[vishal2196]

One of the best climbs I have done so far!

First good weather weekend of the summer and super stoked we were able to get outside!

Started from Monroe at around 5am and reached Chelan Dock by 8am! Unloaded the bags, parked the car at the overnight parking opposite the dock (paid parking, be sure to reserve tickets and parking in advance). Got onto the ferry at around 830!

Reached Lucerne at around 10:30am and boarded the bus to Holden. Reached Holden by around 11:30 and were greeted by some of the friendliest people ever! (Be sure to make a donation for the bus ride - recommended 10$ per ride). Refilled some water and headed up the the trail to Copper peak to set up camp. Saw a trail closure sign and also got turned around by the Trails Coordinator at Holden, so we ended up changing plans. The trail to the basin for Copper/Fernow is now closed temporarily until the blowdowns (87 hazardous ones apparently) are cleared in the next few weeks. Decided to go for Martin Peak and started heading back out to the village. The Trails Coordinator was kind enough to track down some PB&J for us, as she felt bad for turning us around. Forever grateful!

After that we started heading up to Holden Lake at around 3pm! Temps were super high and the sun was blazing. A lot of the train was covered so that was nice. Encountered shallow snow around half a mile from the lake. The snow was surprisingly firm given the time of day. Set up camp and went to bed at around 7pm.

Got up at 4 for an alpine start. Boots on trail by 5. Took a snow finger up directly to the ridge from the lake, skipping Holden pass altogether. Saved quite a bit of time by doing this. This approach might still go for a few days but might get treacherous as the snow softens and the bridges over the creeks collapse.

Reached the ridge and met up with the other two parties going up as well. Crossed some steep snow fields to get to the scramble part. There were two main gulleys. We chose the one on the left and went up without any rope. Exposure was real and lots of loose rocks so we had to be careful. Made it to the summit at 10am. Found a rap station at the top and rapped off of it after chilling on the summit for a while. double rope rappel with 70m rope got us quite far down. Downclimbed a bit and our fearless leader Tim set up another station, this time we did a 70m single rope rappel all the way to the bottom of the sketchy gully. Bill put in some pieces to protect Tim when he comes down after cleaning the station.

Tonnes and tonnes of rock fall. Never seen a mountain as choosy as this one!
Made it down the sketchy parts and onto the snow fingers. Tim was cruising down by just plunge stepping. We took some time to downclimb it. Reached the ridge again and cut off onto the snow finger that we took up. The grade of the snow field was chill after a while and we got to plunge stepping. Snow bridges were already melting out and a party member fell into a stream ( she was safe and got out quickly ). Made it back to camp by around 530pm. Tim and Bill took a nice dip in the lake. Had some good dinner and went to bed.

Woke up the next morning and headed back to Holden -> Lucerne -> Chelan -> Home!!

[ozzy]

I want that peak!! Something about gnarly choss piles beckons me.   A damn nice climb and thanks for the TR, I like the direct route too!

[vishal2196]

Haha it’ll be a blast. Direct route might not be in for too long though!