Forum Index > Trip Reports > ~*Logan with lil orphan Buckner 7/20-7/23*~
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~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess



Joined: 08 Jul 2019
Posts: 58 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess
PostThu Jul 25, 2019 11:27 pm 
7/20-7/23- Logan via Fremont Glacier & Buckner (attempt) via Booker-Buckner Col As we were descending the steep scrub and deadfall (going on hour 16) from Dark Peak last weekend Sean smiled and said something to the effect of, "So we're climbing Logan next weekend, yea!?" “Yea!!!” And a seed was planted. He also found a backdoor route to Buckner via the Booker-Buckner col from Parks Creek Pass and pitched that idea. How did he know my bulger chasin' heart would enthusiastically agree??? What a guy. We decided to try out some ultra light packing strategies for the 18 mile approach up the Thunder Creek Trail, like, "Hey let's just bring one sleeping bag and pad, yea?!" "Yea actually f*ck it lets just leave the pad at home and bring emergency blankets instead of sleeping bags!" "Yea and we probs don't even need a tent right??" We settled on one 55 degree sleeping bag (because it weighed half a pound less than my 30!), one foam pad, and tent sans fly. Three nights sharing a bag and pad for our first overnight trip with just us together? What could go wrong?! Day 1: Seattle > Thunder Creek TH> Park Creek Pass CampThe stoke was ridiculously high as evidenced by the scream singing car karaoke of The Offspring on the drive over to the ranger station. The ranger tried to dissuade us from doing the entire approach in one day, she thought we were "hikers" and told us "Tricouni camp would probably be a better option for tonight's camp, the 18 mile hike is a really hard hike." Was it because we came screeching into the parking lot blaring rage against the machine at a casual hour and half after the station opened, or was it our running shorts and sandals attire? Apparently we gave off a, "I can only hike 7 flat miles in a day" vibe. When we told her we were climbing Logan she changed her mind, "Oh you're climbers?! Climbers are crazy. Ok what zone do you want?" She also sniffed us out as dirtbags after a few minutes... "Sooo uhh what do you guys do for work? How do you climb this much???" "Ohhh uhmmm..." Left the TH around 10:30a and enjoyed the tree cover in the heat of the day. We made it to Tricouni camp in a little under 3 hours and balked at how casual we must have looked at the ranger station. “Aye let’s just call it here yea???!” :P This was around when we saw the last humans we would see for about 72 hours…
The trail starts gaining elevation after that camp and it was hawt out. The bugs were getting progressively worse as well… I ended up starfishing (throwing my pack down and sprawling out on the dirt with all limbs extended) after one of the hill climbs, “Uhh Rikki isn’t it a little early in the trip to be starfishing??” Sean gave me some of his sekrit summit sauce aka “poverty Gatorade” (a concoction of electrolyte things he put together that costs a fraction of the price of nuun). “Nuun is for yuppies!” And we were on our way again. As we approached the Thunder Creek ford the trail became brushy, with a couple stinging nettles mixed in. Stinging nettles and short shorts? Mmmm.
Devils Club harvesting Came to the Thunder Creek ford around 6:45p. The ranger told us that, “There is a first crossing that looks less official that is better than the more official crossing, the first one went up to my shin and the second one went up to my waist last week.” We couldn’t find the unofficial “first” crossing and crossed at the obvious looking crossing instead. We took off our shoes and after a lot of putzing and disconcerted looks I crossed at what looked like an easy enough way. It wasn’t too bad and hit just below my knees (I’m 5’4 for reference). The water was painfully cold though. Watch out for the slippery rocks! Sean opted for a fun “throw your pack over the creek and let it land dangerously close to the edge of the water” approach combined with the “run over to a slippery rock and hop off onto the other side.”
The trail does become brushy after this, as the ranger warned us. The views in Thunder Basin were incredible though, and the wildflowers are stunning right now!
Sweet views
Even sweeter view :P We found a place to camp north of Park Creek Pass around 8:00p (@ 6000'). The bugs were HEINOUS. Fun fact did you know that mossies can smell ur breath from 100ft away and zone in on u, but can only see u from 20ft away!? Feeling very validated in our decision to bring a tent we pitched it quickly and ran inside. Made some dinner covered head to toe in clothing. Sean pulled out a kitchen fork and my jaw dropped. "We went thru all this trouble to shave weight and u brought a regular fork!?! Where the f is ur plastic spork?!" Watched the stars and situated our one pad and one bag bed situation. Made an upside down V with the pad, folded over, so we could both have some pad under our torso and hips.
Alpenglow above camp That night was colder than we expected and we spent much of the night shivering and snuggling, shifting our bodies as one limb after another fell asleep from the awkward arrangement. Day 2: PCP Camp > Logan We ended up sleeping in long after the sun came up, we had talked about a casual start for Logan, “it’s our active rest day.” Ended up getting out of the tent around 9 or 10a. The bugs were waiting for us! Did some “bouldering” around camp, shoved some gushers in my mouth for breakfast and decided we should probably leave soon. Left camp at 11:30a.
V0 "Mossie Madness"
Fueling up on Sean's Sekrit Summit Sauce AKA "Poverty Nuun" I give it 2 platypus pats, equivalent to 2 thumbs up Found a cairn near camp and followed a faint dirt path trail through heather and flowers. Made it to the stream crossings and eyed the best way across, we lost and regained the trail a few times, heading for the Fremont glacier.
Steep sidehilling
Boy with Boston Glacier
Scrambling to cross a stream I think Peggy’s beta utilizes some slabs and heather ledges a bit higher than we went, we opted to go left around this section, and ascend a short section of talus and boulders to get above said slabs and heather ledges. Followed some faint boot tracks in the snow from friends Hot Mess and OMG from a few days prior (happy anniversary you two love birds!) and gained the toe of the Fremont glacier. We opted not to rope up as it looked tame and short AF. Besides, we left the rope and stuff back at camp anyway hahaha. It was so hot out, and we saw no sign of people, feeling inspired by the Copper summit register I smirked to Sean, “Wanna get the possibly first nude ascent of Logan today???” Went up to the hogsback, which has a little crack forming near the tip, but had a good snowbridge to cross and gain the rock. The next 15 ft or so of scrambling is some of the stiffest on the whole route IMO. Class 3.5? 4? With some kitty litter on top. Disrobed here, “I can’t believe I’m doing this, will you clothe my body before SAR comes if anything happens??”
Hogsback You gain a chill ledge soon enough and follow the ramp up, and then over to the east side of the ridge. Nothing like exposed class 3/4 while nekkid to really make you feel exposed! Some cairns and obvious ledges mark the way. The rock was a little loose in places but nothing too bad. Peggy’s beta said to skirt around the false summit to the right, but I couldn’t really make out a route that went that way, so we scrambled up and over the false summit like mentioned in JRob’s TR. Maybe a class 4 step or so involved to descend the false summit to the west side, then hopping back over on the east side of the ridge following path of least resistance and ledges to the true summit. There is a “chimney” that Peggy describes, I guess it is kind of chimney-ish. You can go straight up the whole thing (maybe 15 feet or so?) which Sean opted for, and I opted for some easier ledges that were left of this chimney feature, that met up with the final two or so moves up the chockstone. I was a little hesitant about pulling on the chockstone but it held! These final moves are probs class 4. Saw a red rap sling and locker that someone had left behind? I imagine most parties could down climb this no prob. Summited at 4:30p. We were very disappointed to not find a summit register! But the views made up for it. Arguably one of the best views in the entire North Cascades. We smiled and agreed that we were probably too crazy for our own good and need a chaperone on future climbs… any takers?
Epic views
Elated This summit marked #50 for me! “Whoaaaa half way there, whoaaaaa livin’ on a prayer!” The bulger list is an interesting thing, lots of ppl have their own reasons for wanting to finish it, I do it for my magnum opus- "know thyself." Spent some time (a whole hour!) on the summit, meditating, daydreaming of future climbs, and naming peaks.
Got a lil breezy up there We scoped out the Booker-Buckner Col conditions, and they looked good! No moat bisecting the entirety of it! It did look really steep from our current vantage though…
Col can be seen on the R hand side of photo We giddily laughed, and retraced our steps to make it back to camp around 8:45p, donated A LOT of blood to the resident mossies, made some dinner (night two of top ramen and tuna was wearing on me…) and ptfo. The evening was warmer than the first and there was less shivering, still lots of numb limbs and sore hips and back the next day tho. Who the f*ck thought it was a good idea to shave off three pounds and only bring one bag and pad!? We both did! Hah.
Scrambling back
Hogsback on return, lil rikki big world
Evening wildflower views
One of my favorite flowers
Almost to camp Day 3: PCP Camp > Buckner We headed out for backdoor Buckner at 5a. Went up to Parks Creek Pass, and saw a trail going to the right. Followed it and lost it and regained it, “Is this a series of game trails???” We were trying to traverse over the basin to gain the Buckner glacier as mentioned in Steph Abegg’s TR of her attempt of Buckner via the Booker-Buckner col. We did a lot of scrub side hill travel, down climbed some gross class 3 rock covered in dead moss, and did more side hilling only to get cliffed out several more times.
Early morning tarn reflections
I started to feel real demoralized at this point- it was so early in the day! We retraced our steps, to drop elevation and try to traverse lower only to run into the same problem. Sean looked at me, “Uhhh you have that Copper look on your face…” (I really gutted out our summit of Copper earlier this month, was not really feeling it on the approach up until we got to the fun ridge scrambling). We scoped out the slabs to gain the Buckner glacier and I winced… there was waaaay more talus, scree, and slabs to gain the glacier than was present in Steph Abegg’s TR (see photos for comparison). “That looks f*cking awful,” I murmured. We begrudgingly made the call to orphan Buckner and laid out on the cliff side in the sun listening to whatever random stations came in on Sean’s radio. 7:45a and turning around?! Jfc. But, you can’t have the peaks without the valleys. Such is life. We were both 0 for 2 on Buckner now. Sean had attempted earlier in the season on a solo ski mission but had bad avy conditions, I had attempted years ago, in my first year of climbing on a godawful M climb (we ended up getting benighted after climbing Horsesh*t…).
Steph Abegg's beta with lots of snow still in the basin...
Current conditions
Ugh not post malone agaaaain We recalled the beautiful tarn on our side hill over, went back to it, and had a lovely alpine beach day at the tarn. Felt like we had the whole North Cascades to ourselves, beautiful blue bird days and no ppl in sight. How lucky. Managed to give myself a killer sunburn in places the sun don’t usually shine and am still in pain… wear sunscreen kids... or clothes :P
Flowers on the way back to camp after beach day Watched the stars from our tent that night and saw some shooting stars and could even make out the milky way. Peeled off a toenail that was hanging on for dear life, and there was talk of a c2c for something later in the week… Day 4: PCP Camp > Thunder Creek TH > Seattle Woke up a little later than intended, packed up while being drained of blood from swarms of mossies and headed out of camp at 8:45a. The weather looked like it was getting ready to rain, grey clouds moved in that morning. The brush on the trail was wet with dew and we got soaked. My trail runners were squelching with water with every step. Saw some people at the Thunder Creek ford. A group of 6 guys, 3 who had just crossed and 3 who were eying the crossing. Made small talk and then Sean and I decided to just bomb across the creek without taking off shoes or pants bc they were already soaked, f*ck it. Wish I could’ve snapped a photo of their faces as they on-looked hahah :P “uhhhh wow… uhmmm.” Made quite the impression on the first humans we saw in 3 days. The nettle section was fun, got to experience the trifukta (stinging nettles on top of sunburn, on top of bug bites). Made it to Tricouni camp, and it was quite the sloggy death march after that. My hikie was acting up and I was tired. We were beat. Made it to the TH around 5:30p. Starfished in the parking lot and then headed to Mondos.
Starfish Learnings: It’s not worth the discomfort for 3 nights of sleep to huddle over one folded sleeping pad and sleeping bag. The bugs are heinous right now. Nude ascents are fun. I can’t stomach top ramen with tuna and cheez its 3 nights in a row (shoulda seen Sean’s reaction when I tried to tell him his mtn house consists of 2.5 servings and I should have at least 1). Sometimes orphaning a peak ain't so bad. Wear sunscreen or clothes. Poverty nuun is clutch. Something like 47 miles and 12000’ ish gain over 4 days- dream team duo adventure complete. Now to get packing for Saturday’s trip…

Choss is a girl's best friend
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Downhill
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Downhill
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PostFri Jul 26, 2019 5:06 pm 
Another great trip, another great TR Rikki - thanks for taking the time to posts your pics and your informative and entertaining story! One of my very favorite regions - I enjoyed reliving my stories through yours.

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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks



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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
PostSun Jul 28, 2019 4:09 pm 
~*CutebutChossy69*~ wrote:
This brings back painful memories. Blisters on the right side of my feet heading out, blisters on the left side coming back. Thanks for the report. But Nekkid -- Why??? (not that I've ever done that, counting out southern France in 1976)

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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 Jul 29, 2019 7:32 pm 
~*CutebutChossy69*~ wrote:
You need to spend more time outdoors to reduce the sunburn. Your entertaining and informative, and "Interesting" trip reports are getting closer to the level of the legendary Granola Girl. Keep at it and you'll too be in the stratosphere while many of the rest of us are still down here in the troposphere. (whoops, sunburn would be severe in the stratosphere!....wrong analogy)

Passing rocks and trees like they were standing still
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~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess



Joined: 08 Jul 2019
Posts: 58 | TRs | Pics
Location: Seattle
~*CutebutChossy69*~
bluebagprincess
PostTue Jul 30, 2019 5:58 pm 
puzzlr wrote:
But Nekkid -- Why??? (not that I've ever done that, counting out southern France in 1976)
Por qué no? A bluebird day on a beautiful route with no people in sight!!! You should try it some time, pretty liberating to make exposed scramble moves sans clothing :P

Choss is a girl's best friend
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Backpacker Joe
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Joined: 16 Dec 2001
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Backpacker Joe
Blind Hiker
PostWed Jul 31, 2019 11:28 am 
Love the report guys (for a LOT of reasons) lol. Nice work you two. up.gif

"If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Abraham Lincoln
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