[RandyB]

Craig B., Mike C. and I made the long drive to Washington Pass (3.5 hours) Saturday afternoon with the intent of climbing the mountain on Sunday. The actual start of the trip is an unofficial trail 4 miles east of the pass. There is a wide shoulder along side the highway just below the mountain - you'll probably see other cars here as Silver Star and its adjacent spires are popular climbing destinations. The trail is not visible from the road as it’s first necessary to drop a couple hundred feet (maybe less) down to Early Winters Creek, but if you look over the side of the bank you’ll see the route. Saturday night we camped at Lone Fir Campground about 5 miles east of Washington Pass which turned out to be a lot better than camping along the side of the loud highway. It was $8 for the night and the site included running water, a picnic table and established fire pit. We were up at 0430 Sunday morning and back up at the trail by 0545. After descending to the creek, we were able to locate a couple somewhat sketchy trees to cross on as we didn’t feel like wading. Ski poles or a large stick are very useful for the crossing and I probably would have gone in if I hadn't used one. Anyway. Once across, the trail is a bit faint as people cross in several different spots, but eventually trails merge and we quickly found the main route heading up the hill side. The trail is easy to follow, but real dusty and real steep. At about 6300' we came to a flat knoll and a few established campsites, but I’d be inclined not to haul overnight gear up that steep 2000’ as the mountain is easily climbed in a day. Continuing on, the trail begins to make its way over to the gully immediately below Burgundy Col which was our next objective. Going up the gully was a loose and chossy affair, but relatively straight forward as the route is well marked by cairns. Once at the 7800' col, we had to loose 100' down the other side to access the relatively small Silver Star Glacier. A party of 8 or 9 (that had camped at 6300') from the Mountaineers was about 45 minutes ahead of us and had stomped out a nice route across the glacier, so travel was easy and fast. We rounded a couple rock bands and then came to the final medium-steep snow slope 500' below the summit rocks. About half way up the slope the Mountaineers passed us on their way down which was a relief as the summit area really isn't big enough for 12 people. Near the top of the slope, and 100' or so from the ridge crest, we angled up and onto the summit rocks. From this point it's only about 150 vertical feet to the top. The first 100' or so was easy class 2 terrain with the final 50' being a bit trickier up some class 4 slabs (no exposure). The actual summit (8876') is basically a huge, smooth rock with a couple small foot holds that allowed us to grab the top and do a chin up. Tagging this summit via the chin-up method was preferred because the top is sharply angled, exposed and no place to sit comfortably. Simply amazing views from the top in all directions - great to look over to Baker and reminisce about that climb not too long ago. We retraced our steps back to Burgundy Col and the headed back down to the knoll at 6300'. About half way down to the knoll we passed the Mountaineers who seemed disoriented and couldn’t find their camp. We said our obligatory hellos again, but they seemed more interested in their map than striking up a conversation, so we continued on to the knoll and then back down the steep trail where we kept a 100’ spacing between us to help minimize the dust inhalation. Back across the creek and then up to the car at 1130 to wrap up a great outing. An overall fun route with a bit of rock scrambling and glacier travel to make things exciting. This is one trip that I'd highly recommend.

[Stefan]

Let's get this straight. You did Silver Star in 6 hours round trip? You guys never stopped did you.

[RandyB]