[Fletcher]

Finally, a good weather window was upon us and Spider was on the menu! After Ryan Stoddard made me aware of the seldom done and greatly under-appreciated Drop Creek approach, I decided to go that way. Josh and PeeWee were stoked to give it a try with me. We arrived at the South Fork Cascade TH sometime before 8 on Friday morning where Fred and his crew were gearing up with giant packs for a weeklong ski trip out to the Chikamin Glacier and back. I was not envious of their loads as we shouldered our overnight packs and started hiking pleasant trail through lush forest with some magnificent old growth. Before we knew it, we were already crossing the Middle Fork Cascade.

Middle Fork

South Fork

We made good time on great trail to the big avy debris gully around MP 5. As Ryan stated in his report last year, the trail gets more wild after this point but still easy to follow. The brushier sections are choked with shoulder high nettles, adding some spice to the approach

avy

brushy

picture does not do it justice but this one of the largest cedars I have ever seen

up here, towards the Box Canyon overlook

The trail is well flagged most the time, and tread is present if you keep your eyes on it. The trail climbs steeply for nearly 1000 ft to get above Box Canyon where we found an impressive forested outcropping overlooking the valley with huge relief down to the canyon. After that, the trail passes through a few swaths of alder, which are annoying as alder always is, but not terrible if you stay on the trail. Then, we found ourselves at a miraculously convenient log crossing the raging Drop Creek above and below impressive falls. Quite an impressive spot to take a break and cool off from the heat in the creek's mist.

Drop Creek crossing

raging Drop Creek

Immediately after crossing Drop Creek, we turned uphill and climbed steeply through open forest. There is an ancient trail in here that we were able to follow sporadically. Id be curious to hear if anyone knows any history about this. We saw a large, healthy looking porcupine in here, that didnt seem too interested in us. Per Stoddard's beta, we crossed back over to the north side of the creek at 4k to avoid brush on the south side, then back over to the south side at 4600 ft just as we were breaking out of the trees.

the ancient Drop Creek trail

Formidable

yesssss

break time

The stoke was high as we broke out into the basin and sun. A cool breeze kept temps comfortable as we began to slog up toward the 7000 ft Drop/Flat Creek saddle.

sloggin

sloggin

Rather than camp at the saddle, we decided to climb up the ridge to the north to see if we could find something better with views. We found a suitable camp at 7200 ft with awesome views to Bonanza, Agnes, Dome, Old Guard Sentinel, La Conte, the Buckindy Group, Snowking and Formidable. It was a blissful evening in the alpine. Josh even surprised me by giving me one of his beers. The stars were unbelievable that night.

camp views

camp views

Formidable from camp

the objective

a happy PeeWee

La Conte

some peaks Ive climbed and some that I want badly

ridge camp

Josh happy that summer finally arrived

The alarm went off at 3:45 and we were off by 4:30. The concern about the snow conditions came early, as we were immediately sinking to mid calf on the steep descent from the saddle. The traverse over to Spider was pretty arduous given these conditions and sparked a lot of conversation as to how stability might deteriorate in the afternoon.

sunrise

slogging to Spider

up here

We made decent time over to and under Spider's main central buttress and found the gully that lead steeply up the face. The grade and many runnels bisecting the slope were intimidating. We put crampons on and started climbing, often sharing our thoughts on the snow conditions. This is no place to take a fall or be caught in a sluff. The softness of the snow was concerning to be, but it also made for giant bucket steps which made things feel ok.

buckets

Josh low on the route

steep!

The snow conditions were variable. I lead most of the way up the route, but considered bailing more than a few times. Within 200 ft of the ridge the snow got really soft, with steps sinking down nearly to my knee. Had I not been so close to topping out out on the ridge, I would have turned around. Topping out right below the false summit, I walked over to it, giving the huge cornices as much space as I could. From the false summit, Spider glory looked close but the route looked intimidating given the cornices and ample snow. I knew it was too close to consider bailing now so I carefully downclimbed to the notch.

Spider

I topped out about 7:10 to some amazing North Cascades views. Josh and PeeWee were just a few minutes behind me.

a good one to have the privilege to sign

Eric and Fred and I all on the last page, Eric was up there over 7 years ago to show how often people climb Spider

PeeWee topping out

Dome, Glacier, Old Guard, Sentinel, Spire and Rainier

Boston to Buckner with Jack

J-burg and Eldo

Spider summitshot

Josh on the summit

None of us got to hang out as long as we would have liked, with the long down-climb to come. As usual, it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be, and we all made good time down to relative safety.

looking down the descent

crossing runnels

halfway down

celebration time

The slog back to the saddle was tough in the heat. We took a big break here to rest and fuel up for the long hike out to the car.

back to the saddle

The descent back down into Drop Creek went fast. It was a relief to get into the shade of the forest. We made great time down to the South Fork trail and continued along in the growing heat of the afternoon. We made some bets on who was the most likely to bonk on the exit. PeeWee ended up taking the gold medal.

steep descent from the saddle

Drop Creek Valley

BONK

a swollen South Fork

We all suffered in the afternoon heat but still made it out to the car at exactly 6pm. Mondos was enjoyed by all! ~25 miles ~8300 ft of gain ~179/200

[raising3hikers]

Good stuff! I really enjoyed spider but your conditions certainly looked spicer than I had It's such a cool looking mountain from all sides Glad you got a classic peewee bonk shot

[Blowdown]

Epic! Great effort and photos! Congrats on number 179!

[RichP]

Loved the video, Fletcher!

[ozzy]

Sickkkk trip doods!! I've been needing to get up there for sure...I think I'll do it in the later season though lol! Did y'all like this approach better than the standard!? It certainly seems better to me, red ledges and the middle cascade glacier are rather committing. Anyhow cheers boys to a job well done!

[Fletcher]

Ozzy, that approach is awesome! I could really see it gaining some popularity. Really easy access to the entire area.

[Matt Lemke]

Good to know the snow sucks, I may postpone some of my climbs a little more

[Route Loser]

Good to see Drop Creek getting some love. Nice summit!

[Gimpilator]

Awesome trip. Absolutely love your videos. Hoping to be on one of your trips soon.

[Schroder]

[puzzlr]

That's a lot of effort for this peak that's right on the Ptarmigan Traverse. We did it as a side trip in 2006 so I guess I'd be in that register too, but I don't remember seeing it. We didn't have much snow going up that steep gully/ridge but on the way down had some party-induced rock slide scares. I think it's much safer with more snow. For some reason getting to the ridge was ok for me but when I saw the true summit from the false summit I freaked out until I saw my partners scramble up it without any problems. I must have been pretty tired or something. I'm comforted that you mentioned that you had a reaction to it too, although in different conditions.