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The Picket Range – August 6 – 13, 2004

The mountains in the Picket Range got good names. Luna. Fury. Phantom. Terror. Challenger. Everybody that writes about them seems to start out by commenting on that. The Picket that they’re named after was Captain George Pickett – a distant relative of mine who became famous for Pickett’s charge at the Civil War battle of Gettysburg. (At least that’s what Beckey said in 1961 – by 1981 he’d started talking about picket fences.) Beckey’s Challenge of the North Cascades has two chapters about climbing in the Pickets and some of the most memorable lines in the book come from those chapters. “Stock in our venture soared” he says when they top out on Crooked Thumb. The tangles of Luna Creek elicited “Helmy … had visions of cooking bear flesh in Assyrian fashion … but I pictured meeting a mother bear with cubs.” You get glimpses of the range from the North Cascades Highway – look up Goodell Creek as you drive into Newhalem and you see the Chopping Block; look back while driving the grade up from Thunder Arm and you see the Northern Pickets.

The participants on this trip were:

During the summer of 2003 JH began talking about a week-long climbing trip in the Picket Range. He was disappointed in that the people he approached had already formulated plans and weren’t able to arrange schedules to accommodate his availability. JH began recruiting participants for a 2004 trip in January of that year. After suggesting the first week of August and getting commitments at least from AF, CR and me he encountered conflicts with family plans and had to reschedule the trip for the following week. JH invested significant energy in planning the trip. He called and emailed each of the other participants several times to confirm continuing commitment. He attempted to arrange hikes or climbs with each of them to assess their conditioning. He discussed his plans with several notable climbers who were very familiar with the range including Silas Wild and John Roper. He studied maps and guides before deciding on a route up Wiley ridge from Beaver Pass, a traverse of Luna Cirque to Luna Col, and an exit via Access Creek. He wanted to climb both peaks of Fury since there is evidently some debate about which is higher. Roper told him not to worry, just to get the East one. AF pointed out that even Beckey said it was eight hours from the East to the West peak. At a party at AF’s house several weeks before the trip CR asked my opinion and then said not to worry – we’d get realistic when we got into the mountains. I told him that I was worried about being able to keep up on something as strenuous as doing both peaks of Fury in the same day. But, I said, it’s like running from a bear – all I have to do is move faster than JR so that I won’t be the one holding things up. CR laughed and indicated he shared my sentiments. In the end JH settled on a trip that he envisioned as requiring nine days with seven days of travel and two days without moving camp. He called the other participants to explain his plan and we each accepted it. He said he thought we ought to bring ten days food. We all concurred. As the date of the trip neared he began broaching the idea of leaving Friday afternoon instead of Saturday morning.

A couple of weeks before the trip JH called the Ross Lake Resort boat service to reserve a water taxi to the Big Beaver landing. He determined that the service wasn’t available after 8:00 PM and contacted the other participants to organize leaving Seattle by 3:00 Friday afternoon. Since CR, AF and JR were not working this did not pose a problem for half of the group. On the Monday prior to leaving JH held a meeting at his house (a day after returning from a family trip to Wyoming.) The evening of the meeting JR called with a family emergency so the group that met included only five of us. Plans were reviewed and reconfirmed. JH, DG and I arranged to meet at 3:00 at the Greenlake park & ride; the rest of the group would leave an hour or two earlier, obtain a permit in Marblemount, and rendezvous at the Ross Lake Resort landing. An equipment list prepared by JR was discussed (and critiqued) and assignments for group gear were made. JH and DG would share JH’s big old tent, CR and AF would share a new single walled tent AF had recently purchased, and JR and I would each carry a bivy sack. JH tried his best to sell everyone on the benefits of aquasox. DG was volunteered to carry the first aid kit and was provided with a harness and helmet belonging to JH’s wife. I wanted to make sure we didn’t all bring water filters. JH said that he planned to use iodine pills and the others agreed that pills were the lowest-weight alternative.

During the next several days phone calls and emails were exchanged with last minute adjustments to accommodate JR’s decision not to participate. At 2:00 on a rainy Friday afternoon I left work in Kent, filled the gas tank of the car, and drove approximately 30 miles north to the Greenlake park & ride. DG arrived at 3:00 and loaded his gear; JH was a little late and had not packed his gear. He loaded loose gear, muffins and doughnut holes into the car and the three of us departed Seattle at about 3:15. JH reported that the weather was supposed to get better the next day and that he had spoken to the resort personnel to see if it was feasible to either take a boat in the morning or to rent a room for Friday evening. The answer in each case was no, and he was also informed that the boat would not leave after 7:00. He did learn, however, that Silas Wild stored his snow cat in the barn of the guy at the resort. I asked about JR, and JH said that he didn’t know much. He said that JR had told him earlier that he didn’t want to push too hard which he interpreted as meaning that JR had second thoughts about the strenuousness of the trip.

Although traffic was very heavy the carpool lanes continued to move until somewhere south of Everett where the entire road became clogged because of heavy rain squalls with thunder and lightening. JH became agitated but he was distracted when I challenged his assertion that the route through Darrington was shorter and resorted to adding mileage figures on the map to prove his point. I ate some of his doughnut holes. JH kept urging me to pass slower cars although he was careful to hedge it by saying that he knew it wasn’t the way I liked to drive. Later, on Highway 20, I twice passed long strings of cars (probably more than six in each instance.) JH believed that the construction east of Newhalem on Highway 20 stopped at 6:00 so he was distressed when traffic came to a stop. He was more distressed when it became obvious that cars were being moved in alternating convoys and that the eastbound group had just departed. JH pointed out that he and I were still in work attire and indicated that it was time to change clothes. The car immediately behind us had been the head of a long string passed just before entering Newhalem and the occupants appeared relieved when we stopped short of completely disrobing. I retrieved my sandwich from the cargo area and was eating dinner when the convoy began to move. I drove to the Ross Dam trailhead in my hiking boots. It was still raining lightly at the trailhead and JH directed DG to run for the landing and summon the boat while JH packed his gear. I cut strap holes in a garbage bag to use as a pack cover. It was at this point that I determined that I had not received the emails circulated after JR’s withdrawal and that I had been expected to bring a picket in addition to the ice screws I was carrying. I had packed a water filter, though, and a bottle of white gas. I had a 9mm rope, three ice screws, three hexes, crampons and a harness with half a dozen carabineers and slings. I had ten freeze drys, ten oatmeal packets and a couple of cliff bars and five ounces of trail mix for each of ten days. I also had five Toblerone chocolate bars instead of my usual Mars bars because of unfortunate melting tendencies discovered in the Mars (“Snickers with Almonds”) bars while on a recent family trip. My pack felt about the same as it had leaving for seven days in the Goat Rocks.

JH and I hiked to the landing together and met DG, CR and AF there. The others reported that they had called the resort and were told that a boat would be dispatched when the entire party had arrived. Money was pooled and a few minutes later at almost exactly 7:00, an aluminum power boat dashed across to the landing and we loaded it with packs and poles. Will, the boat driver, lectured us about the deadline for departing and was emphatic that someone in the group had wrongly insisted over the phone that they had been told they could arrive as late as 8:00. JH did not identify himself as the culprit. Will drove the boat very fast and did not slow down when negotiating a small gap in the log boom. The trip to Big Beaver landing took perhaps ten minutes. AF paid Will and arranged for a pick-up at 7:00 the following Friday. JH explained that he and AF had discussed getting out as early as Friday night instead of Sunday if the weather did not necessitate any layover days. He explained that he wanted to reserve a spot on the boat for the earliest possible return and that he planned to call the resort from a summit to adjust plans as we got further into the trip. Will said that cell phones would only work from the west slopes and only above 7,000 feet.

We hiked through the boat camp at the landing, around the inlet at the mouth of Big Beaver Creek, over the bridge and up the hill to Pumpkin Hill camp. We inspected a campsite near the water before settling on a larger spot on high ground in trees. As we hung food JH expressed concern that my food bags were too small and wondered if I was going to be hungry. It was hard to distinguish between drips from the trees and rain during the night but the new day dawned dry.

Breakfast was quick – JH shared his muffins. We started up the Big Beaver trail looking for a convenient place to stash some extra gear. AF and DG were carrying ropes. The first stop was about a mile up the trail where a big tree marked the first glimpse of the stream. A tarp, a pack cover and the muffin container were concealed behind the tree. JH talked to DG as they walked in front. I hung back and AF and CR brought up the rear. The next stop was just after 10 mile camp, followed by a stop at the side trail to the Luna Creek horse camp. JH was carrying several pounds of individually wrapped candies and cookies and was happy to share them. During the Luna Creek stop JH and AF consulted the route descriptions concerning the exit from Access Creek. AF reported that the ranger in Marblemount said that there was a social trail leading to Big Beaver Creek about a mile after the Luna Creek camp and that it was possible to cross on a log. We resolved to look for the way but nothing was seen that resembled a trail. There was another stop at the creek crossing with a view up to Luna at the beginning of the switchbacks. I pumped at the creek and offered the filter to DG who pumped for himself and JH. I had begun to experience rubbing on my heels where new repairs to my boots were contacting soft tissue. I also noticed that the soft insoles covering my orthotics were working off to the side, something I hadn’t experienced previously even on steep trails with a heavy pack. When I applied athletic tape and moleskin I found that a chocolate bar had melted in the top pocket of my pack covering my moleskin and other personal gear with brown goo. After another stop at a creek crossing the Beaver Pass shelter appeared. I had dropped my bandana and had to hike a quarter of a mile back down the trail to retrieve it. We concluded that there were likely mice in the shelter and continued a few hundred yards to the camp. There we selected the largest of several campsites and erected our tents. I changed from boots to tevas and broke the rubber ring holding the dead velcro together. JH strung his food-bag cord across the middle of the campsite and filled it with wet laundry. I attempted to wipe the chocolate out of the top of my pack. AF organized a game of hearts and then JH wanted to play bridge – which meant that he had to teach it to me. DG napped in his tent.

After about an hour in camp another climber appeared who indicated that he and his partner were camping at the shelter. He was hiking to the actual pass looking for a faint trail to the east which he believed led to a repeater site and the easiest route to the ridge. JH told him that he had been warned against going all the way to the pass. The climber from the shelter explained that they planned to camp at Eiley lake the next evening and to climb Challenger and hike back out to the pass the next day. JH expressed disbelief that they could get out that quickly. At dinner JH announced that all his freeze drys were the 40 oz variety so that when he opened a bag he had two open pouches to deal with. He expected DG to eat one of his pouches and to let him eat one of DG’s the next night. I noticed that CR was eating freeze dry repackaged in a seal-a-meal bag. CR also announced that his helmet was missing, apparently lost from his pack on the hike in. As we were eating another group of three climbers appeared, greeted us and inquired for JR with whom they had been corresponding. They were planning to climb Challenger and the North Buttress route on Fury and to exit via Goodell Creek. They had not seen the missing helmet. JH amused them with descriptions of the rude surprise awaiting the pair camped at the shelter.

In the morning breakfast was quick. CR announced that he was heading back and I gave him my bivy sack and rope bag to carry out. JH worked hard to convince him to continue. AF took his GPS and DG his stove. AF was carrying the whole tent plus a stove, a big bottle of fuel and a rope but rather than rearrange loads we agreed that he and I would trade off on the rope. DG had the other rope. We worked our way east from camp through light wet brush until we reached the steep slope of the ridge. We climbed straight up in thicker brush and cedar thickets. JH lost his balance while walking a large log and fell into devil’s club. It took considerable time to find tweezers and to pick the spines out of his hands. I took the opportunity to refresh the athletic tape on my feet. JH eventually taped his fingers and we continued. JH indicated that he believed that this would be the hardest day of the trip. I thought about the various hike books which suggested climbing this slope for the views into Luna Cirque. Just below a steep rocky step we heard frantic loud screams below us. We gathered that someone was getting stung by bees and it seemed like the screaming continued for a long time. Before we cleared the step the three climbers we met at the camp caught up to us. The leader of their group, climbing second, had been stung half a dozen times. The three, who we now dubbed the three amigos, were moving quickly and seemed to have survived the bees. We rested above the step. They continued up the slope and we passed them again a little later while they were having lunch at a spot looking into Luna Cirque. They, in turn, passed us while we were stopped for lunch a little later.

We continued up the ridge with spectacular views of Redoubt and Spickard and the Mox peaks. In the middle of the afternoon we descended several hundred feet to a small pond where we pumped water. Despite his preference for iodine JH was happy when DG pumped him a bottle that didn’t require a ten minute wait. We then climbed boulders almost back to the ridge crest and continued along the ridge looking for Eiley lake. We eventually came to a mezzanine cirque that separated us from a bowl (at about our level) which we assumed contained the lake. We heard voices below us and chose to descend intending to traverse below the cliffs rather than try to find a route above them. After descending several hundred feet we decided to make sure that we could get around the cliffs without going all the way to the cirque floor another five hundred feet below us. AF scouted the route and we eventually concluded that we needed to climb back up. Somewhere in the process AF asked me to take the rope for the first time that day. As we neared the ridge crest we saw another party although we couldn’t tell where they went. We found a large cairn and assumed that it marked the gully for the descent to the lake. As we inspected a steep dirty gully we heard the three amigos shouting to us that we needed to go higher. We knocked down the cairn, continued up past another bump and descended a dirty loose slot that took us to the lake.

We climbed out of the hole with the lake and contoured around on big boulders. It was late afternoon before we got to a still-frozen Wiley Lake. We still needed to climb and descend a ridge before arriving at Challenger Arm, the standard camp for climbing Challenger. We roped because the next slope was glaciated with bare ice at least at the bottom. AF and I were ready first and headed out tied in short with coils on our packs. It was getting late when we came to the crest of the ridge. The view was breathtaking – we looked across at Challenger and the wall of Luna Cirque. We were over 7,000 feet, higher than Luna Lake. The ridge seemed to drop a sheer thousand feet to the Challenger Glacier. We determined that there was no descent from our spot and AF pointed out that we evidently needed to climb another three hundred feet around a red bump and then descend on terrain of unknown difficulty before setting up camp. It was about 8:00 leaving us an hour of daylight. AF and I believed that if we continued we were likely to end up camping somewhere worse than where we were. JH arrived at our location after fifteen minutes and he did not want to hear our logic but wanted to push on. We argued for a while until DG indicated that he was exhausted and wanted to stop. JH acquiesced at that point and went to locate a tent site. The first order of business was to melt snow for water. AF got a stove going and I said I’d tend it. JH and DG set up CR’s stove but the seals on the fuel bottle were bad and when it was pressurized it sprayed gas all over the heather and a small fire ensued. I finished melting four liters of water then moved the stove to the burned patch. We ended up crowded into the narrow space between JH’s tent and a boulder where JH and DG were preparing to eat. AF had set up the tent and I moved my gear over to it. It was cold enough that the chocolate solidified and I was able to brush it out of the top pocket of my pack. We ate by headlight. AF installed a new o-ring in CR’s stove but when pressurized it sprayed again. JH carried on about the irresponsibility of not testing gear before leaving home. DG was chilled and moved into the tent. He said it was the wildest spot he had ever camped in. There were, in fact, a lot of stars out that night.

We were up at first light and left after a leisurely breakfast. It had not frozen during the night so the snow was soft and we did not use crampons. We roped for the climb to the notch and then descended unroped on slabs and snow to the right. We saw two rope teams climbing as we descended the ridge. We eventually came to the col at the base of Challenger Arm and found both flat tent spots and water. DG indicated that he did not want to climb so he and JH selected a tent site and JH scattered gear around. He instructed DG on how he wanted the camp arranged. I pumped water and left the filter with DG. I flaked out the rope and AF and I tied in and waited until JH got ready to go. AF led with JH in the middle of the rope. There were some spots where the snow was very hard but for most of the distance the slope was gradual, the snow was soft, and the scenery was incomparable. We passed some large crevasses and as we were approaching a steep slope below the upper section of the glacier we met the two guys from the shelter on their way down. They indicated that they had camped on the arm and that they intended to hike out to the pass that day. They seemed strong enough to pull it off. JH privately took back all of the things he said about them. They told us that they had found the bees’ nest on the way up the ridge from the pass and that they marked it with surveyors tape. The three amigos evidently saw the tape and hiked to it and got stung. We thought about the cairn marking the gully not to take above Eiley Lake. We continued toward the summit and stopped at the base of a steep knife-edged hogback to let the three amigos clear the slope. They indicated that they intended to descend into the cirque that afternoon. We climbed straight up the hogback and then balanced delicately on the edge as we walked over to the rock. The move down into the moat got my attention. There wasn’t much room at the base of the rock. I found a horn to hang my pack on and I belayed AF as he climbed to the summit. It looked to me like about three moves and AF made them look easy going around a bulge to the right and then up a chimney. When it was my turn I couldn’t see the sequence on the right so I found a hold and went over the bulge. It was really only one move. I climbed past AF to the other end of the summit rock so that there would be room for JH. We sunned ourselves for quite a while and AF called his wife for a weather report. I discovered that the antenna was broken off of my phone. We rappelled back into the moat and tied back in. I led the way back across the sharp edge and then down the hogback. I continued to lead the entire descent. Near the bottom I wanted to walk close enough to the rocks of the arm to see where the three amigos had camped and to see if there were better tent sites than the ones we had claimed. JH wanted to walk a more direct line and pulled on the rope and wouldn’t follow. We walked back to camp almost side by side dragging the rope sideways between us.

It must have been about 3:00 when we arrived at the camp. JH greeted DG by shouting “now that you’ve got camp set up we need to tear it down and get going.” I was astounded because I expected to spend the night on the arm and to move camp the next day. I challenged JH and we argued for half an hour about the futility of moving that day and about death marches. I reminded JH how late we’d gone the evening before and said that there was no way I wanted a repeat. I suggested that it was a safety issue if we pushed too hard. JH countered by saying that he wanted to climb past Luna Lake early in the morning before the sun hit the ice above it. I told him to look at the aspect of the slope – the only way we were going to get by the glaciers before the sun hit them would be to do it at midnight. AF said that he favored moving so I shut up. I was not physically tired. The climb of Challenger had been relatively easy. I was mystified by the need to move since it would not enable us to summit anything else earlier and since we had extra days. We had planned a day at Challenger Arm without moving camp and I hadn’t heard any reason to change. I felt like I had been left out when plans were changed.

Once the decision was made, though, I packed my gear quickly and pumped some water. I applied new athletic tape to my heels and used duct tape to secure the spenco to the orthotics. I used a couple of ice axes to lay out a rope in quarters, tied butterfly knots at the tie-in points, and then waited for JH to get organized and pack his gear. Rather than clip the butterfly JH had AF tie him in with a bowline. We hiked across the glacier, around a corner, over the rim of the cirque and then left the snow. We unroped and I put the rope in my pack. We started a long traverse on slabs and loose rock eventually descending into the upper fringes of brush and cedar. We weren’t sure where to head down but we knew that we would end up in cliffs if we turned too early so we kept traversing. JH kept asking what elevation we were at and repeatedly asked AF to get out the GPS and check elevation and position. Eventually AF and I realized that he simply didn’t know how to reset his altimeter and it must have been way off. As the sun went behind the cirque wall we were debating whether to climb up above a small set of cliffs or to pass below them. We climbed back up and then contoured around into a gully where we crossed a big stream at the base of a major waterfall. Descending on the other side of the falls JH slipped on loose rock and fell heavily. We rested a while in the gathering dusk and then picked our way down rocky stream beds between fingers of brush. The terrain was typical glacial moraine with piles of loose rock and rubble interspersed with slide alder. DG headed down a gully, the rest of us continued traversing in search of a more open route. AF eventually descended on a brushy rib. JH took the big gully and I took a smaller gully to his left. Eventually our gullies merged and I had to dodge his rocks so I moved over to the left again. Shortly after moving to the new gully I had to climb up to the bank to get around a drop off and I lost my footing and fell on my back. My pack hung into the gully with about ten feet of nothingness under it. I had grabbed an alder and found myself like an upended turtle, head down and without leverage to roll over. I finally swung my feet around and slid down into the gully landing right side up. My gully ended at the toe of the glacier and AF was there when I emerged. We walked down the snow noticing the rocks that had recently fallen on top of it. DG called to us saying that he had a tent site. We had been aiming for the trees beyond the moraine, but none of us really wanted to go any further than we had to. JH and DG kicked out a smooth spot in the larger flat area. AF and I did the same next door to them. We anchored the tent with large stones. DG walked half a mile to the stream and filled two water bags. I hung them on a big rock with a piece of webbing. We started the stove and JH put on his aquasox and walked to the stream to bathe. Once again we ate by headlight with AH and DG sharing one of the big pouches. I pumped water bottles from CR’s pot filled with water from the bag. All night long we listened to rock and ice-fall from the cirque walls.

Even though the sun did not penetrate to the floor of the cirque we woke early, had breakfast, packed and set out. We hiked to the trees and then up a raw moraine until we found a way to descend to the glacier. We hiked across the glacier on bare ice with a dusting of large and small rocks. As we got closer to the far side of the cirque it became impossible to stay out of boulders and we eventually found ourselves picking our way across the steep loose moraine above Lousy Lake. Underneath the rock was ice. The view of the snout of the glacier was fascinating. We put on helmets before climbing straight up the side moraine. I warned DG against following in my line, and then evidently almost clobbered him with a rock. The going was easier once we reached the ramp leading to the lake. We were in hot sun by the time we turned the corner of the ramp – the only spot with exposure to to the hanging ice. We rested at the lake and washed feet and heads. I applied new athletic tape to my heels. My feet were doing well even though we were going uphill again. I attributed it to the lighter pack – even though I was carrying the rope. We pumped water with DG once again pumping for JH. Leaving the lake for Luna Col we took a small rightward slanting ramp and then cut left up a narrow slot. This slot got steeper and headed in a waterfall, at which point AF bailed out to the right rather than lead up through the falling water. The heather he climbed next to the gully was steep enough that he rigged a hand line. I think we could have avoided it by continuing a little further on the ramp.

We reached the col about 3:00. JH suggested climbing Luna that afternoon. I told him that he didn’t know when to quit. He and DG claimed the primary tent site at the col – a sandy spot on which a floor of flat rocks had been placed as protection from a wet sandy puddle bottom. AF and I dropped our gear on slabs. I pointed out another spot to JH – a niche in the rock with just enough room for a tent and a floor similar to the site he’d claimed (only drier.) He said it was crappy. Between our tent sites there was a cleft in the rocks which contained a tarn with ice at one end and water at the other but JH scouted around the nearby snowbanks and found a spot where he could dig a hole and have a drip of water. He mobilized DG with a cup to fill the waterbags. We explored the col and relaxed before starting the stove and preparing dinner. We could see smoke from a fire to the east of us and discussed whether or not it was one of the fires near Chelan. It didn’t seem to be far enough away for that. We amused ourselves identifying peaks. I decided that I needed a day away from JH and announced that I wasn’t going to climb Fury. AF and JH didn’t try to talk me into joining them. We ate and JH broke out a one-pound bag of chocolate chip cookies that had been reduced to crumbs. AF and DG helped him finish them. After dinner AF and I pooled all of the climbing gear – runners, carabineers, ice screws, pickets, etc. AF was anticipating the steep snow and was worried about only having two pickets. He asked if he could take my ice axe as well. We decided that DG and I would climb Luna while AF and JH climbed Fury. I kept a rope, a couple of runners and a few carabineers. AF took the rest. As the sun was setting we reclined on the slabs by the tent and noticed a small rodent scurrying around. We decided that even in the absence of trees we needed to hang our food. AF secured one end of a parachute cord in the slab near our tent I strung the other end over the tarn and tied it to a rock on the other side. We clove-hitched a carabineer over the ice and hung all of the bags. The cord was right in the walkway but otherwise it was a good set up. In the dark we could see the glow of the forest fire.

I got up with AF and JH in the morning and had breakfast. AF was ready to go before JH got his stuff packed and JH went looking for something he thought was in DG’s pack. JH got impatient and pulled everything out of the pack and left it laying on the ground. He and AF hiked to a ledge on the knob next to our camp and then disappeared. Before they left I reminded them that we were way out in the woods and that DG and I didn’t have enough gear to come after them if they got into trouble. DG got up shortly after they left and had breakfast. He reassembled his pack and said that he’d been around JH before when he had summit fever, but never for a week straight. We hung out for a little while and then hiked off toward Luna. I carried the rope in my combination stuff-sack / summit-pack. The climb up Luna from the col is easy and we talked all the way up. I told my life story which I haven’t done in years. DG reciprocated (but showed a lot more restraint than I did.) We knew that we needed to drop to the west side of the peak a couple hundred feet below the summit but when we got to that point we were boxed in by a wall so we climbed on up to the false summit which we reached at about 9:00 in the morning. The views were glorious and we rested and looked for a while. Eventually we dropped perhaps 500 feet below a buttress and contoured around the peak on the west. We crossed a succession of ridges and gullies before we found a broad gray gully that led to the other end of the summit ridge. We climbed up the gully (which was loose and dirty) until it got seriously steep. At that point, maybe a hundred feet below the top, I headed for a ledge off to the left that looked like it would take me out of the gully and onto an arrete. Although the ledge was wide it was exposed and I asked DG if he was comfortable on it. He hesitated a little so I pulled out the rope and told him that I thought it would be best if we tied in. I did not ask for a belay but trailed the rope and protected the ledge against a pendulum with a couple of slings hung on horns. I belayed DG across and then assessed the pitch to the summit. I chose to climb straight up on a small face but quickly realized that I needed to be belayed to go that way. I backed off and we walked in coils up a ramp slanting steeply to the right which put us back in the original gully maybe a fifty feet below the summit. The final pitch to the top was a fun scramble with a couple of harder moves – mainly inside a chimney which felt very secure. I trailed the rope and belayed DG up after me. We were on top by noon, ate lunch, and admired the scenery. The smoke from the forest fire had been contained in the valleys in the morning but now it looked like a mushroom cloud. We were blown away by the view of the southern pickets and all of the cascade pass peaks. There was a big snow covered peak between us and Mt. Shuksan which I decided must be Bacon. We couldn’t see Ross Lake but we could see our descent route and the ponds in valley of Big Beaver Creek.

I decided that we would be better off rappelling from the summit so I rigged an anchor and threw the rope. I checked out DG’s carabineer brake rig and sent him down first. I followed and pulled the rope. Then I rigged another anchor and we repeated the process. We came off the second rappel a ways below the ledge we had used to exit the gully. We down climbed from there trying not to kick rocks on each other. We were back to camp by mid afternoon.

We hung out in camp, lazing in the sun, for the rest of the afternoon. AF had left his CD player but I didn’t feel like listening to music. I had the words to a Grateful Dead song stuck in my head:

“Standing on the moon
With nothing else to do
A lovely view of heaven
But I’d rather be with you.”

I re-read Tabor & Crowder. I toyed with the idea of dropping down to the red fin above the lake where they said there were good quartz crystals. I re-rigged the food bag cord so that it wasn’t in the middle of the walkway. I walked up to the ledge that AF & JH had taken. I poked around a little looking at the way we would head out the next day. I got my thermorest out of the tent and took a nap in the alcove that JH thought was crappy. I pumped water from the tarn under the foodbags. The afternoon went slow. Beckey says Fury should take 10 – 12 hours and AF & JH left about 6:00 so I figured that the earliest they could get back was 5:00. I started keeping an eye on the ridge line about then. I began to understand the anxiety Odette says she feels when I’m due back from a climb. At 6:30 DG and I decided that we ought to fire up the stove and have dinner so that we would have ours out of the way when AF & AH returned. We guessed that they’d return at about 8:00 and right on the button they appeared on the ledge and fifteen minutes later they were back in camp. They said that their climb was uneventful – they avoided the steep snow entirely. They said they’d seen the three amigos descending really steep snow on the other side of Fury. JH bathed himself in the tarn under our foodbags as the sun set.

The next morning wasn’t quite as early but after breakfast I pointed out the base of the buttress on Luna that we had rounded and described the gray gully to the top. AF and JH were up and back by 10:30. They reported that they had called the resort and confirmed that we wanted a boat ride from Big Beaver Landing at 7:00 the next evening. AF said that his wife was thrilled that he was going to get home early and that she wanted to spend the unexpected weekend backpacking. We packed our stuff and headed down and across the slabs below the col. The going was easy getting over to the ridge leading down from Luna. At a shoulder on that ridge we needed to traverse around the top of a cirque to the divide between Access and Luna creeks and that was not as easy. I felt light and sure-footed on the steep huckleberry and got quite a ways out in front. We headed down the other ridge to a saddle at the head of our descent gully. I got there first and could see that there were two branches. The upper (nearer) one looked like it would be easy to hike down but I couldn’t see the bottom of it so I couldn’t tell if it cliffed out. The other branch looked steeper and dirtier but I could see the whole thing. We headed to the second one and regrouped there. On closer inspection the gully was, in fact, steep and dirty. We talked about a handline but JH didn’t think it was necessary and took off down the slope. He reported that it was softer than it looked but he let loose with a shower of dirt and gravel with each step. We tied the two ropes together and tossed them using a tree as an anchor. AF went first with a prussic, followed first by DG and then by me. As we descended it was obvious that the other branch of the gully would have been the better choice and that the better route for descending our branch would have been the switchbacking track on the other side.

JH had sheltered behind some rocks while he waited for us. We regrouped again and then had to work our way across a huge scree-filled bowl trying not to kick rocks on each other. As long as we moved in parallel it worked but JH seemed determined to cut across underneath us heading for the upper end of the band of trees at the far side of the bowl. AF was convinced that there were big cliffs there and warned JH not to head that way. We eventually all took a climbers trail that descended the fall line to the gully draining the bowl which we hoped would take us to the valley bottom. It did although we had to move one at a time most of the way down the gully. We cut right at the bottom of the trees to find a trickle of a stream where we could rest and pump water.

When we finally got to the valley flats we rested some more. AF wanted to camp there since it was a nice site and the Nelson book described camping at that elevation. JH felt it was way too early to stop and guessed that we could make Luna camp. I suggested we move down the valley at least a little way and stop when we found something we liked. I also said that I didn’t want another evening where we walked until dark. We kept to the boulder fields on the right side of the valley at first but soon found ourselves squeezed into brush. There seemed to be scattered cairns. After returning to the creek from high in the boulders JH thought he was being attacked by bees and started yelling. DG tried to run and fell in the rocks hitting his chin. He gashed his chin pretty badly and bled all over, but because of his beard all we could do was apply direct pressure until the bleeding stopped. We crossed the creek and continued in the brush until we got to the trees. The going got much more difficult as we lost all semblance of trail and found ourselves in thick alder and devil’s club. We beat the brush for a long time and finally at about 5:00 we were in a dreary clearing way above the creek with devil’s club all around us and a small silty seep of water. I got out the filter and AF pumped water for himself and DG. He suggested that we ought to camp there because of the water. When I tried to pump for myself the filter clogged and I got less than a cup. JH didn’t realize that and asked if I’d pump some for him. I told him he’d have to use iodine because the pump was broken. JH didn’t want to camp there and kept pushing to continue. I told him I’d go on if we set a firm stopping time. He agreed that we’d stop at 6:30 unless we found something we liked before then. AF really wanted to stop where we were but he was gracious.

We continued in thick brush and eventually the flat valley bottom began to drop steeply which we knew would take us down to Beaver Creek and the trail. At 6:30 JH said “okay, I don’t want anyone to think I don’t keep my word, we’ll stop here.” We were in a totally inappropriate spot with no clearing for tents and no water. We looked at him and kept going. I realized that I was humming a Frank Zappa song about assholes. A hour later we were below the steep drop and cut back over to the water. Just after we rejoined the creek we saw what we thought was a sandbar on the other side. JH suggested that we go on to Luna Camp but we ignored him and found a log to cross on. It was twilight in the thick brush. The sandbar turned out to be an expanse of river cobbles, but there was a small sandy bank under big trees with room for the tents after we broke off some branches. We erected tents under the tree boughs and hung sweaty shirts up to air out. I flushed out the filter and pumped water for myself. I washed my feet and realized that they were doing pretty well – downhill travel and the lighter pack agreed with me. AF got the stove going and cleared away the devil’s club from a log. I gathered flat rocks for food and seating. We ate by headlamp with JH and DG sharing one of AH’s big freeze drys. There were tons of bats swooping around us. There were clouds of mosquitoes, too. I hung the foodbags from a small limber tree – they were touching the ground by morning.

In the morning we were up early, ate and packed. We left the creek in some of the biggest devil’s club known to man, bearing more or less due East in the belief that we would have the shortest route through the brush that way. DG and I had the ropes. In a very short way we came to a river which we deduced was Big Beaver Creek. JH was out ahead and he walked a log jam to an island and then, before the rest of us caught up, put on his aquasox, waded through swift water and disappeared into the brush. AF, DG and I retreated back across the log jam and decided to wade upstream from the island where riffles suggested the water was shallower. I put on my Tevas and used duct tape to secure the loose strap. AF and DG used duct tape to bind their flip flops to their feet. The water didn’t go much above our knees. On the other side we bashed through the brush, fanning out as we each picked our own line. As we climbed away from the stream the forest became more open and in a quarter of a mile we were back on the trail.

We headed for the lake with JH in the lead. He talked to DG, I came third and AF with his CD player brought up the rear. We stopped and regrouped at Luna camp. I took the second position for the next stretch. After some conversation about kids and families JH confided to me that his ex-wife was enforcing the letter of their parenting agreement and that if he wasn’t home by noon on Saturday he had to let his son spend the weekend with her. I wondered who her lawyer was. We stopped again just before10 mile camp and I pumped water. I suggested that if we got to the Lake before 3:00 JH ought to hike to the resort and get us a boat. He declined. We spread out after that stop and eventually we started meeting other people on their way up the trail, including a crowd of boy scouts with fishing rods. I stopped at the cache tree and washed my face and hair. We were all at the landing before 4:00. We dropped our packs and went swimming amongst the kayaks. Then we hung out for three hours. A helicopter did laps back and forth over us. DG and AF and I pumped water. At about 6:00 AF fired up the stove and he and DG ate one of their extra freeze drys. I decided to hold out for good food. (I brought back three freeze drys, half the Toblerone, a bunch of trail mix and half a dozen cliff bars.) JH was still working on his candies. The boy scouts returned and swam before their leaders called them away for dinner. At 7:00 sharp Will appeared with the boat and we trooped on board.

Will told us that the helicopter was re-supplying a trail crew further up the lake. He explained that the fire we had seen from Luna Col was near the highway east of Ruby Arm. He said that it had exploded on Wednesday but that it was still relatively small and was now contained. AF asked if he knew a mutual friend and he did. The rest of the ride back was quite friendly and revolved around old cabins, upcoming trips and where to eat in Marblemount. He threaded the needle in the log boom at high speed on the way back, too.

We disembarked and hiked the three-quarters of a mile uphill to the parking lot. I found a stuffed animal in the door handle and a fundamentalist christian tract under the windshield wiper. I attributed the former to CR. We had taken off our boots and changed shirts when suddenly one of the three amigos appeared asking if we had jumper cables. They had successfully exited down Goodell creek, found the car they’d left there and driven back to the Ross Dam trailhead only to encounter a dead battery. I dug under the pile of packs to get my jumpers and then refrained from giving advice while they hooked it up differently than I would have. In the end they got their car started but only after a shower of sparks. We loaded up and headed for Marblemount, congratulating ourselves on being prepared even if we carried too much crap and were slower in our advanced age.

Good Food was still open when we got there at about 8:00 and we ordered burgers. The three amigos showed up and we compared notes while eating. We were in the car and on our way to Seattle by about 9:00. At some point before Darrington we got a cell phone signal and I called Odette on AF’s phone. She told me that on Monday while we were climbing Challenger our house had been burglarized and our computers and iPods stolen. Will was upset because she wouldn’t let him buy a new computer until she talked to me. It wasn’t clear what I could do about it from Darrington As we approached Seattle at 10:30 JH started calculating the most efficient sequence for dropping people off. I was tired and not very polite when I told him that I really wanted to get home and didn’t feel like driving all over town at midnight. He agreed to call his wife. She met us at the Greenlake park & ride and took DG and JH home.
As Becky observed in Challenge of the North Cascades, “loveliness is paid for partly in the currency of suffering.” He didn’t say that the suffering had to be physical. Here are some images of the loveliness, here is a booklist.

Washington’s 100 highest

In Search of Higher Ground – Washington’s Top 100

by John Lixvar (Lizard)

This essay, reprinted from an earlier Echo, is an excerpt from John Lixvar’s forthcoming book on "Climbing Washington’s 100 Highest Peaks". In order to appease the impatient publishers at Mountaineer Books, Lizard is looking for contributions and/or volunteers to help push this project to completion. The guidebook portion of the text needs the most help — route descriptions need to be crosschecked and updated for current conditions, and many GPS waypoints, bearings, and coordinates need to be compiled and verified for accuracy and consistency. Fresh and engaging narrative focused on some of the unique features of individual Big Boys would also be most welcome.

If participating on such a project appeals to your creative talents, please contact John at (425)865-3783 or at lizard@redwood.rt.cs.boeing.com. The Liz will be away on climbing holiday until early May, but upon his return he will convene a strategy session for all interested contributors. Don’t miss this great opportunity to put a BoeAlps/Bulger imprint on the mountaineering literature of the Northwest!

 

Back in 1975 when the 1:24,000 Pasayten quads finally became available, it was possible for the first time to identify all of Washington’s major mountains. Previous lists of notable Washington summits all suffered from serious omissions. The nine-thousanders were generally well known, but beyond that nothing comprehensive was available.

By the spring of 1976 all of Washington’s 197 peaks over 8000′ were enumerated. Rules were defined to distinguish individual summits, and the one hundred highest were singled out for special attention. Ultimately a "Big Boy" list called the Top 100 was established and circulated among a small circle of climbers.

A crude but rude, undisciplined but dedicated group of mountain fanatics calling themselves the Bulgers soon fell victim to the siren call of the Big Boys. This group of hard men and women sporting names like Buffalo, Koala, Lizard, and the Zookeeper began to systematically climb the hundred highest.

Competition was fierce for the first few years. From 1977 through 1979 the six original Bulgers collected 229 Big Boy ascents. However by 1980 it became obvious that no one would be able to match the furious pace set by the Koala. On October 4th of that year Rus Kroeker stood atop Sinister Peak and became the first man in history to climb Washington’s 100 highest mountains. Since that time eight others have managed to duplicate Koala’s feat, and interest in the Top 100 has spread throughout the local climbing community.

This story, more than ten years in the making, is about the outstanding climbs and remarkable people that make up Lizard’s perspective of the unique Big Boy experience.

 

The Cast of Characters

1. Bulgers

The Bulgers (actually Bludgers) were a despicable gang of bush rangers immortalized in Henry Lawson’s famous but unpublished Australian verse "The Bastard from the Bush." The six original Captains of the Push are:

Mike Bialos – Buffalo. A Bungle in the Jungle. The quintessential Bulger: awkward on level ground, but unstoppable in the high country.

Bruce Gibbs – Giraffe. A rather capable oxymoron: cranky but jovial, crafty yet indecisive. Adds strength and diversity to any group.

Rus Kroeker – Koala. An affable, take-charge techno-junky stuck in overdrive. A Pritikin convert who runs on turnip greens and artichokes.

Bette Felton – Zookeeper. An acrophobe with a very high tolerance to pain and bad company. Quite a lady in the rough. A good desert island choice.

John Plimpton – Long John. Surprisingly normal. Can’t say much bad about LJ. Probably too moderate for most Bulger tastes.

John Lixvar – Lizard. A gentlemen among rogues. Originator of the Top 100 and author of this article.

2. Latter-day Bulgers, Youngbloods, Neo-Pritikins and other Peripheral Forms:

 

Mary Jo Gibbs – Gazelle. Bruce’s former better half. Actually, Mary Jo had a near monopoly on the couple’s finer character traits.

Bob Tillotson – Taurus. Former body-builder turned mountain jock. Good Bulger material.

John Roper – Rhino/Himmelfahrtskommando (HFK). A connoisseur of the Skagit with humor far too subtle for full Bulger membership.

Silas Wild – Silage. Another HFK. A bold climber too kool for Bulgerhood.

Dick Kegel – Kangaroo. A smooth, competent, absolutely fearless climber obviously over-qualified for the Bulgers.

Ken Zafren – Zaphod. Equipment freak. Ken outfits Alaskan expeditions from his basement supplies.

Al Ryll – The man who got Lizard up Goode Mountain, and the person to whom this article is dedicated.

 

Big Boys Rules

Washington’s 100 highest extends from 14410′ Mt Rainier to 8320′ Flora Mtn. Three major rules determine Top 100 eligibility:

Rule 1: An individual summit has to rise at least 400 feet above the surrounding terrain. The distinction looks right in the field and can be clearly determined from maps with 40, 80 and 100 foot contour intervals.

Rule 2: A peak with an official USGS-approved name will be considered for inclusion even if it fails the 400 foot rule.

Rule 3: An 800 foot rule applies to major volcanoes. This rule avoids counting Columbia Crest and Liberty Cap on Rainier as two separate mountains. Little Tahoma is the only volcanic sub-summit with Big Boy status.

Rule 2 has been applied to include a few well known summits that are generally considered distinct mountains even though their rise above adjoining saddles falls somewhat short of 400 feet. Seven Fingered Jack, Copper, Sahale and Sherpa, among others, fall into this category.

 

 

The Climbs

1. Shuksan and the Major Volcanoes

 

Mt Rainier 14410 Mt Baker 10775 Mt St. Helens(pre) 9677

Mt Adams 12276 Glacier Peak 10541 Mt St. Helens(post) 8365

Little Tahoma 11138 Mt Shuksan 9127

Washington’s major volcanoes fill the first five positions in the Big Boy list. These summits together with Mt St. Helens and the non-volcanic Mt Shuksan attract a tremendous amount of climber interest.

Public awareness of Cascade mountaineering is often limited to these peaks, and many Washington climbers begin their careers with these enjoyable, but generally uncomplicated snow climbs. Indeed, six of Lizard’s first seven climbs in Washington were on peaks from this group.

Mount Rainier was my first Big Boy, and only my second mountain climb ever. After spending nearly a week in training at Camp Muir with Lou Whittaker and other guides from RMI, our well acclimatized group raced up and down the Ingraham Glacier in a little over five hours, and returned to Paradise feeling like world class alpinists.

Unfortunately that endorphin induced illusion was soon shattered by an extremely painful lactic acid buildup. Within hours, the post-Rainier Lizard was reduced to a pathetic, stiff legged creature of limited mobility. Bicycle touring the Great Plains of Illinois had helped my aerobic conditioning, but did little to prepare me for the after effects of our long speedy descent. Nevertheless, I was hooked on climbing. After receiving engineering degrees from UIUC and IIT, I found employment with the Boeing Company, and in the fall of 1968 relocated to the Pacific Northwest. Today, even after more than 285 visits to the grand mountain, Rainier continues to excite the imagination.

The rest of the Bulgers had also completed most of the climbs in this group before Big Boy mania focused their climbing activity on the one hundred.

Post-eruptive Mt St. Helens was of course the obvious exception. In a most spectacular reordering of the list, the once lovely, symmetric peak was reduced to an ashen frustum and placed off limits to climbers. This situation posed a bit of a dilemma. Neither Bette Felton or Silas Wild had gotten around to climbing St. Helens before May 18, 1980. How could they earn credit for a peak placed in a red zone for the indefinite future? What about the rest of the Bulgers? Would their credit apply to the new summit? The issue remained unresolved for three years. However, volcanic activity eventually subsided, the red zone was reduced, and rumors of unauthorized ascents began to circulate in the climbing community.

The Zookeeper could not afford to wait much longer. Her short list was down to seven, and several other Bulgers, including the Lizard, were closing in on their final peaks. In the pre-dawn light of a July 1983 morning, after quietly working her way up through dark gullies and cinder chutes, a solo climber cautiously approached the crater rim, and became the first Bulger to look down the boresight to the dome below.

My turn came in early February 1987, a few months before the official reopening of the mountain. However, unlike Bette’s undetected ascent, my climb attracted some undesired attention. Officials from the enforcement division of the USFS, together with a fair number of other spectators, had watched my progress through binoculars and were eagerly awaiting me at the Butte Camp roadhead.

An out-of-uniform backcountry ranger was the first person to reach me after the climb. The views from the top and the ski run down were so sensational that it didn’t take much effort to coax an admission of trespass from a clueless Liz. Fortunately the ranger, who did not have arrest authority, shared my enthusiasm for the climb and warned me about the reception committee waiting at the parking lot.

Thoughts of the possible $1000 fine and six month jail sentence filled my mind as I approached my fate. All hopes of quietly slipping by to my truck were dashed by distant calls of "Here he comes!" and "That’s him!" I was enveloped by the congregation. One fellow complimented me on my skiing, another asked if I had seen any sastrugi (?), and everyone was curious about the view — including the fellows from the green truck with "ENFORCEMENT DIVISION" printed on the side.

The anticipation was a lot worse than the reality. The USFS officers were congenial outdoorsmen and fine gentlemen. They let me change clothes and clean up a bit before talking to me in private, and after about 30 minutes of earnest conversation, let me go free. Apparently a court decision challenging the red zone restrictions had just been upheld, and the state legislature was close to reversing its position on the closure.

Over 34,000 people have stood atop Mt St. Helens since its reopening two years ago; but on that memorable morning of February 8th, all the mountain above timberline was mine alone!

Never again.

 

2. The Stuart Range

Mt Stuart 9415 Enchantment Peak 8520

Dragontail Peak 8840+ Cashmere Mtn 8501

Colchuck Peak 8705 Argonaut Peak 8453

Cannon Mtn 8638 Little Annapurna 8440+

Sherpa Peak 8605 McClellan Peak 8364

Mt Stuart and the Enchantments offer an easy opportunity to quickly run up one’s Big Boy total. The range suffers from over-exposure, but the quality of climbs available there make it all worthwhile.

Rus Kroeker and I bagged Colchuck, East and West Dragontail, Little Annapurna, McClellan, Enchantment, plus Witches Tower in one intense weekend foray. Other Bulgers have indulged themselves in similar peak fests.

Cannon Mtn and Mt Stuart were done by non-technical routes on long 7000′ to 8000′ daytrips. Only Argonaut and Sherpa stand out in my mind as especially noteworthy climbs. Long John, Dick Bock (a peripheral form) and I tackled Argonaut on its west ridge from Sherpa Pass. It was a long, strenuous climb on fine granite that finished with an exposed 5th class pitch up the summit block. Our descent to the Argonaut-Colchuck col was supposed to be by the class 2 route described in Beckey’s guide. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever been able to locate a class 2 route off Argonaut. Our route involved tricky downclimbing on steep snow, uncertain rappels off shrubs and detached flakes, and numerous other difficulties. We arrived back at camp utterly exhausted, and spent 12 hours in the sack that night before moving out along Mountaineer Creek.

Sherpa was a more jovial climb, but it too had its moments. Ken Zafren and I started up the south face, rappeled down the cold north face after getting in trouble near the balanced rock, and finished the climb via the west ridge. Our convoluted 11 hour route on Sherpa was just one of many fun climbs Ken and I made together during that summer of ’83. Our cautious climbing styles meshed well together, and a shared weakness for "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" always seemed to get us through tight situations in good humor.

Lizard: "I’ve got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my left side…"

Zaphod: "DON’T PANIC!"

The confidence we developed in each other during these climbs would serve us well in some of our future, more desperate ventures.

 

 

3. The Chilliwacks

Mt Spickard 8979 Mt Rahm 8480+

Mt Redoubt 8956 Mox Peak (SE Spire) 8480+

Mt Custer 8630 Mox Peak (NW Spire) 8320+

The Chilliwacks are an especially difficult group of peaks — wild, remote, and friable. Only Mt Spickard offers the prospect of an easy ascent. Redoubt, Custer, and Rahm are merely tough; whereas the Moxes test, or exceed, the limits of prudent mountaineering.

Only the Koala managed to dispatch this group in two visits. Lizard’s five trips up Depot Creek is more typical of the effort needed to get these peaks.

NW Twin Spire, known as Easy Mox to the Bulgers, was one of Lizard’s most dangerous climbs to date. Crossing the bergschrund on the upper Redoubt Glacier was risky; climbing to the saddle over wet downsloping slabs was treacherous; and retrieving the rope after the summit rappel (the site of Warren Spickard’s fatal accident) was positively perilous. Long John and I spent 14 hours on the route, and felt lucky to escape unscathed.

And then there’s Hard Mox…

Fred Beckey’s description of his 1941 first ascent of SE Twin Spire is required reading for anyone contemplating "the most difficult principal peak in the Northwest." Here is a climb that more or less determines one’s ability to get the Top 100. The graphic account given in "Challenge of the North Cascades" has intimidated a generation of climbers, and caused more anxiety among the Bulgers than any other Big Boy.

The Bulger "A" team, consisting of Rus Kroeker and Dick Kegel, got Hard Mox in July 1979. Mike Bialos and Bruce Gibbs, together with Don Goodman (another powerful peripheral form), got it shortly thereafter. Their reports were not very encouraging. The Ridge of Gendarmes was terrifying; the exposure on the 500′ summit tower was profound; and worst of all, the rock was unsound and offered few reliable anchor points.

The rest of us less capable climbers tried to avoid the issue of Hard Mox as long as possible. However by 1986 Bob, Bette, Long John and I were all down to our final few; and our investment in the 100 had gotten too great to let the threat of one dangerous climb deter us.

On August 10th Rus repeated Hard Mox, and in the process helped Big Bob Tillotson get his 100th. Our grim resolve was only reinforced when the Taurus, a taciturn fellow not often given to exaggeration, called Southeast Twin Spire the scariest climb of his career.

Two weeks later, after spending an uneasy night at the Redoubt-Bear saddle, the Zookeeper, Lizard, and LJ kick steps up to Twin Spires col. The maw of Mox is just about the most uninviting place imaginable, and we waste little time there as we carefully ascend to the proper notch in the Ridge of Gendarmes. The view of the SE Spire from this point is just staggering — the sort of stuff climbing nightmares are made of.

Sustained with little more than Rus’s detailed schematic and the knowledge that 15 parties have preceded us, we downclimb slabby, loose rock to a steep snowfinger, cross three nasty gullies, and reach the base of the tower. Rus’s notes have served us well to this point, but nothing above seems to make sense. His route over the rotten Red Crap Overhang to the detached White Pillar seems most improbable. Long John’s leadership here is masterful. The crux is a very delicate 5.6 overhang. Two more leads over steep, broken terrain bring us to the top! We congratulate Bette for making her 100th, but she responds with only sullen acknowledgment. Our overriding but unspoken concern is to get out of this unhealthy place intact.

We set up a double rope rappel and I set off over the edge. Half way down I discover that the ropes have fallen to the right of the northwest rib, onto the nearly vertical north face. I reach a little platform and try to reset the lines. Unfortunately the ropes have caught on some unseen snag!!! Moreover, my little platform is a topply rock of uncertain integrity. I have no option but to rappel down to the foul up. To my immense relief I only have to drop about ten feet before the ropes come free. I carefully reclimb the pitch, reposition the rappel, and continue down a full 50 meter rope length to a protected spot.

Hard Mox was Long John’s 86th Big Boy; I have three more to go; and Bette is finished.

 

4. The Eldorado Massif

Eldorado Peak 8868 Klawatti Peak 8485 Snowfield Peak 8347

Primus Peak 8508 Dorado Needle 8440+ Austera Peak 8334

The Eldorado massif is a relict from the Pleistocene — an icescape that suggests what most of North America must have looked like during the height of the last glacial epoch. Many of the peaks in this uplift barely pierce the icecap; and those that do are often buttressed with steep skirts of glacier carved rock. Klawatti and its Klaws, Austera and its Towers, and Dorado Needle are all sculptured horns nearly surrounded by glacier ice.

In July of 1978 many of the Bulgers assembled on the Inspiration Glacier for an extended four day reunion with the Big Boys of the Skagit. Eldorado was our first target. Even though we had all previously climbed this magnificent mountain, the lure of its airy summit arete was irresistible. While traversing that narrow crest of firn I was reminded of my previous crossing two years earlier. The strategy on that audacious climb was to get Eldorado in a day, and return to the cars under the light of a full moon. We nearly made it. Our party summited at 9 pm; waited until 11:30 for the moonrise; but then bivouacked three hours later in a wind cirque. After 17 hours of climbing we were just too weary to finish the final two miles of brush.

Dorado Needle was our next target. Rus and Mike tackled the SW face, while Bruce and Mary Jo Gibbs, Bette, and I attempted the Route Normale. Our route was threatened by an enormous perched snow block, and finished with an exposed but thoroughly enjoyable summit cheval. Both parties met near the top.

The key to Klawatti is getting started. Moat problems (I fell in!) prevented our getting onto the SW ridge, while vertical rock made the south face unattractive. Rus eventually worked his way onto a ledge system that solved the south face problem, but unfortunately he was not carrying a rope. The task of fixing the route fell to our reliable Buffalo. The rest of the climb was over loose, but fairly easy rock. Surprisingly, our ascent was only the eighth since 1945.

Austera’s main attraction is the view. Few places in the North Cascades offer such a pleasing panorama of rock and ice. The climb itself is also fairly interesting: a chockstone problem requiring more athleticism than finesse, and a firm 4th class staircase leading straight to the summit.

Snowfield Peak, situated north of McAllister Creek, is really an outlier detached from the main Eldorado group. Four of us got up the impressive mountain during a three-day Snowfield-Isolation traverse. The trip was made over Labor Day weekend, and the biggest problem encountered was getting a lift back to the car at the Pyramid Lake trailhead. Hitchhiking that Monday night in Newhalem was at best a poor proposition. What little traffic there was, was headed south. Finally, after a futile two hour roadside vigil, I gave up and called the State Patrol for assistance. Officer Ray Beazizo was sympathetic, but unwilling to help. He had just put in three tough days of patrol duty and was understandably tired. Beazizo did mention that a tow truck was enroute from Concrete to Ross Lake, and thought I might get a lift from the driver. Thirty minutes later the truck rolled by, leaving me standing at the curb. By this time it was well after midnight and the Bulgers were settled in for the night, resigned to a lost day of work. However Lizard had one more idea: a direct, forceful appeal to Newhalem’s County Sheriff.

Sheriff George Sharpe met me at the door to his home, dressed only in his underwear and shoulder holster. After awkwardly explaining our situation, the out-of-uniform officer notified his dispatcher and gave me a "citizen’s assist" in Skagit County’s ultimate authority vehicle: a dark mobile command post-cum-muscle car equipped with sawed-off shotgun in the front seat, steel cage in back, and a dash crammed with communications gear and other electronics. Sheriff Sharpe acted well beyond the call of duty, and refused any compensation for his service. The Bulgers, and especially the Lizard, want to publicly acknowledge the sheriff’s good deed.

Our long, long three-day climb of Snowfield ended sometime after 3:00am; in contrast, Roper and Kroeker made a January ascent of neighboring Colonial Peak in less than 10 hours RT, and managed to return to Seattle in time to attend a Bulger social.

A wildly ambitious snowshoe attempt of Primus Peak in February 1978 was halted a scant 4600′ from the summit. Icy conditions, a lack of determination, and uncommon Bulger good sense doomed this climb only a short distance above Thunder Creek. The summit of Primus eluded me until June 1986. Number 95 was an exhausting 7800′ brush bash up from McAllister Creek. Cliff bands, closely spaced little trees, and tricky route finding gave character to the climb. We bivouacked in a rock crevice just below Lucky Pass, and returned without climbing nearby Tricouni Peak.

 

5. The Cascade Pass Peaks

Goode Mtn 9200+ Forbidden Peak 8815 Horseshoe Peak 8480+

Buckner Mtn 9112 Sahale Mtn 8680+ Mt Formidable 8325

Boston Peak 8894 Storm King 8520+

This group is the crème of the one hundred. Every climb here is a classic, and most are serious undertakings. Horseshoe is the only questionable member. The peak is probably misnamed on the map, and falls way short of the 400 foot rule even though it is the high point of Ripsaw Ridge. Nevertheless this crag, a single 80 foot lead of 5.3, is fun and every Bulger has been compelled to climb it. Long John’s placement of protection on Horseshoe was so secure that at least two subsequent parties have failed to remove a chock we were forced to leave behind. Be sure to bring a big 8 foot sling for the summit rappel.

Sahale and Boston are neighboring summits of starkly different character. Sahale beckons the climber upward on attractive, gentle terrain and rewards the effort with the ineffable "Sea of Peaks" view of the North Cascades. In contrast, there is not too much good to say about the red ogre called Boston. The loose boulders strewn along the south ridge and SE face are treacherous and demand constant attention. The summit register still records the grim accident that befell the Roper party back in 1967. One does not repeat a climb of Boston.

Buckner Mountain is also nearby, but the direct route from Sahale Arm down to Horseshoe Basin is threatened by ice collapsing from the margin of the Sahale Glacier. Rus Kroeker forced a super-direct line down a gully from the Boston-Sahale ridge and experienced one of the most bizarre incidents in Bulger history.

Rus’s exuberance for the Top 100 would occasionally violate the precepts of safe mountaineering. In this case, his route to Buckner was so bold that no one else in the party dared follow his lead. Half way down a high angle snow chute Rus ran into trouble. Footholds became scarce as he moved from one tenuous position to the next. Then suddenly he slipped and fell headlong out-of-sight into a moat on the Davenport Glacier. The rest of the party attempted a rescue by way of Sahale Arm and the Davenport but retreated after getting hit by falling ice. Things did not look good for the Koala.

A short while later, after regaining consciousness, Rus emerges from his ice crypt and to everyone’s utter amazement announces his intention to continue on! The next day our bruised but unbowed buddy arrives at Cascade Pass, after bivouacking on the summit of Buckner. The determined Koala had also soloed Booker Mountain and bush-rappeled down the steep Horseshoe Basin headwall to the Stehekin River trail.

Our climb of Forbidden Peak was even more exciting. Forbidden’s inclusion in the list of fifty classic climbs in North America is well deserved, but results in an abnormal amount of activity on this difficult peak. In order to avoid other climbers, our venture was planned as a midweek daytrip in early July.

Our plans did not go well. Bette Felton got the short straw in the undemocratic process of selecting a four person climbing team, and wept bitterly over being left behind. Damaged personal relationships, anxiety over difficult climbs, and unrelenting competitive pressure are some of the costs incurred when playing the Big Boy game.

Our climb did not go well either.

July 9th, 1980 was a day of unsettled weather. Conditions are not bad enough for an outright abort but the somber clouds circling the high summits above Boston Basin hardly inspire confidence.

Ice axes begin to buzz as we approach the 8300′ notch in the east ridge. We have entered an intense electric field surrounding Forbidden’s upper reaches and the Bulgers are in panic.

Indecision gives way to action as we cache the axes and drop down to a ledge on the northeast face. The exposure down to the Boston Glacier is phenomenal, but the north side offers protection from the incoming weather. Rus and Mary Jo begin to belay across a ledge system slightly above our position while Bruce and I survey our options. Suddenly without warning, a snow block falls from an unseen cornice somewhere above and sweeps across the twenty foot span separating me and Bruce! A moment later it’s gone and only bits of detritus mark its passage. Our position on that narrow ledge was so precarious that getting hit by even that minor release of snow could have been fatal.

The climb continues with the two rope teams reaching the summit pyramid within minutes of each other. We forgo the summit register and immediately begin to setup a double rope rappel. Thus far the weather has held, but now big rain drops are spattering around us and a thunderstorm seems imminent.

A hundred meters of rope are tossed down from the summit as Bruce leads off. Naturally, in times like this, the lines get fouled and the Giraffe has to spend precious moments trying to unravel the mess. By this time even the Koala began to get edgy about our situation. Bulger patience is at best limited, and before long the three of us downclimb to Bruce’s position and reset the rappel. Three long raps get us back to the ledges. Amazing how one’s tolerance to exposure grows with a climb like this! Rather than belay the ledges, we carry loose coils and literally race across the face. We soon reach the notch, recover our crampons and ice axes, and dash for the cars in a steady rain shower.

The Forbidden epic took 16 hours RT, and was a remarkable climb in marginal conditions. However, the Bulgers can take little pride in their ignoble treatment of one of their own. Bette had to wait six long years before getting another opportunity to climb the peak. Bob Tillotson personally recovered a measure of Bulger honor by accompanying her up Forbidden’s west ridge in 1986.

Our route on Mt Formidable was by the seldom done southwest ridge. The approach up the brushy South Fork of the Cascade River was at least as tough as the climb itself. The southwest ridge becomes extremely dry in late summer and our entire party suffered dehydration on the ascent. Rock stars Steve Exe and Bob Tillotson had little difficulty coping with the fourth class technicalities; but Steve, in particular, was nearly debilitated by lack of water.

With the climb of Storm King on 24 August 1980, the Bulgers collectively finished the Top 100. Rus Kroeker was still six weeks away from individual honors, but with Storm King the mystery of the Big Boys was solved.

The climb was also one of our better screwball Bulger adventures.

The march in over Cascade Pass, up Park Creek to the basin south of Storm King is long and arduous, and the Bulgers are going light: one rope, a few slings, and bivy gear. That night at base camp Rus uses the rope for a pillow and apparently forgets to bring it along for the climb. (Author’s note: Rus still insists he forgot the rope, but the Bulgers remain unconvinced.) Hours later at the base of the North Fork Bridge Creek face we are faced with a problem. Retrieving the rope is an unattractive option, but so is the prospect of free climbing the fifth class East Peak of Storm King!

While the rest of the party looks for an easier route, Rus begins to solo the face. The K-bear makes remarkable progress and it soon becomes apparent that he alone is going to make the summit. Was this Koala’s intention all along? Rus passes out of sight and shortly thereafter calls out his familiar "whoop whoop" victory yell. Of course we are all very happy for our fellow climber!

The Koala is beyond redemption — or is he? A short while later he is seen waving us up the Goode-Storm King ridge. Our resourceful teammate has found an inspired route up Storm King that will go free. The route zigzags up some loose rock terraces, climbs through an improbable pottyhole, and leads to a notch just short of the summit. The final 20 foot pitch of exposed class four is protected by a handline fashioned from every available sling in the party. The Koala makes amends!

I suppose it was appropriate that Goode Mtn would become my final Big Boy. The Lizard made such a fuss over the correct pronunciation of Richard Urquhart Goode’s last name (it’s "good" not "goody") that it was only fair to repay his pedantry with a little suffering.

And suffer he did.

The pain started at Black Tooth Notch. The first edition of Beckey’s green book places the notch at an impasse. The error has since been corrected in the second edition, but judging by the distressed notes we found at the site, our defeat there was not unique.

Injured pride and unusual personal circumstances caused him to miss the successful all-Bulger retry in 1986, and two other semi-serious attempts were thwarted by bad weather.

By 1987 all the rest of the Bulgers had gotten Goode and Lizard was forced to recruit outside support. Al Ryll, a co-worker at Boeing, was an ideal candidate. We had met previously on a three week expedition to Mt Gerdine in the Alaska Range, and had done some good (goode?) climbs together in the Olympics. Al was a solid mountaineer with a developing interest in the Top 100.

Our route is the notorious Bedayn Couloir. It is a classic line with aesthetic appeal that suffers from dangerously loose rock. The climb involves a rugged two day approach, and the crux is a narrow, unprotectable ledge that leads into the couloir. The lower gullies leading up to that off-camber ledge are extremely rotten, and in spite of all our precautions I get struck in the thigh by a watermelon-sized boulder. Fortunately the blow is taken by leg muscle rather than bone, and after a short rest I am able to continue. Al does a great job in leading the crux, and around 11:00am, August 2nd we gain the summit.

Al is off to a great start, but for me the quest is over. Completion of the Top 100 brings relief and a sense of accomplishment — but surprisingly little elation. The effort has been too long and difficult to be rewarded by a simple feeling of joy.

The descent was hell. As my badly bruised leg began to stiffen and swell, downclimbing became extremely painful. Al did a magnificent job in assisting me through the difficulties. We spent seven hours on the technical rock, and I would not have been able to get off the mountain without him.

The next day was almost heaven. Walking the well graded trail up from Cottonwood Camp in warm sunshine did wonders for my leg. We even had the good fortune to meet a group of fun-loving women along the way and spent much of the afternoon skinny-dipping together at Doubtful Lake. We also met Silas Wild coming in over Cascade Pass in hot pursuit of his one-hundreth. He congratulated our success; and I wished him well on Dark Peak as he rushed off to catch the Stehekin shuttle bus. Silas and I had been competing, and finishing two days ahead of him was sweet consolation for the many hardships suffered on Goode.

That climb was one of the highlights of my many years in the mountains, and I will never forget the uncommon experiences Al and I shared. We made only one more trip together — a four-day Labor Day outing to Mt Challenger. Two months later Al was killed in a tragic bicycling accident on the island of Maui.

God rest his soul.

 

 

6. Chelan-Entiat

Bonanza Peak 9511 Reynolds Peak 8512 Pinnacle Mtn 8402

Mt Fernow 9249 Martin Peak 8511 Buttermilk Ridge 8392

Mt Maude 9082 Dark Peak 8504 Spectacle Butte 8392

7 Fingered Jack 9077 Hoodoo Peak 8464 Martin Peak 8375

Copper Peak 8966 Mt Bigelow 8440+ Devore Peak 8360+

Oval Peak 8795 Emerald Peak 8422 Abernathy Peak 8321

Star Peak 8690 SW Dumbell Mtn 8421 Cooney Mtn 8321

Cardinal Peak 8595 NE Dumbell Mtn 8415 Tupshin Peak 8320+

Libby Mtn 8580 Saska Peak 8404 Flora Mtn 8320

Three of the nine-thousanders in this group are fairly easy climbs, but Bonanza is a mountain to be reckoned with. Washington’s highest non-volcano offers no easy routes. The standard Mary Green Glacier approach is plagued with crevasse problems, and the 800 foot SE face is often subject to stonefall. Our 1978 attempt was abruptly terminated by stonefall one lead above the 8700′ bergschrund. Within minutes after a brief rain shower hit the face, salvos of rock began whistling down over our heads. That unnerving experience taught us a few lessons about Bonanza: (1) Attempt the peak only under stable, dry conditions, and (2) get an early start and try to be off the face before any other parties start up.

For us, condition number one wasn’t met until August 1982, and then just barely. Bonanza seems capable of producing its own weather. The Seattle area forecast was good, Holden was in sunshine, but the mountain looked threatening. However since Bonanza looks threatening even under the best of conditions Bulgers Bialos, Gibbs, Zafren, and Lixvar commenced their climb.

The ascent went well, and the largely fourth class face was easier than expected. However by the time we reached the summit, signs of a weather change were unmistakable, and Buf’s eagerly anticipated mountain top siesta had to be canceled. Our rappels were rushed and awkward; our traverse of the Mary Green, a running retreat. The rainstorm hit just as we were crossing the polished slabs above Holden Pass. A tarp shelter was quickly jury-rigged at the pass, but the peevish Giraffe forsook our accommodations for better shelter in the trees around Holden Lake. His departure was appreciated, for now there was sufficient space for three sleeping bags. The Giraffe was unhappy camping at the pass the night before, and chose his sleeping spot in such a way that nobody else could be comfortable. Giraffes do not suffer in silence, and when they are unhappy the whole zoo suffers.

Dark Peak sits in the shadow of Bonanza and was apparently unclimbed before a visit from the Bulger "A" team in 1980. After getting away late from Seattle, Rus Kroeker went to extraordinary lengths to join that party. He twice swamped his little motorboat on a daring run up Lake Chelan, and then navigated the faint Swamp Creek trail at night by headlamp. The not-to-be-denied Koala caught up with the group in time to share their first ascent.

Our party repeated the climb via the Swamp Creek headwall in May 1982, and Silas Wild completed his one hundred there on 4 August 1987. The close-up view across the Company Glacier to Bonanza’s seldom seen north side is reason enough to climb Dark Peak.

Copper and Martin are two peaks above Railroad Creek designated off-limits to the hikers of Holden village. The climbs are rugged, even dangerous, and I suppose the restrictions are sensible. Obviously the Big Boy list cannot make such distinctions; but fortunately for every Martin there is a Maude.

Martin Peak was climbed as a consolation after our 1978 Bonanza failure, and in retrospect was the more interesting ascent. The original 1936 Ida Zacher Darr first ascent notes were still in the register along with material on the 1939 Penberthy-Lavelle climb. Ours was only the 20th ascent in 43 years.

Copper Peak was my 98th Big Boy, and was climbed solo in eight hours from Copper Basin. I had gotten Hard Mox a week earlier and was pushing hard to complete the hundred before the end of the 1986 climbing season.

The following week Ken Zafren and I do battle with number 99: Tupshin Peak. Tupshin is a relatively unknown mountain in spite of its proximity to Stehekin. It is also one of the most technically demanding climbs in the Top 100. Tupshin’s dark summit pinnacles look very imposing from distant viewpoints; from the White Goat-Tupshin ridge they are positively fearsome. Even the fearless Kangaroo, Dick Kegel, is reported to have been momentarily stunned by the prospect of crossing the west face.

Ken and I climb too far west in upper Bird Creek meadows and gain the ridge at the wrong saddle. Hours are lost recovering the route, and by the time we reach the thin ledge crossing Tupshin’s west face we feel pressure to hurry. But the route does not permit hurried climbing. We continue for nearly two hours beyond our previously agreed turnaround time, and end up on a pinnacle 50 feet short of the true summit. We can see the damn cairn a short distance away, but the intervening gap spells defeat. Our disappointment is of course keen, but our primary concern is to get back to camp.

We have gone extremely light on the climb and have no food, water or bivouac gear. Everything, including our packs, was stashed when the going got tough. We get back to the catwalk ledges after a long series of rappels; recover our gear; and luckily manage to find the tent in the dark woods of Bird Creek. Over dinner we discuss tomorrow’s plans. We are of one mind. We are going back to get Tupshin.

Our 2-man team had the route wired and the reclimb was successful. However, that climb on September 12th marked the end of my Big Boy season. That night it snowed down to 6000′ and all the high peaks were plastered. Goode Mountain would have to wait until next year.

The remaining Big Boys in the area: Flora, Emerald, Saska, Cardinal, Pinnacle, Devore, Spectacle Butte, and SW Dumbell are all straightforward climbs. However NE Dumbell (aka Greenwood Mountain) deserves further mention.

Our poorly chosen route took us from a col above Spider Meadow onto a nasty black ice ramp at the head of Big Creek. An hour or more of ultra-cautious cramponing got Rus, Bette and the Lizard onto easier terrain above Dumbell Lake, but it was a route that I, for one, would not reverse. We would have to find a better way out.

Dumbell’s summit register held quite a surprise for us: one previous ascent in 1937 by Ralph Titerud, a Boy Scout leader from Cashmere. Ralph’s route must have been a Lulu. He had come in from Leroy Creek and thought he had gained the summit of Fernow.

To my considerable relief, we found a goat track leading around the southeast buttress of the main peak of Dumbell. "Baby Carriage Ledge" is an exposed fourth class route with one short difficult corner. It was a vast improvement over our approach and is probably the route of choice on NE Dumbell. In the months following our climb, Rus tried without success to locate scoutmaster Titerud or his family. We were all interested in learning more about his pioneering climb, and wondered if ol’ Ralph ever learned of his mistake.

The Chelan Crest peaks along Sawtooth Ridge are attractive, non- technical climbs with extremely scenic approaches. These summits support Washington’s easternmost glaciers, and are subject to more foul weather than their easterly location might suggest. I have gotten atop Mts Bigelow, Martin, Libby, and Cooney on foot, with skis, and by mountain bike; and have found them to be especially enjoyable all-season climbs. Reynolds, Abernathy, Oval, Star, and Buttermilk are also good sport, but are best saved for the off-season when snow still blankets their rather extensive scree and boulder fields.

 

7. Washington Pass Area

Mt Logan 9087 Mesahchie Peak 8795 Golden Horn 8366

Black Peak 8970 Katsuk Peak 8680+ Cosho Peak 8332

N. Gardner Mtn 8956 Kimtah Peak 8600+ Big Snagtooth 8330

Gardner Mtn 8897 Tower Mtn 8444

Silver Star Mtn 8876 Azurite Peak 8400+

I found the Ragged Ridge climbs unpleasant. Beyond Easy Pass the country turns harsh and barren, and the climbing gets serious. On my first visit to the area in July 1979, Long John and I traversed the summit of Mesahchie to the 8480+ east summit of Katsuk. We encountered ball-bearing rock on smooth slab above the Katsuk-Mesahchie col and became dispirited by an evil looking canyon separating us from Katsuk’s main summits. Getting down to Fisher Creek was no simple matter either.

Bette and I picked up Cosho and Kimtah the following year in another rugged but satisfying trip. Kimtah looked terrible, but actually went fairly easily once we found a convenient ledge system on the west face.

The rematch with Katsuk in 1981 was scheduled on Bette’s birthday. The menacing canyon was bypassed on its shattered east rim, and both summits of the peak were attained. Katsuk has two pinnacles that exceed the 8680′ contour line, but the more difficult western point looks a little higher. You know you’re hooked on climbing when you cannot think of a better birthday activity than bagging your final Ragged Ridge Big Boy!

Joe Vance, a geology professor at the University of Washington, finished his 35 year run at the Top 100 with Katsuk. Joe had already climbed many of the Big Boys before the start of the Bulger Era, and is the only climber up to 1997 to complete the hundred largely as an independent.

John Roper is credited with first ascents on Katsuk, Kimtah, and Cosho; while Rus Kroeker, together with Bruce and Mary Jo Gibbs, got all four peaks on a remarkable, if not first, Easy Pass to Red Mountain traverse.

Tower and Golden Horn also required multiple attempts. Tower’s central gully offers a direct but dangerous route to the summit. One attempt with formidable rock climber Dan Davis was foiled by rain and stonefall. We eventually got up the snow covered west face in June 1982. Bruce Gibbs, the Power of Tower, led a tense group of Bulgers up the super steep snow.

Golden Horn is fun. In 1978 we underestimated the climb — we had a rope but no hardware, and were stopped by a snow covered block 60 feet from the summit. We came back the following spring with friends — the mechanical kind, and blitzed the mountain. We got one summit via a cannonhole (I love cannonholes!) and another by conventional means. Dick Kegel stormed ahead of everyone else and easily free climbed both summits before the rest of the party arrived.

The Bulgers enjoyed Golden Horn.

A similar blitzkrieg style assault was used on Silver Star. The summit block requires a bit of gymnastic talent, and the decidedly ungymnastic Bulgers had to build a human pyramid to get to the top.

The Banded Glacier route on Mt Logan was done on an unusual traverse from Easy Pass; while Azurite Peak was climbed in two days by an elegant direct line from the North Cross-State highway to Mebee Pass to the summit.

The Gardners are best remembered for Long John’s spectacular fall into Huckleberry Creek. The Gardner trip was made in late April when the snowbridges were beginning to breakup. The entire Huckleberry bridge collapsed mid-span under John’s weight. He made a desperate lunge for a nearby log; teetered on snowshoes for a few moments; than fell headlong into the water. Pretty amusing stuff for those Bulgers already on the other side. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.

In 1975 I took a three year leave from Boeing in order to climb full- time. I traveled to New Zealand and Tasmania, skied the Haute Route across Switzerland, and eventually took up residence at the Alpine Club of Canada clubhouse in Banff. I was having the time of my life. I was also losing weight and generally letting myself rundown. The trouble with being on perpetual holiday is that you never get a chance to rest. I gained over 367,000′ in 1975 and spent more than 200 days in the mountains. One trip followed another until the inevitable breakdown. Over developed thigh muscles coupled with weak abdominals had slowly pulled my spinal column out of line and damaged my sciatic nerve. The injury forced a two month layoff from climbing and taught me the importance of flexible, balanced musculature.

Black Peak was my first Big Boy after recovery. Getting back to the mountains was essential to my well being, and John "Turkey" Spezia’s support on Black will never be forgotten. Situps and stretching exercises are now part of my daily routine, and since 1978 I’ve been able to climb more than a hundred days a year without any recurrence of the problem.

Fred Beckey’s first ascent notes were still in the register at the time of our 1980 climb of Big Snagtooth. The route requires some exposed technical moves on firm rock, but is thoroughly enjoyable. However May 18, 1980 is best remembered for another event: the Big Bang — the day Mt St. Helens blew up. Our party was startled by a series of three loud explosions. We thought it might have been avalanche control work at Washington Pass, and never made the connection with the ominous clouds moving in from the south. We first learned the news that evening from a shopkeeper in Marblemount. Curiously, the sound wave largely missed Seattle but was heard far up into the Chilcotin Plateau of British Columbia. Michael King, a helicopter pilot in Tatla Lake who works the Mount Waddington trade, heard the explosion; but thought it was the sound of a neighbor dynamiting a local beaver dam.

 

8. Glacier Peak Region

Dome Peak 8920+ Buck Mtn 8573 Luahna Peak 8400+

Fortress Mtn 8674 Chiwawa Mtn 8459

Clark Mtn 8576 Sinister Peak 8440+

The Glacier Peak region is perhaps the crown jewel of Washington wilderness. Other parts of the range contain higher and more difficult mountains in austere surroundings, but for me, this alpine playground possesses a sublime combination of ice, meadow, and rock, and is the scenic climax of the North Cascades. This is also a region of grand traverses, a place where the excellence of alpine travel generally exceeds the quality of the climbs available. Trips like the Ptarmigan Traverse, the Bath Lakes High Route, High Pass and the Napeequa, Image Lake and Miners Ridge attain a standard rarely matched elsewhere.

Ed Boulton and I took a side trip to Dome Peak while doing the Ptarmigan Traverse with a party of Seattle Mountaineers back in 1971. The climb came early in my career, and I was very impressed with the grandeur of the peak. The actual summit point was a large boulder perched atop the mountain’s crest. The grandeur of Dome remains; but the summit boulder disappeared during the winter of 1981-82.

The Lizard has been fortunate to stand atop pre-eruptive Mt St. Helens, Trigger Finger before its fall, and the Dome summit boulder. Our mountains are not as enduring as they seem!

Up until recently, Dick Kegel had only dallied with the Top 100. Even though his support had been enlisted on many of the tougher climbs, the Kangaroo professed total indifference to the rest of the hundred. All that changed at the 1986 fall celebration held in honor of that year’s three finishers. Dick’s total was then less than 50, and he was gently chided for not having reached the Bulger "Threshold of Respectability." The criticism must have irked Regal Richard, for the following year he went on rampage and collected an incredible 41 Big Boys! The Kangaroo who would be king then vanquished his final 13 and ascended to the throne of Dome on October 2, 1988.

The Bulgers have enjoyed a very pleasant association with Sinister Peak. The Koala finished his whirlwind odyssey of the Top 100 with Sinister in 1980. Silas Wild accompanied Rus to the summit, while a sick Lizard was left behind on the south side of Dome. I returned with the rest of the crew two years later and bagged the peak by the narrowest of margins. We climbed Dome (sans boulder) in dense cloud but did not dare cross the fractured Chickamin Glacier without better visibility. After a few hours the situation seemed hopeless and the Bulgers were ready to retreat down Bachelor Creek. Then miraculously, we were shown the way! A "sucker hole" clearing appeared for a few minutes, then closed; but that was enough. We set our course across the glacier and got our peak.

Our not-so-Sinister climb also ended on a rather amusing footnote. Since Bette’s 10mm perlon rope was not needed for the climb, it was left behind at the Dome saddle. Its bright green color must have attracted the interest of the resident marmot, for the rope was gnawed into three pieces by the time we returned!

Fortress and Buck make a nice combination. Our party went in over Buck Creek Pass and exited via the Napeequa and Little Giant Pass. The steep bushwack down Louis Creek to the Napeequa River parallels a spectacular waterfall and requires some caution. Also, the old bridge over the Chiwawa River is out, necessitating a deep and possibly difficult ford. Buck Mountain has three summits and some confusion exists over which is the highest. An Alpine Roamers register resides on the north summit, but a Bulger consensus gives credit to the central peak. The Koala might be well advised to return to Buck Mountain someday; for his 1977 effort included ascents of only the north and south summits.

Chiwawa Mountain was climbed from Trinity via Spider Pass in poor visibility and fresh snow. The Zookeeper forgot her ice axe and had to use an improvised stone adze on some of the tricky sections of the south spur. Near the summit, we broke through the dense clouds and were treated to a fantastic "Ships at Sea" view. The topsails of a few peaks were visible, but the rest of the world seemed smothered in a white blanket of foam. Loop trip requirements were met by way of the Chiwawa River.

Clark and Luahna can be conveniently climbed as a pair from either Boulder Creek or the White River. The Thunder Creek route is brutal, and is best left for the descent. Luahna’s climbing history is uncertain. The remnants of an old summit cairn were visible at the time of our 1979 ascent, but no evidence of recent climbs was apparent. Luahna is unnamed on the Holden quadrangle and was overlooked in early versions of the Big Boy list. The unofficially named peak meets the 400 foot rule; nearby Chalangin does not.

 

9. The Pasayten Peaks

Jack Mtn 9066 Mt Carru 8595 Lake Mtn 8371

Mt Lago 8745 Monument Peak 8592 West Craggy 8366

Robinson Mtn 8726 Osceola Peak 8587 Amphitheater Mtn 8358

Remmel Mtn 8685 Big Craggy Peak 8470 Windy Peak 8334

Ptarmigan Peak 8614 Lost Peak 8464

Cathedral Peak 8601 Blackcap Mtn 8397

Jack Mountain stands apart from the rest of the peaks in the Pasayten. It is a tough peak with comparatively few ascents. Our climb of the Nohokomeen Glacier in May of 1981 bordered on the heroic. Heroic leadership coupled with an amusing personal embarrassment have made Jack an unforgettable climb for the Lizard.

May Creek and the Nohokomeen are climbed to a point where Jack’s north ridge can be gained. The continuation of the route to the summit tower is along a narrow arete. May 24th was a warm day marked by continuous avalanches, and our passage along the snow-crested arete seemed foolhardy in the extreme. In places the north ridge is no more than a bootwidth across, literally forcing one foot to be carefully placed in front of the other. The old joke about saving a falling ropemate by jumping off the opposite side of a knife edge ridge was no joke on this trip.

The summit tower was equally intimidating and had everyone but Silas cowed. Silage trailed a double rope to the summit and belayed everyone else up. Our ascent was the 15th since 1967, and only the third up the Nohokomeen Glacier. The register also recorded Joe Vance’s imposing climb of the integral north ridge.

My moment of embarrassment came on the rappel. A tight fitting seat harness split my pants at the crotch and exposed my reproductive vitals to the friction of the snow encrusted rope. The rappel was a free overhang and I had no choice but to continue on down at a v-e-r-y slow rate of descent. The humor of that unpleasant situation became apparent to me only after we were safely down off the ridge!

The area east of the Cascade Crest, bounded by the Methow and Chewack Rivers, contains 15 Big Boys. This 1200 square mile region of open vistas and grand peaks is also the highest in Washington with an average elevation of almost 5400′. The Pasayten peaks are also fairly remote and generally require a full day or more for the approach. The Bulgers have traditionally reserved the first week in October for their visits. The area is especially beautiful after the first snowfall of autumn. The bugs are gone, the larches have turned golden, and the peaks themselves become a pretty fair challenge.

Lizard’s first visit to the Pasayten came in 1974 with Joanne Williams, Frank King and veteran climber Phil Dickert. We got a few possible first ascents along the Wildcat-Rolo ridge and collected most of the major summits in Eureka Creek Basin. Phil had a rough time on the trip. He became hypothermic on Osceola and fell on Carru. Two days later he was suffering from such severe stomach pain that he had to be rescued by helicopter from Lake of the Woods. We later learned that he had been suffering in silence from a stomach ulcer since the start of the trip. Phil is one of the most stubbornly tough characters I have ever met; and it is of no great surprise to me that he got the first ascent of Mount Challenger back in 1936!

In 1978 I caught note of an article by USGS geologist Rowland Tabor suggesting that Monument Peak might still be unclimbed. The unstated basis for that curious assertion was probably a helicopter landing by the flying geologist. A similar helicopter ascent by a USGS survey team was noted in the Star Peak register at the time of our 1977 ascent.

The lure of a BBFA (Big Boy First Ascent) was irresistible, and the following May a group of Bulgers went in over Pistol Pass to claim the prize. We had a successful climb on nearby Lake Mountain and Rus got a probable FA on Lake Pinnacle. Unfortunately the weather turned sour the next day and everyone except the Koala retreated. Rus got Monument, but returned to camp mildly hypothermic and very disappointed. A 1978 first ascent had already been claimed by Beckey and Roper. Fred must have read the same article — and responded quicker!

The Bulgers returned to Monument Peak the following year for the third ascent, and suffered one of their rare injury accidents. Mike Bialos got hit by rockfall and broke a hand while leading a rope up Monument’s steep southeast escarpment. The Buf was belayed to the top of the ridge at 8200′ and left behind as the rest of our party went on a short distance to the top. The stoic Buffalo never complained, and managed to downclimb the technical stuff with only one good arm. Like Phil Dickert, the Buffalo is one tough climber.

If I had to pick one trip as a personal favorite it would be our 1978 Trans-Pasayten Patrol — a four-day cross-country sweep of the Okanogan that included ascents of Windy, Amphitheater, Cathedral, and Remmel. For me, that trip had a special magic that has never quite been equaled. I still recall clutching Rus’s outstretched leg as I struggled with the exposed step-across at the summit of Cathedral; and I will never forget cooking that 100 ton boulder at the base of Remmel Mountain.

The Bulgers rarely built campfires, but that night was an exception. Our 7000′, mid-October bivouac required more than a space blanket and half-bag for warmth; and as the evening chill began to set in, Rus and I piled timbers beneath a massive boulder and started a roaring fire. After an hour or so of intense heating the rock began to crack and explosively shed large granite flakes. We continued to add more wood in hopes of splitting it, but eventually grew weary of the effort and fell asleep comforted by the warm glow of embers and reradiated heat that lasted most of the night. I still savor the comradeship, adventure, and pure fun experienced on that trip. Those events are enduring personal treasures, and best represent the spirit of the Big Boy experience.

 

 

A Retrospective

Three years after…

Is there life after the Big Boys?

The Bulgers have been actively climbing together for more than a decade, and in the course of pursuing the Top 100 have visited nearly every corner of the Cascades. Their collective climbing record and knowledge of the range is substantial and matched by very few others. Most of the group have now completed their mission, and perhaps inevitably the fellowship is beginning to fade. New interests, family responsibilities, and other obligations are drawing the Bulgers apart.

Silas and Long John are now busy raising families and climb with less intensity. Bruce and Bette remain fairly true to the Bulger credo, but Rus and Big Bob have discovered other passions in life. Ken now lives in Anchorage, and between trips to Nepal, pursues his alpine recreation in Alaska’s untrammeled mountains. John Roper’s long term goal is to climb every named peak in the Skagit and Stillaguamish drainages. This HFK is currently only four peaks away from every named summit in North Cascades National Park; and he, together with Dick Kegel, are well on their way to the second hundred. Of all the Bulgers, only the Buffalo has remained immune to the competitive aspect of climbing the one hundred. The Buf marches to his own drummer. His commitment to climbing is a lifetime affair, and he intends to save a few Big Boys for his dotage.

And the Lizard? He’s back on his bicycle; but now it’s a fat-tired model. Bike mountaineering is entering its Golden Age, and every difficult or unusual ascent is probably a first. The Lizard, now known as Shock Wave Rider, has already placed his bicycle atop more than 400 summits, including a fair number of Big Boys, and is planning ever more audacious climbs.

Is there a point to all this frenetic activity? Have the Bulgers attained enlightenment on mountain tops or found answers to ultimate questions? According to the Galactic Hitchhiker’s "Deep Thought" computer, the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is forty-two. I personally prefer the Socratic answer to the question of why we climb:

"… it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness

before seeing what manner of man you may become by

developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest

limit. But you cannot see that you are careless, for it does

not come of its own accord."

— Socrates, rebuking a young man in poor physical condition.

Socrates smiled when Reinhold Messner finished his eight-thousanders; he smiled when Don Forest got every 11,000′ peak in the Canadian Rockies; and I believe he smiled when the Bulgers got their one hundred.

Ten Years After…

 

 

 

 

Postscripts

The Bulgers:

The Bulgers found their identity on the summit of Silver Eagle Mountain on April 23, 1977. That date was the occasion of Koala’s first soul-stirring recitation of Henry Lawson’s bawdy "Bastard from the Bush." The poem is possibly apocryphal and generally considered too repugnant to be included in Lawson anthologies. Rus, with the help of a King County librarian, had to search the Australian Archives in Sydney for an unexpurgated copy.

As the shades of night were falling over city, town and bush

From a slum in Bludgers’ Alley slunk the Captain of the Push.

He scowled towards the north and he scowled towards the south

Then crooked his little finger in the corner of his mouth,

And with a long, low whistle woke the echoes of The Rocks

And a dozen ghouls came sloping round the corners of the blocks.

Bludgers came out Bulgers, but no matter. Our group had a mission, and now it had a name.

Then the Captain crooked his finger at a stranger on the kerb,

Whom he qualified politely with an adjective and verb,

"Who is this that’s come amongst us?" asked the Captain of the Push.

"Gorstrike me dead — it’s Fuckin’ Fred, the Bastard from the Bush!"

And he begged the Bloody Bludgers that they wouldn’t interrupt

Till he gave an introduction — it was painfully abrupt.

"Here’s the bleedin’ push, my covey — here’s a bastard from the bush!

Strike me dead, he wants to join us!" said the Captain of the Push.

Said the stranger: "I am nothing but a bushy and a dunce,

But I read about the Bludgers in the ‘Weekly Gasbag’ once.

Sitting lonely in my humpy when the wind began to whoosh,

How I longed to share the dangers and the pleasures of the Push!"

Early on, individual Bulgers got dubbed with alliterative appellations of the animal kind. Giraffes are tall contradictions, Koalas live on leaves, and what Buffalos lack in finesse they make up in power; Lizards lay naked on warm rocks, and Zookeepers are needed to keep the wildlife in line. To a non-Bulger, such animal designations may appear derisive; however, the names were given in affection and have become part of our personal identity.

 

Completion Statistics:

Name & Rank Last Peak Best Year

0. Bulgers Storm King – 24 Aug 80 1978 – 91

1. Rus Kroeker Sinister Peak – 4 Oct 80 1978 – 24

2. Bruce Gibbs Ptarmigan Peak – 13 Jul 86 1982 – 17

3. Bob Tillotson SE Twin Spire – 10 Aug 86 1982 – 24

4. Bette Felton SE Twin Spire – 24 Aug 86 1977 – 17

5. John Roper Lost Peak – 24 May 87 1986 – 24

6. John Lixvar Goode Mountain – 2 Aug 87 1978 – 19

7. Silas Wild Dark Peak – 4 Aug 87 1985 – 25

8. Joe Vance Katsuk Peak – 23 Aug 88 1986 – 13

9. Dick Kegel Dome Peak – 2 Oct 88 1987 – 41

10. John Plimpton Dorado Needle 1979 – 12

11. Dave Creeden Jack Mountain – 13 Jul 97 1994 – 24

12. Jeff Hancock Goode Mountain – 15 Jul 97

13. Mike Bialos Ptarmigan Peak – 19 Jul 97 1978 – 12

14. Johnny Jeans SE Twin Spire – Aug 97 1994 – 26

Summit Registers:

Throughout this account of the Top 100 I have tried to recount some of the early climbing history of the Big Boys as recorded in the summit registers. A summary of these statistics appears in the comments column of the Top 100 list attached to this appendix.

If I could make an appeal on behalf of register integrity, it would be to leave original material of historical interest on the mountain. A few well intentioned climbers have been removing old registers with no thought to those who come after them. Finding a Fred Beckey first ascent note or an old Ida Darr record is a thrill worth saving.

Duplicating old records for preservation is acceptable only if the originals are left on the mountain. The replacement registers that I have found have never been true to the original. These hastily prepared field copies are often incomplete and invariably careless with important details. More than one counterfeit Becky [sic] first ascent note has been encountered. This practice should stop even if it means the eventual destruction of historically significant material.

I confess to losing Fred’s first ascent notice on Warrior Peak — a wind gust unexpectedly blew the note away as I was trying to dry it out. Yet somehow I feel this end is more fitting than letting old records moulder away in some unknown repository.

 

The Top 100 List:

Which are Washington’s hundred highest mountains? This seemingly simple question has no simple answer. The Bulger Big Boy list is only one of many possible compilations; and other listings, based on different rules or requirements, may have greater merit. However, since I am more or less responsible for this version of the list, I will try to explain some of the reasoning behind it.

The 400 foot rule is probably the most defensible of the three rules that govern Big Boy eligibility. A larger elevation requirement, say 1000 feet, gives greater geographic diversity to the list, but does so at the expense of many commonly recognized mountains. A 500 foot rule has some numerical appeal, and has been applied to summits in Colorado and elsewhere. However I feel the rule is flawed, since it cannot be rigorously applied to peaks mapped with 40 or 80 foot contour intervals. Since 400 is a common multiple of 40, 80, and 100; a 400 foot rule can be applied to 7.5 and 15 minute series maps without interpolation. A 400 foot rise also seems sufficient to meet ones visual requirement for a distinct summit. The USGS-approved names rule is somewhat less defensible and suffers from a theoretical inconstancy. Mountain names are frequently submitted to the Washington State Board on Geographic Names, and future decisions could add new peaks to the list. Fortunately the Washington Board operates with reasonable restraint, and in the past fourteen years only one peak, Mt Rahm, has had to be added to the Big Boy list as a result of a names board decision.

The names rule is only advisory, and I have chosen not to apply it to named features on the major volcanoes, such as St Andrews Rock or Kennedy Peak, or to collective names like the Crescent Creek Spires or the Tepeh Towers. On balance, this rule seems desirable, since it allows the inclusion of a few well known peaks whose rise above adjoining saddles falls somewhat short of 400 feet.

The final rule is designed to deal with volcanic sub-summits. Very few people perceive Liberty Cap on Mt Rainier as an individual summit — its 472 foot rise notwithstanding. Lincoln and Colfax on Mt Baker are more distinct, yet many people refer to them only as Baker’s Black Buttes. Only Little Tahoma seems to have established an identity independent of its parent peak.

Applying an 800 foot rule to major volcanoes satisfies the above requirements, but gainsays the perceptions of some discerning climbers. In particular, the omission of Lincoln Peak is troublesome; and John Roper, among others, has amusingly called this rule the "John Wilkes Booth" proviso.

I have examined some of the published antecedents to my 1976 compilation of Washington’s highest mountains and found them fascinating, but woefully deficient. However this is not surprising, since the old lists are invariably based on inconsistent criteria and incomplete topographic information.

The earliest listing I have found for Washington appears in Henry Gannett’s 1906 "Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States." Gannett’s book lists 12 Washington peaks over 8000 feet, and includes a fascinating discussion of some of our state’s more unusual benchmarks. For example, back at the turn of the century, Tacoma’s official USGS B.M. was a crosscut on a step at the entrance to McDaniels Cigar Store; while Marblemount’s 313 foot altitude reference was marked by a nail driven into a cedar stump west of the blacksmith’s shop. One of the most comprehensive lists of that era was compiled by state geologist, Henry Landes. Landes was also president of the Seattle Mountaineers, and his list of 31 peaks over 8000 feet first appeared in the November 1908 issue of the club annual. The Washington Geological Survey reprinted his work in 1917, in the now classic "Geographic Dictionary of Washington". 9400′ Bonanza Peak was still known as North Star, Mt Rainier’s elevation was given as 14,363′, and Mts St Helens and Shuksan were estimated at 10,000′. Landes’s list omitted such notables as Goode, Logan, Jack, Forbidden, and Eldorado; but included some relatively obscure summits such as Abernathy, Bauerman Ridge, Hozomeen, and an unidentified 8250′ Whatcom County peak called Big Horn.

More recently, earth scientist Stephen Fry has directed his attention to the problems of mountain mensuration. Steve has rigorously defined all of Washington’s major and sub-major mountains, computed their volumes, measured their steepest faces, and enumerated the hundred highest using 250, 400, 500, 1000, and 2000 foot rules. Steve’s work is comprehensive and his lists certainly represent legitimate alternatives to the Bulgers’ Top 100.

My involvement in the Big Boy list stems from a strong personal interest in mountains, maps, and numerical minutiae. In addition to identifying the two hundred highest mountains in Washington, I have catalogued the state’s hundred largest glaciers, and have compiled a 82 year database for Cascade mountain snowfall. My private collection of topographic maps exceeds 6000 sheets, and includes the entire USGS historical collection for Washington and Alaska on microfilm. Using the resources of such a comprehensive map library to catalog the state’s highest mountains and largest glaciers was great fun and an extraordinary cartographic experience.

John Plimpton was a key contributor to the concept of the Top 100, and John’s careful scrutiny of early versions of the list helped to ensure its accuracy. John Roper’s thoughtful criticisms have also been helpful, and had he been involved with the Bulgers during the first years of the list’s creation, its final form might very well have been different.

Until recently, distribution of the Big Boy list was restricted to Bulgers and a few other trusted friends; and in fact, our list of the second one hundred is still classified. However, as knowledge of the Top 100 enters the public domain, I hope other climbers will be drawn to the considerable challenge and manifold pleasures of the Big Boys of Washington.

 

 

John Lixvar — January 1990

First Revision Date: August 1993

Second Revision Date: October 1997

 

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The 100 list

WASHINGTON’S 100 HIGHEST MOUNTAINS

 

RANK PEAK FEET METERS MAP DATE CLIMBED COMMENTS

1 MT RAINIER 14410 4392 MT RAINIER WEST 19 JUL 68 GUIDED ASCENT, 4:15 FROM MUIR

2 MT ADAMS 12276 3742 MT ADAMS EAST 19 SEP 71 HIGH WINDS DEFEAT MOST OF THE PARTY AT PIKERS PEAK

3 LITTLE TAHOMA PEAK 11138 3395 MT RAINIER EAST 23 JUL 78 CAMP ATOP THE 8800′ FRYINGPAN NUNATAK

4 MT BAKER 10775 3284 MT BAKER (1972) 11 MAY 69 SNOWSHOE ASCENT VIA EASTON GLACIER

5 GLACIER PEAK 10541 3213 GLACIER PEAK 4 JUL 71 2 DAY CLIMB VIA SITKUM GLACIER

6 BONANZA PEAK 9511 2899 HOLDEN 29 AUG 82 #132(1961-1982) VIA MARY GREEN GLACIER

7 MT STUART 9415 2870 MT STUART 6 JUN 82 8000′ DAY CLIMB VIA CASCADIAN COULOIR

8 MT FERNOW 9249 2819 HOLDEN 6 JUL 79 #3(1979) A LONG TRIP FROM ICE LAKES

9 GOODE MTN 9200+ 2804+ GOODE MTN 2 AUG 87 #3(1987) GET HURT IN BEDAYN COULOIR

10 MT SHUKSAN 9127 2782 MT SHUKSAN 10 AUG 69 VIA FISHER CHIMNEYS. MEET ROYAL ROBBINS

11 BUCKNER MTN 9112 2777 GOODE MTN 15 OCT 78 #7(1978) VIA HORSESHOE BASIN

12 MT LOGAN 9087 2770 MT LOGAN 26 JUL 81 #3(1981) 3RD ASCENT OF BANDED GLACIER

13 MT MAUDE 9082 2768 HOLDEN 20 JUL 74 SOUTH SHOULDER WITH JOANNE WILLIAMS

14 SEVEN FINGERED JACK 9077 2767 HOLDEN 21 JUL 74 SW SLOPE WITH JOANNE WILLIAMS

15 JACK MTN 9066 2763 JACK MTN 24 MAY 81 #15(1967-1981) 3RD ASCENT OF NOHOKOMEEN GLACIER

16 MT SPICKARD 8979 2737 MT SPICKARD 20 AUG 83 SIGN A TWO DAY OLD REGISTER

17 BLACK PEAK 8970 2734 MT ARRIVA 19 OCT 76 WITH HELP FROM JOHN SPEZIA

18 COPPER PEAK 8966 2733 HOLDEN 31 AUG 86 #9(1979-1986) A RUGGED 8HR SOLO CLIMB

19 NORTH GARDNER MTN 8956 2730 SILVER STAR MTN 29 APR 79 INTERESTING EXIT FROM (AN INTO) HUCKLEBERRY CK

20 MT REDOUBT 8956 2730 MT CHALLENGER 19 AUG 82 #11(1980-1982) VIA CANNONHOLE EAST OF SUMMIT

21 DOME PEAK 8920+ 2719+ DOME PEAK 8 AUG 71 WITH ED BOULTON ON PTARMIGAN TRAVERSE

22 GARDNER MTN 8897 2712 MAZAMA 28 APR 79 INTERESTING SNOWSHOE APPROACH UP HUCKLEBERRY CK

23 BOSTON PEAK 8894 2711 CASCADE PASS 25 JUL 82 #58(1966-1982) UP SE FACE, DOWN SOUTH RIDGE

24 SILVER STAR MTN 8876 2705 SILVER STAR MTN 30 APR 77 GET BOTH SUMMITS

25 ELDORADO PEAK 8868 2703 ELDORADO PEAK 15 MAY 76 A 17HR, 9100′ DAY CLIMB. BIVOUAC IN A WIND CIRQUE.

26 DRAGONTAIL PEAK 8840+ 2694+ MT STUART – NE 9 JUN 79 GET EAST DRAGONTAIL ALSO

27 FORBIDDEN PEAK 8815 2687 FORBIDDEN PEAK 9 JUL 80 A 16HR, 6000′ DAY CLIMB. MOST DIFFICULT BB TO DATE.

28 MESAHCHIE PEAK 8795 2681 MT LOGAN 15 JUL 79 #7(1966-1979) TRAVERSE TO EAST KATSUK

29 OVAL PEAK 8795 2681 OVAL PEAK 12 JUN 77 #7(1962-1977)

30 MT LAGO 8745 2665 MT LAGO 3 JUL 74 TRAVERSE TO CARRU

31 ROBINSON MTN 8726 2660 ROBINSON MTN 27 APR 80 #7(1971-1980)

32 COLCHUCK PEAK 8705 2653 MT STUART 9 JUN 79 VIA COLCHUCK COL

33 STAR PEAK 8690 2649 OVAL PEAK 10 JUN 77 #4(1968-1977)

34 REMMEL MTN 8685 2647 REMMEL MTN 9 OCT 78 UNMARKED TRAIL LEADS TO 1932 LOOKOUT SITE

35 KATSUK PEAK 8680+ 2646+ MT LOGAN 13 SEP 81 #5(1968-1981) GET BOTH SUMMITS

36 SAHALE MTN 8680+ 2646+ CASCADE PASS 16 JUL 72 ENJOY THE SEA OF PEAKS VIEW

37 FORTRESS MTN 8674 2644 HOLDEN 24 JUL 77 #4(1976-1977)

38 CANNON MTN 8638 2633 CHIWAUKUM MTS 20 MAY 78 A 12.5HR, 7000′ DAY CLIMB

39 ‘MT CUSTER’ 8630 2630 MT SPICKARD 21 AUG 83 #5(1971-1983) NEARLY STOPPED BY A GAP IN THE RIDGE

40 PTARMIGAN PEAK 8614 2626 MT LAGO 4 OCT 77 NO CAIRN

41 SHERPA PEAK 8605 2623 MT STUART 4 SEP 83 TRAVERSE A COLD NORTH FACE TO THE SUMMIT

42 CATHEDRAL PEAK 8601 2622 REMMEL MTN 8 OCT 78 #3(1978) 1941: IDA DARR

43 KIMTAH PEAK 8600+ 2621+ MT LOGAN 20 JUL 80 #2(1979-1980)

44 CARDINAL PEAK 8595 2620 LUCERNE 21 AUG 77 #5(1971-1977)

45 MT CARRU 8595 2620 MT LAGO 3 JUL 74 PHIL DICKERT GETS INJURED ON DESCENT

46 MONUMENT PEAK 8592 2619 MT LAGO 25 MAY 80 #3(1978-1980) 1-1978:BECKEY-ROPER, 2-1979:KROEKER

47 OSCEOLA PEAK 8587 2617 MT LAGO 1 JUL 74 A FOUL WEATHER CLIMB

48 ‘LIBBY MTN’ 8580 2615 MARTIN PEAK 8 JUL 78 NO CAIRN. GET BOTH SUMMITS.

49 CLARK MTN 8576 2614 HOLDEN 13 JUL 77 THUNDER CK BUSHWACK IS HARDER THAN THE CLIMB

50 BUCK MTN 8573 2613 HOLDEN 25 JUL 77 #3(1976-1977) GET THE NORTH AND MIDDLE PEAKS

51 STORM KING 8520+ 2597+ GOODE MTN 24 AUG 80 #2(1976-1980) CLIMBED WITHOUT A ROPE

52 ENCHANTMENT PEAK 8520 2597 MT STUART 10 JUN 79 HAD TO SEARCH FOR THE SUMMIT

53 REYNOLDS PEAK 8512 2594 SUN MOUNTAIN 2 SEP 79 #3(1978-1979)

54 MARTIN PEAK 8511 2594 HOLDEN 15 JUL 78 #20(1936-1978) 1-IDA ZACHER, 3-1939:PENBERTHY

55 PRIMUS PEAK 8508 2593 FORBIDDEN PEAK 7 JUN 86 #5(1980-1986) 7800′ BRUSH BASH FROM McALLISTER CK

56 DARK PEAK 8504 2592 AGNES MTN 30 MAY 82 #2(1980-1982) VIA SWAMP CK HEADWALL

57 CASHMERE MTN 8501 2591 CHIWAUKUM MTS 6 OCT 74 WITH DAVE MUELLER AND GORDON THOMAS

58 KLAWATTI PEAK 8485 2586 FORBIDDEN PEAK 31 JUL 78 #8(1945-1978) VIA SOUTH FACE

59 HORSESHOE PEAK 8480+ 2585+ CASCADE PASS 5 SEP 82 #3(1980-1982) LIZARD’S FOLLY: 80 FEET OF 5.3

RANK PEAK FEET METERS MAP DATE CLIMBED COMMENTS

60 MOX PEAK (SE SPIRE) 8480+ 2585+ MT CHALLENGER 24 AUG 86 #16(1941-1986) SPEND 14HRS ON THIS DANGEROUS MTN

61 MT RAHM 8480+ 2585+ MT SPICKARD 21 AUG 83 THE EAST SUMMIT (PT 8478) IS HIGHER

62 BIG CRAGGY PEAK 8470 2582 BILLY GOAT MTN 12 SEP 77 #4(1974-1977)

63 HOODOO PEAK 8464 2580 HOODOO PEAK 9 JUL 78 CAIRN, NO REGISTER

64 LOST PEAK 8464 2580 LOST PEAK 27 MAY 79 1961 USGS MARKER. BUILD BRIDGE OVER MONUMENT CK

65 CHIWAWA MTN 8459 2578 HOLDEN 13 AUG 78 BETTE USES AN IMPROVISED STONE ICEAXE

66 ARGONAUT PEAK 8453 2576 MT STUART 14 JUN 76 A STRENUOUS 12HR CLIMB

67 TOWER MTN 8444 2574 WASHINGTON PASS 12 JUN 82 #2(1980-1982) A TENSE 13.5HR CLIMB OF THE WEST FACE

68 MT BIGELOW 8440+ 2573+ MARTIN PEAK 7 MAY 78 CAIRN, NO REGISTER

69 DORADO NEEDLE 8440+ 2573+ ELDORADO PEAK 30 JUL 78 CLIMB FINISHES WITH AN EXPOSED CHEVAL

70 LITTLE ANNAPURNA 8440+ 2573+ MT STUART – NE 9 JUN 79 VIA WITCHES TOWER

71 SINISTER PEAK 8440+ 2573+ DOME PEAK 19 JUL 82 #29(1964-1982) LOSE BETTE’S ROPE TO A MARMOT

72 EMERALD PEAK 8422 2567 LUCERNE 21 AUG 77 NO CAIRN

73 DUMBELL MTN (SW) 8421 2567 HOLDEN 12 AUG 78 #15(1936-1978)

74 DUMBELL MTN (NE) 8415 2565 HOLDEN 6 OCT 79 #2(1937-1979) 1: RALPH TITERUD, 4 JUL 1937

75 SASKA PEAK 8404 2562 LUCERNE 20 AUG 77 #5(1956-1977)

76 PINNACLE MTN 8402 2561 LUCERNE 26 AUG 78 #2(1974-1978) 1: JIM PRICE, 26 AUG 1974

77 AZURITE PEAK 8400+ 2560+ AZURITE PEAK 11 MAY 80 #3( ? -1980) 2: JIM PRICE CLAIMS A 2ND ASCENT

78 ‘LUAHNA PEAK’ 8400+ 2560+ HOLDEN 26 AUG 79 REMNANT CAIRN

79 BLACKCAP MTN 8397 2559 MT LAGO 2 OCT 77 #2(1976-1977) A TREACHEROUS SNOW CLIMB

80 BUTTERMILK RIDGE 8392 2558 OVAL PEAK 11 JUN 77 NO CAIRN

81 SPECTACLE BUTTE 8392 2558 HOLDEN 5 JUL 79 #3(1953-1979) 1:CROWDER-TABOR, 2:BULGER "A" TEAM

82 MARTIN PEAK 8375 2553 MARTIN PEAK 7 MAY 78 CAIRN, NO REGISTER. SKI ASCENT.

83 LAKE MTN 8371 2551 MT LAGO 26 MAY 79 #5(1948-1979) RUS GETS 1ST ASCENT OF LAKE PINNACLE

84 GOLDEN HORN 8366 2550 WASHINGTON PASS 19 MAY 79 #4(1978-1979) GET BOTH HORNS, ONE VIA CANNONHOLE

85 WEST CRAGGY 8366 2550 BILLY GOAT MTN 12 SEP 77 CAIRN, NO REGISTER

— MT ST. HELENS (pre) 9677 2950 MT ST. HELENS 15 JUN 69 UP THE LIZARD, DOWN THE DOG’S HEAD

86 MT ST. HELENS (post) 8365 2550 MT ST. HELENS – NW 8 FEB 87 SKI ASCENT

87 MCCLELLAN PEAK 8364 2549 MT STUART 10 JUN 79 #14(1978-1979)

88 DEVORE PEAK 8360+ 2548+ MT LYALL 15 JUN 86 #12(1940-1986) SIGN THE DARR’S WY’EAST REGISTER

89 AMPHITHEATER MTN 8358 2548 REMMEL MTN 8 OCT 78 VIA CATHEDRAL LAKES

90 SNOWFIELD PEAK 8347 2544 DIABLO DAM 7 SEP 81 #4(1980-1981)

91 AUSTERA PEAK 8334 2540 FORBIDDEN PEAK 31 JUL 78 #4(1965-1978) INTERESTING CHOCKSTONE PROBLEM

92 WINDY PEAK 8334 2540 HORSESHOE BASIN 6 OCT 78 NO CAIRN

93 COSHO PEAK 8332 2540 MT LOGAN 19 JUL 80 #5(1970-1980)

94 ‘BIG SNAGTOOTH’ 8330 2539 SILVER STAR MTN 18 MAY 80 #7(1946-1980) HEARD THE EXPLOSION OF MT ST. HELENS

95 MT FORMIDABLE 8325 2537 CASCADE PASS 19 SEP 82 #17(1981-1982) BASH UP FROM S FORK CASCADE RIVER

96 ABERNATHY PEAK 8321 2536 GILBERT 3 SEP 79 #5(1949-1979) 1:RONALD R. ABERNATHY

97 ‘COONEY MTN’ 8321 2536 MARTIN PEAK 6 MAY 78 SKI ASCENT

98 MOX PEAK (NW SPIRE) 8320+ 2536+ MT CHALLENGER 21 AUG 82 #11(1941-1982) A 14HR EPIC ON THE NORTH RIDGE

99 TUPSHIN PEAK 8320+ 2536+ STEHEKIN 12 SEP 86 #15(1940-1986) SPEND 26HRS ON 2 CLIMBS OF THIS PEAK

100 FLORA MTN 8320 2536 LUCERNE 8 JUN 80 REACH SUMMIT AT 6:00AM

Notes:

1) Unoffical peak names are placed in single quotes.

2) The number of summit register entries at the time of Lizard’s earliest ascent are summarized in the comments column. For example, #132(1961-1982) indicates 132 ascents of Bonanza from 1961 through 29 August 1982 inclusive.

3) This is the original Big Boy List as compiled in 1976, and modified in 1980 for Mt Saint Helens. The 15′ quads for Mts Baker, Challenger, Shuksan, Glacier Peak, Holden, and Lucerne have since been superseded by provisional edition 7.5′ sheets. The composition of the Top 100 List remains unchanged; however, the 1988-89 resurvey has resulted in some elevation changes for summits in that region. However even these measurements are now outdated by the recent adoption of a new vertical datum (NAVD88) for North America. This general adjustment of the sea level reference for the North American continent increases the elevation of most Washington mountains by 110 – 130 cm. The impact of this change is so pervasive (-40 cm to +150 cm in the conterminous United States, and up to +240 cm in Alaska) that USGS has yet to announce a revision policy with regard to the new datum. It should also be noted that NAVD88 values are now given in Helmert orthometric height units (computed using geopotential differences based on observed, not modeled gravity) — a change that, in mountainous terrain, accounts for much of the difference between NAVD88 and the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929. The new reference station for Canadian-Mexican-U.S. leveling is a tidal benchmark at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River known as Father Point/Rimouski, Quebec, Canada.

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As indicated above this is mirrored, without permission, from the BOEALPS website.

I grew up in a little mountain town in eastern Oregon and I spend quite a bit of time outdoors as a kid. I hunted with my dad from an early age and most of the attraction of the hunt was the tramping around in the woods and the camping.   I was in boy scouts for the hiking and camping.  When I was in high school my dad and I built an A-frame cabin just beyond the end of the driveable road. I learned a lot about manual labor, improvisation, and first aid from that experience.

I took a rock climbing elective in college (in Clifton Gorge – Ohio doesn’t have much in the way of mountains) and did some hiking and scrambling in the Alps and Pyrnees. I climbed Mt. Washington in the White Mountains while on a co-op in Boston.  I went to Bear Mountain while we were living in New York. Then I moved to Seattle.

One of my main reasons for returning to the west coast was to be able to do outdoors stuff. (The other main reason was that my wife hated New York and was going to move whether I did or not.) When we arrived in New York in 1985 one of the first things I did was to take her for a weekend at Mt. Rainier where I learned that she was terrified of trails. (We hiked to the Pinnacle / Plumber saddle in the Tatoosh range and she had an anxiety attack about a boulder field. We hiked rampart ridge and she stopped to huff and puff half-way up each switchback. We hiked the skyline trail above Panarama Point in the fog and she was in tears most of the way.) After that we joined the Mountaineers.

There was a time, I’d say from the late fourties until the late sixties, when the “club climber” was the norm in the pacific northwest. That era may have lingered even somewhat longer, but when I started climbing technical stuff the heyday of the climbing clubs was over and the sport climbers were in their ascendency. In many respects I feel like I am a generation older than my contemporaries and the comraderie and traditions and structure of a club like the Mountaineers worked really well for me. I took the Mountaineers alpine scrambles course in about 1987 (before Will was born) and did quite a bit of backpacking through the club.

I took the their basic climbing course in 1991 with experience climbs up Baker, Little Tahoma and Yellowjacket tower. I climbed Adams and Rainier (on the summer solstice in 1992) as private trips. I took the Mountaineers intermediate course in 1993. Later, while in the intermediate course, I climbed Mt. Olympus and Glacier Peak to earn their “coveted” Five Peaks Pin.

I have led backpacks, scrambles and climbs for the Mountaineers as well as snowboard trips. I’ve served on various committees for the Mountaineers, been really active in one of their lodges (Meany), and was the chairman of an avalanche investigation committee and served on the nominating committee for the Board. I was an officer of the club for several years (mainly involved with the Mountaineers Books division) and served on the executive committee. At one point I was the president elect but shortly before I should have taken office I realized that didn’t have the commitment to see it through and I resigned abruptly and haven’t had any administrative role in the club since.

I don’t climb difficult rock (or ice) but I’m not afraid of brush or rock slides or strenuous approaches or loose rock or crappy weather or downclimbing fourth class sections – or a bunch of the stuff that makes for the basic Cascade experience. I enjoy teaching and I enjoy being out in the mountains with friends.

Here’s a list of my climbing books.

Jerry Scott	(206) 784-9815
6260 First Avenue NW	(206) 276-5276 (cell)
Seattle, WA  98107	jerry@obatik.com

Outdoor Experience

Twenty-five years of mountaineering in the Cascades and Olympics.  Significant summits include Rainier, Baker, Adams (Adams Glacier), Glacier, Hood, Olympus, Stuart (West Ridge), Bonanza, Goode, Prusik, Shuksan, Eldorado, Liberty Bell, Clark (Walrus Glacier), Constance, Challenger, Luna, Cutthroat (Southeast Buttress), Hinman, Daniel (Lynch Glacier), and Thompson.

Extensive backcountry travel experience. Well over a hundred off-trail, non-technical day- and overnight trips covering the full extent of the Washington Cascades and Olympics.  Expert in navigation and route-finding (compass and GPS.)  Committed to leave-no-trace camping and travel.  Sensitive to requirements of inexperienced companions.

Extended backpacking experience.  Veteran of many long trips, both on- and off-trail.  Skilled in trip planning, campcraft and cookery. Considerable experience backpacking with children and novices.

Ski mountaineering experience.  Leader and participant on day-tours of many Cascade peaks.  Memorable descents include Mt. St. Helens, Granite Mountain, Snoqualmie Mountain, Red Mountain, Rock Mountain, Jim Hill, Mt. Pilchuck, South Ingalls and Diamond Head.  Most descents done on snowboard.  Skilled in assessing avalanche conditions.  Competent leading novices and young adults on backcountry snow.

Cycling experience.  Completed many one-day and overnight bike tours, including RSVP, RAMROD and both one- and two-day STPs.  Experienced tandem captain. Skilled in minor bike repair.  Competent leader of novice riders.

Teaching experience.  Instructed climbing and alpine scramble courses produced by The Mountaineers (including teaching at field-trips focused on rock climbing, travel on snow, navigation, crevasse rescue and snow camping.)  Taught backcountry skiing and snowboarding at Meany Ski Hut.  Employed for seven seasons as a snowboard instructor at Ski Masters Ski School – Snoqualmie Summit.

Affiliations

The Mountaineers – completed basic and intermediate climbing, alpine scramble, and MOFA courses; former climb, scramble, backcountry ski and backpack leader, former publishing vice president and member of executive committee, qualified tow operator and member of the Meany Ski Hut committee. Presidents’ service pin,  Snoqualmie First Ten  pin and Five Peak pin.
The Mountaineers Foundation – two terms as volunteer treasurer.
Washington Trails Association – former board member and treasurer.
Professional Ski Instructors of America – former member, certified snowboard instructor.
Cascade Bike Club – current member.
Evergreen Tandem Club – current member.
Environmental Fund of Washington (now known as Washington EarthShare) – former board member.
Canadian Avalanche Association – current recreational level certification.
Boy Scouts of America – Eagle Scout, 50 mile hike and historic trail awards (camping and hiking experience in the Wallowas and Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon)

 

Related Skills and Experience

 

Extensive business management and controllership skills; CPA, licensed in Washington State.  Solid customer service orientation based on over twenty years employment in service industries, including retail and training firms. Extensive non-profit management experience.  Sophisticated computer skills including basic web page construction. Experience designing and managing call centers. Experience contracting with government agencies.

 

Education

 

Columbia University Graduate School of Business, New York, NY – MBA.
Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH – BA. Junior year in France including summer work on a fishing boat.  Additional extended language study and travel in Germany and Guatemala.  Elected head of student government.

PRESET SEARCHES

KEY WORD SEARCHES.

climbing – all books about getting to the top of stuff
climb guide – "where to" guides
climb technique – "how to" books
climb gear – small number of books about hardware
climb literature – literature (mainly climbing narratives) about climbing, much of it away from the Cascades

hiking – all books about trails and puting one foot in front of the other
hike guide – "where to" guides
hike gear – small number of books about gadgets
snowshoe – books about hiking in the winter

biking – all books about bicycles
bike guide – "where-to" guides
bike tour – technique for multi-day bike trips
bike gear – hardware (mainly maintenance and repair books)

skiing – all books about glisse sports
ski tour – overnight ski trips
ski mountaineering – sumits on skis
ski technique – bend the knees, $5 please
ski gear – tuning, waxing, etc

mountain rescue – SAR
first aid – injury treatment
avalanche – snow slides

natural history – all books about the environment
plants – vegetable kingdom
animals – birds, fish, mamals, etc.

history – recorded (human) occurances
railroad – books about one of the driving forces of our regional history

geology – earth sciences
mining – extractive industries

photography – design and production of images
paddle sports – kayak and canoe

San Juans – islands in the north sound
North Cascades – pretty much north of Mt. Rainier
Mt. Rainier – the mountain you see from Seattle
South Cascades – south of Mt. Rainier
Eastern Washington – east of the crest (enchantments, chelan, teanneway, paseyten)
Olympics – the peninsula (national park, beaches, mountains)

Puget Sound – the metropolis

Mt. Hood – the mountain you see from Portand
Western Oregon – west of the cascades
Eastern Oregon – high desert
Wallowas – northeast mountains (eagle cap wilderness)

British Columbia – vancouver island to the rockies
Idaho – famous potatoes
California – left coast
Alaska – sourdoughs
Southwest – arizona, new mexico, utah

Europe – excluding the russian far east
Himalaya – all of the big mountains
Latin America – mexico, central america, south america

This is my collection of books about the Pacific Northwest. It emphasizes hiking and climbing and it is weighted a little towards eastern Oregon. I think that this collection represents a unique way of looking at the region. It also says something about who I am and how I look at things.

 

Click here to go to the search page where you can see the whole list (by leaving the box blank) or subsets. Click on fields to indicate what you want to search.

 

Here is the list of keywords set up as pre-defined queries.

 

Here are some other pre-set queries that may be interesting.

 

Here are some bibliographies that weren’t automatically generated.

 

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