[Bright River]

Richp and I started down the trail at Slate Peak under clear skies and with hopes of climbing about 10 peaks. Past the Robinson trail turnoff, down the Paysayten River, up the trail to Doris and then a BLACK cloud to the north and east. Neither one of us believed this was a serious cloud (Where did this come from anyway?). At the point that both of us were wet and water was running down the trail, we started to consider alternatives, and finally camped half way to Doris Lk on an unmaintained spur trail going to Point Defiance. Dry Camp, inauspicious start, everything in the pack damp, I think we both felt we should have reacted faster - experienced climbers and we had been caught by a stupid little cloud. The next morning was clear and cool, and getting to Doris was quick, and the pass above Fred's Lake brought us to the alpine realm and changed the mood considerably. Flowers, and sun, and views of most of "our" peaks - dramatic and close enough to engender "summit anticipation". We spent an hour at Doris drying everything, and then traversed east at about 7,200 where we eventually dropped our packs and then headed up to climb Osceola. Ah, Talus!! The next week we would spend most of every day on talus - it might have been considered an advanced course in rock hopping, moraine running, talus jumping, scree sliding, and ridge edge wandering. Rich choose the west ridge and I just went up the slope, which was considerably less stable. Alas, the 23 peaks in California and I had forgotten how much more unstable and recently glaciated the Cascades peaks are - didn't take long to remember, but in retrospect, I feel like I was "fighting" the terrain all week - the memory of all that beautiful white CA granite too recent in my mind. Osceola - this would be the first of 5 ascent that I was doing twice - no knockoffs of the 100 peak list. I had been thinking about doing 65 peaks this year, so I could write down #24 - a late start , and just a different numbers game. But hey, we are all human and susceptible to feeling good and more focused if we have a goal. Any port in a storm!! Then traversing across Osceola and part of Carru - done it before, but then the entire basin was filled with snow in the trees and the some of the south slope scree. Consideralbly harder in the unstable terrain in a pair of "over the hill" sneakers. The gulleys and last winters "water event" created rocky, unstable scenarios that became tedious and after 3 hours we traversed toward the trail dropping into swaths of avalanche debris. We intersected the trail and camped near the base of the drainage of the Carru-Lago Col. We ascended the west side of the creek and droppped our packs at 7,200 in a small basin below the Col, and started out for Carru. Hot!! the slope seem to suck the moisture right out of us, but the red unstable central gully became more tolerable as a breeze finally started to pick up and I benefited from a snow patch filling my bottle, hat and scarf near the summit. Between the two of us, we could place almost every name in the register, except for me there was that one signature - a friend , young and dead with her husband in an avalanche. Mountains are never quite the same when friends that you have shared the summits with, do not return. We are visitors, and that by forebearance - to think that good judgement and equipment, and conditioning alone keeps us safe is arrogance and folly. A fellow wayfarer in California recently said - "we are not as smart as these mountains". Thoreau too knew: " The universe is wider than our views of it". When we got back to our camp, we began to look over the Lago slopes, finally going directly up from camp and intersecting the west ridge, running it to the summit. By the descent, I was heartily tired of the heat and the rock, and ready to be back in camp. These were beautiful summits, with unusually clear air , extended views and breezy but not cold perches. We went back and forth identifying summits - Rich had more pondering time as he always arrived first and was ever patient. the next morning we lite out for Ptarmigan Peak, crossing the Col, descending a steep snow finger and traversing a mile of, drum roll please, TALUS! Then ascending a ridge and climbing 2 miles of TALUS over Peak 8165, Dot Peak, and Ptarmigan Peak, We were eyeing the east spur of Dot Peak as a possible return route to avoid some of the same ridge talus and to get down close and personal with beautiful Dot Lake. It was a good decision. Probably did not save much in altitude or talus, but it was a real respite, and Rich immediately resolved to return to this beautiful lake basin. The water was a vivid blue green and had a white granite margin washed in rusty tones - somewhat reminescent of Yellowstone's brilliant Morning Glory pool. Full of fish. We turned the buttress south and enjoyed another tammarck basin, then climbing the ridge just south of Peak 8165, and retraced the talus and moraines and glacier and snow back to the Col and descended to camp. A good camp - private, quiet, pocket meadow with a view and water bubbling out the creek bottom a 100 feet below. Aiming for Blackcap the next day, we traversed the forest and avalanche debris, found the trail, immediately lost the trail amidst boulders and rubble from the previous winters damage and after 40 minutes motored toward Shellrock Pass and then split for the compulsory Talus walk to a Col in Blackcap"s east ridge, which was an enjoyable ridge sketch, as long as you stuck to the ridge - the ridge being far more stable than its sides. At noon, I had pointed to the Mare's tails in the sky ( swooping high cirrus), and told Rich that it would be raining within 24 hours. We dropped to the basin to the north hopping to cross the East ridge of Monument the next day and try for Lake and MOnument Peaks. By dinner, the sky was completely overcast. It rained hard from 8-10 pm, and sometime during the night, it cleared. We were off before 8, and then spent 3 hours trying for a route over Monument's East spur. Back and forth, 5 different areas on the ridge, but the ledges if they were broken up enough were too treacherous with loose debris ,underlying sloped bedrock, and fractured hand and footholds. The areas of more solid rock, were class 5. We were about to give up, when I spied a ledge system that we hadn't tried, and asked for another 10 minutes to give it a try. Eventually I topped out - it was good solid rock for the most part, Class 4- exposed but the ledge systems providing solid foot and hand placement. I put in some small carions, but they were hard to find on the way down. Rich remarked that he would sure have like a rope and I felt the same on the way down. This is as close as I can come to a verbal description of the route: Looking at the ridge from the NOrth, west of the low point of the ridge, there is a rotten gully that ascends to a HOLE( about half up the ridge "face")- looks like a mine hole. Ascend a easy ledge to the east just below the hole area, then zig zag up shallow ledges about 40 feet to a larger ledge ( this is the most exposed part but the rock is solid); use the ledge to go east and turn a corner; above is another series of shallower ledges that takes you easterly up to a larger ledge going to the west and ending in a small wall just below a small squared "turret" on the ridge top; there are smaller shallower ledges that diagonal you easterly to the ridge top. (If you are standing at the "mine hole", most of the top ledges that we used are just around the corner to the east and out of sight, but you can see the two "turrets" above you, and you will end up on the east below them- my altimeter was reading 7,900 when I return to the ridge but the barometer was probably changing.) We walked the ridge down to the low point to avoid the talus and get closer to the tammarck. As we descended to a small pretty lake basin, we discussed which Peak we would climb if we only could get one. WE choose Monumnet - higher, harder to get. A long 1,500 foot descent, and the longest,most tedious talus ridge that I can remember to get to the summit( 4 hours for me). I figure by the time you take all the turns of that ridge - you have piled up 2 miles of managing your feet in rock, no coasting here, and it is just as far coming back. Dry too. We were racing daylight to get back to the east spur, and manage all the moraines (4) and talus back to camp. Toped out on the ridge at 7:45, and was alarmed at the steepness of the route, and a little panicky about not finding my carions. But I went back and forth over various ledge systems and finally remembered enough to figure the route out. I climbed down and then climbed back up, and assured Rich that I wasn't just sketching. In darkness, at 9:40, I thankfully reached camp, and nested - shoes off, the paraphenalia of camp in a circle, tucked into my quilt, and stirring my dinner - content, with a hard 13 hour day under my belt and Monument scratched off my list of 100. I hoped Lake would be next, or Lost. At 3:45, I awoke to see that no stars were in the sky. And then I realized there were all these flashes - about every few seconds. I bounded out of the sack with a shot of adrenalin. What was going on?? It looked like lightning, but no noise, and no actual lightning, and much more frequent than I had ever seen. I got out my tarp and strung it up; Rich had awakened before me - also alarmed by the strange phenonmenon. After about 30 minutes we started to hear rumblings of distant thunder, and coincidently the frequency of the flashes decreased as the sound increased. At 4:30 the wind struck and the rain started and the front marched quickly and stridently through - by 5:30 the event was mostly over. I still wanted to do Lake, Rich was not really interested in going over the East ridge of Monument again, and then I just think we both realized that the climbing was done, we had concluded the trip and it was time to go out. Packed up, over the Blackcap col, and using about 6 snowfields we arced north over to the Shellrock Pass trail, down , and down. Watching the building cummulous we both agreed it was not a good day to be up on a ridge. The closer we got to Doris Lake, the more threatening the clouds, and the harder the rain. Not wanting to drop into Doris, we dropped into Fred's Lake instead - only to be confronted with a covey of 5 tents. After we got over the initial shock of company, a forest that looked like a circus ground, and a roaring fire, Rich realize that his neighbor was one of this party of 10 and on his first overnight trip. We were both uneasy about so much impact in such a fragile area. But it was an interesting and eclectic assemblege - made more so when another party of 4 arrived. There are a lot of large parties out there in the woods, but it was unique for me and I enjoyed it throughly. We left Fred's in the rain next morning, and realized how tired we were on the long uphill into Slate Pass ,arriving at 5 pm. 8 peaks, 8 days, and I think we both enjoyed the trip and each other's company. I can say that I enjoyed Rich as climbing partner - He is a good, competent climber over varied terrain, and routefinding. His judgement, stamina, consciousness of saftey and abilities of himself and his partner are very sound. I have rarely felt as matched in temperment and cross country propensities. There was a mysterious thing that happened every morning. We both put our packs on at the same time- Not close to the same time, AT THE SAME TIME. After three days of this, I questioned him about it, but he assured me that he was not lazing or speeding up , that it was just happening and equally mysterious to him. He was faster in almost everything else, but often we would trade leading as well. I had led a Mountaineers Climbing Paysayten Traverse June29-July 3, 1974. Starting at Hart's Pass (snow), traversing south of Devils Peak and running the ridge north to Doris Lake, climbing WildCat, Pussy(first ascent), and Rolo. We traversed east from there climbing Osceola, Carru, and Lago, then descended snow down to the bottom of the drainage ( more snow) and climbed Blackcap, We traversed due south from Shellrock Pass(only place we found a piece of trail) to Lake of the Woods, where I initiated a rescue of a sick climber - night, dark descent of the Monument Creek trail; a chance stumbling into a campsite near Lost River, an arrival at a kegger somewhere at some forest service outpost - drinking rowdy people; arrival at a forest service house somewhere with a phone after midnight; talking to multiple layers of police, sheriff, forest service, doctors, SAR, and others that I still have no idea who they were; constantly being asked if this rescue was really necessary("I don't know, the guy would never tell us what was wrong"); being shaken awake at 5am: " the planes have just taken off, they are overhead, don't you heard them?", not being able to understand, confused, disoriented ("what planes? What are you talking about?" ); being driven to Hart's Pass and driving a stick shift 4WD (first time) down the Deadhorse Point road, arriving finally at the FS office at Twisp to finally find out what happened. The companion, Frank King, that I had left with the victim said that he collapsed shortly after I left from Lake of the Woods and he was unable to get him into a sleeping bag; at 5 am when he heard the plane he dashed out of the tent and saw a message fluttering from an airplane and ran upslope to retrieve it; he was upset that he could not find the message when he turn to go back to the ten, and saw smoke jumpers just landing there and equipment being pushed from a plane and landing near the tent; by the time he got to the tent, the medic had pulled the sick climber from the tent and already had an IV in; they were moving him upslope when Frank heard a helocopter and rushed to pack our equipment and drag it up slope; they put the victim in the Helio, closed the door ; Frank arrived and was rapping wildly on the door; the door opened ,pulled Frank and the equipment in, and took off: within an hour, the Victim had been seen by a doctor in Twisp (perforated ulcer, peritonitis), and was on a plane to Seattle. I had never known about a heliocopter rescue in the mountains before, Aero- Methow was the first organization to run such rescues, they had planned to run a practice rescue that morning and had simply changed it to the real thing. This was a very differnt trip- This time there were maps (No USGS maps east of the Robinson and Slate Pass Quads published in 1974, only a generalized Fs map showing drainages, no contours), there was route information, almost no snow and sun (I have pictures of rhime covering the Tamarcks at Doris Lake, which was frozen), there was a trail. You can never go the same way twice.

[mntsun]

Wow, awesome trip, report and stories. I was very close to asking to go along on this one; I was afraid I'd be willing to lose my job over the opportunity. Thank you for the great beta. 8 out of 10 with the bad weather, wow. Shellrock Pass and all. Incredible scree tolerance. Tremendous!

[RichP]

Here are a few shots of this incredible trip with Goforth. I felt both honored and humbled to be on this outing with such an erudite of the Cascades' flora and fauna. I sure learned alot with this wise woman. This is one trip I won't soon forget. Neither will I forget all the good stories of past trips that were often pioneering routes before the days of prior beta.

This is a photo of the "Pasayten Peaks" from Robinson Mtn. We summited all 6 seen here.

Fred's Lake.

Oceola and Carru from pass above Doris Lake.

Carru and Lago from Oceola.

Blackcap and Monument.

Ptarmigan, Dot, and Point 8165.

Scramblin' high

Lago from Carru.

Carru and Oceola from Lago.

Goforth approaches Lago summit.

Glacier on Lago.

Dot Lakes

North faces of Carru and Lago during the traverse to gain the ridge to Ptarmigan.

Parkland below Ptarmigan Peak.

Goforth showing her hand fishing method in Dot Lake outlet.

View back to Carru-Lago Col where we crossed from Ptarmigan summit.

The north ridge of Mount Lago seen from ridge to Ptarmigan Peak.

Blackcap Mountain from below Shellrock Pass. We crossed at the low point of the ridge and scrambled to the summit.

They don't call it Blackcap for nothin'.

Camp in basin below Blackcap and Monument.

The long southeast ridge of Monument Peak we ascended.

Looking over the summit of Blackcap 8397' to Carru 8595' and Lago 8745' from Monument summit 8592'.

Mother hen eyeballs us.

Lost Peak 8464'. We'll get you next time.

Lake Mountain 8371' from Monument peak.

We crossed this ridge that joins Lake Mtn and Monument Peak. This is where we found some exposed 4th class ledges.

As I was ascending the trail back to Slate Pass and the car, I was already feeling nostalgic. It's one of those experiences that is difficult to see end. But alas, such is life.

[Grizzy]

Awesome TR. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us...

[Bright River]

I guess I need a photog along more often. That picture of Fred's Lake the relection was so good, I couldn't see the lake. These are big mountains, hard to get a sense of the scale. Talus is well framed(and better crossed!) by snow here and there Thank you so much for your good company, patience and harmony with the mountains - what could be better. Building a library of memories to store with your photos. I have been alone a lot, it is very special. But sharing a summit with someone else is more precious.

[Roald]

Wonderful TR and reflections, Goforth! Thank you for your story. That's a lot of peaks, and a lot of rambling.

[wildernessed]

Awesome trip, Great pics and narrative, no shortage of loose rock in the Pasayten.

[RichP]

Goforth started this week-long trip with a small pack that weighed about 18 pounds full. She made the pack as well as most of her own equipment, including sleeping bag, alcohol stove, (with a tin can) energy bars, snacks and tarp. She said that she had everything she needed and that everyone else carries, only that it weighs less. I guess this is what doing the PCT 3 times (twice on horseback) and the CDT teaches a person. I had a conventional heavy load that she was happy to see as it would slow me down. At the camp on the way out at Fred's Lake where we ran into the first people we'd seen in days , names of peaks and lakes were thrown out in an effort to find a place she hadn't been in the Cascades. I'm pretty sure she won the contest.

[cartman]

[Bright River]

I concluded that it was heat lightning, and may have centered in an area just west of Blackcap, and over the ridge and out of sight. It was somewhat generalized and hard to localize to a specific area. And the frequency was really stunning. I had seen heat lightning in the midwest but never with the intensity and frequency of this. A neighbor here in Concrete said that it was occurring here as well the same night, and that is a long way from where we were - I can't explain what I saw, but it was happening at Hart's Pass as well according to hikers tha we met that lst night.

[Movenhike]

I liked everything about this report

[Quark]

"heat" lightning is just a viscuous rumor. Perhaps the sound of thunder was too far off - it's been an unsettled summer in the north cascades. or.......could be the northern lights?????? Goforth and RichP, thanks for the TR.

[Bright River]

Well, I do not know what it was that I was seeing - that was why I leapt out of the sack with a shot of adrenalin. I have NEVER seen lightning like this. I was raised in Michigan on Lake michigan and would regularly see some real lightning storms and squall lines come off the Lake. Have climbed in the rockies and Sierras and experienced lightning storms and electrical discharge on peaks ( you can have electrical and light displays without much noise). Have seen Northern lights many times in many places - this certainly was not that. I wondered if there was not a war going on. I talked to the 14 people at that last campsite and they all were equally at a loss to explain what the flashes were (bright ,like unseen lightning, about every few seconds lasting only a moment like a very large flash on a camera). Everybody seem to experience the same: as the lightening and thunder began, the flashes went away.

[wildernessed]

Alien aircraft ?

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Dot Lakes is one of my favorite areas in the range. Very remote! Did you take the Ptarmigan Ck Trail back to camp? Nice TR!