[Fletcher]

Adam, John and I had big plans this week of linking up Clark, Luahna, and Buck as a 3 day loop beginning at the White River TH and exiting via Little Giant Pass. The thunderstorms that struck the cascades Wednesday night had others plans. We were hiking up the White River at 11:30 Tuesday morning. The trail was mostly pleasant with a few sections of thick brush where following the trail was slightly challenging.

White River Trail

We took a right on the Boulder Pass Trail and started gaining some elevation. Some bear poo, expanding views, and creek crossings kept us entertained.

thought this may have been Ten Peak but have no idea

poo

crossing

The basin below Boulder Pass is gorgeous, the east peak of Clark looming large.

Boulder Creek Basin

We easily found the sheep trail and followed that up the SE slopes of Clark. We made camp around 6800 ft on a semi-flat patch of remaining snow SE of pt 8373 as sun gave way to threatening clouds.

up

night 1 camp

weather moving in

Just a few sprinkles before bed at 10. Between 3 and 4m we got hit by a thundershower. Super bright flashes followed (immediately) by the loudest and closest thunder I had ever heard, kept us quite awake for awhile. Emerging from the tent around 8, we were greeted by sprinkles and cloudy skies. After hiking over to the ridge to scope the weather we were not optimistic about our prospects.

nasty toward Sloan and White

socked in

After breakfast, the clouds looked as though they may begin to part so we decided to set out. We found the correct notch on pt 8373's south ridge second try.

Saul and Indian Head from the ridge

first view of Glacier

showers to the east

After watching the variable weather from the ridge for an hour or so we decided to push on with our plan although we were running way behind schedule. We found the class 2 gully leading to Clark and headed down. The lower portion of the gully ended up being filled with hard snow which complicated things and upped the class 2 rating.

Clark

top of gully

gully

After exiting the gully, there was a short, annoying traverse, then the route follows easy snow almost to the summit.

I cant really remember what time we arrived on the summit but it was way later than we had planned. The views were great.

nearing the top of Clark

Glacier from the summit

Fernow, 7FJ, Maude, Buck

while sitting on the summit we discussed our options. Our original plan had been to climb Luahna right after Clark, then descend the Pilz Glacier to Butterfly Butte, cross the Napeequa, and make camp in Louis Creek Basin to climb Buck and hike out via Little Giant the next day. It being 1 oclock, our day 2 plan wasnt going to happen. We decided that trying to do Luahna and heading back the way we came would take too long too. We came up with the idea of descending the Walus (Clark) Glacier to avoid the annoying traverse, "class 2" gully, and extra elevation gain. We had thought that the glacier crossing would have been fairly trivial but it ended up being much more broken up than we had thought. Me, lacking crevasse rescue experience, took the lead.

heading down the Walrus

East Clark

Crevasse Crossing

looking back on our route down the glacier

We took a break at the first rocks we came to above Boulder Pass and the Napeequa. That looks like such a sweet river, I cant wait to hopefully visit that valley sometime this season.

Napeequa

Fortress and Buck

After our break, we boot-skied and hiked over to Boulder Pass. Really nice spot. Below the pass we came across a father-son pair that had come in via Little Giant. They mentioned an easy Napeequa crossing and a dead stock animal on the Boulder Pass trail on the way up. We ended up pitching the tent at an amazing campsite in Boulder Creek Basin.

Boulder Creek

night 2 camp

On Thursday morning we woke up and hiked the ~9 miles out to Johns rig. We were all out by 11:40. Sorry that you had to drive me back up the god-awful Chiwawa Road again to my car, John. The trip did not go as planned but it ended up being a great outing regardless. ~25 miles ~48 hrs c2c

[Gimpilator]

Saul

weather

in the gully

bergshcrund

[raising3hikers]

that is a nice glacier route, very scenic! good job guys

[reststep]

I really enjoyed the report, pictures and video. Thanks I think this the first report I have seen from the White River trail that didn't mention how bad the bugs were.

[Gimpilator]

That's a good point. Actually, the bugs were extremely bad. The worst I have seen since the Fortress/Chiwawa/Red trip.

[contour5]

Nice video and photos, cool trip. That creek crossing has mellowed out considerably.

[ree]

Hey, good job you guys! Sorry the weather deterred more ambitious plans. Glad you weren't zapped. Amazing to see how much the terrain has changed in a month's time. Boulder Basin is looking super sweet. A month ago, it was completely covered in snow. Eek. That Walrus Glacier is looking a bit choppy. Lots of fantastic exploring in that area.

[jcocci]

Was still a great trip even though we didn't do our original plan. The lightning was quite a bit unnerving though. It was way too close for comfort and yes the Walrus Glacier was a bit more opened up than we thought it would be, but it was a fun adventure.

[gb]

Looks like you had fun....except for the lightning that is. Nice to see the Walrus is still moving pretty good. And thanks but no thanks for the bug beta. I was afraid of that. Perhaps when freezing levels drop late next week things will get better.

[c_moorehead]

White river valley - death by bugs. Anyone even thinking of going down that trail needs napalm.

[puzzlr]

Nice trip. Don't be fooled by the "sweet" looking Napeequa. Hiking through that long grass when it's covered with dew is like wading in a creek.

[ree]

I kind of agree with Puzzlr. Napeequa Valley is a lot prettier from above. It's brushy and boring down there. How was Boulder Pass? We had a pretty steep drop off a corniced lip going from Boulder Basin up to to Clark's east ridge. I was wondering if it melted out and was easier.

[Fletcher]

Boulder Pass was all but melted out. We did encounter a very short section of snow on the north side of the pass on our return but it was avoidable by going over to the trail.

[Jetlag]

Wonderful to read your description and see the pictures and video this morning (!!!) after completing our Dakobed Traverse. Kudos to Fletcher, Adam and John for documenting this adventure!!! We took the same S-shaped route up the Walrus glacier that you took down, and we were camped on the exposed, pumice-laden summit of Butterfly Butte when the lightning strikes began. This two-strike-a-second lightshow with accompanying tent-flattening winds almost ended our trip, as it altered yours. So good to see that you continued on, climbing Clark on a morning when the weather looked iffy, to say the least. We ascended the gentle Pilz glacier the morning you ascended Clark, ready to turn around at any sign that the previous night's level of storm would return. Looking at your pictures of Boulder Basin and comparing them to Ree's and Contour's I am struck by the beauty of this special place and the dramatic seasonal change. I don't know why it took me this long to discover it.

[Jetlag]

That picture of Fletcher in the crux is cool! We didn't get that close to the rock heading up, staying pretty much mid-glacier in a tight S on the terraces. I hope to see my son's pictures soon so I can better compare routes.