[raising3hikers]

I drove up through Canada, then back down the Silver Skagit road to Ross Lake on Friday night. I wanted to camp near the Lake Hozomeen TH so I could get an early start on Saturday. Btw, The road is in great shape. I saw a familiar vehicle in the parking lot and left a note. Hey Wood! On Saturday, I started hiking the Lake Hozomeen trail by 5:30am. The short portion of the trail that I followed was in good shape, only a couple of down trees. After 1.5 miles, I headed off trail to make a straight shot up towards the Hozomeen's, staying climbers left of the creek draining the S/Sw Pks. At first, the forest was easy enough to go through with minimal brush. I made decent time gaining elevation. Near the 4400' level, many more down logs and brush was encountered. At 5k, I started the short traverse to the basin I needed to get into to start climbing. The traverse was slow, lots of rock outcrops and steep side hilling but it went without too much of a problem. Finally, in the basin, I grabbed some water at the bottom of the snowfield 5400'. I put crampons on for the next few hundred feet of snow, then the snow stopped and it was another 1000' of slabs and ledges to gain the S/SW Hozomeen saddle. The further up this basin, the steeper it got but despite the exposure, it wasn't too bad. I heard and saw a rock slide from the SW peak as I went up.

North Hozomeen

I reached the saddle and dropped my "overnight gear" It took just 5 hrs to get there, so I was going to make the summit attempt right away. I followed the Beckey description of scrambling over a knob and then dropping down, it would have been easier to descend straight from the saddle and traverse over to the next basin. Oh well, my route went anyways and soon I could see the intimidating summit ahead.

SW Hozomeen

view to the south, Lightning creek drainage

looking up at South Hozomeen

Some good snow patches helped with travel instead of more slabby ledges beneath. I reached the summit ridge to a dramatic drop to the North! The North side of this peak is near vertical.

the final ridge to the summit

I scrambled about half way up and found the crux 5.6 pitch. I looked for a place to tie my rope off but there wasn't a good spot, wasn't any places to set pro anyways. At least, it was short and a fall would land on a fat ledge. I carefully tested all of the holds, it seems as if all the loose rock on this section has already been pulled off. The climb went well and it was easy scrambling to the top via a final chimney. At the summit, I looked over for my friends on Castle. I found the deeply buried register and signed in. I took much time taking pictures and trying to identify peaks from this vantage point. It had taken me 6hrs45min to reach the top, I had a lot of time left in the day.

summit register from 1990

next page

last page

It's obvious that this peak doesn't get climbed all that often. It's got a loose rock reputation but I didn't think it was too bad.

Castle Pk

Jack Mtn

Baker to Spickard

summit shot

I headed back down, rappelled the 5.6 pitch and was able to downclimb everything else. I reached my "overnight gear" and wondered what to do next. I wanted to kill some time so I could make use of my extra gear. I had planned on climbing the SW peak in the morning but why not do it now. The SW peak is a loose, scree, boulder hike up. Nothing technical but it's a mess. The views from the top of it were better than from the South Pk. From this summit, South Hozomeen looks straight up mean!

South Hozomeen from the Sw peak

N Hozomeen

looking towards the North end of Ross Lake

looking down the big rocky basin that I went up and have to go back down

After lounging around the summit, I made my way back down and picked up my "overnight gear". I had plenty of daylight to make it back down to the TH before dark. So, I started the steep, slabby, ledge descent and went a slightly different way down than I had on the way up. At the bottom, I refilled my water and started the worst part of my trip.

last look at S Hozo

It was hot, the mosquitos were out and it seemed like the brush was way worse than on the way up. I was poked with sharp, dead sticks while slipping on slick duff and branches. Sweat poured off of me as I was out of water by the time I reached the creek crossing at 2360'. I eventually reached the main trail happy to get that descent over with. I washed up in the creek on a short side trail and drank some more water. I reached the TH to where I would take my boots off and just sit there for a while. I drove a bit before taking a nap and finishing the drive back home early this morning. South Hozomeen is a very steep peak with a lot of exposure, most is easy scrambling but a lot of it is a no fall zone. Careful climbing with attention paid to grabbing possible loose rock is a must. 10 miles 7300' elevation gain 14 hrs

[Tom_Sjolseth]

Nice little dayhike jaunt! Thanks for the great memories with that register shot.

[RichP]

[Fletcher]

Really cool. It sounds gnarly up there. Is the entire crux pitch unprotectable? Maybe not bother bringing gear if so?

[raising3hikers]

[awilsondc]

Bad *** man!

[mbravenboer]

Love that photo of the view into the lightning creek drainage! I think my healthy fear of heights will prevent me from ever achieving this unfortunately .

[iron]

yeah, after you told me you were car camping, i knew this would turn into a daytrip. moral of the story: any trip under 30 miles or 14000ft is fair game for your daytrips with an alpine start. time to sell your camping gear! looks like the route up jack is still possibly in. can barely make out angel wing. really cool view of snowfield group. most important question? is it on the DNR list?

[Stefan]

Dude. You are starting to defile intimidating climbs!

[puzzlr]

Congrats -- your register photos prove how rarely this is climbed, and we can all see why.

[wildernessed]

[Distel32]

[Mesahchie Mark]

Well done!

[Dave Creeden]

What a beast! First you solo Lincoln Peak and now SE Hozomeen Peak (along with SW peak on the same day). Mike T. and I still have one up one you though, in that we climbed Lincoln Peak and South Hozomeen on consecutive weekends - so there! In early July 2006 when our group climbed South Hozomeen it was extremely dry, so we had to claw out a spot on a slope for our bivy sacks at about 6,500 feet, near a trickle of water in the gully. On the descent, once our group reached the ledges on upper west side of South Hozomeen, I took off ahead of the rest of the group to get down to the obscure location in the gulley next to our bivy site, before it got dark. It was like a live firing range as I descended, as fellow climbing partners unavoidably kicked loose debris, with pebbles whistling by me and occasionally striking my pack back and helmet. I led the 15 foot, 5.6 section and your right, there is no place to place protection. After I belayed Beth and then Fay through this section, they continued on to the summit block as I belayed Mike and Jim up. Beth had nearly reached the top of the gulley just below summit, when Fay began to ascent the gulley. Beth kicked loose a small rock, which struck the crown of Fay's helmet. So yea, there is plenty of loose rock on South Hozomeen. It's just not as big a problem when climbing solo. Someone asked if South Hozomeen is on the DNR list. Not only is it on the list, it is a flip of a coin on whether South Hozomeen or SE Mox is at the top of the list. Nooksack Tower could very well rank first on the DNR list, but I haven't climbed it so I can only go by its reputation. Did you see any pitons, from Fred's first ascent? We came across 2 or 3 pitons.

[raising3hikers]

dave, thanks for your quick story of your trip up there, it's quite the memorable mountain for sure! I did ask a couple people if they were interested in climbing with me but wasn't too worried going solo because that way it eliminates the rock fall risk kicked by a partner as your group found out. I saw 1 piton on my way down, didn't see it on the way up as I must have scrambled a slightly different way. I can't quite say i'd never climb S Hozo again, but now having done it, I don't have a good reason to go back. Most peaks are on my DNR list because there's always something else new to climb. For some odd reason, I enjoyed the upper part of the mountain. maybe because leading up to the trip I had thought it would be much worse but ended up being easier than I expected. I guess it's good to set the bar low sometimes so it's easy to be pleasantly surprised:) The views weren't bad either