[gb]

Went up Deception from the Dosewallips and Greywolf Pass. Route description. I had intended to repeat a trip I did in 1992 by traversing the ridge from Deception to Cameron. Mostly this is easy but good visibility is required for the occasions one must leave the ridge and then reascend to bypass rotten rocky minor peaks. I recall on the previous trip being fogged out and ascending a gully that necessitated 50' or so of 5.6 chimneying with a 60 pound pack to regain the ridge. I had ascended Cub Creek/Deception Creek that year and remembered nothing of the lower part until about 4500' or so. I recall here working right to avoid the trees that had been fallen by wind along the ridgeline path of ascent. Above, meadows opened up and the upper route is quite good. However, I met a couple that had gone up somewhere in the vicinity of that route to the meadows and described their travel as "rough". I scouted along the trail looking for an old path or the easiest looking line to begin this ascent but was less than inspired given a heavy pack. So....I decided to use the Greywolf Pass trail and then do a daytrip back and forth along the ridge to Deception instead. If you follow the ridge you will invariably be forced off it by exposed poor rock (the map provides insufficient detail for navigation). This happened to me once, I reascended too soon and was forced off again, each time dropping 600' to 800' down steep (40 degree by the best routes) scree and hard dirt slopes - ice axe terrain for sure. I've never had to do an arrest on steep, hard dirt but imagine it wouldn't be pretty. Certainly one has to avoid slopes steeper than about 40 degrees because traction is difficult and a fall would likely be serious. Eventually, I reached the easternmost notch adjacent to Deception. This took two hours with a day pack. At this point I got to see Deception and the guidebook described climbing route. I had no recollection of climbing this SW slope of the mountain other than vague ones. I recall doing some sort of bypass on the glacier to avoid some of this terrain on descent. So, anyway I saw the climbing route and was unimpressed. It would obviously involve crossing and ascending a hard scree/dirt slope with no visisble trail and then a bunch more junky scrambling. Having already refreshed my memory with the steep scree and hard dirt on the approach I nearly called it a day. But then I noticed that the morainal trough from the old glacier extended into the valley to about 5700' and the route towards the glacier above appeared to still be snow covered. Although the descent along the west wall of Deception was not entirely visible I believed it would likely also be snow covered. This route went easily and involved snow climbing and descending to only about 38 degrees. About 1600' of relatively easy snow climbing led to the top of the glacier. At the glacier's top there are two possible exits, to the east where the summit lies and to the west, separated from the summit by a rocky facade. The eastern exit looked most practical and I know I descended it 20 years ago but now, perhaps due to downwasting or because a cornice had built some 50-75' high from the last three years snow, the top looked quite steep, perhaps 50 degrees for the final 100'. I started up this but as I approached the final headwall the snow progressively became problematic, very hard with an inch or two of soft snow on top. Without crampons, this didn't seem such a good idea, especially because I would have to back down this with about 300' of exposure. So, although, I wasn't sure the western exit of the glacier would connect to the summit, I backed off (actually turned and walked down as it wasn't yet that steep) the eastern exit and headed for the western notch. It turns out that a very easy Class 1 route goes around the south side of the intervening towers and leads in 20 minutes to the top of the eastern notch, and thence Class 1 to the summit. Hence, using this route, other than the aforementioned moderately steep snow low on this NW'ern route the entire route is Class 1 if a good route is chosen along the ridge from Greywolf Pass. On the descent I found a much better route back to the pass. Instead of trying to follow the ridge in it's entirety, from the last peaklet on the ridge west of Deception follow the ridge west a few hundred yards to a rounded rib that drops towards the Cub Creek basin. Descend this, 30-35 degree scree and dirt, working around groups of trees then descend more steeply a short distance to an obvious ramp down and to your left that leads into the Cub Creek meadow below. Diagonal down to about 5850', working west across the upper meadows, then ascend about 150' more steeply to a bench at the western side of the basin. When the bench ends, follow game trails down across steep vegetated terrain to a low point (5800') below meadows that lead back up to the vicinity of the pass. You will see and can reach the trail to Greywolf Pass easily here. (This entire route is visible from the peaklet just west of Deception). Done this way, Deception is a scenic and fun destination. But once the snow melts out beneath Deception the lower part of this route would be steep, round, and loose boulders (pillow lava boulders are very round). It will likely last another week to 10 days this year. For me, with a heavy pack, I abandoned the traverse to Cameron, and instead enjoyed the fantastic wild flowers and views along this route and back down to the Dose.

[meck]

GB: Thanks for the TR! I've been interested in visiting Deception from that direction (went up the standard Royal Basin route last year). If the visibility were good would you recommend going all the way to Greywolf pass and then heading east, or would it be better to just scramble up Deception creek? Also were you able to grab any photos along the way?

[gb]

Gee, no meck. I'd go up the trail and then use the route description I gave from the pass. But if you are young and have plenty of energy Deception/Cub route was beautiful. I got a great photo of a bear with his mouth full of flowers in the upper meadows in 92. But expect a lot of hip high Huckleberry bushes and stepping over endless 1 -1/2' logs. I still shoot film, and although I shot four rolls, all but about 4 or 5 shots are of wildflowers. I really enjoy macro. I would guess I saw about 150 different kinds of flowers. You have to be real careful not to disturb the dirt/rocks around the alpine varieties.

[IanB]

Thanks, gb, for the info about this enticing area.

[silence]

deception creek is standard and relatively ez from my understanding .. your way sounds a bit difficult .. so if you had it to do again would you?

[gb]

Like I say, I looked at potential starting points for the Deception Creek approach and didn't like what I saw. This was confirmed by a couple that I mentioned who had just returned to camp from some route up there to the meadows which they described as "rough". My memory of the route from 1992 isn't there but the views I got would indicate a lot of hip high huckleberries and lot's of crossing of downed logs. I do remember a bit of a snarl about half way up. I think the low route I described is probably much more pleasant. For that matter the high route is incredibly scenic, you just have to watch your routefinding when forced to descend by rotten rock walls. This terrain via either of my routes to' and fro' is great for a daypack, much less so for overnight gear.

[silence]

thx for the heads up we have studied the topo and it looks like a nice basin to camp in up there .. but frankly we would prob do it as a day hike from deception creek camp

[Tsolo]

Hey, gb -- I passed you just as as you were exiting at the Dosewallips ranger station. I had bicycled up the road (a tougher grind than I expected) and was day-hiking to Calypso Falls. You said you'd been to Mount Deception and then you were gone. About a minute later, it registered with me how impressive that trip had to be. I was wondering if I'd find a TR on nwhikers or WTA, and now here it is. Glad you could post it.

[dan mathews]

[Scramblin_james]

Great TR and very informative.

[forest gnome]

from 3 years ago ..still niice