Dean and I picked off Kaleetan Peak this last weekend – along with about five million mosquitos and approximately 164 people, who were up on their way to the lake as we were on our way out.
Will we ever go back? You bet.
On a weekend? Not on your life.
I’ve been afraid that if I wait too long to put something together, I’ll forget the good parts of this trip. Honestly, this was a pretty dull trip as far as my usual epics go, but the fact that we summited in perfect conditions makes for as good a trip report as any. The progress on this thing will be spotty – I plan on just throwing notes and such up as I remember, and then going back and re-organizing when necessary. The important part is that I document what we did, both right and wrong, and hang on to it for the next time, which hopefully is soon.
The pain is quickly forgotten.
The weekend of the 18th was the second date we’d planned on this year. The first was Memorial Day weekend, but due to weather and such, the trip was canceled. I had originally planned on going with the group then, but as the date approached, and with everything going on just then – I bailed. It just didn’t feel right, and with family coming into town that weekend and my impending jobless situation, I made the right decision and backed out.
Luckily, things came around and the new date showed up. With the perfect combination of good weather and my ducks in a row at home, it was a sure-fire winner. The plan was to meet up Friday morning with Steve, Jordan, and Ryan at the White River Ranger station. They had driven down on Thursday night, while Chris and I cruised down early that Friday morning. The permit situation had been taken care of, and we were pretty much all set to go as soon as we arrived. We drove up to the trailhead and unloaded everyone’s packs. After distributing the group stuff and making sure everyone’s pack was nice and heavy, we started down towards Glacier Basin. The weather was absolutely perfect. Bluebird skies, and a nice cool breeze coming up from the river made the three miles or so up to the foot of the Interglacier quite nice. We ran into snow about two-thirds of the way up the trail, which is when I stashed my approach shoes and laced up the plastics. In retrospect, I probably should have waited a bit more, just to save my shins those first few miles of flatfooting it. There was still enough dry trail coming through the snow that it wasn’t the best experience to hike in those big green boots…
Interglacier
long slog up
ryan slows down/cramps
rope up above camp curtis
sooo hot
descend onto emmons glacier
schurman
tent, eat, sleep
watching the clouds coming in – looks like thunderheads
up at 1, hiking at 2:15 under clear skies
not much moon, lots and lots of stars
not feeling so hot
psyche out
keep on truckin
sunrise
passing groups
only a few crevasses
crampons rock the casbah
feeling the pain
blue ice
windy
summit!
traverse to columbia crest
no register found (wrong place?)
nap time
decision time (ice or new route)
plunge step for 5 hours
Steve’s beat
trying to glissade
too slow, too hot
back to camp pretty late – 4:30?
pack up
back down unroped onto emmons
pellet snow
up the ridge to interglacier
best glissade ever
shovel buried
longest 2.5-3 miles ever
boot bang sucks
perma-smile
mexican food
fin