[Redwic]

I had been wanting to attempt Gunn Peak for many years. Having been raised in the nearby city of Gold Bar, I looked at the “Sky Peaks” section of what is now Wild Sky Wilderness nearly every day throughout my childhood and early adulthood. However, summiting peaks within that region did not seem likely to occur until after I became a regular peakbagger 3-1/2 years ago. This year, I hoped to summit two major peaks within the “Sky Peaks” region of Wild Sky Wilderness: Mount Baring and Gunn Peak. I summited Mount Baring in June, but with other plans taking priority during Summer and early Autumn it appeared a Gunn Peak trip might have to wait another year. Then, unexpectedly, an extended “Indian Summer” weather pattern allowed for one more chance… I knew of “Sultan Guy” Andy from NWH, and we had PMed each other several times about possible peaks to attempt together near the Highway 2 corridor. When he asked where I planned to hike this past weekend, I told him I wanted to attempt Gunn Peak. He was willing to come along on the trip, despite having been to that summit approximately five years ago. He was hoping that we might be able to have enough time to summit one of the nearby sub-peaks on the adjoining ridges, if time and conditions allowed. I was comforted by his enthusiasm and knowledge of the terrain; I figured it would prove invaluable to our success. I had never personally heard of a successful unroped/unprotected attempt of Gunn Peak so late (mid-October) during any year, but we believed the “Indian Summer” type of conditions might allow us just such an opportunity. Technically, an “Indian Summer” occurs after frost but before snowfall, but the light dusting of snow in the alpine areas of Wild Sky Wilderness earlier during the week (before another sunny, warming trend) appeared to be neither significant nor measurable. We liked our chances. We arrived at the cutoff road early, starting to hike at 7:00 AM. As we prepared to begin, Andy commented about the chances of encountering other people attempting Gunn Peak that day being highly unlikely. Shortly after saying that, an older gentleman and his dog arrived, looking for the entrance to the Gunn Peak route. We started hiking before the gentleman was even out of his vehicle, but he had caught up to us by the time we reached the old logging road on the north side of the stream crossings. An obvious “trail” headed north from the road, but it seemed to appear much sooner than my directions had suggested. Andy thought it might be the correct way, as did the man, but it quickly became a massive bushwhack. Andy and I turned around to find the correct route, while the man and his dog continued bushwhacking uphill. A little further west down the road, another obvious route headed north. But unlike the other route we had investigated, this one appeared at the approximate location I had been informed about, and appeared to be more heavily used. Soon thereafter, it became a steep climbers trail. From this point on, the route did not waste any time gaining elevation. The route was easy to follow, although we took occasional quick rests for an energy boost to offset the steepness of the terrain. When we reached the first cliff wall, there was the older gentleman sitting on a rock with his dog. Somehow, he had managed to bushwhack through the thick forest at the base of the hill, and find the correct path. I was amazed by his determination and his quickness. From this point, it appeared the route had two possibilities. The gentleman checked out one option while Andy led me the other direction. We soon reached the infamous waterfall crossing, which was nothing more than a small trickle; probably the least amount it ever flows there. Then we had another steep forest climb, albeit a short jaunt, before side-traversing to the entrance of a very large gully. Andy recalled staying on one side of the gully, when he had previously been there. He warned me that we might encounter a lot of brush and slide alder, which we did. We quickly lost the “official” route, although we thought we were still on it because somebody had left pieces of colored ribbon/flagging tape periodically on the ground. We never retraced the route, and figuring it might just be overgrown we continued heading north to the cliffs ahead of us. The older gentleman called out to us; he was beyond us and on the other side of the gully. He found a gully near the cliffs to traversed up and over.

Andy heading towards the very large gully...

Ascending a streambed gully...

"Tailgunner"

When we reached the cliffs, we noticed several possible gullies. Each one seemed to have its own challenges, although I thought the one closest to us had the best chance for success. The gully we chose was nothing much more than a climb up a narrow dried-up streambed to the ridge above. Once at the ridgetop, we were standing atop a well-trodden trail that originated from another area of the very large gully. The trail had ribbons and cairns, so we knew we were on-route again. We stopped for a brief snack and water break at the ridge immediately east of Point 5842 (“Tailgunner”), and then continued on our way. After dropping down in elevation, we encountered a cliff band that appeared we could go over, across, and below. Two of the options were not feasible for us (because we tried them all). After some delays, we ended up at a boulder gully south of the Gunn Peak summit.

Our goal

Finding the hidden gully...

Andy leading to the summit...

We hiked up the boulder gully until finding the necessary side-gully. Parts of this smaller gully were shaded from the sun, so the small amounts of snow and ice that had appeared a few days prior were still present in various places of that section. After a short steep rocky climb, we found ourselves on another talus field. We were stunned to find numerous locusts still roaming those cold slopes. During the ascent of the gullies, I had pulled my left leg muscles and the leg started to cramp up. While on the upper talus field the leg pain was suddenly horrendous, so we stopped for a while to take a lunch break. I took off my left boot and rested the leg, massaging my muscles and taking medicine for it. After all of the effort we had done to get that far, the thought of stopping only 400’ elevation from the summit was difficult. After taking the break, the leg felt much better and we continued. The pain briefly returned but then went away by the tiem we reached the northside traverse. It was there that we encountered the older gentleman and his dog again. They had been at the summit, and he said the northside snow and ice on the ledgewalk was not yet trivial to traverse across. After Andy spent a few minutes pointing out several nearby peaks and hiking recommendations to the gentleman, the two groups went their separate ways. Andy led the way to the summit, and I nervously traversed behind him across the initial ledgewalk through very light snowpack. The rocks near the summit had no snow or ice on them, and were easy to climb up. We reached the summit at 12:45 PM. That was satisfactory, especially considering several route-finding issues and periodic breaks. However, we realized there would not be enough time for any side-trips that day. We stayed at the summit for nearly 45 minutes, enjoying the fantastic views of Wild Sky Wilderness and the peaks beyond. We left the summit by 1:30 PM, knowing we likely only had five hours of decent daylight remaining. Fortunately, most of the route is south-facing, allowing for optimum daylight conditions.

"Gunnshy"

Wild Sky peaks to the northeast!

Wild Sky peaks to the east!

Gunn Lake

Looking at the slopes while heading down...

Nice colors!

While heading down the narrow gully towards the boulder gully, Andy went to the bottom of the narrow gully first and then I followed. Shortly after beginning the steep rock scramble downward, a very large rock above me started to dislodge. If it had fully dislodged, I might have been a goner. I was wearing a helmet for that specific section, but a fall (especially caused by a large rock hitting me) would have probably been fatal. Fortunately, the rock stayed put, I found a ledge off to the side to regain my composure (and to scout out the loose rock above), and I cautiously scurried down the cliffside without any further incident. When we neared the ridge immediately east of Point 5842, Andy looked down the valley northwest of Merchant Peak and noticed the tarns were all icing over. Some of the northside rocks leading up to the ridge were getting icy, as well. This confirmed our suspicion that it would not be unlikely we might be the last people to attempt Gunn Peak this year, at least without any rope or protection needed; one more storm system coming through the region will make many parts of the summit route sketchy and not recommended. After reaching the ridge east of Point 5842, we followed the trail system that we had missed during our ascent. The trail system was very easy to follow, although it seemed to take longer than our direct route up the very large gully. But considering the route completely avoided traveling through slide alder, we were more than willing (and thankful) to take the long path. The rest of the descent was nearly without incident. My legs were feeling good and we were making short work of the steep forest route. Then, unexpectedly at approximately 3500’ elevation, I heard a sudden buzzing near my head and I was stung on the right shoulder. I instinctively tried swatting whatever stung me, but the insect flew away. Then I heard the buzzing noise again near my left shoulder and I quickly swatted in that direction. The buzzing noise then went away. I quickly hiked down to Andy and took a break. Realizing the likely culprit was a bee or wasp, I quickly sat down and took out my EpiPen. Having not been stung by any insect since my early childhood, I had never needed to use an EpiPen but I was so thankful I had the foresight to continue carrying one in case of an unexpected encounter outdoors. However, I never would have expected getting stung this late in the bee season. Perhaps it was the black shirt I wearing (because bees and wasps do not like the color black), or perhaps the insect was just upset because it was getting colder. At any rate, when I jabbed the EpiPen into my right thigh it quickly popped out, so I promptly jabbed it into my right thigh a second time and held it there for about 20 seconds. My thigh hurt and the wound started bleeding, but at least I thought I would be OK. My pace was much slower the rest of the way back to the car. My thigh muscle hurt from the EpiPen, and it hampered the remainder of my descent. At least the most rigorous terrain was passed. While crossing Barclay Creek, we took a few moments to look up at Mount Baring towering above the nearby landscape. We then continued the short jaunt back to the car. We reached the car by 5:20 PM, only 10h20m after we started. If not for some unexpected slowdowns, our time would have been faster. The main thing was that we made it back together in one piece and had a great mountaineering trip in a very scenic location. Andy was a great mountaineering partner, and I hope we can do more peaks together in the future. I cannot speak for him, but this was easily my favorite October mountaineering trip all-time and perhaps even my favorite summit reached this year.

[Eric]

Congrats on your summit, that is a fun scramble on top. We thought you would be OK with the nice weather but then when we encountered fresh snow we wondered if similar fresh snow on that ledge or in the narrow gully would give you guys problems. Glad to hear that it did not. I would not have wanted to do that ascent by bushwhacking through the forest; the guy with the dog who did that had some serious gumption. Hopefully with a little rest and relaxation your leg will be OK.

[Redwic]

[Sultan Guy]

It was so nice to have such fantastic weather and a great partner. Here are some more pictures with some of "goofball" Redwic in action. Yes I had already done this peak, but heck I just couldn't turn down the invite to do it again

Merchant Peak

Nice view of Townsend Mtn.

Redwic conquering the gully

View from the ridge

Fresh snow on north face ledge

Neat boulder just below summit

Tiny town of Index

Two posers

Summit ridge-snow on north face

[iron]

[EastKing]

Excellent TR and photos!

[Tall Hiker Man]

[Redwic]

Special to iron for giving new life to an otherwise largely ignored TR. lol Gunn Peak was a great destination. I look forward to exploring that general area further.

[seattlehikertoo]

I just saw this report. Had to be some pretty impressive route finding. I had thought that it was a class 4 scramble and a rope recommended.

[Redwic]

[EastKing]

Wow! I did not even see this report the first time. I think it got caught by a large amount of trip reports that happened during that weekend. I know I had one pretty much slip through as well then.