[raising3hikers]

Steph, Iron and I headed up to the North Cascades to take advantage of a sunny December Saturday. We had 2 trip ideas and settled on what we thought would be the safest bet, Damnation Pk. We were able to drive the Thornton Lake road to a switchback at ~2300, where we parked. We started hiking the old decommissioned road bed towards the Damnation Creek valley. At first, the overgrown road wasn't terrible but after a mile, it became more of a bushwhack. Around 3000', we put snowshoes on and followed the old road to its end. From there, we had to cross Damnation Creek in order to get over towards Damnation Pk.

Steph contemplating the crossing

After crossing the creek, we headed straight up the East slope into the forest. We found travel to be steep but stable. One particular gully lead us up to the South ridge at 4000'. From there, we followed the ridge the rest of the way to the summit enjoying the expanding views along the way.

Oakes Pk

iron taking in the views of Triumph and Thornton

Damnation Pk

view to the South

We took a nice break at the summit naming pks and having a snack. With the steepness of our up route, iron suggested we head down the East ridge and follow the more mellow slopes down towards the creek. It sounded like a good idea and it was. Nice, soft snow made for easy travel downwards. We avoided cliffs and made it to the valley bottom a half mile away from where we originally crossed the creek. Easy enough travel had us back to our tracks and back to the road bushwhack.

views in all directions

Blum

Despair to Triumph

Baker

It seemed like the bushwhack was worse on our way out than on the way in. Lots of branches to the face but we made it back out before dark. It was a good trip, especially since it was our backup plan. 7.75 miles 3800' elevation gain

[wildernessed]

Tis the season for nice ridges the sunshine looks good vs. the inversion over here.

[iron]

best part of the day was seeing a snowy owl fly overhead on the drive out. at least he did not wack us in the face with brush...

[RichP]

Great back up.

[silence]

sweet

[Bootpathguy]

[puzzlr]

Thanks for the report -- good to see where people are getting out.

[cascadetraverser]

Nice! That river crossing looks fun!

[Stefan]

sweet place you chose!

[Gimpilator]

Cool trip. I've wanted to do that peak for a long time. Not many people make it up there.