[puzzlr]

Martin S and I climbed Burntboot via the Middle Fork valley, starting up at the Hardscrabble trailhead. Most years the river crossing is the first difficulty, but this year's low water let us rock-hop across. We came in the night before and slept at the trailhead to get an early start and avoid the heat of the day. On the way in we enjoyed 2 miles of new pavement just laid down this week. The lower 1500' of the valley was gouged out by the glaciers with steep walls interspersed with cliffs and avalanche chutes. To get through this we followed the Pteropsida route described in Dreisbach's book and by Mike Collins. If you can't cross the river right at Hardscrabble then getting to this route would be tough because of the thick brush on the valley floor - other people have reported having to walk up to 1/2 mile up the trail to find a crossing. But there is a recent big log down that spans the river just below the trailhead that will probably be useable for years. We got to the talus after pushing through some tall brush on the valley floor then climbed it to the base of a cliff visible from the trailhead. There is 80' of open forest for the last bit to the cliff, then it's a brushy traverse left below the cliff until you drop down into the gully. The gully would be horrible with water flowing, but it was dry so we could walk up the scoured and sometimes slabby creek bottom which is almost as good as a (very steep) trail. Huge cliffs tower over the right side of the gully until the top where you can exit left into open forest, but with a steep duffy floor. It continues to be steep for a few hundred feet above the gully until at ~4200' the slope eases and the rest of the way is through open forest and talus fields with several options for getting to the summit. We chose to go directly up to the notch just west of the summit, traverse over the peak, then descend the east face. There is easier access to the ridge farther west, but then you need to rap down into the notch. The reason for descending the east face was so I could try to find remains of a 1947 plane crash that went missing until it was discovered by the first ascent group in 1963 (but from a mining company helicopter, not while climbing). The only uncertainty for us was whether the couloir would go without any snow in it. Well, it did, but with a few short 4th class steps spicing up the otherwise 3rd class scrambling with loose rocks. From the notch there is a short 3rd class heather and rock scramble to the summit talus field with some exposure. The 2003 Fay Pullen register was totally soaked so I left a new one and brought it down for archiving. The summit is only about 1 mile away from the Hardscrabble trailhead, but 3700' higher. We kept moving, and even with an hour on the summit and a short side trip to the plane wreck our RT time from Hardscrabble was 7 hours. But there was still the long segment to and from the Dingford gate.

Big Blowout Creek bridge with new pavement starting from the far end of the bridge

Burntboot route from Hardscrabble trailhead

View up from Hardscrabble TH. The north Summit, notch, and the fang west of the notch are visible. The cliff in the foreground is where our route goes.

A big tree just downstream of the trailhead that could be a possible river crossing at higher flows

Rock hopping over the Middle Fork river, unusual for this early in summer

Taking advantage of fallen logs to get through the brush and over the creek to reach the talus field across the river

Beginning of the talus slope leading up to the cliff

At the base of the cliff we veered left toward a gully. This was the most brushy section and on a steep slope.

At 3480' we dropped down a 15' step into the gully using veggie belays

View back down the gully after starting up. The sun is just rising and lighting up the Price-Big Snow ridge across the valley.

The dry stream bed worked as a relatively less brushy path up the gully. In wetter periods this would be difficult because of slabby rock sections.

The top of the gully at 4000'. Upon entering the forest here the undergrowth becomes thinner and travel is much easier, but still steep

Open forest and blocky talus clearings at ~5000'

At timberline the trees shrunk to scrub size but it was still easy to find paths through and connect with talus sections.

Closer to the gully leading up to the notch. There appear to be big rocks blocking progress. Can we scramble up it?

Martin at the first short class 4 step

Third class 4 step. It's steep but there were lots of solid foot and hand holds.

Final scramble to the notch

Entering the notch from the ridge would require a rope to descend this cliff safely. I'm glad we chose to come up the gully.

On the south side of the notch a ledge leads to a scramble up and left 300' to the summit.

Martin at the notch

Traversing the ledge from the notch

The fang just west of the notch, Point 5481 behind it, Thomson on the left

Looking down into the gully we climbed from the north summit

Beyond the north summit I found this survey marker. It says "BCMC Keechelus Peak". My guess is that BCMC stands for Bear Creek Mining Company that sponsored mineral exploration here in the 60s when the peak was first climbed.

Burntboot south (main) summit

Wolverine Creek fire by Lake Chelan. Overcoat Lake is at bottom right. inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/4354/

Big Snow from Burntboot

summit register

summit register

summit register

Dreisbach's "class 2" gully up the east face. We chose to descend via the rocky ridge at the top of the picture which worked well.

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Nellie claim slope on Hardscrabble Peak from Burntboot. The cabin is just a few pixels from this far away. The Nellie Claim is an active mine on private property and entry is not permitted.

The south (main) Burntboot summit and the huge slab wall below it from the east face

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Scrambling down the east face

Traversing around to join our ascent route around the corner to the left

The 1947 plane wreck

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The 1947 plane wreck. Was this red plate used to mark the location?

Seattle Times articles related to this plane wreck

At the top of the gully. The slope is steep here so care must be taken to get into the gully safely.

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Descending the gully

Descending the gully

Brush below the cliff after exiting the gully

Brush below the cliff after exiting the gully

Rock hopping across the Middle Fork at Hardscrabble Creek outlet

This brings my Middle Fork 65-peak list countdown to 5 left. The previous four were Wild Goat, Iron Cap, Revolution and Russian Butte. No trip reports for those but I linked to my flickr photo sets.

[yukon222]

Great report! Love the pics and route. Question - when / why did the "unofficial" peak name change from Keechelus to Burntboot? Obviously burnt boot due to nearby hot springs / creek. Just surprised that the survey marker would reference Keechelus Peak. Burntboot is a "better" choice. :-)

[cartman]

Nice route! Looking at that hillside earlier this year I thought no way would I want to attempt it with all that brush. The rock looks interesting and grippy. The light at the end of the tunnel grows near...

[puzzlr]

[Hutch]

Your trip reports never cease to be inspiring. Not sure I've got the determination for that, but thank you.

[yukon222]

Thanks for the info, Puzzlr. BTW - the nearby creek currently shows on my USGS 7.5' map as "Burnboot Creek" without any "T". Yet the historical USGS 1885-1915 and 1915-1945 maps show it as "Burnt Boot Creek".

[RichP]

Looks better than I imagined it, puzzlr. Great report.

[Gimpilator]

Awesome to see a good detailed route description for this peak. I've wondered about it for a long time. Thanks!!!

[Stefan]

Good show! :0

[Stefan-K]

awesome! love this pic:

[Mike Collins]

So I am curious. Was my trip report of any help to you reaching the top?

[neek]

Neat. That class 4 section looks fun.

[puzzlr]

[Mike Collins]

[raising3hikers]

good luck on your final 5! thanks for sharing your report on a rarely visited summit