Silver Star Mountain makes its presence known on Highway 20, rising dramatically above the Washington Pass area. It is a big mountain with many rugged sub-peaks including the Wine Spires, which contain Burgundy Spire, known to be one of the hardest mountains to climb in the state. Thankfully for me and Fern, the true summit of Silver Star is not as hard to obtain, but still presented a fun challenge.
There are two options when climbing Silver Star – a quick and dirty approach which takes you up and over Burgundy Col, or a longer route that climbs up the Silver Star Creek Valley to join the other route on the Silver Star Glacier. We opted for Burgundy Col approach because it was shorter, and all melted out at this point in the year.
Our climb started with some 5-star accommodations on the side of Highway 20. We simply rolled out our sleeping pads and slept under the stars on the side of the highway at a wide spot about 2 or 3 miles beyond the hairpin. This spot was right next to the unofficial climber’s path that takes you steeply up to Burgundy Col. We slept surprisingly well and got a reasonable start at just before 8 am.
The trail actually loses about 200 feet of elevation immediately after leaving the highway as it descends into the Early Winters Creek valley. Here, we crossed the rushing creek on a convenient log and began our long march up through the woods. The climber’s path was surprisingly well used and easy to follow – albeit steep and unrelenting. We gained about 2500 feet in short order, with only occasional views of Liberty Bell poking through the trees.
Eventually the trees started to thin, and we began to pop out into the subalpine. Here, we embarked on more typical cross-country travel, with light scrambling and some route finding necessary. Where the “trail” was present it was eroded and slippery, and recent snowmelt caused the dirt to be saturated with water.
We eventually topped out at the col 2 hours and 45 minutes after we left the car and enjoyed the views for a bit. Our next challenge was a relatively steep snow downclimb to reach the “glacier” below. This part was decidedly not melted out, but parties before us had kicked nice steps, so we managed with some face-in downclimbing and sturdy ice axe placements.
Before long, we had reached the bottom of the short headwall and began our traverse out towards the summit area. We stayed relatively high and made a swooping ascent up to the to join the glacial remnant below the summit. It is a very benign glacier with little activity and few parties choose to rope up for it, so we just continued our plodding ascent. The heat radiating off the snow started to get to me here and I was dragging a bit as we slogged up the snow slope. On a side note – this looked like a great place for a ski tour if there was enough snow in the valley below us!
We mercifully (at least for me, Fern seemed to be feeling great) topped out at the gap between Silver Star’s two summits – the tallest of which is the east one to the climber’s left. We took a minute to admire the incredible ruggedness of Snagtooth Ridge that was now visible before gearing up for the final scramble.
Some people suggest the final 200 vertical foot scramble is class 4 and it is heady enough for some parties to bring ropes to rappel. Fern and I found the scrambling to be quite enjoyable and nothing more than class 3 until the summit block – but that is entirely subjective and depends on the route you take. We also encountered no snow or ice on the route but did see a Mountaineers group rappelling down.
At the very tippy top we were confronted with a slightly more difficult challenge – the final boulder to get up to the summit. It was about a 5-foot-high blank rock with a narrow top and dizzying exposure off the other side. At first when I was looking at it, I accepted the fact that I might just be touching the top with my hand. After seeing Fern shimmy and hoist himself up to sit casually on top, however, it inspired my confidence. As it turned out, the move wasn’t overly hard (especially being relatively tall) and with care was actually a semi-comfortable place to sit! The views were amazing in all directions.
We ended up hanging out slightly below the summit for a bit, enjoying the beautiful scenery. On our way down the scramble section, we stuck to the exact same way we went up, which kept the scramble feeling pretty chill and not too exposed. The glacier presented plentiful boot skiing opportunities, and we went for it, accepting the fact that our feet would get wet.
Before long we were climbing back up to Burgundy Col, carefully placing one foot in front of the other up the steep snow slope. The only problem was that there was an inquisitive mountain goat blocking our path off the snow and onto the dirt at the col. He was big and shaggy, just recently beginning to lose his winter coat. Despite looking like he wouldn’t budge, he eventually trotted off to the side and let us pass, watching over us as we rested at the col. His constant presence earned him the nickname “Barry,” for no other reason than Fern though he kind of looked like a Barry.
We eventually left Barry at his home at the col and began the steep, steep, steep descent back down to Early Winters Creek. This was punishing on the knees after an already long day – the last thousand feet seemed like it would never end. Finally, we crossed back over the creek and made the last push back up to our car on the side of the road, returning 9 hours and 18 minutes after we started. The clouds had been steadily building since we left the summit, and it had actually begun to sprinkle lightly. We were thankful for the beautiful day we had and ready for the familiar drive back to the west side of the state.
Final Stats: 5.68 miles / 4,583 feet of gain
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