[raising3hikers]

There's been a lot of really nice trip reports for the Entiat area this fall but I haven't seen one for Bearcat Ridge. In that case, I've never seen a TR for Bearcat. On Saturday, I arrived at the Entiat River TR and started hiking around 930am. As others have noted, the trail is in great shape. I reached the Snowbrushy trail junction and was happy to see it in good shape for the first couple of miles. A lot of work has been done in the area. There were a couple spots that the blowdown was a bit too much but some well placed cairns usually helped with the short detours. Further up the valley, the trees over the trail aren't much of a concern since they're so small. I made my way up to Milham Pass to some bright larches on the other side.

heading up the snowbrushy creek trail

I caught my first view of Bearcat Ridge and the big gully I wanted to up looked steep and nasty. I made my way down the trail wondering if I should set up camp first and try the peak or take my overnight gear up with me in case things don't go as well. I decided to take all my gear as I traversed towards the ugly brown gully on Bearcat at ~5800'. The boulder traverse was slick with a couple inches of snow on all the rocks.

Bearcat Ridge with the gully I took just L of center

I entered the broad brown gully with some nice larch views towards Emerald Pk. Everthing in the gully was loose, 1 step up, half step back down. It was really slow going and then I tried to take a short cut up an even looser grey gully that cost me some time. I reached the top of it only to see that it dropped down to the North on the other side. Glad I brought a short hand line to help get me down from one particular spot. I dropped back down a couple hundred feet and continued up the broad gully aiming for the tree line at the top of the ridge. On the way up, I spotted a narrow gully (climbers left) that looked like it would take me to the ridge. Some loose class 3 scrambling had me finally at the ridge.

Emerald Park

larches below Emerald

At the ridge, I started heading North towards the summit. That's when I made another mistake. I gained elevation too fast and got cliffed out several times. I should have traversed without gaining much to get past and through some gendarmes. After a few ups and downs, some lucky ledge finds, I was below the summit. The rest was an easy scramble but made it bit tougher with snow on the rock. I reached to summit to cloudy views but was glad to be there. I searched a bit for a register but didn't see one, perhaps the snow hid it if one is even there.

one of the Bearcat gendarmes

Emerald Pk from below Bearcat

part of the Bearcat Ridge

view over to Cloudcomb (L)

It was 5pm, so I had to nail the route finding back to the big gully, which I did. I didn't have a whole lot of time to get back to Emerald Park for camp but I finally got there after slowly going down the loose rock slope. I pitched my tent just before dark and melted snow for water. There was no water running in the area. After a quick dinner, I was in bed by 730pm. I woke early but waited til it was starting to get light before packing up. I was moving a little after 7 and enjoyed the scenery on the way back up to Milham Pass. From there, it was mostly downhill and I was looking forward to getting some water from Snowbrushy Creek. I filled up and the rest of the hike out was uneventful.

my last look at Bearcat Ridge

very happy to get some water here

S Spectacle

It was nice to get out for an overnighter before winter completely sets in! 27.25 miles 8400' elevation gain

[RichP]

[Stefan]

that is a lot of distance for that peak!!!

[BigBrunyon]

Where'ja eat on the way back?

[iron]

crazy that you used overnight gear - vs just carrying it in and out on the same day. kind of a nasty looking peak...

[Fletcher]

Cool report!

[cascadetraverser]

Nice! Agree with Rich to see the beautiful Emerald Park looking so nice. Did you get any looks towards Mirror Lake? That is a really cool infrequently visited spot that I suspect was burned....

[wildernessed]

[MLHSN]

Always been curious of that ridge while looking over the maps. Thanks for the report.