[Randy]

This one starts at the Barclay Lake trailhead, elevation ~2300'. Craig and I left the parking area a few minutes past 0800 and steadily made our way up the trail towards Barclay Lake until coming to a bridge crossing Barclay Creek just over a mile from the cars. We walked 300-400' east from the bridge until we came to an obvious avalanche fan of rocks and other debris on our left. Here we left the trail and headed up hill following the obvious swath of rocks that soon turned into the gully that would take us about 1/3 of the way up the mountain. We hopped rocks to 2950' where we found the first waterfall or step in the gully. We bypassed it easily to the left and continued up to a second step at about 3300' which we bypassed to the right on slick and loose slabs. Above the second step, the gully is more like a class 2-3 scramble with a couple sections that some felt required the use of a sling although we found them unnecessary with the conditions we encountered. At 3800' we found a stream coming in from the right(shown on the quad) and knew this was our turn off. We continued up to 3880' then hooked a right up to a cave in the rocks above which actually turns out to be nothing more than overhanging rock 10'-12' deep. Once up near the cave, we found a faint trail skirting along the base of the cliffs. The trail works along what is essentially a dirt ledge and took us up to 4400' where we forced into a low-angled rock gully. We ascended the gully and adjoining forested slopes to 5000' where things opened up into a steep-ish heather and rock sloped basin (no snow to speak of). We trended to the left aiming for an open section in the ridge above. At 5600' we crested the ridge and then essentially ran it to the NW all the way to the top (elevation 6113') with maybe only 50'-60' requiring the use of hands. The quad shows the summit as Point 5831', but the commonly regarded true summit is the higher Point 6113'. Skies were clear and the views didn't quit as all the major summits were visible (or so it seemed). After 45 minutes of lounging around we descended our route. We didn't notice it so much on the ascent, but this is one of the chossiest, loose routes either Craig or myself has ever walked. The majority of our attention on the descent was focused on not dislodging rocks onto each other. We finally made it back to the parking area around 1530 and were able to look up and see Merchant and the majority of the route we had just taken. Not a bad trip for the last day of November.

[mvs]

I had one day free (Sunday), and ended up going rock climbing on 3'oclock rock near Darrington. When the sun was on us, it felt like spring, or at least early October. I tried to convince my friend to hurry with me and climb Green Mountain for the sunset, since in the rock climbing canyon we were denied wide views, and those were REALLY WANTED! Merchant Peak must have been great for those views....thx for the report! --Michael

[mvs]

got any to share? I'd love to see one looking towards Gunn. You know, someone broke his ankle in that loose gully, had to wait all night. This was > 5 years ago...

[Randy]

A few pictures from the trip:

gunn1

gully2

summitblock

townsend

gunn2