[meck]

March Peak, Lenten Peak, and Peak 5345, 21 June 2015, ONF (in the vicinity of Tunnel Creek/Mt Constance) Elevation Gain: not sure Round trip Distance: maybe ~12’ish miles round trip (8 on trail, 4’ish off trail) IanB posted some nice trip reports from these peaks in 2011 and 2012. I wanted to go up April Peak today, but made a wrong turn (followed the wrong branch of the South Fork of Tunnel Creek) and ended up in the basin just south east of March and Lenten peaks instead, oh well looks like I’ll be climbing those first instead! I left the TH ~0925. The trail was in great condition, though for some reason this particular trail always gives me the creeps. Based on the sign-in log it has been very busy the last couple of weekends.

Tunnel Creek trail (north section)

Tunnel Creek Trail and Shelter

The off trail travel up to the basin was ok. I left the trail at the bridge across Tunnel Creek and started following the way trail. I assumed the small creek that was parallel to the way trail, was just that, a small unimportant creek, but it actually was the creek draining Cunningham basin; I should have paralleled it but did not (last time I was here was back in 2013 heading up to Cunningham Pass). Lots of bush whacking, and climbing over boulders. As I gained elevation it dawned on me that this basin seemed too narrow and I was not seeing the cliffs on south side of Enigma and Destroyer. I suspected and then confirmed that I was in the drainage further south and east. I gained the ridge line at the upper end of the basin at 1230. Checking the map, altimeter, and glassing the slope up March Peak, I decided to give it a go first and maybe try and tag April Peak if I had the time.

Up the boulder field to the upper basin

Up this drainage to the upper Tunnel Creek basin

April and March Peaks from the south saddle

The slope up to March/Lenten Peaks, while steep, was generally comfortable travel across good step-like ‘grippy’ rock. I wandered around the summit of each (6100’) for about a half hour (taking lots of ‘recon’ photos for later trips), and then headed down (left at ~1400). To get to the saddle between April Peak and March Peak from the south side, looked like it could require me to give up some more elevation before heading back up to the saddle, hmmm maybe not today. Since I was going to leave April Peak for another trip, I thought I might try traversing over to Valhalla Peak and then exit via the full Tunnel Creek trail from 5050 pass.

Mt Constance from March-Lenten ridge

Peak 7022 from March-Lenten ridge

Dose-Tunnel Creek ridge

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April Peak from March Peak

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Mt Constance Boot Shot from March Peak

Heading down from March Peak

Hood Canal in the distance down the Dosewallips river drainage

Mt Constance Summit & block

The ridge traverse worked out alright but took much longer than I had hoped. The goat paths were generally safe to follow, but I made the mistake of trying to stay at the ridge at the wrong times and ended up having to backtrack two or three times to drop below the stone buttresses on the south side of the ridge.

Pt 5345 (Valhalla Peak?) in the distance

Cliffed out, darn!

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Ridge traverse, stay below the buttresses!

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Upper basin of the south branch, south fork Tunnel Creek

Mt Jupiter from the ridge traverse

I followed the paths up to Valhalla Peak (5345’), ate dinner at ~1640, and then began the trip down…. which was uneventful until I rolled my ankle below Harrison Lake and heard a weird ‘pop’ sound. I noticed some minor pain when moving the ankle in a rolling direction, so with ~4.5 miles to go, I used the removable back pad from my pack and a tie strap to provide some support/compression and then tied my boot back up around it. Rest of the descent was fine.

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March and Lenten peaks

Ridge traverse from Peak 5345

Harrison Lake from Peak 5345 (east)

I arrived back at the TH at 1900, ankle only beginning to slightly swell (hopefully its nothing more than a mild sprain!)

[IanB]

Nice to see your photos - looks like a fun day! Wish I had tagged Lenten while I was up on March. I'm still confused about what the OMCG calls February Peak (5301'). If they don't mean Valhalla (5345'), then is it supposed to be the micro-summit that you "cliffed out" on? (Both times I approached it from the west, it wants to sucker me into going up and over, but I keep reminding myself that the downclimb on the east side may be more than I am comfortable with.) It requires a hundred feet loss or so on the south side - sketchy if you cut across the buttresses rather than drop all the way below. That's the only bump that seems to require dropping much off the ridge. There's one other that just let's you squeak by through the hemlocks on the north side.

[rambln]

Nice I have that area on my list for this summer. April, March, February, Lenten and Cunningham basin/pass. Would love to find a way over to Lake Constance too. Thanks for the labels. Probably the most descriptive report I've read on those peaks. Hope your ankle is ok!

[meck]

IanB: Your TRs were a big help in visiting this spot, thank you for posting them back in 2011 and 2012! I too was pretty confused by which peak is February and which is Lenten. I think I visited Lenten, because the OMCG says its 6100' too, and there was a slight dip in the ridge over to March, so maybe it counts as a separate peak? (the next rocky point east is quite a bit lower and appears to be a much higher climbing grade than 3, must be 'The Nun' peak). As for February Peak, I think your guess regarding the woody point south and east of Lenten, from your TRs, looks to be about right. The cliffy ridge I climbed might be February, but it looked like it was at least 100' lower or so than Valhalla (I forgot to check my altimeter). The east side of the ridge I cliffed out on dropped at least 25-30 feet back to the ridge, and I saw no goat tracks (a sure sign that it it near impassible!). I generally tried to stay off the north side since it looked so precipitous (I found myself even questioning the stability of the rock given all the rock debris in the basin below). rambln: Thank you for reading the TR! I was looking at the topo map and terrain, I'm not sure you're gonna do much better than passing through Cunningham Pass and over the Constance Ridge (south chute) to get to Lake Constance from Cunningham Basin. I scoped out the south end of the Constance Ridge from Mt Jupiter last October and it looks kind of rough, though maybe, just maybe its not so bad (all depends on how steep scree slope is).

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south end of Mt Constance from Mt Jupiter 20151019

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AprilPeak_from_Jupiter_20141019

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March and Lenten Peaks from Mt. Jupiter_20141019

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Possible pass on south side of Mt Constance_20131231, from east side of Lake Constance

and thanks for asking about the ankle, still hurts a bit, still bruised but otherwise feeling ok with an ace-wrap.

[NWtrax]

i get a creepy feeling in that valley for some reason too. nice report, thanks.

[seekapeak]

Glad your ankle is healing! Great detailed report - thanks! We would love to do an Autumn backpack trip in there.

[IanB]

That connection to Lake Constance is on my wish list as well. I can't remember where, but I recall reading that it goes. (Maybe it was in Chris Morgenroth's autobiography?) Anyway, between the topo maps and your photos, it certainly looks doable. Also, RPBrown alluded to "Bull Elk Pass" in his post about Tubal Cain:

[rambln]

Thanks meck and Ian Very informative posts. I'm pretty sure there has been some talk on here before about accessing Lake Constance from Tunnel Creek. Perhaps between Ian, Abert and Ancient Ambler? I wouldn't mind if any one of you beat me to it. For some good beta of course

[meck]

Thanks all for reading the TR. Figured I post one or two more beta shots. These are from a visit to Cunningham Pass and the peak just SW of it (a bit east from south Mt Constance ridge proper). That is some pretty neat historical info IanB! (pretty tempting info to base some exploring around)

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"April Peak Pass" from Cunningham Pass, 20130902

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April Peak from above, 20130902

I'd love to try to make a loop hike: Dose to 5050 Pass (Tunnel Creek trail), over to basin below Cunningham Pass (either via the Tunnel Creek trail and off trail into the basin, or maybe back along the ridge between Valhalla and March/April peaks), over the "possible pass" on the south of Constance, down into the Lake Constance Basin, then down and back out the Dose. I don't think I'll get to it for at least a month or two as there are a few other peaks I want to go visit first while the weather is favorable for views.