Fern, Erik, and I set out to bag two more Bulgers in the beautiful part of the world that is the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Chiwawa and Fortress were on the menu this time. I had already been up Chiwawa once before, but we were interested in linking them with a big loop, hitting Chiwawa first, then carrying our gear up and over Fortress and back down the Buck Creek Valley.
We got started from the familiar Trinity trailhead at around 9:30. The weather was overcast but was supposed to clear as the day went on, so we weren’t concerned with the gray skies. The valley was quite flat but began to climb a bit through a burn zone when we branched off on the Chiwawa River Trail. 6.3 miles of uneventful walking brought us into the open meadows that lie in the shadow of Chiwawa and Fortress. The weather was gloomy, and a light rain had started. Since we had all day and our “only” goal was to set up a high camp and summit Chiwawa, we chose to hunker down and wait out the rain.
There is a perfect, spacious campsite under a grove of trees in this meadow with a fire ring, so we even took the time to build a tiny fire for warmth. Eventually the rain let up a bit and it seemed like some late afternoon clearing might be happen, so we shouldered our packs and continued up, working our way first through steep forest on a climber’s path, before breaking out into more open heather and rocky terrain.
It wasn’t long before we were cruising into the saddle at the foot of Chiwawa. On my first trip to this area, I noted that there was a large, flat area here that would be a perfect place to spend the night. This time around, we had kept our packs as light as possible, knowing that we would be going up and over Fortress, so we had left the tent at home. Because of the light packs, and knowing we had a great camp site to retreat to, we opted to carry our stuff up to the top of Chiwawa to scout out the summit bivy potential.
The final 1200 feet up to the summit is just a class 2 choss field, and it didn’t take long before we were standing on top. The clearing we were expecting didn’t quite materialize, but it made for some super cool swirling clouds that were hugging the nearby ridgelines and caused some interesting lighting. We even saw a vibrant broken spectre – always a treat to see!
Because of the swirling clouds and changing weather, it was pretty chilly on the summit, and we couldn’t find an ideal place for all of us to sleep. The choice was easy to return to the saddle for the night. It was quite cold as we set up camp, and none of us wasted much time getting into our sleeping bags, hoping that the clear, sunny weather that had been forecasted would materialize the next day.
I tentatively opened my eyes the next morning and was relieved to see nothing but clear skies above me. There was some nice alpenglow on the big face above us, and a beautiful layer of clouds in the valley below us. It was a special place to spend a morning.
We could have stayed there all morning, but eventually got up to face the next challenge – Fortress. Our plan was to take the east route on the mountain, which promised to be a bit challenging, with some class 4 involved.
We initially headed out on the 7200’ contour for a short bit from the saddle before starting to angle up on open snow slopes. Travel was pleasant on these slopes, and it wasn’t long before we approached the steep upper reaches of Fortress. To attain the east ridge, we were presented with two choices. Either ascend the ever-steepening snow or climb up to climber’s right on some class 3 rock and then traverse over to final part of the climb. We opted for the rock and enjoyed some steep but enjoyable scrambling up to the ridge crest. The views out to Bonanza, Dome and the rest were amazing here!
The rest of the climb looked steep and loose, and I was unsure how it would go. As it turns out, the class 4 was every bit as difficult as advertised. I’m not sure if we were on the exact right route, but we were presented with two potential options, which both looked steep and loose with exposure. Erik chose the route on climber’s right and Fern and I went left. Some serious care was needed here, and the looseness didn’t help the situation. Thankfully, the most challenging part was only about 15 or 20 feet, so we were able to breathe easy as we topped out on this section. I would not have come up this way if we knew we needed to downclimb the route.
The last bit to the summit was a walk in the park compared to the loose class 4, and it wasn’t long before we topped out on Bulger number 2 for the trip! It had taken us ___ since leaving our camp at the saddle. The views at the top were amazing. I loved the panorama ranging from Buck, Chiwawa and Luahna, all the way through Tenpeak in the Dakobeds and Glacier Peak. The snowy, rugged mountains were nicely accented by verdant green meadows – a classic Glacier Peak Wilderness sight. We took a while on the summit, enjoying the scenery and decompressing after the steep climb.
I normally don’t like descending routes that we didn’t come up, but this side of Fortress looked decidedly gentler than our ascent route. It was still steep, but more manageable for downclimbing. The upper reaches were class 2-3ish and we steadily picked our way down.
Eventually we came upon a snowfield with a good runout and went for a fun boot-ski/glissade that made quick work of a few hundred feet. The next part of the descent was ultra-scenic as we descended towards Pass No Pass and into the Buck Creek valley. We were traveling steeply cross country, through ever-increasing vegetation, but we were captivated by the views down the valley of green meadows and Buck Mountain.
The valley was a welcome change. After traveling a bit on some lingering snowfields, we eventually found a lightly used trail, which would take us down to the main thoroughfare that is the Buck Creek Trail. It felt good to finally be back on a maintained trail, and we were able to stride out and cover some ground. This was necessary, because we were still a long way away from the car! We still had 7.4 miles to cover before we even closed our loop.
The trail travel was uneventful, and we marveled at the sheer cliffs of Buck Mountain rising above us as we passed by. We eventually closed the loop, and our tired legs carried us the last 2 miles back to the car.
My two biggest takeaways from this trip were that the area is one of the most beautiful in the Cascades, and that I would think twice about taking the East Route on Fortress again. The class 4 bit was a little too loose and exposed for my liking. Overall, though, it was an incredible trip, and I was thankful to knock off some amazing peaks in a stunning area.
Final Stats: 21.93 miles / 7,218 feet of gain
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