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awilsondc Member
Joined: 03 Apr 2016 Posts: 1324 | TRs | Pics
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This trip was inspired by Jake and Paul Robinson. In 2012 I did a trip with them up to NW Warrior with a camp at the cirque below the peaks. Years ago Paul had climbed Inner Constance from this cirque and it was always a route that had piqued Jake's interest. Plus, we had failed to get the true summit on Warrior so I knew I'd be back some day. Well, last week it was "some day"... 9 years after my first trip to this area I headed back for a new adventure and some unfinished business.
The Approach
I got a late start after returning from a family vacation. I drove up to the Upper Dungeness Trailhead and was hiking by 5:20pm. It's a long way up to the cirque, about 9.5 miles and 3800ft gain, so I knew I'd need a solid pace to get up there before it was dark (sunset was at 9). The good news is that the trail up is about as easy of a trail as you could ask for. The first 3 miles are fairly flat as the trail follows the Dungeness River up to Camp Handy. I was enthralled with the evening light in the forest. Deep blue long shadows, soft warm light through the trees, a hint of turquoise in the water, and a cool breeze to accentuate the ambiance. What an awesome section of forest! Of course I had to stop for some photos along the way. Past camp Handy there was a fork in the trail with a sign for Marmot Pass. Not wanting to go to Marmot pass, I went the other way. It was the wrong way, but I quickly diagnosed my mistake after a tenth of a mile and got back on track.
Dungeness River Enchanting So blue! Second foot bridge Magical forest I love this lighting!
The second 3 mile section is the steepest as the trail climbs up to Boulder Shelter, but it is graded so well it felt pretty easy. After Boulder Shelter there is another <3 mile section that is pretty flat with one significant stream crossing, or maybe I should say waterfall crossing. It was impossible to cross without getting splashed by the waterfall, but I kept my feet mostly dry. The sun was starting to set and there were low clouds in the valley which led to some really cool scenery on the way up. The place to leave the trail and start the route up to the cirque is right when the trail enters a boulder field, which is pretty obvious. Looking uphill to plot out my route I saw a cairn and headed up that way. This area has seen more traffic in recent years and is starting to develop a boot path in spots. A quick mile and ~1200 ft of gain through boulder fields got me to the cirque just after sunset. I found a nice bivy spot on the ridge overlooking the Dungeness River valley and the Mystery - Deception group. I got my bivy ready and went to bed.
Evening light on Warrior Fun ambiance Entering the boulder field Views from the boulder field Dusk over the Home Creek valley
I set an alarm for sunrise, but from my bivy the sunrise looked boring so I slept in a bit. I got up a little after 6 and was moving by 7. I started uphill a little early and had to scramble down some class 3 to get to the snow slopes leading up to the 6840 saddle, it would have been better to take the east most gully (which I took on descent). I put on crampons and got out the axe for the snow climb up to the saddle. Snow was moderate in slope angle, maybe low to mid 30's towards the top but pretty straightforward. Now came the hard part.
My bivy The Mighty Warrior Snow up to the col Looking down at Warrior At the saddle
Inner Constance - NE route - class 4
So, for this route I had very little beta to go on. I read through the OMCG (very little help), had a brief outline from Paul saying there was an exposed traverse then pillow basalt to the summit, and I studied the topo map which looked like I could take a high route, or drop down from the saddle and do a traverse. Regardless I knew it would involve some class 4 at the least but route finding and decision making would be critical. I always hate losing elevation and the first moves of the high route looked like they would go so I decided to head that way. "I can climb down that if I go up, right?" I asked myself that question a lot during this route, and the answer here was yes so I started out up some class 3/4. I have to admit, I was a little nervous at first but after linking a few moves together I got into scrambling mode and felt very comfortable and secure the entire time, even during the crux. I climbed an ascending leftward traverse up blocky choss which turned into a dirty ramp. The ramp ended at cliffs, but up above I spotted what looked like a ledge traverse that would go. I scrambled up to it and sure enough it led right to a saddle below Peak 7447. Soon I was on the summit of Peak 7447.
Initial slopes from the saddle Dirty ramp 7447, cliffs, and a ledge up high Traverse this looking back at the route, traverse ledge on the right Constance and Inner Constance from Peak 7447
From here I got my first views of Inner Constance! It looked pretty bad ass, and a bit gnarly to get to. It looked like taking a direct route would involve a couple gendarmes. I've played this game before. You climb up one of those things making some questionable moves in the process only to find yourself cliffed out when you get to the top. Looking to avoid that scenario, I looked for an alternate route and spotted a ledge system a couple hundred feet below. I could see the first half of the route down to the ledge and it looked good so I decided to head down to the ledge. In hind sight, and looking back at my pictures I wonder if the direct route would have gone? From the pictures it looks like I might have been able to piece together a class 4 route to get through it, but I made my decision to drop down to the ledge and I'm happy with that. The route from Peak 7447 to the ledge was the crux of the trip. It involved steep class 3/4 gullies zig zagging down the cliff face. It got steeper the lower I got and there were definitely some class 5 moves I pulled culminating in running out of foot holds and jumping / dropping about five feet to land on the ledge I had spotted. The rest was pretty easy by comparison, a bit more traversing on ledges followed by a scramble up to the summit block. The summit block felt pretty easy and felt just class 3 to me.
Only shot I took on descent, Brothers behind Traverse this ledge Easier slopes to the summit block Looking back at Peak 7447 Inner Constance summit block
Views from the top were great! It was nice to finally see Lake Constance. I bet there aren't too many people who have climbed both Constance and Inner Constance without ever taking a Lake Constance / Avalanche Canyon route. I hung out and took a bunch of pictures before heading down.
Lake Constance Warrior Arm engulfed in clouds Mount Constance Selfie from the summit From Olympus to Gray Wolf Ridge Stone and Skokomish Warrior and Home Creek valley
For the descent it looked like my ledge I had seen from Peak 7447 might traverse all the way back to upper Avalanche Canyon. I decided to give it a go, and it went really well. Almost all class 3 traversing with a few class 4 moves all the way back to Avalanche Canyon. This was definitely the easier way to go. I wish I would have taken a picture of the final gully I descended, as it would be the starting gully for anyone wanting to take this route. I remember the elevation was ~6700ft and looking up, the gully looked pretty steep to start out and was more green in color (moss, grass, vegetation) compared to the surrounding terrain being mostly brown and red. It was a pretty unpleasant ~150 climb up steep choss back to the saddle. I put crampons back on to get down the snow. I will say, looking at my pictures and the ledges and thinking, I traversed THAT?! The terrain is really a lot like Mount Constance. I remember looking at pictures of those ledges and thinking, dang that looks like some serious exposure on such a tiny ledge but then actually being on them they felt fairly broad and really not that bad at all. This was a lot like that, if that helps at all. But yeah, there was some exposure for sure.
Base of 7447, starting the ledge traverse back Traversing ledges More easy traversing, Desperation Peak behind Choss back to the saddle
Warrior Peak (failed attempt)
Part of my plan for this trip was to get the true summit of Warrior Peak via route 2 in the OMCG, another rarely taken route that I've never seen a trip report for. It says skip the standard gully and take a further one which leads to a saddle where you work your way out onto the east face and climb class 3 up to the summit. It's a good route, they said. Well, from the summit of Inner Constance I started having reservations because there were clouds filling that valley. They looked really cool, but I suspected they'd interfere with visibility and route finding. I almost wrote off the route right there on Inner Constance but eventually decided to give it a go. The gully up to the saddle south of Warrior was not pleasant. Loose class 3, a bit sketchy in spots. I got to the saddle and was greeted with massive cliffs on the SE side of Warrior. These cliffs were huge! And, there was no obvious route up or around them at all. Looking further down the gulley I could see that I could drop down a couple hundred feet, but from there visibility was poor with clouds slamming into the huge cliffs of Warrior as if to say get back, this way is blocked! I took the message and bailed. That's 2 failed attempts on Warrior now, and some incentive to re-visit this area in the future, something I am already looking forward to.
Beautiful, yet ominous Descending from the saddle, Warrior below Looking back up at the saddle I bailed on Warrior after seeing this Those cliffs!
The Way Back
The route back to the car was just like the route in, only in reverse. It was pretty uneventful, long miles on easy trail in some pristine forest. I got back to my car a little before 5 for a 10 hour day. I'm pretty stoked to have climbed Inner Constance via this route, and for all my route finding decisions to have worked out without having to backtrack or end up in a sketchy situation. I'm already scheming up some ideas for a return trip to finally get Warrior.
Cirque, bivy area Olympic paradise Mystery Fun clouds Last views from up high Back into the forest Olympic jungle Dungeness River, I love this spot!
Something like 21 miles, 6700 ft elevation gain, 14 hours worth of moving time (not including camp / sleeping time)
Route map
Prosit, Frodo Barefoot, Nancyann, Hesman, JasonK806, Route Loser, raising3hikers, RAW-dad, hapemask, rstoddard24, IanB, silence, geyer, ozzy, reststep, RichP, rubywrangler, Tom, kite zimmertr, KascadeFlat
Prosit, Frodo Barefoot, Nancyann, Hesman, JasonK806, Route Loser, raising3hikers, RAW-dad, hapemask, rstoddard24, IanB, silence, geyer, ozzy, reststep, RichP, rubywrangler, Tom, kite zimmertr, KascadeFlat
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contour5 Member
Joined: 16 Jul 2003 Posts: 2963 | TRs | Pics
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contour5
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Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:13 pm
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Ledges? I don’t see no stinking ledges!
Great trip report and photos, especially the magic forest shots.
awilsondc
awilsondc
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Midnight Slogger 'Schwack Job
Joined: 04 Aug 2017 Posts: 96 | TRs | Pics Location: Greater Cascadia |
Really exciting to see a trip report for this route--great photos and descriptions!
awilsondc
awilsondc
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rubywrangler Member
Joined: 04 Aug 2015 Posts: 511 | TRs | Pics
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Nice trip, great photos! I especially like the forest shots (which you seem to have mastered, I'm jealous) and "Olympic Paradise".
awilsondc wrote: | dang that looks like some serious exposure on such a tiny ledge but then actually being on them they felt fairly broad and really not that bad at all. |
I love it when that happens
awilsondc wrote: | Dungeness River, I love this spot! |
Me too! I took almost the exact same photo a couple years ago.
awilsondc
awilsondc
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ozzy The hard way
Joined: 30 Jul 2015 Posts: 476 | TRs | Pics Location: University place, wa |
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ozzy
The hard way
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Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:27 am
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Dooood! What perseverance, especially solo which changes things a lot! Thanks for the priceless beta on this route! I've always wanted to hit inner constance from here since I bivied up there when I did the warrior peaks. That has to be one of my favorite bivy spots...that cirque is beautiful! How did the route up Desperation pk look? I'm surprised you didn't bag that one too lol. Congrats man!
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
awilsondc
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I wanna have my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames”-Mr Mojo Risin
awilsondc
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Gimpilator infinity/21M
Joined: 12 Oct 2006 Posts: 1684 | TRs | Pics Location: Edmonds, WA |
Enjoying your reports as always.
I have failed attempts on both IC and Warrior main. Those are tough peaks.
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silence Member
Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 4420 | TRs | Pics
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silence
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Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:57 am
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PHOTOS
FILMS
Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
awilsondc
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geyer Member
Joined: 23 May 2017 Posts: 463 | TRs | Pics Location: Seattle |
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geyer
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Mon Jul 26, 2021 12:41 pm
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Nice trip! I never knew you had gone there with the Robinsons.
Man, all these pics are great, but I'm really liking these two
awilsondc wrote: | Enchanting The Mighty Warrior |
awilsondc
awilsondc
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awilsondc Member
Joined: 03 Apr 2016 Posts: 1324 | TRs | Pics
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Thank you for the nice comments on the photography! I've really been working on developing my eye for forest scenes, so I'm glad to have the positive feedback. I appreciate it a lot, thank you!
ozzy wrote: | How did the route up Desperation pk look? |
Well... take a look.
awilsondc wrote: | More easy traversing, Desperation Peak behind |
Hahaha, pretty gnarly! Honestly I didn't even consider this peak at all during the trip. Sounds like most go up from Crystal Pass (to the right of this photo). There was one peakbagger report I just looked at detailing a mulit pitch 5th class route from the Warrior cirque area, but doesn't look like there is a workable a scramble route from that direction. It's steep!
ozzy
ozzy
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NWtrax Member
Joined: 27 Apr 2008 Posts: 638 | TRs | Pics
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NWtrax
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Tue Jul 27, 2021 11:46 am
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Congrats on the summit. That pano of Home Creek Valley is absolutely stunning!!!
awilsondc
awilsondc
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