[wyattmullen]

One of the top 10 most amazing moments of my life

Finally got my images collected and edited from this overnight trip where I summited Del Campo for sunset and Gothic for sunrise over the 4th of July weekend. I didn’t really take any route variations from the standard so trip is light on beta but hopefully high on inspiration. I’d been in contact with a friend about climbing Adams for the holiday weekend, but with possible thunderstorms forecast on the only morning he could climb it, we bailed on that plan and I started looking for a solo overnight trip to catch a nearly moonless Milky Way. I was planning to be back in Seattle on Sunday/Monday for the Fourth and rain was supposed to move in Saturday night for the rest of the weekend so I decided just a single night was good and set my sights on Gothic Basin. Of course I’d heard how fun of a scramble Del Campo was and I figured with the heavy snow cover there’d be almost no one else up camping. I also hoped I’d hit the basin in that small window where the lakes had begun melting creating that oh so nice meltwater blue color.

Some of the first views of Silvertip et al.

It's becoming wildflower season on the west side!

I figured this was an okay view with the Milky Way

I left from Barlow Pass just before 3 p.m. on Friday the 1st. The Mountain Loop Highway was actually pretty quiet for Friday afternoon with only a couple cars at the trailhead and only two other groups passed on my up to the Basin. The first snowfield (and snowbridge) was at the waterfalls coming down from Del Campo. There were a couple deep holes up slope from me in the snow, but otherwise the bridge seemed steady enough as I made my way across. At the next stream crossing there was some nice phlox and paintbrush. The snow started in earnest shortly after these crossings around 4,000’. Most of the rest of the streams were solidly covered though and after sliding around for another quarter mile I put on my crampons to make the final climb up to the basin. I mostly followed the buried trail, but I’m sure you could have just headed straight uphill to the east side of Foggy Lake and the shoulder of Del Campo. At 5,000’ I started scoping out a place to camp. I was up there to shoot some photos of the Milky Way and knew there was an outside chance of the Aurora Borealis making an appearance so I wanted clear views north and south. Point 5,021 above Weden Lake seemed like a good spot with a beautiful view of the North Peak of Sheep Gap and clear visibility down the South Fork Sauk Valley. I even found a small melted out rock outcropping meaning I wouldn’t have to sleep on snow (no water though). By now it was about 6 p.m. so I dropped my backpack, picked up my summit pack and ice axe and headed for Del Campo. The snow was perfect for travel, both slightly soft and slightly firm and I ended up following a boot path lead by a group that had summited earlier that day along the east side of Foggy. The lake was almost completely frozen save for some very small meltwater ponds along the edges. I was a little disappointed I wouldn’t get more turquoise, but then I came across the tarn to the east of Foggy which was significantly more melted and was a shocking emerald color. It was beautiful and if I’d been around later the next day I may have even gone swimming in it.

A pretty cool little tarn

I can see why the basin has become so popular

A little worried I would be socked in, but there was the perfect level of clouds

Throughout my time in the basin Gothic and Del Campo had been in and out of the clouds. As I headed up the southern shoulder of Del Campo the clouds expanded and I thought I might end up in a whiteout, but once again they cleared just as quickly. Snow was consistent all the way to the beginning of the scramble where I dropped my snow gear and begin the climb. From reports I kept waiting for there to be more difficult moves, but I breezed up and found myself on the summit in less than 10 minutes basking in the late afternoon sunlight. The conditions up there were beyond my wildest dreams. About 60 degrees with nary a breath of wind and a marine layer inversion to the west flowing over the peaks. The swirling clouds stayed just far enough from me that I was never engulfed and I spent more than an hour up there checking out completely new peaks as this was my first time climbing anything in this area.

At first I didn't even recognize floating Baker as a mountain

The clouds were so dang cool! Three fingers kept popping in and out

It took a while, but Rainier finally made an appearance

Sunsets don't get much better than this

Certainly some sort of Gothic vibes emanating from this area

As chill as the scramble had been, I didn’t exactly want to do it after sunset so I left the summit a couple minutes before nine. I made quick progress back to the snow and then managed to capture the last alpenglow on the clouds around Gothic. Plunge stepping down I returned to my campsite just before I would need a headlamp at 10 p.m. I hadn’t brought a tent because I figured the weight/space cost wasn’t worth it for a single night, especially if I would be shooting the Milky Way. However shortly after I reached camp the clouds swarmed in and everything got soaked in mist. After a quick dinner I settled in for the night figuring I would wake up at some point and see if the sky had cleared.

A lovely blue hour descent

Just the tiniest of crescent moons

Peak mountain stoke

At about 12:30 a terrible leg cramp jolted me awake but I noticed it was crystal clear with the Milky Way sparkling to the south. But it was when I stood up and checked to the north that my jaw dropped. I’ve wanted to capture the Northern Lights from the Cascades ever since I first saw them in June 2015 so when I saw dancing green pillars on the horizon I couldn’t believe my eyes. I started frantically collecting all my camera gear to capture them before they disappeared because the show can last as little as 15 minutes. Sure enough, a couple minutes later as I started shooting, they were already starting to fade, but the pillars hung around for about half an hour while the green glow remained until the sky started to lighten from dawn just after 2 a.m. During this time I also had to deal with sudden bouts of cloudy, foggy, mist that would pop up suddenly and disappear just as quickly. For an hour it was completely cloudy, but as sunrise approached the clouds slowly evaporated and I figured a sunrise from Gothic would be just what the doctor ordered.

A striking pillar

It lined up even better than I expected!

Big dipper and a fading aurora as the day approaches

When it got light enough to not need a headlight I started the traverse across all the frozen tarns to Gothic. Once again snow extended almost all the way to the start of the scramble and there wasn’t even the rumored moat to cross. The GPS track I had went left when you approach the summit block, but the SummitPost beta says not to go left so I started climbing directly up to the peak from the east. It was quickly apparent this was not the correct approach as it became exposed class 5 with just a few moves. I downclimbed and headed left where I realized I’d misunderstood the instructions. The route here was quite clear. This mistake meant I just missed the best sunrise color to the north as I summited at 5:15, but still had a blast as clouds formed and reformed around every peak in the area. It was not until 6:30 that I finally headed down to explore the different views of the frozen lake and eventually to get back to my bag 45 minutes later.

Morning Star, Vesper, and others looking if possible more beautiful than the previous night

Shuksan and an incredibly pointy border peak

I had never heard of Red Mountain before this trip, but wow does it stand out!

I figured there wasn’t much of a reason to stay up in the warming snow solar oven so I clomped on back down the trail getting back to my car 2 hours later. I crossed paths with a number of people headed up to the basin. Some were headed out to Sheep Gap (based on Peakbagger entry it doesn’t appear they summited) while others were just going to the Basin or Del Campo. One group was planning to camp up there which seemed less than ideal considering thunderstorms passed through on Saturday evening only to be replaced by pouring rain for much of Sunday, but I hope they had nice views before that. Anyways, wanted to share this because the early season trip is not only feasible, but probably one of the best times to go and I would highly recommend splitting the sunrise/sunset on the two local peaks.

Stewart sailing on a cloudy sea

The sun rose basically between Sloan and Glacier

Spire looks like such a cool mountain from this area!

One summit pic for the archives

I'm sure I'll be back some day with a lake I can swim in

[Kenji]

Great photos My first aurora sighting was also from Gothic Basin in 2015 Sept! Actually just my camera saw it while I was asleep

[Hiker Mama]

Wow!!! Fantabulous!!!

[chiwakum]

Experiencing auroras in the cascades have been some of the most memorable moments of my life. Stunning pictures. Thanks for posting.

[wyattmullen]

[wyattmullen]

[chiwakum]

[Gimpilator]

Beautiful! You're so lucky.

[awilsondc]

Nice trip, Wyatt... and great photos! Northern lights!?! Score! I've yet to see them myself, but it's on my bucket list. Nice job getting the Milky Way under Sheep Gap too. It's such a beautiful area up there! Keep 'em comin, I always look forward to your reports!

[FiresideChats]

Holy freaking cow awesome! Thanks for sharing