Sloan Peak is called the Matterhorn of the Cascades. It is obvious why when viewed from a variety of different angles throughout the range. Its sheer cliffs make it hard to believe there is a scramble route, but there is! The corkscrew route is aptly named, winding its way almost entirely around the precipitous summit. All these reasons make Sloan an appealing climb, so I jumped on the opportunity to go when Fern suggested it. This would be worth a "sick" day from work!
We made the early morning drive out to the Mountain Loop Highway, opting for the Bedal Creek approach. I knew for a long time the standard route up Sloan had been via Cougar Creek, but this route has a dicey crossing of the North Fork Sauk River and some bushwacking and I believe it is quickly falling out of favor for the Bedal Creek approach. High clearance is recommended for the gravel road up to the trailhead, and the brush is getting a little close to the roadside, so don’t be too surprised to hear some unpleasant screeching on the side of your car.
We got started at around 5 am and it quickly became light enough to turn off the headlamps. The trail would move in and out of the forest, and in the open sections it would get bushy – watch out for nettles here! Soon, we reached a point where the trail heads steeply up the hillside, following pink flags all the way up. The trail was much easier to follow than I would have guessed, and we quickly broke out into boulder fields and meadows. Sloan still looked tall and intimidating from this vantage point.
After completing a rising traverse through the meadows, we hit a 5300’+ saddle with a tiny stagnant tarn. From this point, the terrain was much more open, and we continued into the next basin where we joined up with the Cougar Creek approach and reached the bottom of the glacier.
Here, we found a good spot on the rocky ridge to put on crampons and rope up for the glacier crossing. For us, the glacier was benign and easily navigable, although somewhat steeper in places than I would have guessed. If you are considering going later in the year, make sure to get the latest report on glacier conditions, because crevasses do open up as the season goes on. After a painless glacier crossing, we reached a 7400’ foot shoulder and exited the snow and ice. Here the official corkscrew route begins.
The route is a site to behold, traversing its way through steep grassy and cliffy terrain. There is a good boot path the whole way, so footing is not really an issue, just don’t step too far off the path! After some more epic traversing we reached the final scramble, a fun class 3 jaunt up to the summit that is slightly loose in some places.
It felt great to top out on Sloan, knowing what a cool mountain it is and how visible it is from so many different angles in the Cascades. We took a long time to soak in the views and relax before heading down.
Reversing the scramble and corkscrew went without issue and we were soon back to our stashed gear at the top of the glacier. Here we geared back up and made our way back out onto the snowy expanse. It was getting quite hot outside so the snow was softening up considerably. I took one overconfident step on some sloppy snow near the end of the crossing and took an unexpected seat on my butt. The consequences of a slip here weren’t too high, and I had my ice axe at the ready, but it was still nice reassurance that Fern easily took the weight of my slip on the rope. Hopefully we’ll never have to test that out with a crevasse involved! After this bit of excitement, we were soon off the glacier and headed back down towards Bedal Creek.
At this point, we were baking in the heat and bugs were out in the meadows so we made a point to get out of there as fast as we could. We ended up back at the cars in 10 hours and 22 minutes RT after a highly successful day trip on Sloan. So happy to have this one in the bag.
Final Stats: 9.41 miles / 5,542 feet of gain
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