Jeff H, Tim J, Craig W, Adam W, and I teamed up for an outstanding trip, climbing a seldom visited peak in the North Cascades this Memorial Weekend. The weather was stellar but the snow conditions up high were challenging making for some slow going at times.
The four of us left the parking spot along HW20 (~0.3 miles west of Cabinet Creek) at 9am Saturday and proceeded up along the east bank of the creek to 4,500 ft where we had to cross the large side creek coming in from the SE. We searched up stream a bit for a suitable log crossing but in the end just waded the cold water then also crossed the main channel of Cabinet Creek on a log. We continued up the west side of the main creek to the ~5700 saddle between Gabriel and Elija Ridge where we set up camp. Adam’s tent was a few minutes below our camp and we figured he was off on Gabriel Peak, having started much earlier than us this morning. We lounged in camp listing to Gabriel blow his horn from time to time as likely cornice failures resulted in impressive sounding avalanches rumbling down like a distant freight train. Adam appeared around dinner recounting the difficult snow and rock conditions he found high on Gabriel.
The next morning we left camp at 5:20am knowing the snow would again turn soft as the day wore on. We made good time angling to the ridge saddle at its low point then proceeded up along the corniced ridge towards Ezekiel. Just as Adam experienced the day before the snow above ~6,800 ft turned from being well consolidated to a thin crust with wet sugary mush underneath making for some slow going. We proceeded on to Ezekiel where Tim decided he had had enough fun for the morning then the rest of us continued on to Elija Ridge. While under a mile further this took us another 2 hours to cover the distance and tease out the route up the final summit block. There is not a lot of information in past trip reports on the summit area but the last ~100 ft is quite spicy. I elected to stay on the sharp thin south east ridge crest while the others opted to come up across and up the south face via a series of small ramps and ledges. Both routes are exposed.
The views from the top (as well as from Ezekiel) are outstanding as you are surrounded by T100 peaks on all sides. We descended our ascent route, bypassing the last bit of Ezekiel on our way back to camp. On the way down Cabinet Creek we stayed on the west side, which was the route Adam took up. This went equally well and had the additional benefit of not needing a major stream crossing. Again, pick your poison. The east side had a stream crossing while the west side had a bit more brush and some sections of tangled logs to deal with. Both were generally fine in the old growth forests.
Some pictures follow:
Crater Peak (In The Distance) This sign at the parking spot always cracks me up
Jeff at camp
Jeff, Tim, and Adam at Camp
Reaching Elija ridge at approx 6300 ft
Gabriel Peak
Adam
Jeff, Craig, and Adam staying back from the corniced ridge
Pleasant travel along this ridge
Tim on Ezekiel with Elija Ridge summit behind a long ways off still
Adam and Tim on Ezekiel
Logan to Primus Pano from Ezekiel
Adam reaching for the sky
Corniced Elija summit in foreground
Elija Summit
Reference Mark
Summit Bench mark (note the mark was originally mislabeled Gabriel then chiseled off and restamped)
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