Date: July 1-2 2017
Participants: Dmitri Oguz, Natalie Makepeace, Else Bosman, and Sarah Taylor
Sunset views from our bivy ledge. Photo by Else Bosman
It’s Canada day so what has our group decided on after several days of email faff? Well we hadn’t picked a particular objective yet, but we thought we’d best head out at the crack of dawn for the US border in order to beat long weekend delays (I know, how unpatriotic of us). We had discussed many objectives in the Cascades, and only settled on Silver Star Mountain in Washington Pass on the way down. We chose the popular glacier route via Burgundy Col, which was described as a short glacier approach, followed by a class 3-4 scramble.
We breezed through the border, to be confronted by one of Else’s long lost relatives, a border guard of the name “Bosman”. Even though Else had a visa for entry into the US until August, we swear this prevented us from being pulled inside (as we always are with non Canadians in the car).
After a quick stop at the grocery pavilion, we arrived at the pull out around 11am. As everyone was repacking their bags, I tried on the mountaineering boots lent to me for the trip. They fit alright but I could tell they would be uncomfortable on our long approach. Since the glacier was a fairly small part of the overall climb, I decided to go in my hiking boots. I had worn them with crampons before, but I tried them on again to make sure they would stay on. I am so grateful they were a fit or my feet would have died!
We began our approach by down scrambling rocks into the forest, and then crossing Early Winters Creek over fallen logs. From here we ascended up a well groomed trail. A three hour arduous ascent in the heat, brought us to the bench, a flat grassy area (our first camping option, our chosen spot was up at Burgundy Col) where we spent a couple hours discussing how we should spend our extra day. We also fetched water from a nearby creek, north of our trail.
From the bench we continued through the trees on a short hike which lead us directly to a gulley. After a couple of hours we reached the top, to find we were not at the right col. The route description online from Summitpost (http://www.summitpost.org/burgundy-col-silverstar-glacier/158024) describes “staying left of the prominent gulley”, which apparently, was not the gulley that was most obvious from our vantage point. After enjoying the views, we got back en route by going back down, and eventually traversing right. There were few cairns marking the way, and some of them had been knocked over.
Ascending the wrong col. Photo by Dmitri Oguz.
Natalie scoped out camping at Burgundy Col, and decided there was not enough space for the four of us. It was getting late and we were getting hungry, so we opted to camp on a ledge (the only surface that would fit us all). There was space for our two, one person tents, but not for the tent that Else and I were meant to share. We cleared away the rocks on the widest spot near the front of the ledge to make a little bivy station. We put the tent under our sleeping mats to stay dry, and set up our sleeping bags over our thermarests. Once I got in my sleeping bag, I slide down to the end of my mat, feet now on the edge. We shuffled our mats every which way to avoid falling down slope, but it seemed inevitable. Dmitri offered to help make an anchor, and Else proclaimed “what?! I don’t want to sleep attached to a rope…that’s too real for me”. I slept attached via my harness, and Else with a chest sling.
Two ledge caterpillars. Photo by Dmitri Oguz.
We were up around 6am, and ate breakfast with a curious mountain goat nearby. This felt like exposure therapy for me, as I developed a mistrust for goats after they chased and stalked Kevin Burton and I through Skaha. I’m starting to believe they are just curious, and are not out to get me!
We named him Bob. Photo by Sarah Taylor.
It wasn’t until about 9am that we were up at Burgundy Col, ready to begin our descent onto the glacier. The slope we first came down had steps kicked into it already, and there was boot track trail all the way to our objective.
Descent onto the glacier. Photo by Sarah Taylor.
As we took a break to do some route finding and assess what gear we needed, a team of two passed us and continued up the glacier.
A team of two, making their way up the glacier. Photo by Dmitri Oguz.
The snow wasn’t hard enough to require our crampons, and we decided it seemed unnecessary to rope up. The only feature we came across, was a bergschrund that we steered clear of. The scramble was short, but once we reached the last section before the summit block, the party of two that was ahead of us were roped up for the last part. We searched around for other possibilities as we had left our rope at the start of the scramble (A blog I am reading now describes a route up on the east side to avoid a low fifth class climb, but this did not jump out at us at the time). We all agreed it was worth retrieving the rope to protect the last section. We really must have some bad karma from spending Canada day in the US…
Retrieving the rope. Photo by Else Bosman.
Within the hour we were back up to the last section, with harnesses on, and with our rope. Dmitri lead the short pitch and belayed us all up.
Dmitri leading the short pitch of low class 5. Photo by Sarah Taylor.
The summit block wasn’t very big, so we took turns climbing around on top. The view from the summit was incredible! We were seemingly the highest peak around at an elevation of 2705 m.
”If you get your foot on the true summit, it counts” spoken by Sarah, enacted by Natalie.
Photo by Dmitri Oguz.
We were thankful for the rope on the way down, as it would have been a sketchy downclimb.
The rope was most useful for the way down! Photo by Dmitri Oguz.
We spent the rest of the day doing the trip in reverse. Back at the ledge, we packed up our camping gear that we had left behind. The gulley was a bit of a pain to go down, as it was quite steep and the rocks made it slippery. The sun had set once we were back at the car. We decided to head home as any objective we chose would pale in comparison to this one. Thank you friends for an awesome first scrambling trip!
Photo by Dmitri Oguz.