Bulger season was upon us, and that called for a long drive to a remote part of Washington to kick it off. Katie, my dad, and I made the voyage out to the town of Winthrop and camped for the night at a nice campground off Forest Road 5130.
The next morning, we drove up the last 10 miles or so of road to the Copper Glance Trailhead. It promised to be a nice day, and we got started at about 8:30 am. The trail was pretty nice, if a bit overgrown, and had only a few blowdowns to contend with. About a half mile in we had to take our shoes off to make the crossing of Copper Glance Creek.
Past the creek, we continued up, eventually reaching the old Copper Glance mine. This mine was just a rectangular opening in the red rock of a cliff. It was pretty spooky looking inside, the ground was partially flooded in a few inches of water, and old tracks extended deep underground. I would have been too nervous to check it out much further had the tracks not been submerged in water.
Beyond the mine, the trail continued steeply up, eventually entering an area with beautiful meadows and our first views of the rugged Isabella Ridge. I loved the contrast between the jagged, gray peaks which still had snow clinging to them and the lush green grass around us. This area would be a great place to see wildflowers later in the season!
Once past these meadows, we entered back into the forest, this time into an area with significant blowdown issues. Progress slowed here, but we eventually got to the turnoff to Copper Glance Lake about 2 hours after we departed the trailhead.
Here was where things would get interesting. I had done some research on these peaks and expected them to be pretty easy as far as Bulgers go. I knew there was a hidden snow ramp to access West Craggy and figured Big Craggy would be just a big pile of class 2 junk. We decided to go for West Craggy first and angled up out of the trees, taking a circuitous route around blowdowns and trying to avoid creeks and post holing in the increasingly deep snow. This part wasn’t too much fun.
Eventually, we got on more supportive snow and cruised up to the basin below West Craggy. The sow ramp route looked improbable, but it seemed like we could just climb straight up the more moderate snow slope above us to attain the ridge between the two peaks. I’m sure the snow ramp would have worked, but this seemed like the most direct and easiest approach, so we left the basin at about 7000 feet and kicked steps straight up. There were trees and rocky outcroppings, so the slope never felt too exposed, and we quickly motored up, gaining the ridge at around 7600 feet.
From here, I figured we could run the ridge out to West Craggy, but the terrain turned out to be much more complicated than I expected. We were side-hilling and scrambling on loose class 2-3 with some annoying snow interspersed throughout. The route wasn’t as obvious as I expected it to be, and my dad and Katie said that they were ok foregoing the peak if I wanted to make a quick dash out to see if I could do it quickly and meet back up with them on the ridge.
I don’t love splitting up as a group, but I figured I had a good shot at tackling the peak in a semi-fast manner. Now with a time crunch, I tried to move as fast as possible, while still being safe on the semi-tenuous terrain. A few scramble moves and some sandy steps brought me up to West Craggy’s summit ridge at about 8000 feet. Now this was the ridge I was hoping for originally! It was gentle on the west side, and I fast walked/jogged all the way to the summit, which was still deceptively far away from where I hit the ridge. I reached the summit around 2 pm and was met with a hoard of ladybugs on the summit rocks. Does anyone know anything about this phenomenon? I’ve seen it a lot on top of peaks in the Cascades now and it battles me every time. Aside from the ladybugs, the views were spectacular of Isabella Ridge, distant North Cascades peaks, and Big Craggy to the east.
I didn’t have much time to spend on the summit because I needed to get back to my dad and Katie, so I quickly reversed course, jogging down the ridge where I could before dropping back down to the annoying side-hilling slope below. I was happy with the speed at which I conquered this section, with only one annoying post hole slowing me down. Before long I was back to my partners, who were waiting for me at the point where we first topped out on the ridge.
Now it was time to turn our sights to Big Craggy. From this vantage point, it looked like a 900-foot climb up a rubbly ridge, and that is about what it turned out to be. Nothing was too steep or difficult and we plodded up the class 2 rock field in a little under an hour. Views from the summit were grand as well, with a slightly different angle on the rugged peaks of Isabella Ridge. It was also cool to look back at West Craggy from this angle, its east face appearing much more foreboding and cliffy than its relatively gentle west side.
After taking in the views and enjoying our accomplishment, it was time to head down. This was another time on the trip where my expectations did not meet reality. In my research, it seemed like most climbers came up Big Craggy from this south side, so I assumed it would be another simple class 2 ridge down. We hadn’t ascended this way, so I immediately noticed that it was steeper than I expected. There was steep snow or rock and awkward transitions between the two. It took some care and good ice axe placements to lower ourselves down until the angle eased.
Even after this point it still wasn’t easy, as entire fields of rock would shift on us and at one point we were essentially surfing down on a layer of movable rubble. It was a pain, and I’m not sure we found the “standard” route on Big Craggy. Eventually, by some miracle, we made it back to the main Copper Glance Trail in a cloud of mosquitoes. By this point, the Craggies had really taken it out of us, so we high-tailed back out to the trailhead, forgoing prior plans to check out Copper Glance Lake.
The hike out was pleasant, considering how battered and bruised we felt, and we returned to the trailhead 11 hours exactly after we had started. It felt incredible to return to our lawn chairs at camp and make a big fire to celebrate our success. Two more Bulgers down and another great trip to the Pasayten under my belt!
Final Stats: 10.33 miles / 5354 feet of gain / 11 hours total time
コメント