[Fletcher]

Jake and I have long dreamed about climbing Bears Breast Mountain. This week, we finally made it happen. Salena was also along for the ride. Instead of slogging in the incredibly dusty trail to Waptus Lake, we decided to approach from the west and do Puzzlr's route up from Dutch Miller Gap. After nearly 11 years, I was stoked to return to The Gap , which was one of the places that made me fall in love with the mountains in the first place. Jake and Selena wanted to bike/hike in early on Sunday morning to do Little Big Chief and Summit Chief. I did not want to get up that early, so we agreed that I would cruise in with a later start and meet them at Dutch Miller Gap on Sunday evening. After the bumpy drive to Dingford Creek, I was pedaling up the closed portion of the road at 12:30 or so. Roughly 90 minutes later, I was stashing the bike at the end of the road and hitting the trail towards Dutch Miller Gap.

a new wilderness sign

Iron Cap

Bears Breast!

a nice pool at Pedro Camp

Little Big Chief

saw a lot of these guys

junction

approaching DMG

La Bohn Peak

I was stoked to make it from my Subaru to Dutch Miller Gap in 4:45. I quickly found Jake and Selena's tent and was surprised to find them there. They ended up getting a later start than intended and decided to just chill at DMG instead of trying for Little Big Chief. Once I arrived, we all agreed that we should move camp up to the tarns at 5300 ft. This was both to make our approach to the mountain slightly shorter in the morning and maybe avoid some of the bugs hanging out at The Gap. We all went to bed early.

alpenglow on Bears Breast from camp (summit on the far right)

Little Big Chief with the Moon

sunset

We got up just after dawn and were moving from camp shortly after 6. We hiked up 100 ft from the tarns and schwacked through some shrubby trees, then descended some scree and talus for a few hundred feet to the base of Bears Breast's imposing south face. Jake then found a nice series of ledges that got us up towards the large central gully that would take us several hundred feet up towards the ridge crest.

sunrise on LBC

Waptus Lake

From the benches and ledges, it was on. The route gets serious quickly, and we frequently built cairns to aid us on our descent later on. We climbed many 4th and low 5th class steps in the lower gully but all felt secure enough to never break out the rope. There was one section where we traversed a very narrow ledge that ended in slabby feet and hands with incredible exposure. A slip there would have been certain death.

the fun begins

Jake doing a move

Selena busting a move

getting steep

dont fall here

the mental crux traverse

After 500 feet or so of gnar, the terrain eased. We eventually arrived in a place where the gully forced us out right. We climbed some loose dirt and duff for a short bit to exit the gully, then followed easy scrambling up heather and rock to a col on the ridge. From there, it was a very brief scramble over a bump on the ridge and the imposing summit tower was right there.

easier terrain

easier terrain

easier terrain and the notch

Hinman and Daniel from the notch

Bears Breast

We stashed our packs and racked up for the climb. Instead of following Puzzlr's beta for the first pitch, we eyed a low angle line to the left. I went out on lead and the climbing started out easy enough (cl 4) but eventually steepened. It got intense and there was no pro, but I could tell I was just below the easier terrain that leads to the chimney crux. After traversing back and forth and trying a few options that sketched me out, I found some terrain that seemed doable. I then spotted a rusty piton that wiggled even if you just looked at it the wrong way. f### it, I clipped it, and pulled the crux. Should have brought rock shoes. It was intense, but over quickly enough. I then trailed the rope up to an anchor of worn slings and belayed Jake and Selena up.

pitch 1 done

pitch 2

Pitch 2 was more technically difficult but actually had decent pro. Some 5.6 moves brought me to a cockstone which was interesting to surmount. Once over the chockstone, I squeezed by way 25 more feet up a narrow chimney to another anchor. I locked in and brought Jake and Selena up.

leading the crux pitch (photo by Selena)

The 3rd pitch was much easier. From the top of that pitch, it was a short but very loose 3rd class summit to Bears Breast glory.

Selena finishing the technical section

the gang finishing Bears Breast

BB views

Rainier

Daniel

Stuart

Hinman and Glacier

wonderful place

summitshot (jake had already left to set up our first rap

We got down from the summit tower in 3 rappels. The rap down the chimney was easier than we expected. We backed up the worn webbing on the 3rd anchor. From there, we carefully scrambled down 800 feet or so until the terrain steeped enough to want to rappel again. 2 more rappels later, we were back on scramble terrain and nearly off the mountain.

just below the summit

rapping

rapping the chimney

Selena on rap 3

looking back

general terrain up high on BB

careful

rap 4

anchor 5

rap 5

what a route!

Once off the peak, it was a 30 minute hike back up to camp where we promptly packed up and began the slog out at 5:30 or so.

a beautiful pool we passed on the way back to camp

camp

Once on the trail, we hoofed it down to the bikes and got some riding in before it was headlamp time. We eventually arrived back at Dingford Creek shortly before 10pm. So stoked to have Bears Breast in the bag!

looking back to BB

yum

~35 miles ~7200 ft of gain ~2 days

[Jake Robinson]

Thanks for leading everything, Fletcher. Couldn't have done it without ya!

Snoqualmie, Avalanche, Chair, Kaleetan

Pedro Camp

DMG

Bears Breast

Ivanhoe

Little Big Chief sunrise

Camp lakelet

Ramp leading to gully

Little Big Chief

Beginning of the difficult scrambling

Near the notch

Selena climbing the chimney

Rebecca, Rowena, Hinman

Daniel

Signing the register

Citadel, Cradle, Cashmere

The Crest

Fletcher

Summit block

Selena rappeling

Rappeling lower down in the gully

Review shot of the entire route

Burnt Boot

[Tom]

[neek]

[raising3hikers]

Nice work! Didn't realize bears breast was such a beast.

[Bosterson]

Nice work. The bottom crack on the summit block looked like it had some sweet hand jams?

[Bluebird]

[puzzlr]

I don't remember that scary traverse, but there are probably many ways to get up those lower cliffs. Congrats on the summit -- it's the hardest Middle Fork summit IMO. You happened to summit on my birthday too! I love the shot of the clouds streaming through Dutch Miller Gap in the video.

[ozzy]

Wow! That is a serious mountain for sure! Yall make it look too easy lol! Congrats on that one, cheers!

[Stefan]

camp looks like a cool tarn!

[Mike Collins]

Congratulation on your successful bid for one of the more challenging Homecourt peaks. That wobbly pin may be from the Fred Beckey first ascent party. The lead for my climb actually aided the climb by clipping onto that piton.

[Jake Robinson]

The ledge was really bad. It made me really uncomfortable and I think it was the worst thing we did on the entire climb. I built a cairn near the start of it thinking we'd go back down that way, but there was no way any of us were reversing those moves. Glad to rappel that section but unfortunately, the cairn is still there (I would have dismantled it if we passed it on the way down). My advice to future climbers would be to avoid that ledge if you can! There is probably a better way. In his report, Mike Collins said something to the effect of "if someone were to get in trouble on this mountain, it would probably be in the steep part of the lower gully" and I think we all agree with that. puzzlr - we really appreciated your detailed TR! Even with all your info we managed to get mixed up in the gully quite a few times, it is a complicated route. One I am glad to have done and will never repeat. What would you say are the other most difficult Middle Fork peaks? Would you say BB is even harder than the Garfield "hazardous enigma" route?

[John Morrow]

If I ever tackle this thing I was considering coming in from the north side ramps to the notch of the summit block. Would I be missing worthwhile scrambling in the south gullies? Embarrassed to say I've stared at it for 32 years and really have given up considering it, but your pics look really aesthetic. Given up on Chimney too. Thanks, John

[Fletcher]

John, as I said in my TR, we were initially thinking of doing the Mega Slab Route but Im glad we did what we did. Aside from the airy ledge, I don't think we did anything else that was *too* sketchy. The scrambling down low is solid and honestly, pretty amazing.

[John Morrow]