The fog added ambiance to Del Campo's many gendarmes. Friends in High Places
Me and Nate got up early and were on our way by 5:30, Memorial Day, on our journey through the Mountain Loop Highway. The idea was to climb Del Campo and then practice crevasse rescue techniques in the same day, thus we brought harnesses, rope, slings, etc.
I expected the conditions to be easy, as I visited Del Campo about a month ago by myself on a beautifully cloudless day with excellent, if still very thick, snow conditions.
I made it up most of the way, only to be scared off the summit cone by falling ice and rock when I was alone and helmetless.
This time, though, we got a full taste of ridiculous Cascade weather: there was thick overcast, smothering fog and high winds, rain, snow, sleet, moments of brilliant sunshine, and a double rainbow throughout the course of the day. As the great Fred Beckey says, the weather in the Cascades is actually very predictable: either it's raining, or it will be soon.
At the Weeden Creek trailhead, a mile up the closed Monte Cristo road. The trail was steep but relatively short, as it always is, and the snow started at the first big gully directly below the peak, as it usually does in late spring and summer.
Looking up at Del Campo
Looking up at the peak from much closer now, where the snow started Conditions were much harsher than I expected. Though the snow was fairly firm and nice for the most part, it no longer covered everything nicely and evenly like it did a month ago. We followed the trail as far as we felt like, but the snow had melted in bizarre and delicate shapes on and around the trail, making progress this way difficult.
So we struck off to find our own route. As always, route finding on Del Campo is a bit of a challenge in late spring, though the snow still covered enough of the cliffs, waterfalls and slippery slopes to let us weave around obstacles on the snow.
On our way to the top of the ridge I had intended to reach Gothic Basin at the low point on its edge closest to Del Campo, where the standard route up the southwest ridge of Del Campo starts, but we started cutting up too early and met the ridge in the middle instead. This route was fine for the most part, and actually more direct, but there were several very steel sections of snow interspersed with deep treewells and rockwells, one of which Nate fell into (without major injury) on the descent through the mushy, slippy afternoon snow. From what I can remember, this can be avoided on the way up by traversing farther to the left (south) before starting straight up the ridge in late spring.
Nate celebrating our intersection with the ridge, at a relatively cool high point (not really possible to see on the camera) Then we continued up the standard route up to the notch below the summit.
Heading up to the notch
The fog, though it obscured views, provided a cool ambiance to Del Campo's many gendarmes, and gave the climb a sense of alpine adventure.
When we reached the rock scrambling section, we left behind our ice axes and scrambled up to the left of the notch (don't go into the notch). Though wet with snowmelt and painfully exposed, the scrambling, class 3/4, was pretty easy, with many handholds and footholds.
Finally, we got to the summit snowfield. I had expected the route was too steep to hold snow for long, but here we found ourselves confronted with probably a 55 degree snowfield. As a slip in such an exposed place could be deadly, we agreed to scramble back down and grab the ice axes, and then I suggested we use the pickets and rope and actually pitch it out. It was at this point we were actually snowed on by little ice pellets that looked and sounded practically like styrofoam, which then started to roll down the slope and bury our stuff at the bottom.
The summit snowfield We used münter and sitting hip belays, with the pickets as deadmans, until the summit was reached, literally JUST IN TIME for a miraculous and short-lived clearing of the clouds.
Gothic Basin and snowcovered Foggy Lake from Del Campo summit
The route we came up (the notch we avoided is visible)
Weeden creek valley, which we came up We downclimbed, and then plunge-stepped our merry way down in the face of returning clouds.
Nate scrambling down
Going down with views
A last look at Gothic Peak We were the first people to sign the summit register since October. I don't know if the peak was climbed in winter, but it certainly hasn't been recently. We found no tracks anywhere, nor did we meet anyone on the trip. I'm not sure why, because this was a badass trip on a badass mountain! The summit snowfield probably could be ascended without a belay, very carefully, but I didn't regret having one because it was good practice anyway.
And anyway, the snowfield will probably be melted out in a few weeks. Cheers to my friend Nate for an excellent trip.
Comments
No comments posted yet.