andy is a G and had lots of great car snax to share. We found a backpack in the TH parking lot that someone left behind. Took it and was able to return it to the owner yesterday thanks to a tip to check craigslist from someone here on the lost and found forum! We made it to the McDonalds in Sultan FOUR MINUTES before closing YAASSS.

All in all a fantastic trip with fantastic folks. Thanks all for a fun fall weekend! Btw I lost my big toenail on this trip, the toenail that has been hanging on for dear life for a few months. If anyone wants to buy it just slide into those DMs and I'll sell it to the highest bidder "Life is sweet! The time is now! Don't ration your passion!" -Mike Libecki Trip stats: Hannah's watch said 18.78 miles & 9,948' gain but Jeremy was highly skeptical of the accuracy.

[GaliWalker]

[KascadeFlat]

Looks like a fun trip! Love seeing photos from the high route. Especially this one...

...that is fall in a picture right thurr.

[Alden Ryno]

Bold choice on the Box Creek 'schwackin'! Lower Ice Lake is stupendously serene *goosfraba* Prime falls colors, weather, and summit views!

[Michael Lewis]

Nice read, would recommend 69/69

[OutOfOffice]

[Matt Lemke]

Nice trip! I am jealous I am missing the larches this year. I attempted the Carne High route in a single afternoon by starting up the trail to Carne Mountain, then continuing to Ice Lakes. Without any overnight gear, once I dropped down to the upper lake I realized I'd never make it up S spectacle Butte and get back in time. It was my own dumb fault for starting at 10am lol. Josh and I made our way through that whole area the next month though. You did it way better! Those larches are spectacular and I remember when I camped at the upper lake on that big trip with Josh thinking to myself how I really wished I was there in October! Excellent writing too, you're a natural!

[rstoddard24]

strong work all! looks like the box creek route didn't slow yall down too much i would be a fan of some retroactive TRs (*cough stehekin triangle cough*) btw, this WAP thing that has infiltrated so deep in the peakbagging community I now have no idea what is intentional or unintentional anymore.....

[MangyMarmot]

Cool trip. Fall colors must be awesome there right now.

[Alden Ryno]

[Sculpin]

It looks like you schwacked up Box Creek and ended in Carne meadows? Why not just take...um...the trail?

[~*CutebutChossy69*~]

[~*CutebutChossy69*~]

[~*CutebutChossy69*~]

[~*CutebutChossy69*~]