2024.7.28. Kyes Peak

7/28, Sunday. Kyes Peak. According to O.K., Kyes and Gunn are both on Smoot List.

Up at 5am, packed up my tent. When I waked up O.K. at 5:25am, she wasn't pleased. I had to get some food from her car. We were supposed to meet 2 other climbers at the parking lot at 6am. It turns out, both Ashley and David came last night, and slept in their cars. Ashley is from Portland, in her 30s. David is from Seattle, maybe 70 -- surprising that he's the fastest and most experienced of all of us. Needless to say, I'm the slowest and least capable of the 4.

The trail to Virgin Lake is straightforward and boring. This lake is ugly and stagnant: with a thin layer of slim on the surface and many bugs around. I was already lagging behind!

Follow the trail to the north end of Virgin Lake, and you'd see a faint trail heading into the woods, going up. This boot track is mostly clear to follow, more or less on the ridge. However, it gets very steep at time. I fell on my way down here, and had bad scratches on my back. So bad, that I couldn't sleep on my back for a couple of nights. Very dusty, almost powdery. At 8:15, had peekaboo view of Blanca Lake through trees. At 8:45, on a nice grassy ridge. Good view of the clouds to the east. More occasional views of Blanca Lake below to the west.

In this photo to the right, my group followed a track forward on the right (east) side of the ridge. They met 2 people heading back, telling them this is not the right way. Look for a pink ribbon, near where I took the photo (or see the darker map to the left, the lower white X). Go over to the left (west) side of the ridge. First, in the bushes. Then, hop over this boulder field. Once getting into the trees on the north side, the tracks became faint, or rather multiple tracks, none look very good. Some bushwacking. Not very pleasant. Until you get back on the ridge proper. By now, you are above the north end of Blanca Lake.

Now the track gets very steep again, for the next 30-40 minutes. Until, finally we were above the tree line.

Now, it's rocky alpine scenery. Very pretty. Running snow melt, mossy green. Snow is soft. Able to cross without any traction device. I stopped to fill my water bottle. Now, we could see where we were heading to. Behind that peak where I drew a line. As we went higher, Blanca Lake again, came into view. Even though we were on the east flank of Columbia Glacier and Columbia Peak, we couldn't really see either.

On this rocky slope, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite some small flowers.

The next tricky place is this sandy slope. (Marked by the upper white X on the dark map above.) Keep to the right edge, gain the ridge before turn north: see the red line on the photo. The sand is slippery. I tried to gain the ridge a bit more north of the red line, it wasn't good. From now on, the view is splendid. Too bad, very cloudy today.

Finally, we could see Kyes Peak, behind this unnamed peak, which we could see much earlier. Only from there, we could see the Columbia Glacier below. The rest is more or less straightforward. Need to round over this bump from the east. Need to negotiate a moat at one point. Views in all directions, even though foggy.

Found some interesting flowers along this ridge with shard-like rock flakes: Anemone Lithophilia, Alpine Collomia.

We stayed on rocks on the way up. However, on the way back, I put spikes on, and stayed in the snow. The last bit is a rock scramble. Fairly straight forward. But going down here feels scary. By the time I reached the summit, my fellow climbers have been waiting for awhile. The clouds moved around, at least they didn't have to be baked. Suprising to see this bush in full bloom on the summit.

Going down this final peak. Below, I put on spikes, and cut the snow. The 2 other ladies followed me. Dave took to the rocks. Back on the rocks, retraced our steps to the bottom of the steep treed slope.

There, Dave suggested that we take to the ridge, instead of going down to the "trail", which had some unpleasant bushwhacking. Well, it was ok going for a bit, until we cliffed out. Down climb, and up again. David lead the charge. Very steep slopes. At one point, I slipped, and was hanging on heathers. Ashley bailed after her slip, and went down to look for trail. The rest of us, the stupid ones, continued this ridge route. May have actually summited "East Blanca Lake Peak". Finally, after a few very sketchy sections, we came out to the trail proper. By the time we reached the parking lot, Ashley was long gone.

It was 11pm, when we got back home! Learned one lesson: shouldn't follow someone who's too confident in an unknown terrain.

Note, I used Plantnet to ID flowers. But it couldn't identify Collomia, which I had to ask Yoko.

2024.7.27. Gunn + Wing + Tailgunner

7/26, Friday. My climbing buddy O.K. arrived before 9pm, found me aleep on my couch :)

7/27, Saturday, we were up at 6am. Drove out ~6:30, but both she and I forgot something. Had to run back. Good that the trailhead is not far. North of the town of Barring off Hwy 2. Our main objective is Gunn Peak.

When we arrived, the TH of Barclay Lake was already full. Backtracked, and looked for the small and short spur to the north. There was a lady camping there. She has a huge tent. We passed her site to the end of the spur road, couldn't find a way crossing Barclay Creek without getting wet. The lady called out to us, and showed us a faint trail before her van. She said she had seen people coming out of that trail. We followed. It hit the creek slightly upstream. Here's OK crossing the creek in the photo. 8:14am.

The track is mostly easy to follow, but it's steep. Here is the worst: half of a goat carcass hanging on a branch (see the red circle), the other half lying below. Yes, we actually need to go down here (the red verticle line), cross and go up on the opposite side. Super dusty like powder. I couldn't believe that we need to go down here, nor did I want to give up hard-earned elevation, I tried to find an alternative route via the rock cliff, but gave up and went down the sand, hanging on trees. At the this time, 2 guys came up here as well. That's about 9:30am.

~20 minutes later, we broke above the tree line. The grade eased only a slight bit, still going up aggressively. Barring looming to the south. Some shrubs and flowers. Paintbrush, rosy spiria, tiger lily. Gradually, we arrived into a basin with some snow patches and melting creek ~10:30am. Even saw some shooting stars. Then, finally, at the rocky basin where you can see OK's objectives of the day. Water is not a problem, plenty snow patches that I filled my water bottle.

To go to Gunn, follow the track down to a lower basin, and traverse this boulder field. Right under Gunn proper, turn right into a gully. This is the only tricky part. Here you see O.K. going down the rock crack, where I came up. Funny, that I chose her up route when I went down. Because neither of us like the way we scrambled up. From then on, it's quite straightforward. You need to cross the ridge to the north and the turn west. See this ridge in the left photo. Follow the trail all the way to the summit. 12:50. Yes, there's a "trail" all the way.

Summit view is not bad. East to Wing and Merchant, west is Gunn Lake below, south is Barring, north is Glacier Peak among many others. All very rocky. Enough space to spread out. There's a summit registry here.

Going down to the lower basin. On the way I counted all the climbers we encountered including those we met on our way up. Total 14 including us.

Now, cut towards Wing. As we got close, on the the proper mountain, we found the trail. It was somewhat steep, but nothing special. Here's OK going down. The last big is interesting. We had to drop down a big rock, walked a short ledge, and go up to the main peak. We squeezed through a crack. I had to lower my pack. O.K. simply left her pack below. Here in the photo to the right is O.K. getting into the crack. Looking back is our route to Gunn. ~3:10pm. No summit registry.

Going down back to the main trail, we decided not to walk along the ridge, but to the south of the ridge.
This slope has quite some flowers. Saw Rusty Saxifrage, Cascade Desert Parsley, harebell. A lot of daisies, cream-colored paintbrushes.

Once joined the main trail, we headed to Tailgunner. This is the easiest scramble. Maybe class 1. On the way, saw a few lovely ponds and flat meadows. Would be nice to camp here. Maybe a little buggy right now. The summit has equally good view. 4:30pm. On our way down, saw ~3 people sitting by the ponds, resting.

Going back to the main trail, and retracked all the way back down to the car. Again, I didn't like the place where the goat died. (~6pm) Surprised to meet 2 backpackers heading up.

Total about 4600', 7 miles. We drove towards Blanca Lake, also off hwy-2, for tomorrow's climb. On the way, stopped at Troublesome Creek campground's day use area for dinner. Already getting a bit dark. ~8pm. It has a picnic table, overlooking Troublesome Creek. Cleaned up dust and sweat. We walked around the camp, unable to find drinking water tap. So had to filter river water. Continued to Blanca Lake TH. I pitched a tent near the TH, off the parking lot. Didn't bother to put a fly on top, nor stake the tent down. O.K. slept in her car.

2024.7.20. Tomyhoi Peak

A very long and hot day, dusty but beautiful. Bugs are out.

I left home at 4:40am to catch the lightrail. I was the first person who arrived at the Green Lake P&R. 2 people didn't show up because of faulty alarm setup. Picked up one more in Lynnwood. 8 total. Except for one girl, all 7 summited Tomyhoi. She went to Yellow Aster Butte, and waited forever for the rest of us. Because other than DR and me, the rest needs babysitting during the scramble. Slow progress.

I had never visited this area in summer. Being a well-known fall destination, parking is possible now. I was pleasantly surprised by the profusion of flowers on the way. Started with endless yellow aster, bistort, velarian, splashes of color of paintbrush, fireweed, thistle, columbine, penstemon, rosy spirea. In the snowmelt, saw Arctic Sweet Coltsfoot (new to me). It was very warm, and the only shade is at the begining. I'm glad to use my silver umbrella.

Ignore the first junction to Tomyhoi Lake (branching out to the right) at mile 1.5. 2 easy miles later, 7 of us took the left side trail going down to the lake basin, where a few tents were already staking their spots. I never camped here. No shade. Too sunny. Also, out in the open for all the eyes. The water here is mixed with bug spray and sunscreen, not what I want to drink, even filtered. Will be very crowded as the day goes on. I did camp higher (less eyes, but equally no shade), last time when climing Tomyhoi.

I started down first, because I'm the slowest of the bunch. Took a boot path (not the formal trail), straight down (not recommending this, I slid once, no harm, but not necessary). Didn't linger at any of the lakes, headed up the next plateau, where I got slower and slower. By the time I reached the next pond (just below where I camped last time), I was already the last in my group. While the others were taking selfies and filtering water, I put some snow in my bottle and continued onwards.

Heathers are everywhere. Both colors. The trail is obvious except one tiny scramble. Flowering slopes then flat eidge. Until we reached the summit area, where scramble begins.

Last time I took to the snow (much less snow, it was autumn). Didn't like the transition onto the rocks. This time, I decided to try climbing over the first peak, where DR calls it false summit. I had my lunch here, already noon, also to lessen some weight. DR climbed over to some rock, and took this photo of us and 2 other girls. None of them wanted to follow. After lunch, I started to climb, and soon, the 3 friends of DR's coworker all followed. It's not pretty, nor horrible. My ice axe, pole, umbrella were sticking out of my pack, and hindered some movement. EB and JF were afraid. JF tried to follow the track on the snow.

When I climbed to the ridge, I saw 2 guys going down to the snow. Seems much easier. EB followed JF, very slowly, cursing on the way, because he didn't bring an ice axe. I stashed my ice axe here.

I continued, waiting once awhile so whoever behind can see where to go. The ridge is not bad. No need for hands. By then, we can smell the smoke from the recent fire in the east. Both Shuksan and Baker lost their heads in the haze.
Then, it's a steep down slope (see the left photo of me going down, and the steep edge ahead), followed by an almost vertical edge (I took the right photo on this edge looking down and what we just came from). DR had to stay behind to direct his friends.

Then, it's a narrow traverse. Finally a ramp going up to the true summit, which has 3 rock piles of slightly different height. Each fairly small, not enough for all 7 of us. Once I stood up on the tallest rock, I climbed back out to the first rock pile. EB refused to go to the other two. We sat there waiting for the others. EB ditched his backpack below the steep climb, so I gave him some water and cucumber. There's good cell signal here, we checked our phones!

Among all the rocks, there were occasional penstemon and sedum. Also some hairy cinquefoil (my guess). Quite some lady bugs.

EB and I started down first. At multiple occasions, I had to place EB's feet on the rocks. We all made it safe and sound. Once I retrieved my ice axe, I decided to take the snow route. Put micro-spiles on, gave my ice axe to EB. This is much easier, easier than the snow route I took last time (different gully). JF, EB, and I waited for the rest who took to the rocks. It turns out they found a different way to come back.

Once the scramble is over, I was lagging behind again. Some of my group decided to swim in the ponds in the camping area, so I gained back the lost distance. See, don't drink water from these ponds. They look nice, but ..., also there are dogs.

Going back from the ponds, I took the official trail. Tons of penstemon blooming along the zigzag. Waited in the shade next to the junction of Yellow Ester Butte trail. Soon mosquitoes found me. Dinner time! After some snacks, I headed out first, away from the bugs. I was able to finally walk at a leisure pace, taking more photos. Smoke cleared up a bit.

I managed to loose my water bottle. I didn't realize it until I wanted to drink. I thought I dropped the bottle where I did a bio break. Headed back to look for it, found nothing. Back at TH around 7:30pm, dead thirsty. The poor girl (who didn't climb) had been waiting for us for hours. I got dropped off at the I-5 exit which DR uses for his own home. Walked another 20+ minute home. Just shy of 11pm. Oddly, I didn't fall asleep during the drive both ways. However, I slept most of the day Sunday.