Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:14 pm Gardner Mountain and North Gardner Mountain - 6/23,24/07
So, five clowns headed east on Friday afternoon out of fear that dreaded rain drops would fall on our heads. Another west side trip was thwarted by a shitty and somewhat suspect weather forecast. It had better be raining on the westside! We grouped up in Leavenworth where we met for dinner and drinks. Here I was taunted with a most vile substance, but I wasn't easily convinced! After releasing some tensions, we motored north for another 2.5 hours where shenanigans ensued trying to find the Wolf Creek TH. Lots of laughter, false hydrating, sickly dogs, and wrong logging roads later we finally made our TH (~2900') around 11 PM! After another couple hours of laughter and chatter I managed to crawl into my sleeping bag with only a minor case of the spins...all this and the trip hadn't even started yet!
For fun, Dicey woke me up at 0530, but let me sleep until 0715 anyway. After a lazy breakfast and packing exercise, we were stomping up the trail about 0840. The trail had recently been cleared of downed trees all the way to Gardner Meadows, so it was easy cruising. A creek crossing at mile 2.7 required a short ford, but other than that there were no real difficulties. Around 1300, we arrived in the meadows (5700') where we found two other parties already camped. We hunted a bit, but eventually found a spot for the five of us to camp in a clump of trees with easy access to the creek. After discussing options, we booted north across the meadow in pursuit of Gardner Mountain, now 1415.
The basic idea was to just head straight up the grass slopes then use snow wherever possible to avoid crawling up the scree. We found a decent vein of snow that got us up to about 7800' then it was just one big scree slog to the top, no real problems (well, other than the scree!). Kudos to Tazz for pushing out the 10.5 miles to camp then three grand to the summit all on a bad ankle! We enjoyed the views, signed the register, took some pictures, then wondered what to do next! It was getting late, so we decided to pass on an evening ascent of North Gardner, but did notice an ugly little peak ("East Gardner") to the east that offered up another hour of entertainment. Dicey, Don, and myself booted over to take a look and found rivers of choss then 100' of class 2/3 rock to finish it off. A small cairn greeted us at the top where we sat for a while and enjoyed more of the same views. We descended the same way enjoying some decent boot glissades before catching back up with PiB and Tazz not too far from camp.
Saturday night we were all secretly assuming we'd wake up to rain and low clouds on Sunday, but things were looking up and we awoke to clear skies and cold temps. We lumbered out of camp around 0715 and stomped more meadow to the NW in search of North Gardner. On the way, we stopped and chatted with a couple guys who had done an epic "choss tour" the day before. They offered up some tips that I soon forgot and we were quickly on our way. The intent is to ascend to the prominent SE ridge coming off of Point 8487' then bleed to the left where the going is on more solid rock than scree. Ascending to the right of the ridge would be quite foul in the summer with a couple thousand of scree to ascend just to get to the ridge. Anyway, at the toe of the ridge we traversed left for a couple hundred yards before beginning an ascent straight up a mix of solid rock and choss channels. The going was interesting and we all got creative in trying to keep our feet on stuff that wouldn't move! Eventually we broke out onto the broad slopes just below Point 8487' where we came across 18 goats busily foraging away. Instead of ascending to the top of 8487', we traversed on its west side at about 8250' aiming for an accessible spot on North Gardner's south ridge. Once on the ridge, a faint trail in the rock made the final 500' vertical to the summit almost too easy. It was starting to spit snow at this point, but the views were still there and it was actually pretty comfortable on the summit.
We hung out for 30 minutes or so then booted back down the ridge. Instead of traversing the west side of 8487', we traversed its east side on the way back. This yielded access to the vast scree slopes overlooking Gardner Meadows. We ran down a thousand or more feet of scree then boot glissaded several more hundred feet on snow before finally coming to meadows. We had a nice walk back to camp in filtered sunshine, with a light snow, all in a huge meadow with flowers in a bloom. Ya just had to be there.
The hike out was long and uneventful aside from the howling forest. Another one of those where ya just had to be there. Eventually, we landed back at the cars and then in Winthrop for REAL food! Three things are needed when doing trips in the choss; good company, good weather, and lots of snow cover. We didn't get all the snow we wanted, but the weather worked out and the company couldn't have gotten any better!
Really rough stats for the stat junkies out there: 27 miles, 10200'
Joined: 02 Mar 2002 Posts: 1901 | TRs | Pics Location: ex Kennewick, Wa & Lehi Utah
Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:47 am
Hey guys, great pics and trip report. I did them thar Gardners back on July 19, 2004 with my Medford friend, Dennis (who just did Denali a couple weeks back).
For those who want more Gardner stuff, here's my Trip Report. Check out the "rock" glissading you get when the snow is gone.
Joined: 02 Mar 2002 Posts: 1901 | TRs | Pics Location: ex Kennewick, Wa & Lehi Utah
Tue Jun 26, 2007 7:21 am
Tazz, you guys are doing some neat stuff. That hike in and out is a true drag but the scree glissade is the best i've experienced. I look forward to your pics....
Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 7818 | TRs | Pics Location: as far away from you as i can be...
Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:36 am
Awesome report Randy!!!!!!!
Whoo hoo! over 10,000' and around 30 miles and I am not one bit sore!!!
I had a very hard time going up Gardner the first day. My ankle, legs, feet and complete dehydration (tooooo much fun the night before and I payed! ) had me writhing in pain. I was determined to get up that damn choss pile if I had to crawl!! I am so glad I made it!
Having fun trying to break the cornice...
I was jealous of randy don and dicey when then ran over and scrambled the east bump. I so wanted to go but my body was on complete strike!! So I got some shots of them on the "bump" while PIB and I descended.
PIB and I had a great scree ski and wild flower finding time. We were in heaven in the meadows. It took us sooo long to get down cause lighting was great and we could not stop looking and taking pics of the MANY flowers. Good shots lady!!
That night was just as fun hanging out and eating (and a little bit of dehydrating ). The sunset gave a great display.
The next morning I felt great and was ready for N Gardner!! What a fun scramble it was!!! I love ROCK even if it is crappy rock! The steep hard snow descent had me sh...sh...sh... shaking in me boots.
The descent from the saddle back to the meadows was soooo much fun!!! Scree skiing and then boot skiing and glissadeing in the snow. LOVE IT!!!!
I want to thank you all for such a great weekend. Love you guys! You all ROCK!!!
Thanks...
Randy and I ate a whole cow when back in town.....
Congratulations on getting the Gardners.
PiB, thanks for the pictures of the chocolate lilies. I've never seen those before.
Tazz, nice sunset clouds.
When you were on North Gardner, did you notice the lightning burn in the bronze summit register can? When we were there, it was ominous foreshadowing, since our ice axes were buzzing at the same time. Fifteen minutes after we left, a huge bolt of lightning hit the summit. Even from down the ridge where we were, I felt the shock run up my arm from where my axe was touching the rock. (In hindsight, it's obvious that we should have turned back as soon as we noticed the static charge on our ice axes. A high rocky summit is nowhere to be when lightning begins.)
-------------- "Matt, you are truly full of it. But you take great --- pics, in spite of that." Scrooge
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) had me writhing in pain. I was determined to get up that damn choss pile if I had to crawl!! I am so glad I made it!
