[Tom_Sjolseth]

I hiked up Big Chiwaukum on Labor Day with my Dad. We left the car at the Whitepine TH at 9:20AM, after a "leisurely" meet time of 6AM in Seattle. The trail gains 2,750' in 6 miles. Take the Wildhorse Creek Junction about 2.25 miles up. At ~6 miles, below a good vantage point of Chiwaukum's NW Ridge, we ascended cross-country through beautiful heather slopes then rock bands (Class 3). We could see that about 500' below the summit, the trees and rock were plastered in brilliant white rhime ice. It got cold fast these last few hundred feet, as the wind picked up and the clouds swirled by. The rock was totally glazed on the summit block, making routefinding tricky.. we were looking for the absolute easiest route. After some searching, we came up with a class 3 option that avoided most of the steeper angled rock. A solid gulley brought us onto the summit, one of many in the conglomerate of summits that makes up Big Chiwaukum. The summit register (packed in an old aluminum tee), dates back to 1973. It's in so-so shape, with some pages hard to read. Notable recent ascentionists include Dick Kegel (Kangaroo, an original Bulger) on July 4, and our own Stefan Feller, only a week prior. The views from the summit were surprisingly good, at least the ones we caught a glimpse of between the swirling clouds. It got extremely cold on the summit, and we saw whisps of snow, but nothing materialized. The rhime ice wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, it seemed. We headed down amongst increasing winds, and quickly got back down to the trail where it was warm once again. After rehydrating, we began the 6 mile trudge back to the car. The trip out was uneventful. We only saw one party the whole day. We saw a bear in a basin NNW of Chiwaukum eating huckleberries (which are now ripe). Unfortunately we didn't bring a camera. Round-Trip Stats: -15 miles -5900' gain -8.5 hours

Route up NW Ridge of Big Chiwaukum

[Movenhike]

Good info, thanx

[wildernessed]

Nice Tom, I was looking at that and Snowgrass as a fall thru trip, in Whitepine, out Chatter Creek or other. (not a dayhike though)

[Stefan]

Hey, how was the dreaded highway 2 on the return on Labor day? Our return through Everett and the standard backup did NOT materialize becuase of the added lanes! Wahoo!

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Highway 2.. was a BREEZE! Where was the traffic? We were expecting a million motorhomes and trailers, but seriously it was wide open at 6:30PM! Nice work on Storm King. Is the glass bottle still up there? When I was up there, it looked like this:

Storm King's glass bottle register.

Joe Vance and Ted Carpenter's entry in Storm King's register.

[GeoTom]

[Backpacker Joe]

Hey bubba, where's the pics of upper Grace lake and Charles lake? Come on......

[Eric]

Thanks for the TR and especially the route map. I'm curious, based on the route map it looks like you went to just the 8081T rather than the 8080+. Did you feel that 8081 looked to be the true HP? The reason I ask is because my recollection is that Paul K said the 8080+ was higher than 8081, but I could be remembering incorrectly. Any insight? Big C is high on my wishlist since it is #27 on the WA prom list.

[Stefan]

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Eric, We most definitely hit the true highpoint, but I'm not sure which one that is on the map. We could clearly see accross to the other highpoints on the ridge, and it was obvious we were on the highest one. It's like the second nubbin from the N. The map I drew was free hand, not from GPS coordinates or anything, so take it with a grain of salt.

[Eric]

OK, yeah that is what I figured but always good to get as much info beforehand as possible. I'll assume Klenke is right on the N summit being higher than the 8081 so that must be what you guys went over. Gracias for the route info and map.