[Matt]

Dates: April 30 – May 1, 2016 Destinations: Delancy Ridge (7228ft, 768P), Delancy East (6991ft, 411P), Flagg (7422ft, 722P), Catleap (7789ft, 649P) Party: Matt, Dicey, Cartman, PeakJunkie This was my third visit to Delancy Ridge, all by approaching straight up from the highway about seven miles east of Washington Pass.

• On April 15, 1999, I went to Delancy Benchmark with a very fast group (mtnmike, Stefan, Mitch Blanton, Greg Koenig), but rested there while they went on to Flagg, because I was saving my energy for a visit to Robinson the next day.
• On May 11, 2014, I went over Delancy Benchmark to Flagg Mtn with Yana & GeoTom on a beautiful day of gathering clouds and bold sunlight.
• This time we wanted to celebrate the opening of SR20 by camping up high on the ridge and visiting more of the surrounding peaks, especially the rarely visited Catleap.

Itinerary Saturday: We hiked up the south slope of Delancy Ridge and made camp atop Point 6686. Then we divided for side trips east along Delancy Ridge and west to Flagg Mtn. Sunday: We made a morning side trip to Catleap Peak, then hiked back down to the highway.

The peaks of this trip, as viewed from Flagg Mtn in 2014

GPS Track

Saturday SR20 to Delancy Camp 6686 (10:25am – 2:05pm) We parked on SR20 at 1.3 miles east of the Lone Fir Campground entrance, where there's a good line uphill to the crest of Delancy Ridge. At his point on the highway, there's a wide spot just before a guardrail with space for a couple cars. Or, if you prefer a larger space to park, there's a bigger pull-out about 0.2 miles west. Our goal was to reach the 6600-foot col just west of Point 6686. At the start, go left into some trees to avoid thick brush near the highway. About 200 feet uphill, you reach an open meadow area. From there, it's a mix of trees and occasional brush, with occasional small rock bands. Going up, we angled a bit east and hiked in a mostly dry stream bed through some brushy parts. Going down, we stayed farther west along the edge of different stream skirting bands of slide alder. Circa 5000 feet, the slope becomes more forested for easier travel. Around 5300 feet, we were on snow most of the way, and around 5600 we angled off he ridge crest to hike up easier snow in the center of the basin. You want to stay out of the central creek gully lower down, because it narrows to a cliffy gorge. Point 6686 provided a hilltop camp with wide views of the surrounding area, especially the proud rise of Silver Star standing opposite us and the deep sweep of the highway below us curving up to Washington Pass.

Our "trailhead"

Go into woods left of this photo to avoid brush, then angle back up the open meadows and forests

Ascending the steep mix of forest, brush & rock

Silver Star across the valley

SR20 to Delancy Camp: 1.9 miles, 3090 gain, 20 loss, 3:40 hours Delancy Benchmark & Flagg Mtn Westward from camp, Delancy Benchmark, 7256 feet, is the highest point on Delancy Ridge, but only has 156 feet of prominence, because it connects northward to Flagg Mountain. The high point of Flagg is Point 7422 on the map. The further north point that's titled "Flagg Mtn" on the map is lower at approximately 7360 feet.

Camp, Delancy BM & Flagg, as viewed from Delancy 7228

Dicey, Cartman & peakjunkie visited Flagg Mtn by traversing over Delancy Benchmark and back. I didn't go with them, but here are a few photos from my trip to Flagg with Yana & GeoTom on 5/11/2014. Hopefully the others will post some of their photos from this year's trip.

Looking from Delancy BM to Flagg, May 2014

Yana & GeoTom enjoying the view from Flagg, May 2014

Approximate round trip to Flagg: 3.0 miles, 1230 gain & loss. Delancy 7228 & 6991 (3:15-8:45pm) Eastward from camp are two more summits on Delancy Ridge. About a mile east is Point 7228, the highest prominent point on Delancy Ridge. Another couple miles beyond that is Delancy East, Point 6991, which has 391 feet or 411 feet of prominence, depending on whether you calculate by "clean" prominence or interpolated prominence. I wanted to visit more new places, so I went to both of the eastward summits.

Delancy ridge as viewed from Flagg Mtn in May 2014

Delancy 7228 was easy travel on the snowy ridge crest, dropping down about 250 feet and then back up 800 to the summit. The snow was firm enough to walk on, but much easier with snowshoes, so I wore them throughout this part. At the summit I found larger deteriorating summits, so stayed well back from the edge. It did have fine views of the surrounding peaks.

Delancy Ridge summit cairn

A more eastern angle on Silver Moon & Silver Star, rising above Silver Star Creek

Kangaroo Ridge

Early Winters ridge rising above the Washington Pass hairpin

The Needles rising above Delancy Benchmark

After a brief pause, I headed onward to East Delancy. It was a lot more travel for a lower summit, but I wanted to fill out the day with more travel up high. The west ridge of 7228 required some scrambling on broken rock, because the crest was bare in places except for the unstable cornices. After that it was just a many more ups and downs along the ridge to finally reach East Delancy. It was a good workout, but it was disheartening to know that every step took me farther from camp, with all the elevation to gain again on the way back. My altimeter claimed that the rise from the final col to the summit was 410 feet.

Failing cornices on Delancy Ridge

Looking back up at the west ridge of Delancy 7228

Looking ahead along the undulating ridge to East Delancy 6991

Looking back across all the ups and downs to camp

Repeater just past East Delancy

On my return trip, the skies grew darker as I raced the approach of night, but my spirits grew brighter for two reason. First, every step now took me closer to camp instead of farther away. And second, I got to enjoy the evening colors from on high as I traveled. Changing light on Delancy Ridge as I traveled:

Sidelit cornices glowing from below

Cornices turning pink

Changing light on Silver Star (plus Silver Moon & Kangaroo):

Silver Star afternoon light, 7:17pm

Silver Star golden light, 7:47pm

Silver Star alpenglow, 8:07pm

Silver Star afterglow, 8:14pm

Some of the other peaks:

Big Kangaroo

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The Cutthroat crest form Hinkhouse to Cutthroat to Molar Tooth (with bits of Bonanza, Glacier, & Dome in the background)

And finally, the sun put on an optical display as it burned through the crest of Azurite and sent up a solar pillar.

Sunset burning through Azurite (note that summit spires are entirely missing)

Solar pillar just after sunset

I made it back to camp on the last bit of light before having to use my headlamp. I was tired enough that I just wanted to go to bed, but stayed up long enough for a hot meal before turning in. Round trip to Delancy 7228 & 6991: 5.9 miles, 2690 gain & loss, 5:30 hours My total for Saturday: 7.8 miles, 5780 gain, 2710 loss. Sunday Morning at Delancy Camp The long days of spring give lots of time for hiking, but not so much for sleeping. I'd gotten in late last night, but by 5:30am the clear skies were beginning to glow with pastel light, so sleep became an expendable luxury.

dawn approaches the sleeping camp

A sickle moon hung high above Silver Star as morning light descended onto the heights.

Foreglow behind Silver Star, 5:37am

First alpenglow on Silver Star, 5:44am

Peaks rising up into the morning light

More alpenglow:

Alpenglow on the Needles

Pinkthroat

Sunrise reaches our camp:

Sunrise burns through East Delancy

Sunrise reaches my tent below Delancy Benchmark

Catleap Peak (6:45am – 2:30pm) Catleap Peak was the prize of the trip, a rarely visited high point. It's located north of The Needles, between Cataract & Leap Creeks (thus the cat-leap name). However, there's no direct route to Catleap, because Catleap it separated from Delancy by Leap Creek and parts of Catleap's crest are blocked by rock outcrops. So the route to Catleap has three parts:

1. A half-mile short traverse to Delancy Col, the 6650-foot col between Delancy & The Needles.
2. An almost-two-mile curve down the wide headwater basin of Leap Creek below the Needles and then back up to Catleap Col, the 7140-foot col between Needles & Catleap.
3. A mile-long traverse along the west slope of Catleap up to its summit at 7789.

The traverse from Delancy Col to Catleap Col, viewed from Delancy Benchmark

The west slope of Catleap, viewed from The Needles

The traverse to Delancy Col required crampons on the hard morning snow. From Delancy Col, easier slopes made an easy descent to Leap Creek. We took the easiest line, accepting the 700-foot elevation loss down to the creek, rather than work a lot harder to traverse higher on the steeper slopes. There were tracks of old debris running down from Needles, but everything now was packed down solid from the weeks of recent hot weather.

Descending into Leap Creek Basin

peakjunkie adding some sunscreen in the warm sunny basin

Paralleling our path across the basin, the moon entertained us by playing hide-and-seek across the beautiful gold-toned spires of The Needles.

Moon skimming the crest of The Needles

Pac-Man Moon about to take a bite out of some spires

Moon above the false summit of The Needles

Ahead, however, was literally a looming problem. Catleap Col was blocked by a giant overhanging cornice. Higher up the basin, however, we found one snowy gully cutting through the steeper rocks, which allowed us to escape onto the crest. It was steep cramponing in a few spots, but it worked.

The cornice wall blocking Catleap Col

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Bright lemony Dicey coming up out of the basin

Heading up to the escape gully

Beyond the col was easier terrain, just a mile-long traverse along the west side of Catleap. We had to stay around 7400 feet most of the way to pass below some ribs and gullies, and the long side-hill traverse was an ankle killer, but it was all straightforward travel.

The Needles standing above the north side of Catleap Col

Anticipating the long sidehill to Catleap's summit

Catleap's summit had a small cairn but no register. I wish I'd thought to bring one. We enjoyed the pleasure of sitting in the windy sunshine and soaking up the views from a fine remote summit.

peakjunkie standing at the far end of Catleap, with Pickets and Azurite beyond.

peakjunkie soaking up the view of Tower, Golden, Horn & Straight Ridge

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Northeast face of Tower (the face route actually follows that snowy ledge halfway across the peak) (also, you can see the summit cairn from 3 miles away)

Golden Horn

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The Needles

Me on Catleap

On the way back, I stayed higher on Catleap's crest to check out the line of rotten cornices along its east side.

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Wide view southward along the crest of Catleap

Collapsing Cornices of Catleap

Back side of the cornices

The descent of gully at Catleap Col provided me with an unwelcome bit of adventure. As I stepped down a steep step at the top, a gust of wind blew my hat off my head. When I reached for it, the change of posture took my weight off my crampon points and I fell. I tried to arrest, but my ice axe slid through the soft afternoon surface of the snow. With a rock band coming up below me, I was able to steer toward a small tree and stop there. This was only the first misfortune with my crampons for the day. Going back across Leap Basin, we took a slightly higher line and angled up a bench to Delancy Col, which hadn't been obvious on the way down.

Descending the gully

peakjunkie traversing back across Leap Creek basin

Arriving back at camp, I stopped paying attention, tripped on a tent cord, and sent my cramponed foot flying out to rip an 18-inch slice through my tent fly. Catleap Round Trip: 6.6 miles, 3220 gain & loss, 7:45 hours Descent (3:10-5:00pm) The descent went quickly. We were able to drop the first 1300 feet on snow. Later in the forest, we took a line slightly west of our ascent, following the edge of a small stream to skirt the edge of some bad slide alder areas.

The empty foundations of our campsite and kitchen area

Camp to Car: 1.8 miles, 3975 loss, 1:50 hours My total for Sunday: 8.4 miles, 3220 gain, 6295 loss Trip total: 16.2 miles, 9000 gain. Gear Notes Snowshoes weren't necessary, but made travel a lot easier in softer afternoon snow in the basins and ridge tops. Crampons were necessary for hard snow in the morning and the long traverse along the side of Catleap. Gear Repair Endorsement I took my ripped tent for repairs to a seamstress that Cartman had used before and recommended, Carol Douglas of Sewing Specialties, 206-818-0870. She did excellent work on the tent. For only $45, she repaired the big tear, plus a smaller tear on the fly door and four holes in the tent mesh. I highly recommend her work for gear repairs.

[RichP]

Awesome trip. Those great weather days seem so far away now.

[Nancyann]

More great work from the "demented groundhog". Matt, thank you so much for taking the time to share your magnificent photos and stories. Many (most) of us would never get to see these incredible views if it weren't for you.

[Jetlag]

Wow! Those are beautiful views. Particularly like the perspective on Silver Star and The Needles!

[wildernessed]

Nice. I had thought that point would make a better destination if you went in from the Driveway Butte trail instead of going over to Driveway Butte. Great views, pics, and route.

[Stefan-K]

some really nice seldom seen perspectives from there... thanks for the report Matt. I bet the temptation of skis crossed the minds of at least half the group...

[Matt]

[Gimpilator]

[Matt]

I think it's easier on snow, because there'd be a lot more brush and talus later. However, that basin below The Needles is almost entirely larch trees, so it would also be beautiful in early October.

[Distel32]

[GaliWalker]