[Gimpilator]

Heather and I set out from Slate Pass early Thursday morning and hiked a long way through the Middle Fork Pasayten valley to the trail junction which crosses Lease Creek. From there we followed another trail up Tatoosh Buttes and Tamarack Ridge. No registers on those summits.

Slate

Lago, Carru

Fire

Jack

Ptarmigan

Lost

Ptarmigan summit

Lago from Ptarmigan

Dot

I had envisioned getting Ptarmigan from the north but had never considered this approach until Heather suggested it. She had been as far as Tatoosh Buttes before. We could see a large fire to the east, somewhere out past Cathedral Peak.

Dot summit

Lago / Carru col

We descended the standard route going over Dot Mountain and then over to the Lago / Carru Col. At the col we had just enough time to make it down to Eureka Creek before dark. Thankfully Heather remembered where the good camping spots were from her solo trip the previous year. I think this first day was something like 27 miles.

Blackcap

The next morning we tried to access Lake and Monument by going over the shoulder of Blackcap and then traversing around the upper basin which feeds the headwaters of Monument Creek. By studying satellite images, We had found a nice looking gully which would surely allow access to these two peaks. Topo maps suggested the gully would be about 30 degrees and being north facing, it should have been a nice snow climb.

descending the shoulder of Blackcap

gully

In reality it was mostly melted out, and two thirds of the way up we came to some of the most rotten scree and talus I have seen in the Cascades. Large blocks were poised to go and held in by rotten mud and red dirt. It would certainly not have been safe proceed without helmets, and probably not even with them. It's a shame we didn't have the snow we needed.

Blackcap

scrambling

1 label

register

Monument from Blackcap

Our consolation prize was a scramble up Blackcap. Heather had already been up there last year and we both burst out laughing when we saw that she was the last person to sign the register. I've never seen someone sign a register twice in a row like that. That evening we camped back in the Eureka Valley.

ascending Osceola

Carru, Lago

48!

Osceola

bear tracks

Lupine near Slate Pass

On our last day I showed Heather the gully route I took on the south side of Osceola which avoids Lake Doris. It was her 48th on the Top 100. As we were preparing to hike out, two guys showed up. I think one of them was Dustin Trails. Sorry if I heard your name wrong. But very cool to run into other folks from NWH out there!

route

[wildernessed]

[Distel32]

[Opus]

Ha, very nice! I've been researching nearly the exact same trip the past week or two. How was it getting through the Carru / Lago col?

[Stefan]

that is quite some distance there you two!

[Gimpilator]

[Dustin Trails]

Yeah, hey Adam it was ironic running into you while I had your trip report in my bag. Thanks for the beta on Osceola! Also, on the descent we found the direct route to Doris. That region seems to be pretty quiet, even on the holiday weekend. You two were the only people we saw past the Middle Fork Pasayten turnoff, just below Slate Pass. I still need to write up a report for our Lago/Carru/Osceola trip!