[Gimpilator]

For Labor Day weekend we decided to climb something special. Sunday would be my 30th birthday and if everything went as planned, I hoped to be standing on the summit of Dome Peak. The 50 plus miles should be enough that we could fully enjoy our time in the wilderness. The team consisted of Josh Lewis, Matt Lemke, Ryan Hoover, Jacob Smith, and myself.

Dome SW Face Seen From Painted Mountain, 2009

Dome SW Face Seen From Circle Peak, 2010

The NE Face And Chikamin Glacier Seen From Black Peak, 2011

During the drive we decided to make the trip 4 days rather than 3. Hopefully, with more time, we might be able climb something extra. We stopped at a store to buy more food and make calls letting people know of our change of plans. We reached the gate on the Suattle River road late in the evening. We were able to bike the 8 miles to the Downey Creek trailhead before it got fully dark. That night we enjoyed a campfire, a rare novelty on my mountaineering trips. Ryan was startled when he went down to get water in the river. His headlamp spooked several giant steelhead and they jumped out of the water, splashing around making a ruckus.

5 labels

Guys With Bikes

Josh And Jacob

Ryan And Matt

Josh

The next morning we stashed our bikes and started up the trail. We made good time on the 6 miles of Downey Creek trail, stopping at the junction with the notoriously brushy Bachelor Creek trail. I stashed my trail runners, switching to La Sportiva and then we were off. The first few miles were no problem. I had read in Franklin's report about a suggested detour he learned about from Tom Sjolseth. We were able to locate the correct log crossing and instead of crossing it, we turned around and made our way into the woods. It was a nice alternative and it helped us avoid most of the brush. Near the end of the detour, we followed the top of a small ridge and when that petered out we crossed Bachelor Creek and found that we were at a small camp site with several large boulders.

Downey Creek Trail

Pilot Peak Above Bachelor Creek

Further up the drainage the trail became hard to follow. We stayed to the left of some talus slopes and ahead we could see the avalanche slope. We climbed as high as we could between the talus and avalanche slope but small trees forced us out into the avalanche debris. Here we were delayed by some berry bushes. An ascending traverse brought us back to the main trail and we followed that to the pass above Cub Lake. Gorgeous! Glacier Peak was visible over the lake. We hiked down to the lake and then over into the next basin. We crossed some snow fields and melt-water creeks then we were going up again, onto Itswoot Ridge. We had to cross some wet mossy slabs near the top of the steep slope. Above that we could see Spire Point and West Spire Point, possible options for the extra day.

Cub Lake

Itswoot Ridge Above

West Spire And Spire Point

We made our second camp on Itswoot Ridge at 6400 feet. It's a lovely camp spot, one of the best I've seen. There's even a creek right nearby. Josh and Matt had a tent, Jacob a bivy sack, Ryan and I, a tarp. Dome was covered in clouds but we could see the Dome Glacier. The bottom portion looked fairly broken up. We decided to get up at 5am and get moving as quickly as possible. I woke up once during the night and Dome was completely visible in the moonlight. The valley below was a sea of clouds.

Itswoot Ridge 6400' Camp

Camp

Dome Glacier

Dome Glacier

Tarp Bed

Pilot Peak Sunset

5am came and went. We were up at 6am and moving by 6:30. We had to descend onto the south face and traverse under a rock rib. Then we crossed some bare slabs covered with loose round boulders. I disturbed some large boulders (300-400lbs) and fell down scraping an elbow and bending a trekking pole to the point where it will no longer collapse. We crossed more snowfields carefully without crampons and then scrambled up a rock rib. We were nearing the Dome Glacier.

Glacier Peak

Dome Peak

Nearing The Glacier

Sentinel And Old Guard

Edge Of The Glacier

At another snowfield, I realized it was too steep to cross without crampons. But I didn't want to wear them on the rocks on the far side so I used the moat at the top. We came to the edge of the glacier and stopped to put on all the gear. Ryan had carried his new 70 meter rope, long enough for all five of us to tie into. The upper portion of the glacier was mostly flat and there was very little crevasse danger. We aimed for what I thought was the Dome-Chikamin col. It appeared to be, but I was wrong. When we got there, we were standing on the edge of a cliff and the Chikamin Glacier was several hundred feet below. We backtracked and traversed around rock walls to the correct col. On the way there, we passed some more respect-worthy crevasses.

Climb On

The Wrong Col

Traversing Around

We short-roped through the scree in the col and then crossed onto the Chikamin Glacier, 4th largest in the North Cascades. We climbed a snow slope and then unroped. At the top of a snow ridge we came to the summit ridge. This was described as being Class 3 with considerable exposure on either side. We scrambled along the top of the ridge which was nearly level. The first 40 feet were easy enough but there was a spot which didn't look as good. A large boulder formation was part of the crest and getting over it looked tricky, without many holds. Josh and I were the last two. We asked for a belay, which Ryan thankfully provided. Once I attempted the boulder I could see that it was much easier than it looked from below. But the exposure was really something in this spot!

High On The Chikamin Glacier

Top Of The Chikamin

Climbing The Snow Ridge

Top Of The Snow Ridge

Summit Ridge

Exposed Scrambling

My Belay

Beyond the boulder it was a narrow ledge on the west side and then a slanted catwalk to the summit. Dome Peak. 8920 feet. No better way to bid farewell to my 20's and my youth. The best part was that my non-hiking friends could never find me up here with their traditional, birthday nonsense. I passed out some Red Vines licorice to the team. We had also had the Red Vines on the summit of Glacier Peak. We signed the register and then we all took a belay from Ryan past the awkward boulder spot. We went back to the top of the Chikamin Glacier hoping to have enough time to climb Sinister. Route lines I had seen showed the route descending from the summit of Dome along a rib and onto the glacier for a lower traverse. But we were stopped by a giant bergschrund that spanned the entire top of the glacier. There didn't seem to be any safe way to cross it. There was a small snow bridge on the far west side but it didn't look good. After discussing our options we decided we didn't have enough daylight left for Sinister anyway.

Ryan On The Summit

Summit Log

Red Vines

à-Cheval

Tricky Boulder Spot

Sinister

The Cannon Hole

Nice Curves!

Josh Is Tired

We went back to camp and enjoyed a pleasant evening. Ryan and I turned the tarp into a makeshift lean-to, to combat the dew. The next morning everyone was hot-and-bothered for Spire Point but I just wasn't motivated. It was uncharacteristic of me, but I preferred to have a chill sort of day. For many years I've tried to cram as many peaks into trips as possible without ever taking quiet time to relax in the mountains. This was an unusually beautiful spot and I wanted to enjoy it. I was later teased for getting "old and lazy" but it was all in good fun. Matt and Josh successfully climbed the east ridge using beta acquired from Fay Pullen while Jacob and Ryan climbed the south face route as described by Beckey (5 pitches of 5.6). Between naps I took an hour to explore Point 6410 on Itswoot Ridge. From there I had a nice view down to Itswoot Lake.

Makeshift Lean-To

Alpenglow On Dome

Last Light

Sunset

Marmot Head

West Spire And Spire Point

Spire Point

Point 6410 On Itswoot Ridge

Itswoot Lake

Dome Seen From Point 6410

Detail View

Josh and Matt got back to camp first. They quickly packed up and headed down. They would be doing the full 22 miles back to the car, even after nightfall. Ryan and Jacob came down a few hours later and we packed up our junk. We got as far as the boulder camp in the upper Bachelor drainage. I was excited to try out something I had read about. Supposedly if you have a fire under a boulder or a rock wall, the rock will radiate heat, even after the fire goes out. This turned out to be true. It was very nice to have another campfire. This trip had turned into one of the most enjoyable of the year.

Boulder Camp In Bachelor Creek

One Last Fire

The next morning we hiked down Bachelor Creek drainage without using the Tom Sjolseth detour. I was curious to see the difference. We got totally soaked in the brush. I joked that I felt victimized by all the soaking water. In hindsight, the detour through the woods is certainly preferable. I think we made it back to the car by 12:30pm. Thanks guys for one of the best low-key birthdays ever!

Misch And Buckindy Seen From The Upper Bachelor Creek Drainage

[Magellan]

Love it! Sounds like an amazing trip.

[Goats Know]

Nice job guys! The Young Turks of NWH! I like the red vine shot.

[Blowdown]

We did Dome many years ago when you could still drive up to the Downey Creek trailhead on the Suiattle River road. Since the road has been closed so long, I'd assumed that the Downey Creek trail would be completely overgrown and Batchelor Creek "trail" would be almost nonexistant. Great news that the routes are still viable. Great trip. Excellent photos!

[Matt Lemke]

You didn't take the Detour??? We managed to get through Bachelor Creek fairly quickly and reached Downey Creek at 5:40 pm and we high-tailed it out on the trail in less than 2 hours. Just after dark, around 8:50 pm we reached the car. Thanks Adam, Ryan, Jacob and Josh for a great trip! My photos will come soon!

[Kim Brown]

[RichP]

Looks like a great team .

[iron]

i saw josh at the darrington shell later that night as we were returning from another trip. he looked tired

[Eek]

Another great trip report. I've never tried riding my bike with a full pack, but there are a few places where a bike would be nice (like my recent trip to Big Snow via Hardscrabble). How difficult is it, especially the up hill parts?

[Matt Lemke]

Riding a bike with a pack on flat terrain was actually pretty easy. The Suiattle River Road has a VERY gentle uphill grade going up and a very gentle downhill grade coming down. A soft saddle and a bike that fits you well will help immensely though.

[peltoms]

Good shots illustrating the extent of snowcover. the nice curves are the annual layers exposed by wind erosion due to a bit of an unusual wind event this winter.

[Matt Lemke]

Here are my photos from the trip...Thanks guys for a great trip!

[puzzlr]

Great trip and done well. No drama! One of my favorite summits.

[Redwic]

Nice job and a great-looking trip!

[rbuzby]

Nice outing and pics! Dome is an important mountain. The boulder placed on the summit by a "playful diety" (Beckey's description) fell off decades ago. Bob Bolton has some shots of it on summitpost. We were using the so called "detour" back in the 90's. It's really "the route" now, not really a detour. Unless you love deep brush.