Forum Index > Trip Reports > Freezeout Creek 5/10-13/2007
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Stefan
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Stefan
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PostWed May 16, 2007 11:15 am 
Was up Freezeout Creek this past weekend. The first 300 yards of trail are gone due to rockslide after Nightmare Camp. Expect about 300 downed trees on the trail. The trail tread overall is in really good shape. Hit snow just before the cabin. Cabin is something really special. Please take care of it. It is a shame no organization has devoted a weeklong party to clear the windblown on this trail for many years. This trail will die.

Art is an adventure.
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summitseeker
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PostWed May 16, 2007 4:26 pm 
==> This post was lost in a database crash. ==< Well, that's a new one! I was just curious if the first 300 yards of trail missing is different than what I encountered last year. If you could comment on that, it'd be great. There's a picture of the landslide area in the TR.

"Find out who you are and then do it on purpose." www.summitroutes.com : Guidebook to the 100 highest peaks in Washington
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Magellan
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Magellan
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PostWed May 16, 2007 10:50 pm 
Stefan wrote:
Was up Freezeout Creek this past weekend. The first 300 yards of trail are gone due to rockslide after Nightmare Camp. Expect about 300 downed trees on the trail. The trail tread overall is in really good shape. Hit snow just before the cabin. Cabin is something really special. Please take care of it. It is a shame no organization has devoted a weeklong party to clear the windblown on this trail for many years. This trail will die.
How about some detail on the other 80 hours?

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Stefan
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PostFri May 18, 2007 8:44 am 
Magellan....for the other 80 hours..... Would like to say a big thank you to Fay P., and Paul K. for helping out on this trip. In addition, my trip report will not be as detailed as their or quality, because they took pictures! Our original plan was to follow somewhat of Mitch B., and Steve Z. route in 4 days when they did it in 5 days doing the high circuit of all the peaks around the Freezeout Creek circuit from peak 6972 to Castle and then to Skagit/Peak 6362. Yeah right. Fay P., went in many hours ahead of us on Wednesday to Nightmare Camp, while Paul and I still had to work Wednesday…we car camped at the border with the gate still closed. Thursday morning (6:00a.m.) Paul and I woke, rode our bikes to the trailhead and proceeded up the now windfall choked trail (my estimation of 50 trees down) to Nightmare Camp. Thursday morning Fay left Nightmare camp and got to 5400 feet in the Freezeout Creek 9 hours later. The first 300 yards of the Freezeout Creek trail is obliteratered by landslide rock, but still negotiable. The trail picks up easily on the other side. From here the trail is easily followable…..EXCEPT for the estimated 300 trees down now across the trail. These trees are annoying! The map is incorrect in where the trail is at. The trail actually climbs to 3400-3500 feet and then makes a level traverse at this elevation around and into Freezeout Creek drainage proper. We hit constant snow just before the cabin on the map. We never saw the cabin on the way in because of too much snow and so we lost the trail….we found the Cabin on the way out--we were about 60 yards and about 60-80 feet in elevation below the cabin on the way in. Snow was tough and postholing was evident the further we got in. It was an exhausting 10.5 hours for Paul and I to reach Fay. Our plans changed to doing “base camp style” of all the peaks around us because of our exhaustion. Friday morning we woke to freezing cold and blue bird skies and left by 6:00a.m. and went up Castle up hard crusted/icy snow up the high couloiur on the west side. Found the register with Don B., Mike C., and Dave C. We came back down, Fay downclimbing the couloiur while Paul and I took the SW/Westerly ridge down. Eventually we got down to 6000 feet. Next up was peak 7855. We went up a high col, but it was not that necessary. We traversed under the west side and then found a couloiur up to the ridgeline, and ran the ridgeline. Easier choice would be to traverse directly under the summit, and then go straight up to the summit. Saw all familiar names in the register. Next up was peak 6887. Not too much to say. No complications. Easy. Direct. Heather on top. Next up and final for Friday was peak 6972. We summitted around 5:00ish I believe and we did not take long on the summit. From here it was off to a SE direction, bypassing point 6332 to the NE and down and over back to camp at 7:00ish. All of us were dang tired. About 7100 feet for the day. Saturday morning we awoke and left camp around 7:00 to bluebird skies again and moved camp down to 4200 feet where the trail crosses the creek coming out of lake 6639. We then followed this 6639 outlet creek staying always on the north side. This was an excellent route at this time of year. At first we had trees lower down, followed by snow covered slide alder, and then more small trees next to a waterfall, and then we were directly on top of the creek to lake 6639 at around 5100 feet. Highly recommended for this time of year for this route. From here there were no complications up to bare rock on the ridgeline up to Freezeout. This was the best summit of the trip in my opinion because of no breeze and great views. (Castle was great, but it was windy cold.) We then took the direct ridgeline with easy class 2 scrambling to Three Aunts peak (7760+). If you look closely at the map there are two 7760+ closed contours. Which one is higher? It is not obvious from the more westerly summit. So we did both. From the easterly summit it shows that the more westerly summit is clearly higher. At this point, Fay had enough of the day and the outing and decided to start heading home. We said our good-byes and Paul and I took off. (Fay made it out to Nightmare camp on Saturday and then out to the cars at 11:00 on Sunday.) Paul and I went up peak 7605 (Uncle Peak) going down to the eastern col from Three Aunts, dropping down about 50 feet from this col and then ascending to the 7360+ col directly on the SE side of peak 7605. I thought this traverse was going to be extremely difficult for snow conditions and turned out easier than I thought. Easy scrambling to the top. From 7605 we tried to traverse the rocky bands below the two false summits SE of peak 7605. This was annoying. My recommendation is to go up and over the false summits SE of peak 7605…yes there is some elevation gain, but at least the rock is more stable. Easy down to the col north of Joker. Joker had a very long cornice all the way from one end to the other. There were two options to get around this cornice one to the SE and one to the NW. We opted for the SE one. Snow was in great condition and we got around…but I was relieved that it did go because I could not quite see around a corner—you could touch the 15 foot high cornice if you stretched out your arm. Easy stroll to the top where Paul and I left a register at the highest snow free ground we came to—which is exactly at the X in 7603 for the summit. Paul and I took different ways down to the 6160+ lake NW of Joker, and basically stayed to the right of the outlet all the way down to stream at the outlet of lake 6639. Back to the 4200 foot camp at 6:00ish. We went to bed hoping for a another bluebird day. Fat chance. Woke up to a rain/snow mix. We left down the snow trail around 7:00ish and about an hour later we came across the cabin. The cabin is shown slightly incorrect on the map. It is at 3500 feet and is in EXCELLENT condition for a cabin in the woods. Iron stove, lots of firewood, two padded bunk beds, lanterns, aluminum roof….Wow. You gotta see it to believe it. Not much else to say, but the walk out sucked because of the rain and all the blowdowns. We got out around 2:30…overall about 7.5 hours from our 4200 foot camp. My personal recommendations: 1) Use the cabin at 3500 feet in Freezout Creek in your planning. 2) Our route to lake 6639 is highly recommended but only in May due to snow covering the slide alder. 3) I do not know if following the direct east ridgeline of peak 7605 goes because of snow we saw. 4) Go up and over the false summits southeast of peak 7605. Do not traverse below them. 5) The SSW ridgeline of Castle is easy with snow in May. The only problem is the very beginning from the col with a class 3.5 step. 6) Doing peak 7855 (Half moon rising?) is best done from the 6640+ point in the ridge if you come from Freezeout Creek, traverse under the SE ridgeline around 6800 feet for some time and then go up the very easy scree (snow in May/June) to the directly to the summit. 7) Get used to windfall on the Freezeout Creek trail. The WTA needs to clear out this trail. It would be shame for all those who put the effort into creating this trail only to see this trail go to waste. The trail has great tread. All it needs is cleared downfall. 8) Maybe consider this trip in early June….there is a lot more snow than I anticipated out there.

Art is an adventure.
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Stefan
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PostFri May 18, 2007 8:47 am 
summitseeker wrote:
==> This post was lost in a database crash. ==< Well, that's a new one! I was just curious if the first 300 yards of trail missing is different than what I encountered last year. If you could comment on that, it'd be great. There's a picture of the landslide area in the TR.
Same landslide...and the landslide is still there. This landslide will never go away....

Art is an adventure.
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summitseeker
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PostMon May 21, 2007 8:21 am 
Thanks. Huge effort and great TR.

"Find out who you are and then do it on purpose." www.summitroutes.com : Guidebook to the 100 highest peaks in Washington
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