[Fletcher]

I missed out on a winter attempt on Davis Peak when Eric, Jake, Dave and Kyle did it a couple years ago. I have been eager to get up there ever since. This past Friday, the stars aligned and Dustin and Fred were down to join me. At 7am, we began making our way up the slope from the Gorge Creek Overlook parking lot just east of Newhalem.

The lower route on Davis has been made more challenging since the Goodell Fire of 2015, the slope down low littered with downed burnt trees. Our progress on this slope was so slow that we were all concerned that we may not have time to summit. As we got higher though, the travel became more efficient, and we hit continuous snow around 3000 ft.

somewhere between 3 and 4k

finally to the snow

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and the expanding views fueled our stoke as we climbed towards Pt 5872. From there, we set up a single rope rappel down to the broad saddle to the north, which we would leave in place as a hand line for our return.

The Snowfield Group

Fred on Pt 5872 with route crux ahead

Jack to Ragged Ridge

From the saddle, the route crux up the steep step on the south ridge looked intimidating. Dustin offered to gun the ropes up this section which I was thankful for. We climbed the crux in 2 pitches which consisted of steep snow with bad runout. Snow conditions were variable and pro was minimal.

Dustin leading out

Fred midway up the crux

Fred making his way up the crux with Dustin belaying

Once we all topped out of the crux, it was a sloggy final 800 ft to the magnificent summit of Davis Peak. The day had been breezy and bitterly cold, but the summit was dead calm and almost felt warm. We enjoyed our only real break of the day on the summit soaking in the views. Jack, the Chilliwacks, and the Pickets were the stars of the show. I felt very thankful to have the opportunity to be up there in the dead of the winter.

some steeps above the crux

give those cornices a lot of room

Shuksan, Pickets, Chilliwacks

Jack

Snowfield and friends

We reluctantly left the summit, knowing we had a long descent ahead. A full 60m double rope rappel got us just barely down the crux. We made our way back up to Pt 5872 while enjoying the amazing winter sunset.

looking back at the summit

Fred on rappel

fading light

Jack

Fred at the saddle

sunset

Dusk on the snowfield group

The snow below 5500 ft had softened throughout the day and we postholed downward which made for slow progress. Eventually, we hit snowline and continued down through the burnt forest with thousands more feet to lose before hitting the road around 8:20pm. Another great day in the North Cascades!

~ 7 miles
~ 6500 ft of gain
~ 13.25 hours

[puzzlr]

Congrats on getting this one -- it always seems to be a challenge. Great photos.

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Mid Fork Rocks • flickr

[raising3hikers]

nice job getting that one guys!  that sure is an exposed crux pitch with bad runout, glad you made it through safely

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Eric Eames

[Stefan]

thank you for the show!

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Art is an adventure.

[geyer]

Nice work! Those upper slopes look like a hell of an adventure. I remember Jake talking about how technical this one got after his trip. Can't beat the conditions you had

I tried Davis solo in April 2016 but it started misting when I got up to around 5000'. The weather was supposed to be nice, but it hadn't been sunny all day and weather was getting dicey so I turned around. (I definitely wouldn't have summited anyway.) Those slabs you show around 1:05 in the video, when wet, are an absolute horror and they nearly killed me on the way down! Slipped on one and was saved by a fingernail catching a lip of rock and flipping inside out, but slowing me down just enough to not fall off a cliff into a gully. That was the scariest sh## I'd done at the time. Haven't been back since

[-]

with the current snow conditions, perhaps a winter ascent of jack via the nohokomeen is in the cards for someone ambitious enough to do so.

nice trip!

[Off Route Randy]

Siiiiick peak dude. Your body of work is truly impressive.

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"Bagging Peaks and Clapping Cheeks"- Ricky Bobby's Mountain Obsessed Cousin