The Ragged Ridge is an aptly named, rugged subrange of mountains in the North Cascades that rise sharply above the Fisher Creek Valley. Access to them is inconvenient, to say the least. The peaks are either reached by significant amounts of tedious side-hilling on steep and unforgiving terrain or by bashing your way straight up the valley via thick bushwhacking and steep, loose rock.
Fern and I set off with the tentative goal of climbing all 4 Bulgers on the ridge – Mesahchie, Katsuk, Kimtah, and Cosho – in a weekend. We knew this was a big goal and were prepared to abandon it if it didn’t feel attainable.
We set off from the Easy Pass trailhead at the leisurely time of 10:25 am, working our way up to the pass in short order. I love the section of trail below the pass where it breaks out of the trees, with the massive north face of Graybeard rising above you and views back toward Tower, Golden Horn, and the Washington Pass area.
After an hour and 35 minutes and about 3.5 miles we reached Easy Pass. This is a classic North Cascades location, with beautiful views west down the Fisher Creek Valley toward the massive Mount Logan and south towards the rugged north face of Black Peak. Mesahchie rises sharply above as well and looks improbable to climb from this angle. We took some time to soak in the views, knowing that our last steps on a pleasant, maintained trail were behind us until the return journey.
We set off down the valley, sticking to goat paths and any small ledges in the slope that we could find. We tried to stick as close to the 6800’ contour as possible, wrapping below Kitling Peak and heading into steeper terrain. Up until this point, the going wasn’t too bad, we were able to stick to mostly grassy slopes, but from here it got much rockier and generally trickier to stay on our contour. After a bit we started to gradually descend to the 6600’ contour, aiming for a small bench with a little snowmelt lake. There was one more tense section of sidehill scrambling before we popped out into the miniature basin. I loved the view of Arches from here and we took a well-earned break to pump water and re-evaluate.
Our plan was to camp high in the col between Mesahchie and Katusk because we had heard there was a prime bivy spot. From the bench we angled up to join the ridge that rises straight up between the two peaks, joining it at 7400’. The terrain here was now firmly class 3 scrambling, and we steadily worked our way up to the ridgetop with our overnight packs. The views back to Arches/Arriva/Fisher/etc were spectacular and some of the most impressive I have seen in the North Cascades. A short descent took us to the col, and lo and behold the bivy spot was there! It wasn’t much, but it would be a spectacular place to spend the night. We had made it to this point just before 5 pm, about 6 and a half hours after we left the Easy Pass trailhead.
We still had to tag two peaks before the night was over, so we dropped our overnight gear, and eyed the main gully up Mesahchie. Mesahchie is a steep peak, but the gully contains moderate class 3 terrain that is only a bit loose. With care, we quickly topped out on the peak in about 30 minutes from camp. Clouds were swirling, but we had great views out to Goode and the heart of the North Cascades.
Descending the peak took some caution, but before long we were back at our campsite, ready to turn our sites to Katsuk. It was a great feeling being camped so high, because we were able to knock off two significant peaks in short succession late in the day. The scramble over to Katusk was mostly a fun class 3 traverse. We topped out before 7 pm and found the register calling it “Mount Holyoke”. The view back to Mesachie was excellent from here in the evening light. It was cool to think we had just been standing on it.
With all of our objectives done for the day, we settled back into camp to watch the sunset cast light on the swirling clouds around us. After one unfortunate incident involving some spilled Mountain House food, we went to bed knowing that we would have to wake up early the next morning if we had any hope of knocking off the next two peaks and making it back to our car the next day.
The alarm came early the next morning. We packed up our overnight gear and were moving down tricky terrain in the dark by 4:00 am. Fern’s headlamp had lost more battery than we were aware of, so he was essentially following my headlamp down tricky scramble moves in the blackness of the early morning. We descended all the way to the 7400’ ridge before embarking into the unknown in pursuit of Kimtah and Cosho – which were still a long way out on steep unforgiving slopes.
At this point the sun was starting to rise, casting a beautiful glow on the snowy flanks of Eldorado Peak far in the distance. I love how Eldorado looks different from just about every angle you view it from. The light gave us some pep in our step, but progress was still slow as we worked our way along at 7400’. Eventually, we came to deep chasm below Katsuk Peak and were baffled by how to get across. Our beta didn’t mention it, and in our sleep-deprived state it seemed like a daunting task. All paths looked steep, loose and unpleasant. I think if we really set our mind to it, we could have found our way across, but after 20 minutes of struggling to find a way and burning valuable daylight, we agreed to call it. The day was set to be extremely long any way and this delay combined with not being 100% sharp meant the writing was on the wall. I was a little sad to orphan Kimtah and Cosho, but even through my peakbagging addiction could see that it was the right call.
The good thing about our decision was that it was still early and we could spend some relaxing time on a beautiful day in a stunning place. We ended up retreating to the 7400’ ridge below Katusk and Mesachie and laying out our sleeping pads to take a nap, which felt amazing in the morning sun. We then went for a swim in the little meltwater “lake” on the bench below before starting back across the giant sidehill towards Easy Pass. The way back seemed easier than the way out, interestingly enough but it was still a glorious feeling to hit real trail again.
From there we zoomed back to our car on the North Cascades Highway, content with the fact that we bagged two incredible peaks and all with the fact that we made the right decision on when to turn around.
Final Stats: 14.83 miles / 6336 feet of ascent
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