[Alden Ryno]

Trip Stats: 31 miles, 9,500' gain, Route: Swamp Creek Gear: Bivy, Axe, Glacier Gear, Poles, Crampons.

With an entire clear, sunny week predicted with snow modeled to be around 4,000' to 4,500' ("confirm" by Stehekin rangers), we chose to climb Dark Peak via the Darkfin Col approach noted by Fletcher and Jake in 2017 which was soon followed by Eric and Duncan following year. However, a year later Rikki et al. remarked that the eastern slopes were no longer as open and had transformed into a steep jungle gym, likely due to deadfall from a beetle infestation. I took Jake's advice last year and used Memorial Day for Tupshin, Devore, and Flora. He had noted using Memorial Day this year as an "easy" Swamp Creek approach for Dark. Two years now he's given me fruitful Memorial Day outings. Despite the horror stories about the Swamp Creek approach, we had a hard time deciding between the two. Snow up to 4,000' plus meant that much of the brush in Swamp Creek may be exposed while the upper slopes to Darkfin Col would be loaded with snow yet covering the steep talus beneath. We set off with Darkfin Col as the approach of choice. Rikki had summitted Dark but not Storm King while the opposite was true for me. We choose to attempt to grab both, making our plans last until Tuesday while Sam aimed for Dark and Sinister. Unfortunately, the Red Bus shuttles weren't running on June 1st or June 2nd so we decided to bring bikes to ride the road back from High Bridge to Stehekin. We caught the slow boat from Field's Point at 0945 and rode it to Stehekin. Before departing, we learned that a party of four Mountaineers were also aiming for Dark Peak via Swamp Creek: an A/B Test for the approaches! A supposed 1230 arrival ended up being nearly 1330 but thankfully the shuttle wasn't set to leave until 1400 anyway. Gratefully the bus wasn't loaded down so we were able to get all three bikes up the road with us, though one of them was in the bus. We departed from the High Bridge TH around 1500 and rode bikes 0.25 miles up to the High Bridge Campground to store some food in a bear box and the bikes in the woods for our return. The PCT was the PCT and didn't afford much in the way of views as it paralleled Agnes Creek west then southwest. This section until Cutthroat Pass has to be one of the worst sections of PCT with sparse views while the trail remains low. Fortunately for me, I rolled my ankle hard about a mile in. Yay! I sat down, articulated it to ensure range of motion, and we were on our way within a minute or two so that the ankle wouldn't freeze up. We encountered consistent snow all the way down at 2,600', nearly 2 miles before Swamp Creek. I broached the subject of potentially changing approaches soon thereafter since an additional four miles of snow travel might be enough to offset any advantage of Darkfin Col while ensuring Swamp Creek would still have the brush covered. Additionally, we may be too slow to make it to Hemlock camp that night before dark. We diverted plans to the Swamp Creek approach.

Goobers on the dock

Who put their *poop* up front?!

Snow began immediately after the gorge along the SF Agnes Creek

Action shot hanging food above along Swamp Creek

About to head out the next morning

We arrived at Swamp Creek Camp around 1930 with the party of four Mountaineers where we all sat down and chatted during dinner. Our party decided to leave around 0500 and the Mountaineers had the same idea already planned, I think. They were off at 0500 with three of their members since one had blisters still bothering them from a prior outing the week before. We headed off at 0530 and soon discovered that the snow was gone! It made travel up the largely open slopes easy. It did reappear and remained around 3,600'.

Where's the bee...snow?

Very easy travel for nearly 1,000' of vertical

A-ha! There it is. About 3,600' elevation

May be Needle Peak

Brush?

Brush!

Where we began scouting for a crossing, 3,800'

I crossed on the big one (not the bendy one), as did Sam

Where Rikki crossed on the way in and we all crossed on the way out

I crossed a sketchy tree around 3,800' and Sam followed but Rikki didn't like it. I ran up the creek to find a MUCH more manageable crossing while Sam scored across. About 200 yards upstream, the creek diverged into three separate bands, each much more manageable than the downstream convergence. Only one required a log to cross and the others were able to step in foliage to cross... all in all this took nearly an hour and slowed significantly. We had only gained 1,000 feet of vert in two hours. Oof. Soon we were at the lower basin and saw the headway along with the looming snow loaded cliffs above the glacier traverse. Rikki expressed her concern and I figured that we should still ascend to the upper basin even if it looked sketch. I also remarked that the Dark was generally (historically?) climbed later in the season when the busted glacier was exposed at the bottom, not covered in think early season snow. Could we not ascended straight up the glacier instead of ascending then heading west before making a hard eastward traverse? Skepticism rightly remained in the group.

Lower basin falls and glacier above

First full view of the summit area

Broader view of basin. Ascended left out of frame

Noice

The gross exit

Gaining the headwall was more precarious than expected. The slope was all ice so we eventually donned crampons and had axes out before that. Sam and I hit the edge of the snow and found a rotten gully covered in thin, soft snow, tons of slick moss, and paltry brush. We knew Rikki wouldn't like it, so he went up and directed me down to traverse an earthen finger that we had noted about 200 feet down because what he ascended wasn't viable to descend confidently. That's where Rikki and I crossed and made an ascending traverse to meet Sam just below the upper basin. We tagged the basin about 11am. The view opened up and the Mountaineers team was about to get to firn line (glacier's lower edge) at the top of the first older slide path. We took a break to collect ourselves and assess. Rikki expressed grater concern than Sam or I and ultimately decided that she would sit out and encouraged us to go if we felt okay. Having summitted Dark before, she was probably (and is usually) thinking more soundly than me. Still, the glacier didn't look horrid. It'd also be faster with a two person rope team with the other team breaking trail (THANK YOU again).

Team moving up when we arrived in the upper basin

Where they were when we took off across the basin

Wider view

At noon, Sam and I set off after setting everything up ahead of time. We decided to rope up above the first slide path at 6,600' in a spot without any recent signs of activity (ended up being around 100pm).

Moving up!

Looking back

In the midst of an older slide swath

I pondered if this terrain would've been "safer"

Enjoying Goode views while we roped up

Where we roped up

Not that way. But, we did ponder if it would be "safer" to traverse under then around this rather than follow the steps through a slide funnel. We figured time saving would be a better safety margin, so we took the established steps.

With Sam being exceedingly more proficient in crevasse rescue (read, mine is about nill and I'm remedying that), I led in the event that I fell through anywhere. I felt that we did a great job communicating with one another and we tried to maintain a pace that we could both handle with stopping as little as possible.

Thattaway

Lyall Ridge was nearly devoid of snow...

Not the best place to be going up. Pure sugar beneath.

Stoke in the scorching heat

We both had neglected water and needed it bad so we found a spot on the upper glacier with less overhead hazard and popped a squat for a brief water and snack break before plodding on

We did gain ground on the team above but starting up about 60 to 90 minutes after them was too much to make up. However, once we were off the glacier at the col, we crossed paths as they came down from the summit. We chatted with them, yet again, then made our brief summit break; we wanted to get down ASAP. We summitted a few minutes past 3pm. The views were stunning. Sam called/texted his dad briefly while I began to head down to our pons, axes, and rope to gear up for our hasty decent.

Buckner

pretty

summit shot of Sam

Sinister and Dome

Dakobed

Bonanza. The traverse looked sweet

screaming summit slot

Fracture above the Company Glacier

North Star and the Grant Glacier. North Star was another add-on idea for Rikki and I. We'll have to return for it, Buckskin, and Foreskin out of Holden.

Dakobed

We began our descending traverse across the head of the glacier and immediately noted the absolute garbage snow. We would plant a foot, lift the back foot, then sink another half foot or so on each step. It was a nuisance to say the least. We made it to 7,600' and were in the shade of the cliffs above/behind. This is where the slope steepened down the middle of the glacier. Given the conditions and thinking that leas time on the mountain meant less danger from above, we opted to take the fast way down... we unroped and I tossed the rope into my pack and we glissaded down. Probably not the brightest, but the glacier was out of the sun so it was beginning to harder or crispify. Given we hadn't fallen through anything in the way in, the other team didn't have any issues, and we would have a greater surface area (less pressure/unit area) we chose this option in the sake of speed.

Big crack in the background (didn't happen while we were out there)

It played out well. We were able to halfway glissade since the snow was still quite heavy and thick. We may or may not have made a two human seated bobsled to get down quicker. We made it down in no time and were back to Rikki around 530pm.

Nearly out of terrain traps

Action Shotz

We relaxed with the most objectively hazardous part of the trip out of the way. Now, we just had to pay attention to our feet and we probably wouldn't hurt ourselves.

After the fact

Rikki said that she noted two slides in the basin, both AWAY from (not originating form) Dark. She said that one was quite large and I saw the debris when back down but, surprisingly, neither Sam nor I heard anything.

mmmm

Staying closer to the creek rather than farther away from seems to be a key factor in the Swamp Creek approach and deproach

We reversed our steps down the creek and were back at camp around 930pm, barely not needing headlamps. Two more tents had arrived (the additional party that we had expected)!

outro sights

Creek crossing on the way out

We all slept well and slept in. I chatted with one of the next party to give a conditions report before they left at 5am then fell back asleep.. The Mountaineers that went up before us left at 7am. When I got up to go to the bathroom, I was able to see my ankle, which didn't hurt, but had purple bruising both beneath and above the ankle. Oops. We all didn't get going until closer to noon.

ankle

hoodlums at camp

Rikki and I set off to the TH while Sam wandered deeper for a look and go at Sinister. Spoiler alert: he summitted the next day at noon, ascending very steep snow on the east/southeast ridge. His bivy somewhere on the ridge above the Chickamin Glacier looked primo! He got to his camp around 7pm and got moving at 6am to summit at noon then headed out and got to the High Bridge TH around 230am where he slept before biking to meet us in Stehekin. Rikki and I got to the bikes around 430pm after several lengthy breaks to soak my chankle in creeks abiut each hour or so. We rode back to Stehekin, which was difficult for her since she's not ridden a bikebin roughly 3+ years. We also reeled back our plans and spent a night camping near rainbow falls followed my a scorching hike up the Purple Creek Trail (how ridiculously beautiful) for 3k of gain. We watched the sunset over Sahale, Boston, Booker, and Buckner from the Stehekin porch in lounge chairs. It was sublime.

[zimmertr]

I wonder if y'all were the ones to lay the tracks for this party:

[rstoddard24]

awesome trip! we also found very smooth conditions in 2018 on the dark fin col route; I guess only 3 parties took that route before the beetles created all the deadfall. I am curious what will emerge as the "modern" standard route in the coming years. that boot track must have been great; we could see it thru binocs from the inspiration glacier over 20mi away. The photo (taken thru binocs) isn't super clear, but I think its pretty cool (photo cred = Westy)

tracks on the Dark glacier as seen from Tepeh Towers on Inspiration gl

[KascadeFlat]

Great write up! Reads like a mini-adventure novel. Now I never have to brave Swamp Creek or the Dark glacier for myself.

[awilsondc]

Nice trip Alden! Getting closer to 100/100!!! It's good to see you roping up on glaciers.

[Alden Ryno]

Yeah, that's Ian, one of the co-leaders (I think) of the group that went up the next day! We were able to catch them and chat in Stehekin before they took off on the boat while we relaxed another day. Ryan, that's crazy. I told Rikki what you said in your Strava about our tracks and she thought you were kidding but that was before I had even uploaded my track to Strava haha! Thank you, Aaron! Fingers crossed, I'll be able to finish the first week of July...but that border closing will not make it easy by any means. Ryan, Dave and I (with a few others) may all finish this year if all goes well. Going up what's known to be a broken glacier in the late season made that a requirement for me. I've reconsidered a lot after Jake's accident.

[raising3hikers]

Beautiful pics!

[Magellan]

Outstanding! Thanks for the write up Alden.