[raising3hikers]

West Challenger 8000' Crooked Thumb Pk 8124' Phantom Pk 8000' Finally, the weather forecast was good for the Picket range. I had been waiting for 3 weeks to get in there to do some climbing. Earlier this month, I had some good partners set up for a full traverse but now I was going in by myself for a shorter version of the original plan. Day 1 Hannegan TH to Copper Cr camp I was able to leave work early enough on Friday to get a head start on the trip. I got my back country camp permit in Glacier with plenty of time to hike in to Copper Creek camp. There was occasional light rain during the hike but nothing that was a complete wash out. The trail is in great shape and I made it to camp before 6pm. Day 2 Copper Cr camp to Crooked Thumb camp, with a W Challenger climb I left camp by 5:30am and started down the trail towards the Chilliwack River crossing. After an easy crossing, it was time to get wet. The climbers trail is brush filled and absolutely soaked with the rain from the day before. I lost the path on a couple of occasions usually around some blowdown. It's much easier to follow up higher. I reached Easy ridge to take a break and soak in some much needed sun to help dry out a little and have a snack.

Mt Blum and a tarn

It was so nice being in the alpine hiking through meadows, rock and tarns. I made my way up to Easy Pk only to have to lose a bunch of elevation to get down to Imperfect Impasse.

Mineral Mtn

looking back at Easy Pk

green meadows

Back in 2015, I had no problem crossing the impasse, this time, it seemed really sketchy to me. Perhaps, I didn't find the best way across as I did before but I made it. It was iffy enough that I really didn't want to go back that way and was considering a Whatcom Pass exit when the time comes. I reached the beautiful Perfect pass with the amazing views over to Challenger. I gained the glacier heading for the West Challenger col.

Challenger

I reached the col and had plenty of time to climb the West Pk. I was disappointed to see the snow finger only about a third of the way up which lead to more loose, loose rock scrambling to the narrow dike. After carefully navigating the loose ridge, I found good rock on the West side of the Pk. Class 4 scrambling got me to the top and to an old register.

W Challenger register

W Challenger register

Whatcom Pk

West route up the Pk

I headed down without the need for a rappel but that loose rock below sucks. From there, I headed down the snow slopes a couple hundred feet to try and find the easiest way down to the Solar glacier. I didn't find the easy way and had to rap down the last 30' but at least I had plenty of time to cross the glacier and get up to the Crooked Thumb camp at 7280'.

Crooked Thumb

the many Challenger Pks

Challenger over the Solar glacier

bivy spot below Crooked Thumb

It was a long 2nd day but I was very happy to have gotten to this camp, right below the next climb. Day 3 climb Crooked Thumb and Phantom Pks Since my camp stayed in the early morning shade, I didn't get going til around 8am. It was a short but very steep side hilling snow traverse over to the Crooked Thumb snow gully. I could see early on that the snow gully wasn't continuous. I would have much rather had more snow but that's what I had to deal with. A couple of spots I had to swing my ax and pull myself up in the in between areas of snow and no snow. Before the end of the gully, I saw no way to get to the end of it, so I headed of on rock aiming for the ridge crest. A couple of dry tooling moves got me up and to some better scrambling. I passed a gendarme or two and made my way on easier but loose ground to the West face. After passing some big boulders and seeing a big headwall, I headed down a bit and found the 10' vertical crack pitch. Instead of taking the crack route, I went about 5' left of it by getting onto one of the boulder tips, stretching over with my hand and foot to check if the rock was solid and climb it that way without the use of any pro. From there, I traversed over to South notch and a fairly easy class 4 scramble got me to the top in about 1hr 40min from camp.

Crowder with Triumph and Despair behind

Challenger

Crooked Thumb register

Crooked Thumb register, unbelievable time by Sean O

Picket views

It wasn't all relief that I made the summit, I still had to get back down. I brought a 30m rope along and it was just enough for everything I rapped. I think I rapped about 6 times in all with most of it avoiding the gully til I would hit constant snow again. Since it was still early, I decided to head off towards Phantom Pk. I dropped down the snow field and traversed over towards Phantom arm. Many much needed water breaks were had along the way.

Baker River valley

Southern Pickets over Pickell pass

At Phantom arm, I traversed over to the snow gully. Conditions were still good but getting a little bit sloppy. The couple of inches of snow that fell a few days ago were starting to slide a bit. So, I decided to get onto the rock as soon as I could. Class 3/4 scrambling lead me to the ridge with an exposed finish to the summit with more great views. I think I saw the register in a crack several feet below but could not reach it.

Phantom summit and Luna

The Fury Pks

Luna

Crooked Thumb

Challenger 4 to Main

I headed back down and went back to camp below Crooked Thumb. I was tempted to pack up and move camp closer to my exit route but opted to stay put and enjoy the solitude. I ate a big dinner while thinking about which way I'd go back to the TH.

Crooked Thumb

sunset

Day 4 Crooked Thumb camp to Hannegan TH I woke early and was hiking down the Solar glacier by 6am. I found the better way up towards the West Challenger col and was soon descending towards Perfect Pass. I was a bit surprised to not see anyone there on this nice spell of summer weather.

Whatcom Pk and Perfect Pass

At the last minute, I decided to go back down towards Imperfect Impasse only because I wasn't quite sure how the conditions were going to be under the Whatcom glacier to Whatcom pass. It was still a sketchy crossing and I was glad it was over. Then it was the uphill towards Easy Pk but it wasn't so bad. The views made me glad I decided to go this way. Nothing like a big ridge hike on a sunny summer day.

water, moss and flowers

Shuksan and heather

It was a great ridge hike but then had to descend back down the brushy forest to the river crossing. To my surprise, I ran into 2 guys heading up towards the ridge. It was the 1st people I saw since leaving the trail a couple days ago. I stayed on the path much better on the way down and enjoyed a break at the river. The hike out was a bit tiring but went by without too much extra sweat loss.

last look at Mineral

I reached the TH at 430pm with enough time to drive home before dark and a day earlier than I had planned. 48.75 miles 20400' elevation gain 4 days

[contour5]

WoWzers! Really spectacular shots of some of the most incredible terrain around here... glad you got the weather to make it all go...

[awilsondc]

Dang man, I'm at a loss for words! All that, and solo. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but hats off to you man. You're an animal. Well done. (golf clap)

[iron]

bomber. glad to hear that perfect impasse gave you some sketch factor bet it feels good to have these tucked in the quiver. some amazing shots and unique angles of all the nearby peaks. i really like that vantage of luna and triumph/despair. only 1 more northern picket peak for you...

[cascadetraverser]

Leave it to Eric to do the Pickets solo!!! Well done and smart to be patient....

[Matt Lemke]

Wow, will have to consider doing those solo as well, what with how hard it is to find partners these days. Nice work, i had no idea crooked thumb was ranked!

[Stefan]

Well done performance!!!!

[RichP]

ooh and ahh. Most excellent, r3h!

[Midnight Slogger]

Phenomenal solo and trip report, as always! What do you have left for T200?

[silence]

OMG ... you frickin rock my friend!

[b00]

[Jake Robinson]

Amazing Eric! Can't even imagine doing this solo. Excited to see you finish

[freddyfredpants]

Yeah, really cool trip - nice work! Looks like a great area!

[Brushbuffalo]

Another amazing trip, Eric. You can make just about anything go and if it doesn't you use good judgment to find a better way . After all, you are raising three hikers!. But I'm with Boo, just reading this increased my heart rate.