[Alden Ryno]

I present...a novella!

Mox Peaks-Northwest (Easy), Mox Peaks (Hard), Mount Redoubt, Mount Spickard Day 1: Hikette to Ross Lake, water taxi to Little Beaver to 4,200’ in Perry Creek Basin. Day 2: Perry Creek Basin to Spickard-Solitude Col to Lake Ouzel. Day 3: Lake Ouzel, Easy Mox, Redoubt High Camp at 7,200’. Day 4: Hard Mox. Day 5: Mount Redoubt, Lake Ouzel Camp. Day 6: Mount Spickard, Perry High Camp at 6,100’. Day 7: Out to Little Beaver, boat ride down Ross Lake, hikette to car. CalTopo Stats: 45 miles, 22,000' gain, excluding hikette to/from Ross Lake.

The amount of snowmelt that we witnessed during our time out was astounding. The only marginal weather was during the bushwhack out, when it rained lightly for a few hours. Otherwise, we had clear, sunny weather with gentle breezes for all 7.5 days. With the US-Canadian Border closed to non-essential passage since March of 2020, the Chilliwack has seen even fewer visitors than usual. Despite that, Trace, Damon, and Colin were able to ‘schwack up Silver Creek last Fourth of July for Trace to finish the Bulger List on Mount Spickard. While I’ve not seen another report since then, there have been others in the area… most may or may not be Canadians doing the dirty via Depot Creek. A fortunate circumstance for them! Rikki and Ryan have spent the past three July 4th holiday weekends together (Ice Cap Slam sans Dorado Needle in 2018, Bonanza et al. in 2019, and Tupshin et al. in 2020). The natural progression is a more difficulty and arduous trip each season, so what next? Luckily for y’all, there are those of us who are either gluttons for punishment or closing in on the end of The List, or both. Given a few circumstances, I didn’t have much interest in getting into the Chilliwack by myself unlike most of my other Bulger ascents. Ryan and I were both in the 90’s at the turn of the year, with all six Chilliwack Bulgers remaining unclamored by each of us. Additionally, my partner, Rikki, is chipping away at the Bulgers with only Redoubt having been summited and Selena had only been up Spickard with Jake in May of 2019. The stars (mis)aligned for this trip to happen July 4th of 2021! A normal approach via Depot Creek would’ve been a simple step-up for all six Chilli Peaks, but a degree of difficulty was added by the borders. We held out for as long as possible, but doom was handed to us on June 21st, 2021 when the border closure was extended for another month, yet again. Our plans for an approach hadn’t congealed until the week or two prior. The ‘standard’ and Josh Lewis variations of the Redoubt High Route were appealing but long on miles, Silver Creek was off trail from the get-go, Perry Creek was moderate in length both on- and off-trail, and Redoubt Creek was the shortest off trail, but apparently “a bitch” (thank you, John Roper, for humoring Selena’s inquiry about our options). With these five alternate options, we chose Perry Creek since it wasn’t the worst. Alas, it wasn’t “the greatest.” Granted, we were getting details from the 60’s and 80’s, how much worse, or better, could it be though? The final curveball was the addition of Sam to the group. We had been quite adamant about keeping our group at four people, primarily due to concerns on Hard Mox (I believe), but added him because of too many coincidences, and he’s just an all-around amazingly wonderful human being. Day 1 Our party of five convened at the Ross Dam Trailhead at 0700 on Friday, July 1st where we distributed group gear. We walked down to the lake with “luxury” bags in hand that we staged in the bear bins at Little Beaver for our return, a full week later. The Ross Lake Resort water taxi is a blessing. It’s not cheap but is it WELL worth the investment. I abhor tame/lame trail miles, so I will pay a hefty price for even a few miles off. We arrived at Little Beaver around 0830, stashed our extra supplies in a bear bin, and were moving up the Little Beaver Creek Trail at 0915. Be forewarned that you lose most of the elevation that you gain in the first miles of the trail… a nuisance on the out and the in, but not a bad price to pay for simultaneous remoteness and convenience of being far up Ross Lake.

Approach from Easy Mox North Ridge

Boat Loading

Perry Creek Ford

An easy 4.5 miles saunter brought us to the Perry Creek crossings. Perry Creek braids into numerous strands before entering Little Beaver, but only one braid required a ford, which is where we took our first snack break. Once past the seemingly final braid, we turned off trail...for seven full days. We crossed a few more small braids with precarious log or rock crossing and quickly began the ascent. In a stroke of luck, we found the trail! And promptly lost it after a few hundred feet. We tried to maintain course, but steep slopes with some moderate second growth forced us to move straight uphill in lieu of traversing. There were a few openings on the broad ridge leading into the Perry Creek valley proper. They were punctuated with dense lines of trees that grew thicker with each patch. Eventually, the openings stopped, and we were in a full on second growth bushwhack from roughly noon until 4 or 5 pm when we reached the old growth forest. However, before we were granted with open forest, the bushwhack in the afternoon heat about did some of us in. A few of us were out of water and there were literally no streams in the second growth that dropped down to Perry Creek, unlike how we had hoped. We hadn’t crossed water since leaving the lower Perry Creek braids. We dropped out packs, set a waypoint, and dropped down 80-100’ of vertical to the creek to get water. Once rehydrated and restock, we clamored back to our packs and trudged on for another 30ish minutes before breaching the second growth into the old growth. In the old growth, the big trees provided enough shade to suffocate the underlings. Travel improved greatly but was also rife with berry shrubs and bogs that slapped our shins and wet out feet.

First views of the trip

Around 8pm, we got our first views of the Perry Creek Basin where we had hoped to camp around 4,800’. We were only at 4,000’ and had stayed about the same contour for what felt like ages. The valley floor is largely flat with small, undulating mounds that did add and subtract gain. When we got our first views, we moved left (south) to more open boulder slopes to get out of brush and made steady progress forward. Despite the open terrain, we were slowing and decided to bivy around 4,200’. It was about 9pm when we stopped. Day 2 We packed up and made haste right into a few dense alder thickets; haste redacted. Ryan led us through most of this and picked a great route that seemed to minimize much of the thwarting. Soon enough we reached a ford of Perry Creek to access the north slopes of the basin.

Here comes the brush *do, do, do*

Initially we had hoped to ascend the northern lobe of the Perry Glacier that goes right to Col of The Wild, which would have put us climbing Hard Mox on Day 2. However, our slower progress the day before and less-than-ideal conditions on the glacier compounded with what looked to be steep dirt, about 50-100’ worth, between the glacier top and the col diverted us to the Spickard-Solitude Col to both enter and exit the area. Unfortunately, this route wasn’t as straightforward as the glacier. We decided to go as far right (west) as possible then traverse right (east) across several snow-filled waterfall chutes. The ascent was slow going with large packs and a choice of either wet slabby rock or hardpan dirt interspersed with loose choss. Neither route was great but we each picked our own poison.

We took the left gully/fall line up, then traversed rightward

Hazy below the clouds, it smelled of smoke. Likely from BC since we got a report of no fires at the time in WA.

About to begin traversing

Lemolo and Hard Mox left of CotW

The traverse of the intermediate elevation slopes was simple but still slow. Above the traverse, we encountered what seemed to be a “choke” point where most of the water funneled to fall off of Spickard and Tombstone’s southern slopes down to form Perry Creek. Thankfully, there were heather slopes and decent scrambling before reaching consistent snow fields. We trudged onward with various members of the party reaching the col between 1430 and 1500. We took an extended break here.

End of traverse, now scrambling up blocks around waterfalls

Class 2/3 terrain prevalent

Magic

Only another 1,800' on snow to the col!

What a place...

Lots of snow and Tombstone. We toyed with thoughts of Tombstone and/or Solitude, but priorities...pfft.

Col loungin'

Unfortunately, getting off of the col wasn’t as nice as getting up to it. The gully down is preposterously loose and the snow slopes down were very steep. A slow ascent compounded with a slow, deliberate descent made progress slow. We had to reassess where to camp. We made the eventual decision to remain at Lake Ouzel for the night rather than the Redoubt High Camp.

Getting down

Views across to Redoubt

Our itinerary was adjusted to account for our speed as a group on approach. I realized rather early that getting all 6 peaks was likely improbable as I went through various potential peak orders and logistics in my head. At some point on the descent while traversing a short rocky section in my crampons, I caught my gaiter, torqued my ankle, and did a complete somersault with my 50 lb pack. Thank heavens I was fine other than an ouchie ankle. My helmet, which I admittedly rarely wear, probably saved my life. My head slammed into a rock but my helmet made it a trivial connection. After a few moments, I got going again (I was turtled by my pack!) and immediately noticed that downward pressure on my ankle was concerningly uncomfortable and produced a slightly sharp pain… uh oh. I remained deliberate in my steps and the pain subsided as I moved. Phew! We made it Lake Ouzel around 1900 and the group decided to remain. We spoke about future plans and laid out a tentative plan: Easy Mox the next day while moving camp to Redoubt High Camp, Hard Mox the day after, then Redoubt and moving camp, followed by an exit to Spickard and climbing it. It was then that both Custer and Rahm were practically cut from our itinerary.

Ouzel

Ryan taking it in

Sunset incoming

Day 3 After two arduously slow and heavy days, day 3 was a refreshing surprise. Instead of the fractured group that we were on day 2, day 3 was a day of mending and “performing.” We left Ouzel and forded the outlet and make great time to the toe of the Redoubt Glacier where we stashed our overnight packs and traversed the glacier to the base of Easy Mox.

Depot Creek upward

Sweet undercast after we left Ouzel

Redoubt Glacier Traverse

Nearing glacier-rock transition

The transition from snow to rock was practically moatless (a half foot or so) but the rock was wet. We took two short rock pitches from the transition and scrambled the remaining bits to the right saddle. Ryan led the first team and placed pro while I led Rikki up. It was my first alpine lead and I think that I only led because of the wet slab aspect that sketched Rikki a bit (she’s MUCH more technically proficient and knowledgeable than me and instructed Mountaineers beginner/intermediate courses for several years). Once at the saddle, we meandered along Class 2/3 terrain for what seemed like for ages before reaching a narrowing of the ridge just before the summit block. The ridge was blocked by a protruding spire. Before that, one section had a belay request for a boulder move. I took an airy traverse on the east of the ridge while the rest of the group went to the west side (we took the airy traverse down).

Easy Mox Ridge with my favorite humans

Looking back at my airy traverse

We consulted our “beta” stash for Easy Mox and Beckey had noted a “semi-obvious” gully to the left. Woah. It’s not immediately obvious?? It ended up being a relatively solid Class 4 downclimb that led to a traverse to the base of the summit block.

"semi-obvious" gully from below, Sam downclimbing

We set up the ropes and, again, Ryan led and placed pro like a boss. Rikki and I were belayed by Ryan while Rikki towed the section rope up and removed non-directional pro. This was my first experience with “dual” belaying and I must say that it is impressive to see someone proficiently belaying two people at once from a suboptimal stance/place. Rikki then belayed Selena and Sam. This system worked quite well, and it became how we did things on Hard Mox the next day.

Ryan's belay perch

At the top, we relaxed for a bit and signed the register. There were a couple of parties since 2019, likely all Canadians (because one of our party members knew some of them). What a relief to have our first summit of the trip!

Getting off of the summit was something new to me… We double rope rappelled with our two 60 meter ropes to a comfortable spot along the bottom traverse that put out of rockfall danger from subsequent raps. This was my first rap since 7th grade. Overall, it went well. It was overhanging and there was a rock chasm to cross but I made it safely. Rapping is entirely counter to my instincts on rock and I had to remind myself on the entire time down to breathe deeply and remain vigilant. Knowing that most climbing accidents happen on rappel didn’t help. Although, it did reinforce the need to ensure that all was proper before taking the leap. What better place to learn than off of Easy Mox.

Ryan with double saddlebags

Rikki rap

Top of the semi-obvious gully, looking at the summit

Back over the airy traverse for all!

Action shotzzz

Rikki rapping down to the glacier snow

Transition spot

We were soon back to the glacier (another 60 m double rope rap from near the saddle to the snow) and walked back to our gear before the easy walk across the glacier to Redoubt High Camp where we were gifted with dry rock and running water.

Traversing

Camp for two nights. Sublime.

Day 4

5:05 AM

Ryan checking out Col of The Wild scree field. Canuck behind?

I awoke at 0330 and we were moving at 0500. By 0700 we were atop Col of The Wild and beginning some fun zig-zagging scrambling on Hard Mox. We crested over the first spire and made a descending traverse to the snow gully where we rapped to the base. We took a bit of time trying to figure out how to get into the “rightmost” gully. No option seemed less than Class 5 without some kind of funky moved that necessitated rope work. Ryan led and placed pro while Rikki and I followed. Once at the first station, Ryan and I moved upward while Rikki belayed Sam and Selena up. The crux of this pitch was a crappy crack with a piece of good pro but the rope spanned the gully so a fall would’ve resulted in a heck of swing and slap into the opposite gully walls. Thankfully that didn’t happen to any of us. Unfortunately, I had huge block fall out from under me and Sam had a MASSIVE ledge fall from under him that created an avalanche of rockfall that produced huge plumes of dust. No one was beneath him, and Selena was behind the section that fell. Rikki was severely rattled, expectedly. The next section was decently solid scrambling to the base of the summit block/pyramid.

mmmm

7 AM Col of The Wild, north view

First local maximum

Rikki scambling/traversing/bouldering

The Easy Mox "fun face"

Second local maximum, before dropping down to the snow gully

Ridge of Gendarmes

Ah, there it is.

A wee exposed traverse en route to the snow gully

Snow gully

Ryan rapping snow gully

Gullies galore

Rikking climbing up. The overhanging block below her is what came off when Sam was climbing causing a massive rock-a-lanche

Gnarly. Base of the 3 summit pitches

Sam and Selena waiting as I tow their rope

Once there, about noon, Ryan led three pitches and we all followed suit, This time, Rikki climbed ahead of me so I could tow the second rope and removed non-directional pro that Ryan could then use for the next pitch. We felt that all three pitches benefited from ropes despite the grades allegedly being Class 5, Class 4, and Class 3, respectively for the pitches. They all felt to have Class 5 aspects…and this is coming from the person that has only used a rope on one other Bulger: Mt. Baker for glacier travel. Of my 97 Bulgers now, Hard Mox is by far the most objectively hazardous. I wonder if enough rockfall has taken place to upgrade the technical difficulty of the mountain. I feel that both Easy and Hard Mox needed ropes. Perhaps Easy Mox only because of several people, but still a rope was warranted.

Final traverse to the summit

summit shenanigans

summit selfie

We made the summit at 3pm and sighed a big sigh of relief. We lounged for a bit then rapped off of the summit. Ryan came up with a great method to ensure only 3 people max were at each station (sans the summit) at a time. He would rap (and bring the second rope off the summit), I would rap, Rikki would rap, then he would rap again while Sam and Selena followed from the summit. By the time Rikki got to the first rap station, Ryan was rapping again, followed by me. When Selena rapped and retrieved the rope form the summit, Rikki brought it down to Ryan and I. This process repeated until we were down to the downclimbable gully. I went down first to ensure as few people in the gully at a time as possible. We all made it down to the base of the snow gully and I climbed the snow gully, kicking decent steps for those to follow. We belayed one member up the gully and then retraced our steps as much as possible to the Col of The Wild.

Easy Mox on right

Garbage

Hard Mox Exit

Easy Mox Clouds

Almost to the Col

Looking back at the traverse, nearly to camp

Wow! We did it. A party of 5 on Hard Mox and we all made it safely to the top and down to the Col. The traverse to camp was uneventful and we were all back by 2130 for a ~16.5 hour day. Day 5 Sleeping in! After four day of 14+ hours on average, it was wonderful to have a chill morning. Most of the group left for Redoubt around 8am while Rikki, who summited in 2017, stayed in camp to catch up on food, water, and rest. The way was easy.

First obstacle to get to Redoubt.

We ascended the snow to a notch with a bit of climbing then traversed the snowfield to the base of a steepening snowfield/finger up most of Redoubt. We transitioned to rock at 8,200’ hoping to stay off of snow, but were back on it about 200 or 300’ later. It was steeper this time albeit in great condition. We scrambled up a few connected gullies until we reached the cannonhole just below the summit. We stayed on the summit for about an hour, then retraced our steps.

Traversing to base of couloir

If it's up, then it's up.

We opted to exit on rock at right around 8,200' instead of going through the constriction and remaining on snow. This forced an extra transition, but seemed to be worth it overall as we did the same on descent

Cannonhole after a good bit of great scrambling. Short left, exposed traverse then more scrambling (30'?) to the summit.

Peek-a-boo

Ryan's 95th!

Downclimbing

Ryan and I spoke briefly about going for Custer and Rahm. I think that we could have done it if we separated from the group and didn’t laze around as much on Days 5/6, but I was a bit over it. I’m not THAT keen on finishing the list immediately and maybe he isn’t either. I can only imagine that the border will open before the end of the season, and we can each make an easy, non-technical trip back for the remaining two summits. Ryan said that he would go if I wanted, but I said that I would rather spend time relaxing and with the group. Other than Rahm and Custer, he has Storm King and Formidable while I have Dorado Needle remaining. Three of us rapped down from the cannonhole while I downclimbed and napped while they rapped. The snow was perfect for plunge-stepping and we were soon back at camp. Camp to camp in 5.5 hours with an hour rest at the summit. We lounged until 1800ish then walked down to Lake Ouzel for camp. Most of us jumped into the outlet of the lake after fording and air dried. The weather was lovely.

more downclimbing

bee-line down the snow

Back at Redoubt High Camp

Moving camp down to Lake Ouzel

Back down the slabs after a few days above 7,000'.

Another ford

Foot party, dinner party

Beautiful light

Day 6 Moved from Lake Ouzel up to the Spickard-Solitude Col.

I got up for a walkabout while everyone was still sleeping

Jazzed up and ready to go!

So much snow melted

We took our time kicking steps (ahem, Sam did!) as the steep snow slopes were thinning and the ice patch had grown much larger. Overall, our teamwork was great here and I think that we did quite well ensuring everyone was as comfortable as possible in a sticky spot. We lounged at the col for a bit before making our way to Spickard with day packs. A short yet steep snow traverse took us to the south side of Spickard. The snowfield beneath Spickard is benign at the start and steepens heavily as one traverses. Additionally, it has terrible run-out as it slopes steeply out of view to the large basin below cliffs well down the mountain nearer Tombstone. We transition from snow to rock yet again and picked our way up. We were in a gully too far right (NE) to begin with and hopped over to the left (West) to a gully with snow in it. This is the correct gully and the snow can be bypassed, if wanted. We spent another hour or more at the summit before descending back to the col.

End of main snowfield below Spickard

Moxes

Squidloin. Probable first nude ascent of Spickard

We tried to stay in front of him, but his lack of clothing weight meant he flew up the mountain

Silver Lake and Silver Glacier with Custer and Rahm. Rahm doesn't seem deserving from this angle...

The plan was to move camp down to about 6,800’ to get a better start in the day, but we all felt better going a bit lower. Each bit more today meant less on the day out…

We descended to 6,100’ where the traverse of the slopes above Perry Basin begins. This was our last viable spot above the basin itself. We made a less-than-ideal camp (personal thought) that was JUST inside the bug band. There were no bugs at all and not 15 minutes before we made camp, we had descended enough to get the things. Unfortunately, we were actually on the start of the traverse and I think that we all had difficulty getting a relatively flat spot. I had to scoot myself up several times through the night as gravity gently pulled me down the slope. Despite that, the views for sunset and sunrise the next morning were delightful. Day 7 We got moving around 0615 and passed our first camp around 0900. The descent into the valley was, thankfully, unexciting, and didn’t require a rappel as we thought that it might. Less flowing water earlier in the morning benefited us greatly. The alder bushwhack wasn’t too terrible as we planned from above and it seemed to minimize the brush bashing on the way out. It was pretty close to our in-track, so I believe that Ryan did a great job route finding on the early part of Day 2.

It began to rain as we reached the old growth forest and continued, gently, for several hours. As I was in the lead for much of this portion, I got absolutely soaked from pushing through small brush. Also, there was an insane number of bogs…

A few medium 'schwack shots since I got absolutely none on the way in

Now this is nice! We found trail remnants on the way down that lasted for several hundred vertical in what was probably some of the worst terrain (bushed, treed, and sloping) that helped so much.

Sam's sun gloves of two years got trashed by a few hours of 'schwackin'

Lovely view of Jack to end the trip on

We stopped at near noon for a “lunch” break and got moving soon thereafter. We made great progress. By 1230 we were at the edge old growth-second growth interface and took another break. By 1615 we were down to the Little Beaver Trail! How funny trail feels after a week off trail. We lounged around Perry Creek Camp for a bit to dry out, then back at it around 1730. We reached Little Beaver Camp in two separate groups with everyone back by 1930. Unfortunately, all but one of the campsites were full so we got one up the hill a bit, but closest to the dock. Day 8 Not much to reported. I woke up by 0500 and sat at the dock with coffee until about 0730 with my feet in the water, enjoying my much-needed introvert solo time. We lazed around and swam until the boat came at 1330.

[Fletcher]

Your approach looks very scenic! Nice job getting all of the tough ones.

[neek]

nice looking trip, all. can't say i wasn't nervously checking for updates those last few days.

[Alden Ryno]

Fletcher, The approach was very scenic, for the last fifth. I enjoyed it all a lot, but I also wish that I could've done these earlier, or later, and not "had" to do them in this fashion to close out the Bulgers. Such an incredible approach certainly added to the feeling of wilderness. However, seeing the road below Redoubt was humorous (it looked like it had been logged). Nick, I was surprised to only get service on the shoulder of Redoubt! Granted, I only checked on summits and on the side of Redoubt because of our location with respect to Shukshan/Mt. Baker Ski Area hehe.

[rbuzby]

Great trip and pics. That flying buttress, the one on Redoubt, is awesome.

[Sky Hiker]

Awesome

[Bluebird]

Thanks for writing this up, Alden! It was a fantastic trip I won't forget. Can you believe I just told someone I'd be willing to schwack Perry creek again someday? 😆

[Magellan]

Wonderful photos! Thanks for taking the time to write it up. Yay team!

[NBL]

A+

[Brushbuffalo]

That was an arduous and adventurous trek you five just did. Congrats for persisting and surviving.

[raising3hikers]

congrats to the group on taking an unusual way to the chilliwacks! must have felt very wild and remote

[Stephen B]

Congrats on the successful trip and also just for having the guts to try out such a rarely traveled approach. Facing the same dilemma with the Depot Creek approach out all last summer and still out, I have studied maps and it is so impossible to translate a bunch of contour lines into actual experience. Based on Trace's success last year I made a bid up Silver Creek around Labor Day only to get thwarted by the headwall itself and tons of brush there. I couldn't even imagine what the approach would be like until I tried it. Your TR makes the schwack sound reasonable/doable/not horrible, but I am pretty sure it was a very burly enterprise to get up there. The pics of the exit out of the basin actually look fun to me (compared to silver creek headwall, especially). BTW, looking at maps, I have wondered if you can get to Easy Mox straight from the Solitude Col. I even posed that very question to someone (FA?) who has summitted Solitude. I'm thinking it could be anywhere from class 3 to low 5th with a possible rappel but doable. It only makes sense though if all you need is Easy Mox.

[geyer]

This trip report is like the AM/PM slogan - "Too much good stuff"

[ez2pass]

Epic! Bravo. Great writing and pictures.

[awilsondc]

Great write up Alden! Nice job getting the hard ones out of the way, the hard way! It's too bad you had to orphan Rahm and Custer, but with the difficult approach, challenging conditions, and group dynamics to consider I think it was the right call. I mean, the effects of five days worth of schwacking and choss on the human brain are clearly demonstrated in your day six pictures. You'll get back in there soon. Oh, and those sunrise pics over Lemolo are absolutely incredible!