Forum Index > Trip Reports > Devil Peak and Kraft Mountain with Bryan K, March 10-11, 2018
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Gimpilator
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Joined: 12 Oct 2006
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Location: Edmonds, WA
Gimpilator
infinity/21M
PostMon Mar 12, 2018 4:27 pm 
Bryan came to spend a few days hiking with me. The weather did not cooperate at all for him and I teased him that he brought the WA weather with him. What’s worse, is that friends and family in WA were reporting excellent weekend weather. Devil Peak For our first hike we drove to Devil Peak. I was able to get all the way to the end of the road in my Subaru. We hiked a short distance up the canyon and then turned right to gain the east ridge. The little wash we followed to the base of the ridge was blocked by a class 5 dryfall, but it was short, so we climbed it.
Devil Peak
Devil Peak
The ridge itself was steep and covered in loose rocks and gravel. We saw a lot of sign of bighorn sheep, but no sheep. Half way up the ridge, I found a broken atlatl point in the dirt. It was fun to imagine that long ago native peoples were up on this same ridge hunting the sheep.
broken atlatl point
broken atlatl point
We traversed around some rock formations and then made our way to the summit. I could see rain to the south and the west. The storm to the west looked a little serious but didn’t seem to be moving our way very quickly. I figured we probably had several hours before any heavy rain arrived.
Devil summit
Devil summit
Little Devil
Little Devil
We descended part of the east ridge and then dropped south into the canyon. I wanted to visit Peak 5413 before returning to the car. This peak is guarded by a lot of small limestone cliff bands. During the hike up Devil I had been studying it and decided that the northwest approach would probably work best.
Peak 5413
Peak 5413
Peak 5413 We crossed the canyon and then ascended a sub-ridge to gain the main ridge. There were several small cliffs to scramble up along the way. We found some high quality fossils in the limestone. The upper slopes were more gentle. We came to the first summit where a register is located. Another point to the south appears to be the same height.
looking back at Devil
looking back at Devil
fossils
fossils
never seen one like this before
never seen one like this before
We traversed to the south summit to make sure we got it. By now the storm to the west had reached us and we were in and out of the clouds. The rain was still mild fortunately. I didn’t want to go back down the east ridge for fear of getting caught by the storm.
the south summit
the south summit
We discussed the options. We knew that going down any other way might bring us to the top of cliffs. Fortunately I found an abandoned ladder. I felt that armed with the ladder, we might be able to get down anything that was too hard to scramble. We descended east and then north. Sure enough we were caught by a few unavoidable cliffs. One of them was slightly overhanging, but the ladder did the trick.
1st cliff
1st cliff
2nd cliff
2nd cliff
have box, will travel
have box, will travel
Back in the canyon we explored some abandoned mines before returning to the car.
Kraft Mountain For the last day of Bryan’s visit I had planned a 5 peak loop, packed with fun scrambling. The forecast said a negligible amount of precipitation before 10am and clearing after that. We started with Kraft Mountain, which I had done once before. The sandstone on Kraft is really colorful. Some sections are white with purple stripes and elsewhere it’s white with red dots. Bryan said it looks like chickenpox.
Kraft summit
Kraft summit
The drizzle had started when we left the parking lot. We descended into Gateway Canyon and then traversed around toward Turtlehead Junior. By the time we got there, it was full on raining. Already we had noticed that some of the sandstone was breaking when wet, which I haven’t seen before. Some of the peaks on the itinerary were exposed class 3 and perhaps 4, so we had to bail on our plans.
wet sandstone
wet sandstone
We descended Ash Canyon between Calico Tank Peak and New Peak. The rain intensified and the canyon had a creek in the bottom. We carefully scrambled down the rocks and took a short break below a giant boulder. The rain did not slow down at 10am. Bryan kept a great attitude and we both enjoyed the terrain despite the disappointment of not getting all the peaks and being in a whiteout most of the day.

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Brushbuffalo
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Joined: 17 Sep 2015
Posts: 1887 | TRs | Pics
Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Mar 12, 2018 10:35 pm 
Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Bryan K
Shameless Peakbagger



Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 5129 | TRs | Pics
Location: Alaska
Bryan K
Shameless Peakbagger
PostWed Mar 21, 2018 11:22 pm 
The weather didn't cooperate much if at all on the 11th as we planned to get Kraft Mountain and several others. We had to settle for just Kraft as the rain and low cloud levels would make scrambling too slick and route finding too difficult. Regardless, I was still glad to get out of Washington. My video for Devil Peak is still in the works, but here's the one for Kraft.

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Fletcher
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Location: kirkland
Fletcher
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PostThu Mar 22, 2018 9:44 am 
Love the video Bryan! You don’t put enough of these out these days!

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Bryan K
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Location: Alaska
Bryan K
Shameless Peakbagger
PostSun Mar 25, 2018 10:29 pm 
Here's the video from our ascent of Devil Peak.

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Brushbuffalo
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Location: there earlier, here now, somewhere later... Bellingham in between
Brushbuffalo
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PostMon Mar 26, 2018 8:37 am 
What's with the ladder that Gimp is hauling down? Mountain booty ? Never mind, I read above that he found an "abandoned ladder." Mountain booty!😁

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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Bryan K
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Joined: 29 Sep 2005
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Location: Alaska
Bryan K
Shameless Peakbagger
PostTue Mar 27, 2018 8:00 am 
Brushbuffalo wrote:
What's with the ladder that Gimp is hauling down? Mountain booty ? Never mind, I read above that Adam found an "abandoned ladder."
hihi.gif hihi.gif

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