Home > Trip Reports > June 10, 2009; Del Campo Peak, north side

June 10, 2009; Del Campo Peak, north side

6/15/09
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Posted by cascadesfreak on 6/10/09 3:11pm
Del Campo Peak; north side ski and bushwhack-a-thon:

An intriguing and aesthetic ski line on the northern slopes of Del Campo Peak was well worth the hefty admission price of heavy bushwhacking, boulder hopping-scrambling-scampering-crawling on the approach.  The bushwhack-a-thon began in earnest shortly after leaving the Sunrise Mine trail.  Progress was surprisingly faster than expected, but several surficial flesh scrapes occurred while  schwackin€™ through the thick and thorny brush (ouch! my arms!).

Reaching a dry stream bed and some snow patches, the pace picked up heading to the entrance of the narrow rocky gully and more thick brush which guards access to the north side of Del Campo Peak.  About an hour of boulder hopping-scrambling-stream crossing and some more bushwhacking brought us out of the upper end of the gully to the base of Del Campo€™s northern slopes.  Donned skins/skis at about 3,400-ft elevation and quickly skinned up to a prominent pass at about 5,000-ft.   Holstered skis on packs for booting up steeper slopes above the pass, meandering our way up Del Campo€™s sloping-bench topography.  

Topped out on a flat snow ledge near 6,000-ft at about 1 pm.  Cory climbed up an extra 50 feet and Drew ascended to a yet higher snow ledge for an extra 200 vertical feet.  Cumulus clouds, which had started forming in the mid-morning, quickly began to swell all around Del Campo and surrounding peaks.  We skied down just as the summit rocks became fully engulfed in clouds.  

Slopes were heavily sun-cupped, but nicely softened for fast charging turns.  The clouds swirled around, but stayed above us during the descent with the bonus of a few sunbreaks.    Enjoyed fun turns all the way down Del Campo€™s northern slopes to the floor of the large northern basin at about 3,400-ft.  Taking a slightly different route down, we avoided some of the sketchier parts of the gully in exchange for some more bush-whacking.

Our early morning start in an effort to beat the build-up of thunderstorms proved mostly successful as lightening flashes and seemingly distant thunder started as we hiked out the final quarter mile of the Sunrise Mine trail.  Upon arrival back at the car the thunderstorm downpour began, and the €œBro Den€ (Drew, Cory, and myself) was out just in time!  

The forest road to the Sunrise Mine trailhead is snow-free, as well as the lower portion of the trail (at least as far as we followed it to the crossing of the main branch of the Stillaguamish River).   Fairly high Joy-O-Meter (JOM) score of ~65% (~2,600 vertical feet skied divided by ~4,000 vertical feet climbed), though the JOM doesn€™t factor in the fun of a bushwhack attack   ::)
Top photo is just great. Captures the joy of fully submerged deep bushwacking!
Thanks for the inspiration.

Nice job. I looked up that way on a hike up Vesper last July (where I wished I'd brought skis when I saw the cover extended from the basin bottom to Vesper's summit with only a brief break after the pass...), and pondered what it might be like as a ski. I have to admit that the schwack attack was the big thing that left it in the fantasizing zone for me. The JOM rating you achieved almost makes me reconsider...

Found, found skier in the bushes!
Way to go, Chris, you always have such creative adventures. :D

Yeah!  I've looked at that line.  Cool that someone paid the price to ski it.  In the late 1980's, I climbed Morningstar via approach of that veggie-choked valley.  I cannot imagine schlepping skis up there.  Good work!

Trail? We don't need no stinkin' trail through these here bushes!
So long as the skiing is worth it, anyhow...which sounds like it was 8)

Curse you Bro-Den!!!  Will you guys ever get jobs?!

Nice work fellas.  I'm insanely jealous of your weekday adventures this spring...damn this job!


Way to get it done!  I headed out to do the same thing last weekend, but decided to bail and come back when the schwack is covered in snow.  Ran into another skiier heading up Vesper and the day was saved.

Aha, Del Campo Norte is indeed quite aesthetic, well worth the approach in my opinion!

I dont remember the bushwhacking being too bad... I think that the owner of those skiis is really walking on the old trail...

- from sunrise mine trail, branch off main trail at cabin ruins staying climbers left of stream on waytrail.
- waytrail enters open salmonberry brush for a good for arm-skrapin. (probably where photo was taken)
- trail stays left and slightly higher than creek through more open bouldery/bracken fern area.
- trail at some point drops to creek level for the 'brush crux', where you must cross a swampy/brushy patch to get to the creek rocky outwash section. Inconsistent flagging.
- proceeding upstream on boulders (may have to cross a few times depending on flow), comes to an obvious 'gate' feature. Choice of right or left.
- I took the righthand 'canyon' fork, which is mostly brushfree, though involves a few rocky steps, staying left of the stream the whole time. Chris - did you take this 'canyon' ?
- pop out into upper basin, where snow/meadow/avi debris (generally easier travel and obvious skiing) can be found. It is interesting to note that in this area, the creek sometimes flows entirely underground depending on flow volume.

Good Times!

- Kevin

author=Kevin Steffa link=topic=13610.msg56811#msg56811 date=1244751457] I think that the owner of those skiis is really walking on the old trail...
  Trail?? ???  If there is an old trail through there, I don't think we found it and/or it's well over-grown.  We didn't find the schwack terrible, but it became tedious at times with skis getting hung-up on the thick brush.
I think we went up the same canyon route (left side of the creek with a few rocky "steps"), though we eventually climbed out to the east side of the ravine to by-pass an airy traverse above the stream.  Found some inconsistent flagging in the trees above the east side of the canyon, but didn't bother trying to follow it much as the flagging seemed to lead to thicker brush. 

Here's a link to additional pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chriscass1/DelCampoPeakNorthSideJune102009?authkey=Gv1sRgCLSSoKHfjNHU7wE#

We were up there a couple weeks ago on our way to Vesper and the snow started lower down (we almost changed routes, except that two of our party had found a better stream crossing lower and were dogging us up into Wirz basin). We skied your route last year when there was a huge avy that filled the valley and made the approach very easy. Good work and nice photos.

Hey,

Thanks for the report and I definitely love the first pic!
It reminds me of a  very good time there too, last year. We saw that line too, but we went on the left side of it, to first ski the NE slopes and then the N couloir that zig-zags under the spire leading to the summit.
This is were I learnt what summer skiing really is in the Cascades, with a pefect corn on steep terrain at 12pm in the end of June.
Now back to the Alps, I somehow miss these awesome summer turns that you guys have over there! ::)

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cascadesfreak
2009-06-10 22:11:23