[awilsondc]

Saturday marked the start of Smaugust, a day early. The forecast was for overcast skies (high clouds) and incoming smoke from wildfires. I wanted to go somewhere that had good nearby views, and distant views that I wouldn't mind missing out on. The Monte Cristo area seemed like it would fit the bill and Cadet Peak had been on my radar so I loaded up my bike and headed off for Barlow Pass. I left my big camera at home and just used my phone, which I regret. For beta on this trip I used this great trip report from MidLifeHiker as well as Gimpilator's and Ozzy's. I followed GPS tracks from Armit Panda and Bret Wiencke found on peakbagger which followed the route very well. Around 6:15am I mounted my bike and started pedaling up the trail to Monte Cristo. I had been there only once before, about 9 years ago, so I was excited to see the area again. The road up is decent for biking, with several sections you need to get off your bike and push it along a hiking trail or carry it over a log crossing the Sauk River. It definitely is nice to have a bike for the portion leading to Monte Cristo, and even better on the way down! The main town site of Monte Cristo is just as I remember it. On my last trip I headed up to Poodle Dog Pass to climb Columbia, but this time Glacier Basin was the destination so I headed towards the bridge leading to Dumas Street. Heading up Dumas St was pretty wild. All kinds of dilapidated buildings, sign posts marking where historical buildings used to be... It looked like a normal hiking trail, but it used to be a street people lived on! Pretty cool... I enjoyed the history of the area a lot more than I thought I would but I had a peak to climb so I carried on towards Glacier Basin.

Monte Cristo signs

Entering the town site

Railway Turntable

Main town site

Dilapidated building

The trail heads east up Glacier Creek with occasional views of the stream cascading down from near Ida Pass. Some hazy golden hour light lit up some of the nearby slopes as the trail turned south and the basin came into view. Wilmans Spires were the first to come into view, then Monte Cristo Peak and Twin Bear. What a place! Glacier Basin did not disappoint, it was beautiful. Not sure about the water situation for the rest of the route, I filled up here (good call) and started the ascent towards the hidden gully and the start of the route up Cadet. I took talus up the right side of the washed out gully and crossed over on rock above some lingering snow to an obvious ramp at the base of a small cliff, elevation ~5100+ ft. At the end of the ramp is the first hidden gully, as in it's a fairly solid blocky rock gully completely overgrown on the sides by brush. Steep scrambling aided by veggie belays ensued as I made my way up. Eventually the route turns NE on a ridge. There were a few flags and an occasional cairn and I kept myself on track by checking my GPS. The whole route is super steep the entire time. Around 6600 ft there is a traverse under some cliffs to reach easier terrain due west from the summit. It was a fairly easy scramble up from there. 4:30 from the car I stood on the summit of Cadet.

Cascading stream

Golden hour light

What a morning!

About to enter Glacier Basin

Sunrise over Glacier Basin

Environs

Washed out gully

Ramp leading to hidden gully

Getting up there!

Steep terrain

Wilmans Peak and Columbia

Wow! What views! Looking south you have Monte Cristo Peak with Kyes behind it on the left, and Wilmans Peak with Columbia behind it on the right... what a spread! Then, looking north the "ship at sea" side of Sloan Peak was pretty impressive and Glacier Peak was visible back there too. I feel like I picked the perfect peak for the conditions that day, and I had it all to myself!

Cadet Summit Panorama

Monte Cristo and Kyes

Wilmans and Columbia

Summit selfie

Rover and NW Cadet (and Sloan)

Sloan Peak

I spent an hour up there before heading off for Rover (North Cadet). The route between the two is pretty straight forward and easy to route find. There was a patch of snow which Gimpilator mentioned going above so I headed that way. It was an easy moat until the last bit where I had to stem with my butt on a cliff and feet on snow about 20 feet. Going below the snow on the way back was easier. I really got distracted on my way over, taking lots of pictures of flowers, rocks, and mud. It took me about 40 minutes to get to Rover.

Rover and Sloan

"Lets post up here, in this choss!" - Ferns

Rocks and flowers

Mud and flowers

Rocks and mud

Flowers and rocks

Cadet from near Rover's summit

Great views from Rover too! Cadet looked really cool from the summit. The best part was the register dating back to '73. I was the first to sign in since 2019. In the last decade, this one gets about one ascent per year on average. I love peaks like that.

Rover register

last page

Cadet and co from Rover

In my element

NW Rover and Foggy

The weather was a bit dicey at this point and looked like it might rain. I considered heading back right away but summit fever is strong and NW Cadet was right there! I stayed for a bit before deciding to tag NW Cadet (maybe W Cadet?) and head back. It was a pretty easy trip from Rover to NW Cadet, took about 10 minutes. It was worth it for the better views of Sloan and Goat Lake as well as the ridge NW towards Foggy and the Gemini Peaks.

Rover, Cadet, Wilmans

Foggy and Gemini Peaks

Sloan and Goat Lake

I traversed back towards the descent route for Cadet and sure enough it started to rain on the way back, which wasn't forecasted. I was worried about insufficient layers (I just packed a wind shirt, not a rain shell) and the potential for slick rock during the class 3 portions of the descent. Fortunately neither of those concerns became an issue as it sprinkled lightly on and off for the next 90 minutes, never saturating the ground much or soaking me enough to even put on my wind shirt. In fact, the rain was pretty refreshing and nice. Not much to report for the descent except it was really nice to have a bike to ride the last 4.5 miles to the trailhead! I forgot how much these bike approach trips can be, and I aim to do a few more that have been on my radar recently.

Wilmans on descent

Trees

Glacier basin 1

Glacier basin 2

Glacier basin 3

Grass and trail

~17.5 miles, 5700 ft gain, 10:30 c2c

[neek]

Great shots despite the smoke and camera. Bike-hikes are the best!

[zephyr]

Spectacular trip. There are some really great scenes in there. Beautiful country. Lots of places you could just dawdle if you weren't on a mission. Like this one just as an example. ~z

[Schroder]

Thanks for great photos of a place I'll never make it to again

[Gimpilator]

I remember those trees Killer photography.

[ozzy]

Awesome dood! Looks like you made the right choice to avoid the smoke. I love Cadet, it has a lot of bang for the buck! Then Rover is right there...so sweet! I think I might find myself in that area again this year lol! Cheers man and it's awesome to see the register photos too!

[Chief Joseph]