[freddyfredpants]

Despite a less than encouraging weather forecast for the next couple of days, on July 1 G-Dogg and I set out on the Ptarmigan Traverse starting at the Eldorado TH. Our logistical preparations did not include a second car parked at the preferred Downey Creek exit, so we planned on an in and out trip instead. That is an easy call to make when in the comfort of your living room. We arrived at the Eldo parking area in light rain which continued during our final packing, departure, and walk along the first mile of the road. The west wind blowing clouds across the N Face of J-Berg made for some stellar scenery. The wind was an ever present companion over Cascade Pass, Cache Col, and on to Kool-Aid Lake. We arrived at camp to find one melted out bivy spot.

A menacing G-Dogg and a menacing J-Burg

Two inches of snow and poor visibility were there to greet us Monday morning. I talked G-Dogg into continuing. Wind and snow continued intermittently all day. We contoured around the basin to the W rib of Arts Knoll for the sketchy gully traverse, then mostly smooth sailing around to the Middle Cascade Glacier. The fresh powder over wet semi-consolidated snow seemed not quite secure enough to manage without crampons, and made for optimal snow balling which slowed progress. Visibility dropped and major nearby features receded as we ascended the MCG to Spider-Formidable Col. Fortunately I had brought along a previous party's GPS track to guide us along. We dropped over the col to work on the east side of the ridge. Turns out this side was accumulating a lot of the snow being blown from the west, so the powder depth and tediousness of the sidehilling increased. Finally the snow relented as we neared the Formidable-LeConte saddle. We arrived at Yang-Yang Lakes about 6 hours after leaving Kool-Aid, just in time for the snow to become rain. A challenging day.

Camp at Kool Aid Lake

Middle Cascade Glacier

G-Dogg on the way up MCG

Tuesday morning the weather began to clear, though every now and then we were treated to a light shower from the weather still blowing in over the crest. I had hoped to tag Formidable and Spider on this trip, but the fresh snow and continuing bad weather to the north helped to turn our attention southward. Knowing that the weather was improving that day, and not wanting to reverse the route into fresh snow sidehilling, we saved those objectives for another time and pressed on south. The snow having seen some sun and wind became a little more manageable. We continued around the east side of LeConte to the west side of Sentinel. Crossing the upper South Cascade Glacier we paused while I ran up to tag Lizard and grab some stellar views, and we continued down to find an excellent campsite on the White Rock Lakes bench overlooking the West Fork Agnes basin.

Snow still in Yang-Yang Lakes

Le Conte from just above Yang-Yang Lakes

Heading south, east of Le Conte

The view south from Lizard

Sentinel and Old Guard from Lizard

The skies cleared overnight and a little before 6 I set out solo for Dome and Sinister while G-Dogg took a rest day. The overnight clear skies and a cold east wind produced great cramponing conditions across and up the Dana Glacier. Dome Glacier was a little softer on the way over to Dome Col as it clouded up a little. I took a break out of the wind on the east side of the col in a huge wind scoop before heading up the last snow field to the final ridge. Since I was carrying some gear I played with a self belay system to protect the potential for low probability / high consequence error on the ridge traverse. Around noon I dropped over to the Chickamin Glacier and picked my way down to the Dome-Sinister Col as the wind abated and sun emerged. The sun-softened snow dampened my ardor for taking on the north face that late in the day despite the inviting appearance of a couple potential passages through the large cracks that had formed in it. I investigated some higher elevation options to access the south side of the ridge. One was too far west and would have put me on a cliff above the col, and the other was a sketchy ice-block filled moat that led to a dirty ramp and ledge system on the west side of the col. I found that the only way that worked for me was to traverse above some large cracks in the east side of the bergschrund to reach the col. As I ascended the dirty gully of the west ridge the sun went away and the wind picked up. From the top of the gully I ascended the snow on the NW side directly over a couple of wind lips to reach the summit, looseness and steepness adding a lot of spice for me. I took a long break at the summit to mentally prepare myself for the slog back up the Chickamin, leaving around 3:30 and returning to camp a little after 8. Small world, I ran into Matt Lemke and Josh Lewis at the Dome-Dana saddle getting ready for Sinister the next day! The weather had progressively become more gray and ominous during afternoon and into the evening. I held little hope for good weather the following day as there were a few raindrops.

Heading up to Dana Col

Sinister from Dome

Snowbridge on the upper Chikamin

Glacier from S of Sinister

Some bergschrund endrunning required to reach W ridge of Sinister

Clouds settling in on the way back over Dome

I slept in Thursday morning. Imagine my surprise when I was driven from the tent into perfect weather when the sun hit it at 7:30! G-Dogg was still in rest mode so I packed up my crap and got going over to Spire Point around 9. This involved repeating the trudge down to 5600' to reach the Dana Glacier access ramp. Today's trip through this section was easier as I avoided cramponing through heather and made more efficient use of the snow. I settled in for a leisurely climb up the Dana towards Spire Point. I took a long sandwich break at the top of the talus and scrambled up the east face route. I had carried gear again, so set up an anchor to protect the final slabby move to the ridge. The summit is literally just a spot big enough for a person to sit on. I sat there for over half an hour just enjoying the view and perfect weather. After rapping down and getting back to the snow I shot back down to camp by about 5. With daylight to spare and nothing else on my agenda I dropped the technical gear and hoovered some snacks before heading up to tag Sentinel. On the way up to the SCG I stopped to chat with a party of two on a speed traverse. They mentioned the bear they had seen 5 or 10 minutes prior, which explained the fresh bear tracks I had seen in the snow just minutes from camp. While we were speaking the southwest knob of Lizard shed some rocks which were type 2 fun to dodge. On to Sentinel I went, with the final trudge to the top of the snow on the west face seeming to take place within some kind of time dilation corridor. I reached the base of the ledge a little before 7. I decided to go straight up the west step/ledge system right from the snow ledge below the bergshrund. This option felt pretty spicy to me as I found few positive holds with a few loose ones sprinkled in. I had spotted a cordolette with quicklink partway up this feature maybe 20' above the snow. It seemed positioned a little like someone's oh sh!t bail gear. I delicately worked up the ledges to relative safety at the base of the ramp proper. They stayed in the back of my mind as I traversed the W face along the ledge to reach the easy scree and talus scramble to reach the summit. A quick tag and I was back down to face my exit problem, without benefit of my gear lying on a rock safe at camp. I found that heading past the steps to the toe of the main ledge brought me closer to the snow, but with unappealing options that involved scrambling over a polished kitty-litter strewn section and a few feet of less polished but wet steps, both with exposure to the moat. The same moat I had kicked a rock or three into and heard rattle down for an uncomfortably long interval of time. The third option was a descending traverse back to the west-facing steps, this unfortunately seeming the best option. I managed to make the necessary careful movements downwards to within 5 feet of the snow and jumped onto it. A shout of victory, a salute to the mountain's well played game, and I was cruising the snow back to reach camp before 9. All the while invoking the bear god to have left some of my food for me since I neglected to use a bear can to secure my food stash.

Talus below Spire Point

Footprints of local resident on South Cascade Glacier

Approaching upper snowfield to access Sentinel W Face

Sunset from Sentinel

Friday it was time to go. We had the quandary bestowed upon us by ourselves by embarking on this adventure with only one vehicle. We could go back to Cascade Pass the way we came, but neither of us were feeling up to it. We could continue to Downey Creek and hope we could make that a problem of someone(s) else. We could drop into the relative unknown of the West Fork Agnes Creek and hopefully find the trail that would get us to Stehekin, but that would generate a greater logistical problem of being on the wrong side of the Cascades and having to deal with the lake ferry. We could go back to SCG and drop down to the South Fork Cascade Trail for a sure bushwhack back to the Cascade Road. This last option is what we did. It all began well enough. We left camp a little before 8. Climbed back to the SCG and pushed down to the lake and beyond. It all went well until the meadow around where the USGS map shows the end of the marked trail around 4700'. We were mindful that these marked trails are often purely notional. Some flagging in sensible places told us we were on the right track, but the sun driven deterioration of the flagging made it easy to lose the faint trail. A series of forested cliffs below the pond at 4565' had us rapping through the trees until we found something trail-like where it should be. We continued on game trails and found occasional flags in semi-open forest to the well flagged log crossing at High Log Creek. We pressed on to Drop Creek where we found another good log crossing. The forest undergrowth and a large number of fallen logs slowed progress. Weather steadily deteriorated after 4. We reached a huge log jam around 3500' at the top of the box canyon when it started to rain torrentially. Below the logjam we found steep, obvious trail. We followed that as the rain soaked our clothes and gear.

View downhill from upper South Cascade Glacier

Rapping trees

Humping logs

After the light introductory dry bushwhack, the real bushwhacking began around 4:30 as we crossed a brush-choked avy slope. We then followed and lost flagging to reach the Cascade River flattening out at 2800'. Everything was wet. Every rock and every log used for foot placement required attention. It was almost always raining, and we were thoroughly soaked. Blueberry bushes, thimbleberry bushes, ferns, and occasional slide alder became devils club, salmonberry, and vine maples all blended into nightmarish thickets of suck. Around 7:30 or 8 we emerged from a long stand of upright alder onto the riverbank. We had a relatively easy push of what seemed like almost a mile until a bend pushed us back up to the brush at dark. We still found flagging and heavily overgrown trail, but minor washouts and overgrown logjams caused us repeatedly to lose it. It took huge amounts of time to pass these obstacles, only then to eventually and accidentally thrash our way back to the trail again. In 2 hours I estimate that we moved about 2000' down the river. In the logjams the brush was so high that already difficult footing became a matter of trial and error and faith. About a mile from the Middle Fork Cascade River a huge trail washout drove us up into an exceptionally evil thicket of salmonberries. I became so disoriented at one point in this section that I thought I was heading towards a washout cliff of concerning scale and position, with difficult to describe texture. Only ten feet away did I realize I was looking up at the water laden branches of a huge cedar tree. We emerged from the thicket in low spirits around 11 pm. G-Dogg said he was starting to shiver and didn't think he could continue. We had hoped to be at the car in a single push but now it was looking like best case maybe we'd be there at 3 or 4 am. Not wanting to make things worse we decided to bivy in a small flat spot in the trees. G-Dogg then discovered that the brush had stolen the tent poles from his pack. Fortunately he was carrying a bivy sack and we found a way to prop up the tent fly for me. We had almost run out of water, and because we were so spent and in a spot with difficult river access that we could not collect enough to boil for anything hot. Despite the privations I was dry in my bag and (though damp) G-Dogg was warm enough in his. We rested and waited until it was light enough to start moving again a little after 5. The rain had stopped overnight, but it was still overcast and everything was still as wet as the night before. After another very bad salmonberry thicket we pushed over to the river bank and made some progress before the river again pushed us uphill. Over the next half hour the faint trail became more obvious and obstacles less challenging. We reached the Middle Fork around 6:30 to cross the log over the raging river below. On the other side we found the trail to be well and recently maintained. Thanks to WTA for working this section. The trail steadily improved as it became old road grade near the CRR. We rounded a corner and suddenly we were at the road closure sign. Some nice folks from Seattle were kind enough to give me a lift up to my car, saving the extra 3 miles of road walking. We immediately headed to Mondo in Marblemount and inhaled thousands of calories. In retrospect I wish we had done anything other than descend the cataract of misery that the SFC trail turned out to be. I had read about it beforehand and knew it would be bad. Just not this bad. Our weather info was 5 days old at this point, so we did not know about the Friday afternoon front coming into the area. An earlier start from camp might have helped. Although with patience we could have saved time by skipping the raps earlier, in my opinion the main factor that slowed us down enough to make the unplanned bivy was the rain. In drier conditions many of the obstacles would have been much more straightforward. Footing would have been more sure and we wouldn't have been lugging the extra pounds of water. I've bushwhacked plenty of heavy overgrowth and steep forest, but all in dry conditions. For reference such highlights include the NW end of Ragged Ridge down to the Panther Creek Trail, NE Rib of J-Berg, and Douglas Glacier from Fisher Creek on Logan. The surprise for me was the salmonberries. I've not encountered thickets quite like that before. I would rate it a Grade V, BW5, with some of the river bank travel and stream crossings at WA3. Dry conditions should lower to a Grade IV BW4/WA2. Would recommend this trail only to those with an extreme appetite for self-abuse. The brush also claimed G-Dogg's helmet. Securing all gear to one's pack is of paramount importance. Overall it was a fantastic trip. Excellent weather on enough of the days. Plenty of snow to skip a lot of talus. Technically not the whole PT since we skipped the Bachelor/Downey exit. The most successful aspect of this outing is that no one was seriously injured despite numerous opportunities for that to occur. Next time however I am insisting on a second car.

[neek]

Heck of a first TR! I can't see your full sized photos, perhaps sharing perms?

[shane w]

Best report of SFCR in a long time. Maybe ever. Thanks!

[MtnGoat]

SFC is *brutal*. Empathize with the 1/4 mile per hour in the brush, and the cliff sections hidden in forest after leaving the lake. We didn't make it out on time either.

[Matt Lemke]

Wow Fred! You descended the SFC?? Wow...thats worse than our descent of Swamp Creek below the Dark Glacier I hear. It was great to run into you at Dana Col. I wish I would have told you the weather on Thursday was going to be perfect so you could have gotten up earlier for Spire Point! That's why we approached Wednesday and planned just for two days. Thanks for the tracks on the Chikamin btw! I was wondering why you were wandering all over, now I know haha.

[Tom]

[freddyfredpants]

Thanks, I reinserted photos using the correct method!

[RichP]

Great read. I've been wondering about the SFC River trail above where the WTA is working on it. It sounds like there is a price to be paid by the traveler that dares wonder up or down there.

[puzzlr]

What a read! Thanks for taking the time to write this up. When doing the PT the SFC is always mentioned as a possible exit route, but you've put the kabosh on that!

[Brian R]

Wow, the Chickamin Glacier on Dome has really receded! (I knew about the South Cascade Glacier, but wow!)

[cascadetraverser]

Cool trip and epic finish! I will never go down the SFCR because of this TR!!

[AlpineRose]

You realize this trip made you members of a very exclusive club - survivors of the SCG/SFCR exit. A group far more select than other Ptarmigan Traversers. Perhaps in this day and age, more select even than Bulger list finishers (which, thanks to detailed route descriptions and GPS tracks. seem to be a dime a dozen now.) On a PT in the early 80's, while being pinned down by severe weather for three days on the Le Conte - Sentinel col, our group gave serious thought to exiting via SCG. So glad the weather finally broke and we were able to exit Downey Ck, grabbing a Dome Peak summit on the way out.