[Comma]

About six months ago, I was looking at a map of the North Cascades to try to figure out a 5-7 day trip. Redoubt's name called out to me, and I eventually cooked up a scheme of doing a Chilliwack mini-slam via Sublime ridge. I intended on tagging Redoubt, Spickard, Custer, and Rahm. I got a lot of my beta about Sublime ridge from August West's trip report from last year. Day 1 (7/31): Hannegan Pass TH to Whatcom Pass. I picked up my permit from the Glacier public service center first thing 7/31. My plan was to camp at Middle Lakes the first night, but the ranger also mentioned there should be open spots at Whatcom camp if I wasn't able to make it that far. I was definitely concerned about carrying 7 days of food plus climbing gear in an excessive heat warning. Well, it's gonna be a long, slow day with lots of water breaks. (shout out to Jello Shot & co whom I met at Hannegan pass!) I was right about my concern, and day 1 was a death march. The first ~10 miles or so weren't too horrible, then I hit a wall. I got heat exhaustion. I should have taken an extended break, but the flies made that impossible. My god, THE FLIES. Part of me entertained the idea of bailing just because of them. Instead, I took many many 5min breaks, moved really slowly, and chugged lots and lots of water. Note: Part of the trail right before Graybeal camp is washed out. The ranger made it sound like it was over a mile of trail, but it was only about 1000ft. Eventually, I made it to Whatcom camp, and decided to stay there for the night rather than try to push on to Middle Lakes. Thank you, prescient ranger! Day 2 (8/1): Whatcom Pass to Bear Mountain east ridge I woke up feeling the exhaustion deep inside my bones. But I drug myself out of my quilt. In terms of mileage, this was supposed to be a fairly short day. And the weather forecast said something about a breeze. My goal was to make it to Redoubt high camp, and then take day 3 as a rest day. From Whatcom Pass, I made it to Middle lakes where I took a long water break. From satellite imagery, I knew there was still patchy snow along the edges of Sublime ridge, but I wasn't sure how accessible those patches were going to be. Plus, melting snow is a pain. Then I pushed on up to Taps where I finally saw Sublime ridge and the Chilliwacks laid out in front of me.

I am not religious in any way, but my gods, what a heavenly view. Pictures don't do it justice. I felt so much elation! For a moment I forgot about my fatigue. Finally, I dropped down onto the ridge. I was moving slowly in part to savor the views, and in part due to continuing exhaustion. At some point, I decided to take a bathroom break, and realized my water filter was missing!!! I sat down to contemplate my situation. Most likely I had dropped it on top of Taps or at Middle Lakes. If I turned around now, the chances of making it to high camp tonight were going to drop to zero. Then I remembered! I always have some chlorine dioxide tabs in my first aid kit. I pulled them out, counted eight of them, and noted that they expire this month. I contemplated some more, and decided that between judicious use of the tabs and melting snow, I would be ok. Onward! When I reached Passover Peak, I went up and over it rather than taking the bench on its north side. Amazing views! I highly recommend Sublime ridge as far as Passover to more intrepid backpackers. Then I reached the "Dreary McTrudgeon Memorial Loose Talus Sidehill Traverse." I followed August West's beta to find the key gully and avoid the cliffs. It wasn't clear to me from his TR, but you'll reach the gully after passing over some small talus fields, and the gully will be below you. His pictures of the gully are quite accurate. Once on the talus traverse, there was one rockfall gully early on where I'm pretty sure I lost 50 ft of elevation in just a second or two, so that was fun. It was one of the most miserable talus traverses I've ever done in my life, and I don't think the skin around my ankles and lower legs will ever forgive me (shorts + trail runners). I saw a heather ramp right before a small buttress, and assumed that was the heather ramp that August West was referring to. I was wrong. That heather ramp took me steeply up and over the buttress, and back to the talus on the other side. It went, but it was not his route. At least it got me off the talus for a little while. His heather ramp is after the buttress.

Once on the other side of the buttress, there were some patches of snow to cross, which were a pleasure after the talus. The snow was quite firm despite the heat. I finally made it up to Bear's east ridge in the early evening. I was still exhausted. I briefly attempted to go over the notch to reach the Bear-Redoubt col, but made a mistake. The notch that August West mentions is to the right, not the left! At this point, I was done. I was close enough to my goal for the day, and I was ok with that. I found a nice spot along the ridge where to camp, watched the sunset, and passed out to the sound of rockfall.

Day 3 (8/2): Bear Mountain east ridge to Bear-Redoubt col I moved camp to the Bear-Redoubt col. That dirt ramp after the notch is... steep. Climber's left feels safer with rocks to hang on to.

Then I enjoyed my rest day. I finished a book I had started reading on the Wonderland trail a few weeks back -- Jules Verne's 800 Leagues on the Amazon. I napped. I took in the views. I talked to the birds and the pikas. A rufous hummingbird came by to visit my camp several times. I ate. If you know me, you know that food might be my favorite thing in the world. I almost always have an appetite and/or hunger. Losing my appetite and my hunger is rare, and almost always points to something wrong. I hadn't felt hunger or appetite since Sunday morning, and still wasn't feeling either. I still forced myself to eat. Day 4 (8/3): Summit Redoubt, and down to Lake Ouzel Wednesday dawned bright and beautiful! I was feeling much better today. After a leisurely breakfast, I broke down camp and headed towards Redoubt. I stashed my overnight gear on a rocky finger below the "shoulder." And finally had pangs of hunger!! Rarely have I been so happy to be hungry. I savored a snack, donned on my crampons, and I was off! While I don't think the crampons were strictly necessary, they did make my life kicking steps significantly easier. The snow base was very firm under the top couple inches. Once I made it to the top of the snowfields, I understood why so many people get confused by the gully system. After taking my crampons off, I followed a right-trending ramp (described as a "highway" in at least one other TR) until I reached a fairly open area. I took the middle gully and followed that up. I knew I was on the right track when I saw a webbing sling. And lucky me, this gully took me right to the cannon hole! A few class 4/5 moves later, I was at the summit! I made it!

The views were expansive! I could see the Olympics, Rainier, Glacier, etc etc etc. And the rest of the Chilliwacks of course. I was so happy to be up there. But eventually I had to make my way back down. I had no problems down climbing, and very much regretted bringing a rope with me. Oh well. I picked up my overnight gear, and made my way over the shoulder and onto the Redoubt glacier. The surface was heavily sun cupped, and I had to watch my step lest I faceplant. It was a long plod down the upper glacier. As I got to the lower glacier and started seeing cracks, I watched my steps much more carefully. Crevasses were visible and easy to avoid. I made it off the glacier and onto the rocks with no problems. From here on down to Lake Ouzel was a maze of slab. Thank heavens for gps tracks, else I might have spent a whole lot more time finding my way down. As Lake Ouzel came into view below me, I saw groups of mountain goats running around! It felt like one of those overhead shots of running wild horses in a western, except goats in the Cascades! It was absolutely magical. I finally made it all the way down into the basin. I found a nice spot on a sand/gravel bar above the lake's north shore where to set up camp. Rather unfortunately the mosquitoes chased me into my tent as soon as I was done with dinner, chores, hygiene, etc. Day 5 (8/4): RAIN, also Spickard I was rudely woken up by rain in the middle of the night, and was able to pull all my gear inside my tent before it got soaked. The rain continued well into the morning. I had finished my book the other day and didn't want to waste my phone's battery, so I spent a lot of time contemplating my situation. At some point, I fell asleep. I woke up midday to find that the rain had mostly let up. Yay! I considered my options. Doing Custer, Rahm, and Spickard was out of the question. I ended up deciding to do Spickard. After a nice lunch, I headed up the gully. A pocket glacier and some class 3 scrambling later, I was at the summit! I was mostly socked in, but there were occasional breaks in the clouds so I could get a glimpse of Silver Lake.

I will have to come back for Rahm and Custer (and the Moxes!) some other time. Next year maybe? Anyways, it was time to head back to camp. I caught some whiffs of campfire smoke on my way down, which surprised me. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be out here. And sure enough, I saw two tents on the lake's eastern shore and a campfire. My backcountry reverie was broken. I was hungry and not feeling social, so did not stop to say hello. Day 6 (8/5): Lake Ouzel to Middle Lakes When I woke up, it was condensation nation inside and outside of my tent. I hate putting away a wet tent, sigh. After packing everything up, I made my way up and out of the lake basin, up the glacier, over Redoubt's shoulder, and back onto Sublime ridge. It's a long ways back to Middle Lakes.

Towards the end of the talus sidehill traverse, I spied a nice ramp maybe 300 ft before the key gully. Was it going to go? Maybe? Let's find out! The top of the ramp had a nice flat area where to sit, have a snack, and empty my boots of scree. After that, because I kept going up to try to avoid densely vegetated spots, I ended up gaining the ridge and coming down that way rather than doing a sidehill bushwack traverse. When I reached Passover Peak, I was starting to feel a little tired. I didn't really want to go up and over it, nor did I want to drop down onto the bench and have to regain the elevation. I spied a ramp along the north side that seemed like it would take me at least halfway across Passover. Let's give it a go! There was one somewhat sketchy spot getting off the ramp, but otherwise the ramp did its job of minimizing elevation change. After the ramp, there was some sidehill bushwack traversing to get to the other side of Passover. Awesome! I felt like there was a lot more talus along the ridge than I remembered from a few days ago. Or maybe I'm just generally sick and tired of talus, and now I'm seeing it everywhere? I will definitely be avoiding talus for at least a few weeks after this. As it was starting to get late, I considered several times camping somewhere along the ridge. But that would make for an extremely long hike out to the TH. Plus, I hadn't been good about melting snow during the day, and now my bladder was filled with snow and very little water. I wanted to find my water filter. So I pushed on. I made it to the top of Taps and found my filter! Yay! I had dinner and briefly considered staying up there for the sunset, but decided I wanted to find a campsite before dark. I watched the gorgeous alpenglow on the Challenger glacier as I was coming down.

I found a spot to camp on the ridge between upper and lower Middle Lakes. It would have been a perfect night to cowboy camp, but I wanted to dry out my tent. So tent camping it was. I had a hard time falling asleep - too much whirling around my head about the past week. The stars were lovely. Day 7 (8/6): Middle Lakes to Hannegan Pass TH The hike out was fairly uneventful. It was a whole lot less painful than the hike in, that's for sure. I very much enjoyed the warm beer that was waiting for me in my car. --- This was absolutely epic. I hadn't done such a remote trip in a long time, and it was amazing. I cannot wait to go back. That said, when I go back, I will not be taking Sublime ridge. It was incredibly beautiful and worthwhile this first time, but I cannot in good faith recommend it as an approach for the Chilliwacks due to its length. I would love to do it again as its own backpacking trip though. --- PS. Please leave no trace! Camp at least 200 ft from water, and no campfires in XC zones!

[Fletcher]

What an awesome trip. Well done!

[contour5]

Spectacular! The Dreary Mctrudgeon does look like a bummer, but the trip out there is indeed well worth the effort!

[rbuzby]

Nice outing and pics! Jules Verne's writing is so enjoyable. Lots of intelligence and humor. That summit area on Redoubt is hilarious. The "cannonhole" is where everybody goes now, but there is an easier way. Becky had no idea about a cannonhole, or any way really, he just says "opinions differ". I didnt see that cannonhole when I was up there and almost gave up because I couldnt find a scramble route, but did find it just as I was about to go back down. But the cannonhole sounds like more fun.

[Kim Brown]

[GaliWalker]

[Comma]

[Comma]

[Kim Brown]

[Kim Brown]

[jupsal]

Thanks for the great TR!! I am planning for a trip like this this weekend/early next week. I am considering skipping Redoubt though because I've got the scares about some of the solo scrambling moves.

[Comma]

[jupsal]

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I'll just play it safe. I'd be okay just getting to a good view of Ouzel. Originally I wasn't even planning on that, but whenever I look at the map and look at the next great thing my mind goes wild

[resilient]

[jupsal]

What? That's super weird. I don't see any fire activity on Caltopo either, and they use satellites that usually pick it up before I see it anywhere else online. Anyway I am holding off on my trip because this weekend looks pretty cloudy. Hopefully next week is good.