[Matt]

Diptop Loop, August 27-28, 2011 Peaks: Diptop, Lynch, Cathedral Rock Lakes: Marmot, No Name, Jade, Pea Soup, Peggy’s Pond (also Hyas & Squaw) Party: cartman, Dicey, Matt We did this trip as a loop through Diptop Pass. From the Hyas Pass trailhead we hiked trails to Deception Pass & Marmot Lake, then way trails to Jade Lake, and finally up the snowfield to Diptop Gap, with an evening scramble up Diptop. The next morning we pretty much carried over Lynch, then traversed over the east arm of Daniel to Peggy’s Pond, made a side trip up Cathedral Rock, and out via the Cathedral Pass trail.

Diptop Loop Map

Route from Diptop Gap to Lynch to Pea Soup Lake to Daniel Arm

The best choice we made on this trip was to make it a loop, even though it added a few extra miles. The rich color of Jade Lake was worth the trip alone. Some other highlights were a fine high camp at Diptop Gap, a sunset scramble of Diptop, and the weird twisting snake tunnel route up Cathedral Rock. I also finally got to visit Pea Soup Lake, which has mutated into an entirely different form than what’s shown on the USGS maps. Saturday Hyas Lake 3448 to Deception Pass 4500 to Marmot Lake 4930 (10:20am – 2:50pm) Marmot Lake was the first overnight trip I did in the Cascades, way back in 1986. I had forgotten about the darn 600-foot drop that the trail makes between the pass & lake, in order to cross one of the headwater streams of Deception Creek.

Meadow between Deception Pass & Marmot Lake

Monk’s Hood

Columbine

Looking back at the drop between Deception Pass & Marmot

Around Marmot Lake, with stops at each end (2:50-3:55pm) Marmot Lake showed beautiful shifting colors, its clear waters shading from tan shelves of rocky shallows to teal transitions to deep blue depths. A pair of friendly terriers greeted me near the lake, along with Dicey & cartman who were moving much faster.

Not quite poodles

Blue Marmot

Many-colored clear Marmot

Pumping water at Marmot

I tried to resist the lure of the refreshing cool water, and hiked past the beach and campsites where the trail ended. But after following the up-and-down way trail around the lake, I couldn’t resist taking a quick swim at the far end. Following the way trail up Marmot’s inlet steam, the lake’s colors shone even richer blue from up above.

Marmot swim

Marmot from above

Marmot Lake to No Name Lake 5600 to Jade Lake 5442 (3:55 – 5:00pm) No Name Lake oddly lies right at the top of the flattish divide between Marmot & Jade. Marmot’s inlet stream ends at a pond a few hundred yards before No Name, but No Name itself flows into Jade, and thence down to the East Fork Foss.

No Name Lake & Diptop Gap

Jade Lake (5:00 – 5:25pm) Looking over the edge from No Name, one has to almost gasp in delight at the vivid color of Jade Lake. Up close it’s even better, the shoreline dropping into rich translucent depths of water that is somehow both clear and mysterious in its suspended glacial powder. And reflected across it was Diptop Gap with its framing peaks.

Jade Lake

Crystal Jade Depths

Swimming to Diptop Gap

Jade Lake to Diptop Gap 6700 (5:25-6:25pm) Jade continued to show its pretty color from every angle along the shoreline. A way trail conveniently led around the left side of Jade and up a bit, then made a briefly steep 50-foot drop to the base of Diptop Gap. Then easy snow led all the way up to the gap, plus higher views of the lakes below.

Looking back down on Jade

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Snowfield up the gap

Diptop Gap Camp The Gap itself provided a fine campsite, with a few flat spots for tents, plenty of rocks for seating, comfortable temperatures, surprisingly no wind through the gap, and no bugs! What more could you ask for? Well, how about spectacular views to lakes & peaks on both sides!

The view back (north) to Jade & No Name

The view ahead (south) Mt. Daniel & Pea Soup Lake

Diptop 7291 (ascent 7:00-7:35, on summit 7:35-8:00, descent 8:00-8:20) We made a scramble of Diptop as sunset approached. For our ascent route, we went slightly east from camp, then up the southeast ridge of Diptop. It was a some slabs and ledges at the start, then easy scrambling on the crest, and a steep look over the edge at the drop down to the East Foss headwaters at the top. We were glad to learn we didn’t have to continue across the very narrow spiky crest to the other summit of the “dip,” which was lower. (Though Dicey would have liked to try it if we weren’t running out of daylight.)

5692A Diptop Route, viewed the next day from Lynch

Jade & Marmot from even higher up

Crossing a level spot below the summit

2000-foot drop down to Pea Soup outlet stream (upper East Fork Foss)

Sunset light colored both ourselves…

Reading the register

Evening summit

Mmm, snacks.

Proof of summit: ladybug

… and the surrounding peaks. You could even see the curve of Diptop’s shadow cast onto Lynch.

Shadow of Diptop on Lynch

Diptop Shadows panorama

Rainier & the Snoqualmie Crest above Hinman Gap (3 Queens, Hibox, Chikamin, Lemah, Chimney Rock, Overcoat)

Last light through Hinman gap

On the descent, I took B00’s route down the snow that reached high on the northeast side of Diptop. A couple hundred feet from camp, I discovered a small stream running off the rocks, so was able to fill our two-gallon water bag for the night. Day’s End We cooked dinner as the last afterglow shone faintly on Daniel and the skies faded to black. With no fly on the tent, we could watch the stars shining through the mesh as we fell asleep.

Magenta afterglow on Daniel

Camp falling into night

Sunday Day’s Beginning Morning brought all the light and colors back in reverse – first a brightening glow in the sky, then rosy colors on Daniel, and then gold color pushing the shadows down the opposite mountainsides.

Camp lightening into day, 6:08am

Daniel sunrise

Diptop Sunrise, 6:30am

Diptop Gap to Lynch 7280 (6:45 – 8:05am) Our morning challenge was to get over or around Lynch. First we played leapfrog with the packs. Dicey went up ahead scouting and found a route up the west ridge of Lynch. She called down to bring up her pack. I alternated carrying it and mine up the righthand side of the crest, where she had originally gone. Then she re-appeared back in camp, where she had found a better route on the lefthand side, so had to re-climb the worse side to get her pack. Anyway, the best route was to stay on the lefthand (Jade Lake) side of the crest and zigzag up small ledges for about 300 feet. Then curve southeast on talus and heather until you can come around onto the easy south slope of Lynch, and follow it up to the top.

Lynch route from Diptop

Flowers on Lynch slopes

Eric on the upper slopes of Lynch

Carla on the Lynch crest

Lynch Summit (8:05 – 8:25am)

Wet film can register

Wet Fay Pullen register book

The view back north

Jade, No Name & Marmot

Lynch to Pea Soup East Col 6250 (8:25 – 9:05am) The descent to Pea Soup Lake was easy, but required a bit of route attention to stay on easiest terrain, scree and heather a bit west of the crest above about 6600, then moving over to snow east of the crest below. Pea Soup Lake 6224 (9:05-9:30) I had always wanted to visit Pea Soup Lake, because it’s sort of fascinating how it has developed over a geologically short time. The 1965 USGS map shows it as just an irregular oblong at the toe of basin filled by the Lynch Glacier. But now the lake fills the half-mile bowl, and the glacier doesn’t even reach it. Looking across the lake, one’s mind stretches to imagine how huge a volume of ice must have once filled it, retreated to just a tiny remnant on the mountainside now. However, it might need a new name. It’s no longer the deep pea soup color typical of glacial toe lakes. Now filled mostly by snowmelt runoff, it’s a much deeper blue color. I hurried down to the lake for a quick swim. Fortunately, the overnight glaze of surface ice was only thin crytals that broke aside easily when I swam into it.

Blue Daniel

East edge of Pea Soup Lake

A brisk swim

Pea Soup East Col to Daniel East Ridge 7005 (9:30 – 11:00am) Now we needed to get over the east ridge of Daniel and down to Peggy’s Pond. The easiest path was to traverse south around 6300-6400 feet till we were on the side of the ridge, and then take the first wide snow trough up to the crest just above 7000 feet. There we enjoyed another break with views of our route in both directions. We also watched scramblers on Daniel while a pika watched us. 5712A Route from Pea Soup to Daniel Arm

Heading up onto Daniel east ridge

Pika on Daniel ridge crest

Flowers on Daniel east ridge crest

Daniel Scramblers

Daniel East Ridge to Peggy’s Pond 5580 (11:25am – 1:00pm) We picked out way down the other side of the ridge into the large basin that leads down to Peggy’s Pond. Some of the upper parts had unpleasant hard-packed dirt, but suncups helped make steps in the snow. While waiting during a pause in the upper basin, I visited a pretty blue tarn in the snow, and we watched a small avalanche from a slab collapse. 5812A Route from Daniel Arm to base of Cathedral

Looking down Daniel’s east basin

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Looking back up our descent

Closer to the blue tarn

Blue tarn shoreline

Small slab collapse avalanche

Then we continued down the center of the basin almost to Peggy’s Pond. Since we wanted to climb Cathedral, we went over the rise east of the pond, and dropped our packs at the rocky gully about 100 feet uphill from the pond.

Peggy’s Pond

Catheral Rock 6724 via the Snake Twist Tunnel Route (up 1:15-2:45, down 2:55-4:30pm) The tunnel near the top of our Cathedral route was the weirdest climbing segment I’ve ever done. Peggy’s Pond to Northwest Couloir: We started at the boulder filled drainage that connects to the east corner of Peggy’s Pond. To get past the lower cliff bands east of Peggy’s Pond, we took steep meadows all the way to the left-most gully, and hung onto a few trees to scramble to the wide talus basin below the peaks’s northwest face. Then we went all the way right back across talus and snow and scrambled up an arm of easy rock and heather to the peak’s west ridge. Then up and back a bit left, with occasional 3rd class scrambling to the base of the steeper rock. Northwest Couloir: To get to the NW couloir from the west ridge, we traversed on broken rock below the rock faces around to the first couloir on the left. The couloir has a tree-topped outcrop in the middle, framed by two taller towers. We went up right of the outcrop, with a few fourth class moves near the bottom. At the top, a bit more scambling led to the giant chockstone wedged in the wall .

Cathedral Route

On the west ridge rock step (photo taken going down on descent)

Looking up the west ridge rock band to the NW Couloir

Below the NW Couloir (photo taken going down on descent)

Looking up the NW Couloir (route is right of the center outcrop)

Terrain between top of couloir & base of tunnel (photo taken going down on descent)

The Snake Twist Tunnel: Here was the tunnel. One description described it as a hole under a chockstone. Well, yes, but not really. The “chockstone” is the size of a small house, 15 feet wide and 30 feet high, wedged atop a slab between walls of the peak. The “hole” is a tunnel about 15 feet long and never more than about 30 inches wide. No taking any packs through this one. To get into it, you have to stand at the top of the slab, pull yourself up halfway into it, and then twist sideways, over, and back up to get in. The rest of it is smooth cold interior rock that you just have to squirm and push against till you pull yourself out the top. I don’t know how cavers can do this stuff underground. It was claustrophic enough with daylight at both ends. And tight. As Dicey commented, “how did the Schmidts and Yukon get those big cameras through there?”

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The giant chockstone, with tunnel at its lower right corner

Dicey twisting into the entry (the tunnel isn’t above her head, but underneath the boulder on the left)

Looking up at Dicey higher in the tunnel

Looking down past my feet from top of the tunnel

Cartman climbing the tunnel

Top of the tunnel

A few more ramps and slopes of broken rock led to the summit, which was also mostly a pile of chockstones.

Carla sitting on a summit chockstone

On the summit

Getting off the summit, can’t quite make the dive to Peggy’s Pond

On the descent, we used our scramble rope briefly to protect a couple exposed moves at the base of the couloir. Peggy’s Pond to Hyas Lake Trailhead 3448 (4:30 – 7:53pm) After we got back to our packs and pumped some more water, we took the Cathedral Pass trailhead out. The trail down provided occasional views of the Granite/Trico crest, which turned very red as I dropped lower into the woods.

Flowers along the trail

Reflections in a pond along the way

[Fletcher]

When I was in that area a few weeks ago I took basically the same picture as yours from Daniel arm. I climbed up there from our campsite which was just below and thought Man! That looks like a cool area to explore. Looks like you walked right through our campsite on your way to Peggy's. Looks like a cool trip.

[iron]

awesome. really like the picture "crystal jade depths"!

[silence]

gorgeous gorgeous .. eye candy ...

[alpinelakes]

Exceptional report and photos. Some really nice light on some of these shots. And an excellent map, too. Thanks. I've been wanting to get in that way for a while... just need to decide how to get past Pea Soup Lake...Lynch, Diptop or flotation technology... I think the FS should provide rafts like they do bear cannisters... it's a safety issue for heavens sake... Bravo for the great effort!

[Stefan]

i really like the jade lake depths too. It is simple and elegant at the same time. Look like you enjoyed the outing. Great!!!

[Mofro]

Excellent pics! A striking difference in the "Little Jade Glacier" from this year's cold and wet spring.

[Dayhike Mike]

What a great idea for a loop! Really nice work, guys!

[raising3hikers]

Great pics, Looks like a great trip, I've wanted to go in that way for some time now, I'll definitely put it on the list

[Matt]

[Matt]

I added the rest of Sunday to the report above. From our Diptop Gap camp, it was also fascinating to watch the light shift across Daniel overnight – evening shadows stretching across one side, deepening into sunset color, fading to dark at night, then ripening into sunrise colors, and morning shadows retreating across the other side.

Evening Daniel, 7:06pm

Sunset Daniel, 7:36pm

Afterglow behind Daniel, 8:00pm

Magenta Daniel, 8:22pm

Sunrise Daniel, 6:30am

Morning Daniel, 7:36am

[yukon222]

Very fine TR showing that incredible scenery. I really enjoyed "revisiting" the area thru your TR. Isn't that Cathedral "tunnel" fun? Tight squeeze to get thru that but very cool to pop out so close to the summit.

[Hiker Mama]

Fabulous! (My kids saw this and totally want to go. Time to start investing in backpacking gear, I think...) Thanks for the beautiful photos.

[puzzlr]

[Backpacker Joe]

Great pics as usual Matt. Hey I climbed Diptop once. Closest thing to being a peak bagger I guess. LOL.