[RichP]

At odds as to where to go this week with all the smoke in the mountains, an e-mail from cartman suggested a trip to Copper Ridge in NCNP. I had never been in the area nor to Hannegan Pass, so I jumped at the idea. We arrived to the Public Service Center in Glacier at about 10:00am on Thursday and found that there were no camping permits available until the following day. What to do..? Well, we opted to camp on the summit of Hannegan Pk which lies outside the park boundary after climbing nearby Granite Mtn. Hannegan has excellent views of the surrounding area, but the views are even better from its neighbor Granite at 6688' which is one of several notable summits on Silesia Ridge.

Approaching Hannegan Pk 6187'

Granite Mtn 6688'

Views from Hannegan Pk

Granite from Hannegan

A trail out to Granite Mtn

North side of Hannegan Pk

Granite Mtn

Back down to Hannegan from near Granite summit

Ruth Mtn

Chardonnay

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Cartman on Granite summit checking out the Chilliwack area

Shuksan from Granite

Views back to Hannegan from granite

Returning to Hannegan and camp after summiting Granite Mtn

After a relaxing nap on Granite, we headed back down to Hannegan where we scared the bejeezus out of a solo camper who hadn't seen us approaching. After some chit chat, we all settled in to a warm night on this scenic summit. The morning views were impressive.

Shuksan and Baker

Granite and Chardonnay

Morning light on Hannegan Pk

Ruth and Shuksan

After breakfast we dropped down the ridge which runs parallel to the trail and hiked over toward Point 6303. It seemed like a normal scenic ridgewalk at first, but then the tarns began to appear. There were at least 8 along this ridge.

Leaving Hannegan Pk

Mt Chardonnay 7020'

One of at least 8 tarns along ridge

Tarns galore

The smallest

A little more than a puddle

A small one..

Tarns abound..

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Yet another tarn..

We crossed over the shoulder of Point 6303 and passed by a small lake where we regained the main trail at about 5400.'

Looking back to Hannegan and ridge traverse

Point 6303 and small lake we passed while on the high route from Hannegan

Soon we arrived to our designated camp at Egg Lake and set off for the summit of Copper Mtn with daypacks.

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Copper Mtn on the left

Egg Lake, our designated camp spot

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Hiking along Copper Ridge

Copper Ridge Lookout 6260'

The ridge leading out to Copper Mtn from near lookout on Copper Ridge. It's as far as it looks

We left the trail a few hundred feet below the lookout and contoured to the west of Point 6113 over to the connecting ridge where we were surprised to find a bootpath which was intermittent all the way to the summit of Copper Mtn, the high point of Copper Ridge. There were some class 3 sections on the ridge but the majority of the traverse was straightforward hiking with occasional boulder hopping and a little brush.

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Copper Lake 5263'

Nearing the summit of Point 6855 en route to Copper. We encountered some class 3 here but found an easier gully on the way down.

View of Copper from Point 6855

Hiking along the crest of the ridge to the summit

Looking back to Point 6855. We hiked over the top of this point to reach Copper

Snow patches like this saved us on an otherwise dry ridge

Almost there..

Last moves after 7.5 hours of hiking from Hannegan Peak

Cartman on Copper Mtn 7142'

Summit Copper Mtn 7142'

Steep side of Copper Mtn

We did not linger long on Copper as it had taken us more than 7.5 hours to make it here from Hannegan. We arrived to camp at about dark and after a quick dinner, it was lights out.

Copper Ridge Lookout site with some haze from distant forest fires

Descending from Copper Mtn

Fall colors

Mt Challenger

Evening on Copper Ridge

The hike out was uneventful after a quick trip up Point 6445 and cartman counted 37 people heading in between Hannegan Pass to the trailhead. It's a busy trail, but I can certainly understand the appeal of this area.

[twodogdad]

[Magellan]

Really nice pictures. I would be surprised too if there was a boot path headed all the way out there. Was there a register on the peak? Same as 2DD, was the lookout manned or womanned?

[hermes]

Great report and photos Rich - nice way to maintain elevation! When I was up there in 2007 the lookout was manned and I think it still is most years.

[RichP]

[ree]

Great area, Rich. Nice pictures! Kind of a bummer the park service has such tight reigns on the camping there... NCNP has tighter regs than Yosemite. I wonder how many camping permits they give for that ridge anyway. IIRC there's only 2 campsites - Egg and Copper Lakes.

[Snowdog]

nice!

[RichP]