[Martin S]

Last week Dave C. and I made what was for both of us our first ever trip into the Pickets and had a marvelous time. On Tuesday morning we took the boat up Ross Lake and were hiking up the Big Beaver trail by around 10:00. We met a couple on the trail who were doing the Little Beaver – Big Beaver loop; they were the only people we would see for six days. We took a break at Luna camp (11 miles) to cache some food, hiking poles and trail shoes, and then started on the first big challenge of the trip – finding a way across Big Beaver Creek. We had heard from Fay P and Don G that the usual log crossing had washed away last winter but that there was a new log jam straight downhill from the first creek crossing the trail after Luna camp, about a half mile past the camp. So we walked up trail for 10 minutes and hit a creek, but it was dry. Was this the turnoff point? We searched a ways farther up but didn’t find any more creeks, so we returned to the dry creek bed and started thrashing our way down to Big Beaver. We drifted slightly right on the way down and then turned left at the creek and bashed along the shore for a few hundred yards looking for the log jam, in what we assumed was a search pattern that would take in the area Don and Fay described. We never did find the log jam, and although we did find a log spanning the creek it was very low to the water and studded with spiky branches which would have made a cheval crossing rather, um, painful. Eventually we gave up on finding the log jam and just waded across in the knee-deep water. On the other side we pushed through a field of chest-high devils club and started up the slope, traversing towards Access Creek. We hit the creek at about 2900 ft, having taken two hours to cover the half mile or so from Luna Camp. The rest of the way up to the Access creek basin took another two hours of tolerable bushwhacking; we stayed on the south side of the creek until hitting a patch of slide alder at about 3300 ft, crossed to the north side and ascended to 3900 ft where we crossed back to the south for some talus hopping the rest of the way into the 4300 ft basin camp.

Access Creek basin, Luna and Fury

On day 2 we ground our way up to the 6300 ft notch SE of Luna, descended a couple of hundred feet on the other side, traversed across the heather and ascended to the spectacular col SW of Luna. We set up camp on the slabs and headed off with nice light packs for Luna. Instead of heading straight up to the false summit, we did an ascending traverse on the west face, finding easy scrambling until about 100 ft directly below the true summit. Just when it looked like we were hitting class-4 territory we found a ledge leading down and left; it zigzagged back up to the right to below the summit again. With a couple of class 4-ish moves that didn’t feel particularly exposed thanks to a ledge below, we were on top. It was still before noon, and with nothing else on the agenda for the day besides returning to camp at Luna col, we whiled away a couple of hours on the summit, napping, eating, and taking pictures. For a scenic spot to hang out for a few hours of enforced idleness, I can think of few better places on the planet than the summit of Luna on a warm August afternoon.

Fury, Luna Lake, and the northern Pickets

Camp at Luna col, and the southern Pickets

Day 3 was spent climbing the east peak of Mt. Fury. From Luna the ridge connecting Luna col to Fury looks rather challenging, but it turned out to be a delightful bit of entertaining route finding and exposed scrambling with spectacular views of the Pickets all around. From Luna col, the first obstacle is a knob which can be skirted via an easy ledge high on the right side. This leads to the broad ridge top which is easy walking for a few hundred yards until a steep drop-off. Looking to the left we found a steeply descending narrow ramp down to the notch; from there descended a rubbly gully to the glacier on the north side of the ridge. We traversed snow back up to the ridge crest and continued up the next big bump on the ridge. Halfway up was a short fifth-class section where we broke out our 30m rope; it was plenty long enough for the short pitch and the rap back down on the return. From the top of that bump it was easy scrambling and then exposed ledges (mostly on the south side) down to the 7000 ft low point on the ridge. There we dropped into the basin on the south side and traversed at about 6700 ft.

Dave leading the class 5 step

Moon over summit of E. Fury

Looking back towards Luna on the traverse to Fury

The hardest part was finding a way across the steep buttress just east of the SE glacier on Fury; we found a key ledge above a snowpatch at about 6800 ft.

Dave at the start of the glacier on Fury

Luna and Prophet from Fury

Sidehilling over to Fury

Once around the corner, we roped up and ascended the eastern-most lobe of the glacier, crossed to the western edge of the glacier at about 7800 ft, and after some steep snow and rock scrambling on the south ridge we were on top. We spent a leisurely hour on the summit drinking in the views. We returned the way we came, reaching camp 10 hours after departing, and spent a second night at the spectacular Luna col.

Basin traverse to Fury, route around buttress is center-left

Rappelling down the class 5 step

The traverse from Luna towards Fury, with the class 5 step

Morning sun from Luna col, looking down Big Beaver towards Jack Mtn.

On day 4, Friday, we packed up and descended back to Luna camp. This time we stayed on the north side of Access Creek all the way to Big Beaver and crossed on a log just downstream of the confluence. We recovered our food cache and set up camp in the early afternoon, just as it started to rain. We built a fire and I washed my shirt in the stream, drying it by the fire. Now it smelled like smoke, but that’s a lot better than it smelled before. Day 5, Saturday, we headed up Mt. Prophet. Starting out at first light, we went no more than 100 yards down the Big Beaver trail from Luna camp and then took off uphill towards Prophet. There’s a distinct ridge descending SW from the summit that provided easy and remarkably brush-free travel.

Mt. Prophet from Luna, with SW ridge at center

It might be possible to follow the ridge all the way to the summit, but it gets narrow at the top and with no easy way off either side you’d have to back down quite a ways if you reached an impasse. To avoid that risk, we decided to exit to the right onto the talus. Unfortunately, the way off the ridge isn’t as easy as it looks on the map. We found a way down at about 6400 ft that involved some delicate friction moves across a slab; on the descent we tried a lower route back up to the ridge at about 5300 ft which entailed some steep brush side-hilling. I’m not sure which was better.

Looking down Mt. Prophet's SW ridge

Once on top, we spent another hour of quality summit time before descending. With some careful attention to routefinding we were able to closely follow our uphill route all the way down, arriving back at Luna camp 8 hours after starting up. We packed up and strolled down the Big Beaver trail 5 miles to the 39 mile camp and spent the night. On Sunday all we had to do was pad the remaining 5 miles through the silent cathedral of giant trees down to the Big Beaver boat dock in time for our scheduled 10:00 pick-up, hike back up to the car, and drive to Marblemount to begin the post-climb feeding frenzy. All in all, it was a wonderful six days spent in a magnificent area.

[Dayhike Mike]

Nice!

[Eric]

Great report Martin. With Luna and Prophet done you must be getting pretty close on finishing up the P2000 list eh?

[Jeff R]

Its good to see you posting here Martin. Haven't seen you much since Ruby but enjoyed your trip report, I hope to get out and do those peaks some day.

[Martin S]

Eric - naw, I've still got a bunch of them P2000 peaks to go before I finish off that list. But I did get some nice views of Desolation and Daemon to get me thinking about fall trips in that area...

[Matt]

Great trip, guys. That's a lot of ground to cover.

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Great trip, and great photos! This sentence sums it up best: "I can think of few better places on the planet than the summit of Luna on a warm August afternoon." I wish I could have been there..

[Malachai Constant]

Sweeet!

[Magellan]

Best. Trip. Report. Ever. Seriously, spectacular trip. Thanks for doing it so I don't have to! The ridge down Prophet is very interesting in it's distinctness.

[Tazz]

Sweet stuff!!! Thanks!

[Backpacker Joe]

Sure wouldnt mind baggin Luna lake....

[dicey]

Very nice pics and trip report! Thanks for sharing Martin

[Stefan]

I wish I coulda gone with you two! Someday I will be hitting up for some more beta!

[mike]

Luna is the best seat in the house. edit: Martin, I took the liberty to compare one of your photos to one I took years ago for the benefit of the folks interested in glacier retreat. See the result in the glacier thread

[Roald]

Wow, my eyes grew larger the more I read. Thanks.