[raising3hikers]

Porcupine Pk 7762 With work being super busy and the summer camping season ready to explode soon, I decided to try to get a family camp trip in before its almost impossible to find a spot on a weekend. I sent my son, Ryan and his girlfriend up to the North cascades to find a spot for the family to follow later. They found a nice spot at the usually busy Colonial Creek and that worked fine by me. Sahale and I met them in the evening as I knew I'd be close to a good hike the next morning. Saturday morning, I drove just beyond Porcupine Cr and pulled over on a wide pull out to start my trip. It was probably a mile from Rainy pass so I'd shave off some of the distance but gain just a little more for the hike. I headed up the easy snow and firm forest snow and probably crossed the PCT at some point. No tracks in the forest but I managed to find a perfect place to cross Porcupine creek to get to the W of it. A nice big snow bridge was at the spot I happened to wander to. I gradually gained elevation while aiming to be directly East of the Porcupine summit. At 5600' feet or so, I headed straight uphill on good snow although the map contours looked better if I'd gone a little further N. I broke out into the alpine to some views of Porcupine Pk.

Porcupine Pk

As I looked up to the mountain, I knew of the West ridge route but a nice snow coulior on the East face leading to the East ridge caught my attention. I was armed with a second tool and headed for that steep, fun looking snow coulior. Recent snow had already been released from the sunny day on Friday, so I wasn't too concerned about going up. At first, good bucket steps were kicked in the snow but the sun was softening things up a bit as the new snow got a little deeper as I got near the ridge.

view of Pk 7552 and the steep East ridge of Porcupine

The snow slope steepened well beyond 60 degrees near the top where I exited to some rock for a short ways and then get back in the snow right before the summit. I had good ax placement below the soft new snow as I made my way to the summit.

Tower Mtn and the Needles with my tracks in the upper snow

Cutthroat Mtn

Jack and Hardy

It was mixed snow and rock at the top, I didn't find or want to dig for a register as I thought about how I'd get down. I really didn't feel like going down the way I came up with the softening snow. I decided on going part way down the West ridge to the next big snow slope to go down. I found the 4th class ramp below the summit as I carefully downclimbed. I did have a rope with me in case I needed to rap but it was mostly snow free and had good holds.

looking back up at the bare side of the summit block

After descending to the snow slope, I front pointed in and down climbed directly to the upper basin. I cut off having to go all the way to the easy saddle S of the Pk knowing I could always rap if I got cliffed out. One little rock section I encountered I could down climb and I was in the basin soon finding my up tracks. I followed my tracks out happy to get out on another bluebird day in the N Cascades.

a little snow sliding down

I headed back to the Colonial Creek campground and enjoyed the rest of the day watching my family fishing and hanging out. Sahale looked at Thunder Knob and felt like hiking it, so I went with her as far as she wanted to go. It was a spicy early season climb of Porcupine but safe enough to enjoy 5 miles 3200' elevation gain 4.5 hrs

[Gimpilator]

Thanks for the report Eric. I've thought about this peak for years, but haven't tried it yet.

[cascadetraverser]

A family trip! I am always amazed you manage to bag a peak on those trips. I always end up eating and drinking too much. Sounds fun!

[ozzy]

Nice trip man! I too have wondered about this one. That 60 degree snow would be enough to deter me though! Nice gettin after it as usual.

[Fletcher]

Looks a little intense at the top!

[Mike Collins]

[timberghost]

Very nice

[MangyMarmot]

Nice trip. Sounds like a cool peak.

[Bluebird]

Wow. What a trip, Eric! Ironically, I was just admiring that peak and commenting on how. I didn't know anyone who had climbed it while Fletcher and I drove by Sunday night!

[Sky Hiker]

Nice Pics