[Don]

40D R.I.P.

Matt set the stage well with his introduction of Bonanza Peak in his recent Trip Report. In fact, I read his report twice the night of my return as his words expressed my feelings from our trip almost to a T. And, he brought back incredible pictures! But, I’m getting ahead of myself… Bonanza Peak has been on my list to do for many, many years. So it was with much excitement that I received an invite to climb it only a day after catching wind that Matt, Dicey & company were up there. Could this finally be the year? I met Marek, Greg and Pavo at the Maple Valley P&R at 5:30 and we were off to Fields Point Landing on Lake Chelan to catch the Lady of the Lake II up to Holden. The company was new to me, but I got a great sense of the group’s positive dynamics almost immediately. This was going to be a fun trip. We arrived at Fields Point Landing an hour early, which gave us time to organize our gear and weed out anything unnecessary. Soon, we were boarding the boat and preparing for the next segment of our trip. Our boat docked at Lucerne two hours later and we were greeted by “Pookie”, a yellow bus that would take us up the steep gravel road to Holden Village – the start of our hike. The ride is interesting as the bus climbs a series of steep switchbacks at a whopping 7 mph in low gear before reaching the burn area of the Domke Lake Complex fire. Soon after we reached Holden Village and were greeted by the waving hands of many, many villagers. A very nice greeting. We donned our packs at 1:10 pm and began trekking up the road to the TH. It was a hot day and tough to get the legs going between the heat and all the sitting we had done. We reached Holden Lake and took a short break while scouting the route to the pass. Bonanza Peak stood imposingly above us. We followed the climbers path around the lake, losing it only briefly in the marsh area where we sought higher ground in the forest. The trail from the scree slope up to the pass wastes little time, gaining altitude in as little distance as possible. We arrived at Holden Pass and ventured up higher to a camp “about 400 feet higher” that I had been tipped off about. In the end after checking it out, we elected to remain at the pass. It was 7:00 pm. Our alarms sounded at 4:00 am and we were moving by 5:00 am. We followed the climber’s path up the ridge, traversed below a large boulder field, and began ascending a rib towards the waterfalls that would be our gate to the Mary Green Glacier. The sun was just coming up and I stopped a moment to get a picture. As I unzipped my camera harness, one of my ski poles began rolling down the steep slope. I caught it with my foot and bent down to pick it up and give it a more secure placement. This is when I heard a “thunk”, repeated by several more. I looked down to see my camera bouncing down the slope, gaining speed as it went. It bounced about 200’ before coming to a rest atop a vertical cliff. Marek carefully traversed over to it from his position and collected it, but I didn’t need to see it to know its fate. We continued on and soon gained a snow slope that provided an ascending traverse of the waterfalls, coupled with some rock segments that were easy to negotiate with the minimal amount of water coming down. We were now ready for the Mary Green Glacier. The glacier proved straightforward with only a couple of cracks to work around. In a couple of hours we were at the moat and ready for the rock portion of the climb. We agreed to begin the climb unroped and see how things went. The scrambling started pretty easy, but it was very exposed. There was no room for error. We continued up, eventually finding the going a bit easier. Then it got difficult again and I expressed my desire to rope up. I must also add I was climbing with some ghosts in my head. Soon we reached a crack in an open book that stopped us. After much scouting, we realized an alternative route did not exist and a rope was necessary. Greg led the crack, followed by Marek on ascenders. Pavo and I then simul-climbed up behind them on the same rope. We belayed another move just above this, and then scrambled the rest of the route to the summit, arriving at 1:30. What a beautiful view! Everything was visible in the bright sun. Bonanza is definitely a summit with a great vantage of the Cascades. I thumbed thru the summit register and saw some fellow NWHikers names in it. I also saw some other familiar names from years past. Finally, I welled up a bit when I saw the name of a friend whose life was forever changed in a fall on this very mountain. But the summit was time for celebration. And that we did. We knew we would be rappelling the entire rock section down to the glacier, so nerves were rested. The rappelling went well, but was time consuming with four people. Each rappel seemed to take us about an hour, and there were six rappels. I began to get nervous as I realized I left my headlamp back at camp. We reached the glacier shortly after 8:00 pm and quickly switched back into our glacier gear. The descent of the glacier went fast and spirits were high. Then we came to the waterfalls. It was shortly after 9:00 pm. The sun had set and time was working against us. As we prepared to descend the waterfall section we found our entire snow slope across had melted out – it was gone! The volume of water cascading over the rocks had increased immensely. We searched and searched for a safe way to downclimb this section, with no success. At 10:00 pm Marek buried a picket as a deadman anchor for a rappel station. But he could only get it about a foot deep. He set it and gave the rope a couple of good tugs. It seemed to hold. Pavo and I studied it like hawks as Marek began his rappel down. The rappel seemed to take forever. It was getting windy and we were growing cold. But as I stood there, I realized my feet were growing cold due to the snow freezing around them. This was a good sign for our anchor. Finally, Marek signaled that he was done. It was my turn next. Greg aimed his headlamp towards the waterfall as I slowly rapped down. I enjoy rappels. I did not enjoy this one. I continued down the waterfall, working the wet rope thru my ATC and trying to maintain my stance on the slick rock. Marek soon directed me to the left of the waterfall onto dry rock to miss the large moat at the bottom. Then he issued the warning: Be prepared for a 20’ overhang at the bottom. Say what? Soon I was hanging in a free rappel, all the while consumed with the thought that my well-being was hanging in the balance of a less than ideally placed snow picket. I made quick work of it and found myself standing on snow. I let out a sigh and quickly got out of the system. It was now completely dark and we were below our established route. Pavo completed his rap while Greg and I scouted for a way to regain our route. Ok, Greg scouted, I followed as the blind man. Greg soon found our ascent tracks in the snow and we waited as the headlamps of Marek and Pavo approached us. We followed our steps down in the dark as best we could while looking for familiar land features. Greg had taken a GPS reading at the point I dropped my camera, and informed us we were 185’ directly west (above) it. Bingo. Soon we picked up the climbers path and worked our way back down to camp, arriving at 11:30 pm. Spirits were incredibly high. Alas, we were also tired. By the time we fetched water and ate it was nearly 1:00 am. We awoke at 5:00 am to pack up and head out. 4 hours of short but sound sleep by all. The descent went well, even following the correct route thru the marsh area rather than going up into forest. After a brief break at the lake we beat a hasty retreat back to Holden Village. Our adventure was over. Despite the hardships, this was an incredible trip with incredible company. Memories will live long from this one. Sorry, no eye candy this time.

[silence]

GEEZ is bout all i can muster (in mixed company) right now .. sorry about the camera pal .. glad you got to the top though .. and home safe!!!!

[wildernessed]

Great narrative. Sounds like a challenging peak with alot of adversity !

[GeoTom]

For you Sorry about the camera though. I lost one (though not as nice) to a crevasse on Rainier last summer. Just an excuse to upgrade I suppose.

[Opus]

Great reporting. Sorry about the camera, that's always been one of my nightmares hauling my SLR around the mountains. I'm shielding the viewfinder of my 20D from the screen to keep it from knowing the demise of its younger sibling.

[Randy]

Thanks for posting your account of Bonanza Don. Always fun to hear other stories from a peak recently climbed.

[40D Girl]

Great TR Don. One area I really wish I could make it in to. In hindsight, this 40D♀ is feeling mighty lucky regarding my own recent "accident".

[dicey]

Thanks for the gripping narrative, Don - my palms got sweaty reading it! Did you do single or double rope rappels?

[Don]

[Don]

[Don]

[dicey]

[Yana]

[Don]

[Don]