[ozzy]

Another week, time for another peak! With the opening of the chiwawa river road it was time to get back out that way. I always thought the Spectacle buttes looked awesome from across the entiat valley and now seemed to be a good time to get up on em! I was also excited to see the Ice lakes, the plan was to camp at the upper lake. Hans was onboard as usual so we met up and found ourselves at the Phelps Creek TH around 5am. We were hiking at 545am. There were two creek crossings that we had to wade across, about shin deep. Then we found the path goin up to Leroy basin. Quick time was made to the basin where the views were already awesome, 7fj always impresses from down there! The both of us were feeling great and were loving being in the hills again! The only bad thing was the mosquitos were starting to come out, a sign of things to come lol. We took a break in the basin to soak it all in.

One of many creek crossings down lower

Leroy basin, 7fj above

After the break we took the climber's path up to the Maude-Freezer saddle, ca 7600'. The views to the south were feeding the stoke! GP was out in all it's glory as were all the chiwawa area peaks! Gotta love this place. Once at the saddle the Spectacle buttes were in sight!! Wow, they were still a ways away but we had all day to get there! Maude looks pretty cool from here too, it's sweet how it towers over upper ice lake! We had to take another break at said saddle, it only seemed right to drink some more whiskey.

To the Maude-Freezer saddle

Happy place

the saddle upper right

View south is nice

Choss just below saddle

Oh dayum son, the buttes in the distance

After the break we strolled on down, 400ft, to upper ice lake where we would be staying the night. The lake was starting to melt out but mostly ice still. Maude looks huge from the lake! We were happy to drop some weight and took our time lounging for a few hours enjoying the alpine! The skeeters were a bit of a nuisance at this point but nothing like they would become later. Camp was reached at 1230pm and we left for SSB at 230pm.

Upper ice lake with SSB on right

Looks like a nice place for a bivy

cool inlet of the upper lake

Pristine

Still mostly frozen lake

Maude from camp

Upon our departure from camp we dropped a couple hundred feet to lower ice lake and skirted the east side. Another climber's path is located through here. We took the path down to 6400'and then made a level traverse towards SSB. There are a pretty badass waterfalls coming out of both lakes that are viewed from down here! However this was where the hordes of mosquitoes were at there worst! Man... those little bastards were persistent. I kinda sapped a lot of my energy trying to stay ahead of them lol. We were planning on going for the North Butte while we were up there but I was already feeling a little bonked and we weren't even on SSB proper yet! Maybe it was the whiskey or maybe it was just a slog, at any rate once we reached SSB's SW ridge around 7000' a food break was had. After I got some food in the belly I felt better and we were both ready for the final push. As we made our final push we encountered a fair amount of choss to say the least! It helps to try and stick to the sides where the solid rock is, uhhhh choss hell again lol! Like others have noted in the past, at the first gendarme go right and the second gendarme we went down and to the right as well. The third gendarme, 7700', is the spicy one. We found the class four section trivial, it does look a little weird until you get out on it. We crossed up high, some people drop 25ft to bypass it that way. Once pass that there was actually some fun class 3 the last 300ft. There was an occasional cairn but generally we picked the funnest way up. You wanna pay attention through that last part to the summit, on the way down we almost dropped the wrong gully and had to climb back up 100ft or so. I was so smoked on the upper reaches I wasn't paying attention as much as I usually do. The view back towards ice lakes was phenomenal though! Finally we topped out around 615pm, almost 4hrs from camp! Dayum it was a bit of a grind to make it up there but the views made up for that. At this point Hans was feeling a bit beat down too so NSB was out of the question, we didn't have enough daylight anyway. The register was located but we could get the notebook out of the tube, it was pressed in there pretty tight. So the views were soaked in as was whiskey in our bellies, cheers!

Lower ice lake with Buttes

SSB's SW ridge getting closer

Chilly pk center

Traversing

Outlet of lower ice lake

Ice lakes area with Maude to Fernow

Low on SW ridge

Getting up there

The crux gendarme

Hans coming across the ledge

Yewwwww

Back to camp, wowww

Hans on top

Oooweeee

Yea buddd

The usual extended summit stay was not in store today. We could only spend 45mins up there before we departed for camp in hopes of getting there before sunset. At 7pm we made the journey downwards, we could see our camp and it looked so far. Nothing stops father time though and we arrived at lower ice lake in an hour and a half. Took a 30min break then made it to camp, upper ice lake, at 10pm. It took 3hrs from SSB. The wind had picked up later in the evening blowing all the mosquitoes out too which was a blessing. The moonrise that night was righteous and we sipped the rest of our whiskey! It's so much more relaxing in camp knowing that you just gotta walk out in the morning, cheers!

Going back down da mountain

The crux gendarme again

Last sun on SSB

Nice evening color on chilly

lower ice lake outlet

sweeeet

The morning came quick and the skeeters followed soon after. I think we packed up camp around 10am and made it back to the car at 230pm. Pretty uneventful on the way out, just soaking up the scenery. It was another awesome trip and only our second time on the Phelps Creek trail. I'm kinda glad we didn't get NSB because it gives us a great excuse to go back during larch season lol! Another great few days to be alive! Thanks Hans for joining again and cheers to all! 23miles-ish 7200ft of gain or so 2 days

Morning with Maude

At the saddle again

Last looks back

Marmot trying to chew on my bag

back down towards home

[Gimpilator]

Thanks for the good read. 👍 Love those Ice Lakes!

[raising3hikers]

Yeah, not getting north spectacle is the perfect reason to go back in larch season. You won't be let down! Looks like a fun time as usual

[Dolph Lundgren]

Nice report, Ozzy Was just thinking about getting up SSB this weekend, looks like a solid time to make the trip! Have to say I loathe the drive in to the TH, though By the way, were you a 2/75 guy?

[Theboywhocriedroute]

A slog indeed my lad... worth every step! Yeah.. thank God those skeeter got blown away.. that was mental. Twas a fun route, and some of the best scenery. Thanks for another killer write up! Till the next one!

[rocknclimb]

Nice one dudes. The mosquitos at Lemah this weekend may have been the worst I've ever seen. There was no escape

[rbuzby]

Looks like fun, nice pics. I found an ice axe up there once, and left it there. Too big and heavy to haul out. Do you guys always "sip" the whiskey? Do you ever just drink it? Pretty impressive to do long days in the mountains while drinking a depressant. At my advanced age, I have to wait until camp to imbibe anything, but when I was younger, I could climb a mountain dragging a truck tire tied to my waist. Youth is un beatable, when it's in season. But so is time.

[ozzy]

Dolph- lol yea one of the many drives I don't look forward to. Yes sir, I grew up in 2/75 C co. 1st plt. Cheers! Derek- damnnn man!! Thank God the bugs weren't that bad! Rbuzby- yea we just sip most of the trip, once in camp that's when the drinkin/chuggin goes down! We could probably get a lot more done if we didn't have so much fun... different stokes for different folks!

[Dolph Lundgren]

Nice! And decided to stay in the area, no less. I'm here at JBLM, if you ever need a partner and want some like-minded company give me a holler! Big fan of whiskey