Forum Index > Trip Reports > cheops, martin, switchback, horsethief, bigelow - 2011-07-01
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iron
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iron
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 2:53 pm 
headed up with hotpantz, r3h, and cartman to meet hollywood, jb and the dali rally. headed up from crater creek TH. snow around 6400' on the trail. lots of running water (beautiful) and flowers. great green grass and sweet smelling ponderosas. good snow leading up to horsehead pass and marginal snow heading down to boiling lake. found great dry camps for 5+ tents.
arrived in time for almost-sunset after leaving car ~6:15p.
crystal clear skies at night.
bright sun in the morning, though chilly near the lake until sunlight finally crested the ridge.
headed up west ridge of cheops, traversing climber's left at points to get off the true ridge. firm snow warranted crampons.
a little scramble and you're at the summit.
next we headed to martin. i wanted to do a snow route:
but most didn't. so, we more or less followed the N ridge, dropping off occasionally on the W face.
next to switchback (aka cooney). again, mostly ridge, mostly snow, but this time dropping off to the E face. great flowers up here. seemed like each rock had one next to it!
snow was softening at this point, making plunge steps dangerous. so, why not a 1200' glissade into merchant's basin? awesome.
i really liked this basin as it feels truly high alpine, but with more of a glacier peak/snowking kind of feel. that may change without the snow, but for now up.gif
we traversed to the sunrise lake outlet, took a break, then made a rising SSW traverse W of the the lake until the ridge. good snow for this too. some thick trees on the ridge, but not too bad, and a few false summits.
horsethief
horsethief
horsethief (aka sunrise), was the consensus favorite peak for the day. maybe b/c was saw a plane
next, we headed towards old maid. the group split into 3 factions, each taking different routes. let's just say that some chose more wisely than others. eventually we reconvened in the prince creek basin. a couple feet of snow on the ground here too, though with the current stretch of warm weather, it'll melt out fast.
eventually we made a rising traverse, following cartman's prints, towards old maid, only we were blocked by pt 7820. feeling the darkness set in, we scrapped the true summit.
nice light took us back to camp.
the next morning, hotpantz, r3h, and i headed up to bigelow. we traversed from camp at boiling lake at roughly 7000', before making a rising traverse to the summit. cold winds kept picture taking low. patchy snow and rock heading up this way. on the descent, we headed SW from the summit, dropping to roughly 6500' where runnels provided easy travel back to camp. packed up and headed home in wonderful warmth with summer smells and trail runners (for part of it smile.gif )
r3h said 26mi and 11,200' gain. perhaps he'll post his gps map.

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Tangeman
ride the storm



Joined: 24 Oct 2010
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Tangeman
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 2:59 pm 
In one day? eek.gif eek.gif eek.gif WTG!!

"Civilization is a nice place to visit, although I wouldn't want to live there." My photos
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iron
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 3:02 pm 
no. 3 hrs friday. 14 leisurely hours saturday. 5 hours sunday.

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Tangeman
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Tangeman
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 3:03 pm 
Oh woops, missed that. embarassedlaugh.gif But still up.gif

"Civilization is a nice place to visit, although I wouldn't want to live there." My photos
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raising3hikers
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 3:48 pm 
Thanks for another great trip, also it was very nice to meet hollywood, JB and dali rally. Nice and easy scrambling on all the peaks. Horsethief was my favorite peak also. Everything worked out just perfect, getting to camp right before dark, meeting new people, having a long day of hiking Saturday and getting one more peak on Sunday while getting back at a reasonable time.
lower Eagle Lake
lower Eagle Lake
sunset
sunset
getting to the east ridge of Cheops
getting to the east ridge of Cheops
Star, Oval and Bigelow
Star, Oval and Bigelow
summit rest with Martin and Switchback in the distance
summit rest with Martin and Switchback in the distance
looking back at Cheops
looking back at Cheops
a cluster of lady bugs
a cluster of lady bugs
little flowers
little flowers
Switchback
Switchback
Cooney Lake
Cooney Lake
the group thinking about Horsethief
the group thinking about Horsethief
the long glissade route
the long glissade route
more flowers
more flowers
looking down to Sunrise Lake from Horsethief
looking down to Sunrise Lake from Horsethief
Ah! Aliens above
Ah! Aliens above
Bigelow
Bigelow
Old Maid from Point 7820
Old Maid from Point 7820
sun going down after another nice day
sun going down after another nice day
Hotpantz and Iron leading up Bigelow
Hotpantz and Iron leading up Bigelow
glacier lilies
glacier lilies

Eric Eames
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Backpacker Joe
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 4:14 pm 
Krazie Klimbers! Thanks for the lake beta. Great pics. Nicely done. up.gif Where'd you guys spend your two nights Irun?

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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iron
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 4:43 pm 
boiling lake underneath some trees and about 200-300ft from the toilet. no smells smile.gif

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Yet
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 4:50 pm 
Nice! Love that area. wub.gif

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Backpacker Joe
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 4:51 pm 
No camp site pics? What was the condition of Boiling? Any bugs?

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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iron
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iron
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 4:54 pm 
no pics for me (always dark while we were there). lake is 95% ice still, but pockets were open enough to take a dip in for me and hotpantz. ice didn't look that thick though and it seems open enough above to melt out in one hot week. no bugs --- yet.

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wildernessed
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 5:11 pm 
up.gif Nice !

Living in the Anthropocene
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raising3hikers
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 5:14 pm 
Here's a Boiling Lake pic for ya BPJ
doesn't look Boiling too me, it looks freezing
doesn't look Boiling too me, it looks freezing

Eric Eames
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Backpacker Joe
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PostWed Jul 06, 2011 5:17 pm 
Thanks R3H.

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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b00
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PostThu Jul 07, 2011 9:55 pm 
bigelow + cheops + martin +cooney-switchback + horsethief 7-1 - 7-3-2011
iron, hotpantz, eric and jb enjoy our stay on cooney aka switchback mt summit
iron, hotpantz, eric and jb enjoy our stay on cooney aka switchback mt summit
when the forecast changes on the west side, where do you go? head east young man! the chelan sawtooth wilderness is a beautiful area and i have loved each trip i've been - reynolds, corax, hoodoo. so it was very easy to give this a try. although i was not sure if this was the best time of year to go, i was more than pleasantly surprised. a huge nols party was parked at the trailhead and to our relief they would take forever to go in our direction. we started the trip with 2 liters of water( there was plenty of water every hour so we could easily have gone with less). we walked the easy, well maintained and very well behaved crater lake trail, passing a few signed and unsigned junctions. some junctions were more obvious than others, but we had no route finding issues. we started to encounter snow near eagle lake. we ran into another group near eagle lake and they told us "six feet of snow and ice" ahead and a huge cornice loomed over horsehead pass, implying it would be impossible to pass. we never found any ice, not sure if their measurement of the snow was horizontal, because it certainly was not that deep vertically, and the cornice on horsehead pass was real, but easily bypassed :>) once we hit snow near eagle lake, the trail found us, when it was convenient, and we walked easily up to the tarn between eagle and upper eagle lakes, crossing its outlet easily. we then skirted around below point 8202's east ridge buttress and booted up easy snow to(the last 50' brought out ice axes) horsehead pass. we left all our packs but one, which we put a little food, water and clothes into, and cramponed up the ridge to near point 8202, took off our crampons and scrambled along near the ridgetop all the way to bigelow summit. we found the scrambling near the ridge excellent and fun. we placed a new register and enjoyed the views. a mountie route route description suggested scrambling a ways below the ridge and on the way back we had the mis-fortune to do that. tons of lose junk and a couple of falls from shifting rock by each of us, brought us back to our packs at horsehead pass. the ideal way, looked to us to be to descend straight down from the summit(ese) and walk the valley to boiling lake. if we had not left our packs at horsehead pass, we would have done that. boiling lake was mostly snow covered, as was most of the area. the picnic table was tipped over and submerged. fortunately we found more than enough dry ground for our camp on the nw side of the lake. it was an excellent camp - both water from the lake outlet and the toilet were nearby. there we no bugs and the camp was sheltered from any wind. i am a very lucky person, things like this usually happen for me :>) we left boiling lake camp at the very civil hour of 7:00am and cramponed past the lake and up the broad nne trending ramp that led us up to cheops west ridge. the ridge got steep quickly and the firm snow did not always yield to kicked steps easily. fortunately we could slam our axes through the crust. i got tired of the vigilance required by the steep hard snow and i exited onto the rock a ways before the others. almost immediately upon starting up the rock i was met by cairn. i am very lucky. the rock was pleasant class 2. i can't remember finding a register on cheops, but the views were nice. this was the end of crampons for us all. we scrambled easily south on the ridge to martin, finding part rock and part snow. we put a new register up on martin. this was going pretty easily and quickly! again we scrambled easily south on the part rock, part snow ridge over to cooney aka switchback. i think i remember finding a register. we lounged on the top and talked over our options. i wanted to go to old maid and then maybe sunrise point aka horsethief. i was outvoted, fortunately. horsethief would prove to be the best peak of the day.
this horsethief was caught by surprise on sunrise point :>:)
this horsethief was caught by surprise on sunrise point :>)
we descended cooney and traversed merchants basin(filled water) over to beautiful sunrise lake - this place would make a great camp.
eric strikes a pose by sunrise lake with surise point aka horsethief fills the background
eric strikes a pose by sunrise lake with surise point aka horsethief fills the background
one of us wanted to go directly up se from the lake(after consuling the map we surmised it was not a wise idea). instead we booted from the lake doing a rising sw traverse up to the ridge, dropped packs and then scrambled the pleasant ridge to the summit. this whole part of the day was wonderful. we signed the register and decided to give old maid a go. while heading to old maid, the party started to go through some needless brush. so i let them know i would take a slight variation and meet them. unfortunately they went down an "improved" variation which included extra distance, elevation and brush. when i did not see them where they said they would be, i became a little worried, stopped, carefully got out my map and compass and methodically assesed where i was. since i could not see them, i wanted to make triple i sure i had not screwed up. some of the landmarks looked significantly different from the angle i had. still i worked out the details with the map and became sure of where i was and realized they must of gotten off-route. i did an easy descent part way down the west ridge of horsethief and then descended from the ridge north into the beautiful, wide open prince creek basin where i filled water and found my friends. we followed a scrambler who was out on a seperate trip, tracks over and up towards old maid. i was in the back and starting to run low on energy. the tracks were going much higher than the route descriptions i read recommended. maybe the scrambler and those ahead of me knew something i did not. we reached the top of the east summit, not the true summit, and it became apparent they did not know more than i. the time was getting late and when one said they were too tired to go to old maid, we stopped and followed in the footsteps of a great politician and declared "mission accomplished!" we summited the east summit(not the true summit) of old maid giving us five summits for the day :>) we followed some tracks back toward camp until they took some needless descending traverse, we just did a mostly level traverse over to saddle of the west ridge of cheops, the point we reached the beginning of the day, and walked back to camp with time to eat before it was dark. great trip! :>) 9.36mi 4092' gain 7-1-2011 car to bigelow peak and then to camp at boiling lake 10mi 4880' gain 7-2-2011 boiling lake to cheops + martin +cooney-switchback + horsethief + old maid east summit then to boiling lake 9.36mi 1936' gain boiling lake to car 28.72mi 10,908' gain total friday 4:13 car to horsehead pass 0:26 break at horsehead pass 1:32 horsehead pass to bigelow summit 0:10 summit stay 1:17 bigelow summit to horsehead pass 0:27 horsehead pass to camp at boiling lake 8:10 day 1 total time saturday 1:40 camp at boiling lake to cheops summit 0:07 summit stay 1:20 cheops summit to martin summit 0:26 summit stay 1:15 martin summit to cooney aka switchback summit 0:30 summit stay 3:13 cooney summit to horsethief summit and summit stay on horsethief 2:51 horsethief summit to old maid east summit 0:34 summit stay 1:42 old maid east summit to camp at boiling lake 13:39 day 2 total time sunday 3:58 camp at boiling lake to car driving directions: "drive over Stevens Pass toward Wenatchee. n on Hwy 97 to Pateros. nw on Hwy 153. Before Carlton, left on Gold Creek Rd. Left at 'T' on Road #4340 toward Crater Creek Camp. In 7 miles, pavement ends; stay right on #4340. In 1-2 miles, left on Road #300. Go 4 miles to dead-end. Large parking area (& outhouse & camp spots) at Crater Creek TH. (elevation 4,760')" somehow we messed up in following this and had to turn around after taking a wrong turn. a little hint, the correct turn for road #300 is signed 4340-300. ~4:30 drive from seattle including stop at cashmere bakery equipment: crampons, ice axe, helmet references: matt's t/r, john morrow t/r, wilderness' t/r, mountie route description, phone call to carla, email from colleen m(thanks!), pm from geotom(thanks!)

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Backpacker Joe
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Backpacker Joe
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PostThu Jul 07, 2011 10:00 pm 
Like I said............ hockeygrin.gif

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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