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Topic: June 19, Silver Star, N. Cascades (Read 3199 times)
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allyson
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We began the epic day at 4:50 am under bluebird skies. Skip, Justin, Cass, Kam and I shouldered heavy packs and followed a climber's trail alongside of Silver Star creek (~3400 ft). For the first 1500 ft, the trail was relatively easy to follow, with only an occasional tree to go around, climb under or over. We reached the first talus field by 6 am, where we were able to see the first glimpse of our destination--Silver Star Mt., glistening in the sun. After a short break, we continued on the trail, plodding through marshes, and eventually crossing the creek. The primitive trail we were following suddenly petered out, and there was nothing left to do but shwack. So schwack we did, through thick alder, underbrush, and heading up steep terrain.
Finally we broke through tree line and came to Phase Two of the journey, the boulder field. We could see our glacier just around the corner, seemingly so close...but we still had about 2+ hours of boulder hopping to do. We traversed across the boulder field, which in a good year would normally still be covered with snow (says the wise Chris Cass). Occasionally we ran into small snow patches (loaded with vicious sink holes!), but nothing connected, so skinning was out of the question. The boys were a bit ahead of me, but around 11:30 I finally reached a point where I could put my skins on (~6000 ft), and climbed up about 200 ft. where I met up with Kam.
Kam and I began skinning up towards the others. The snow coverage was a bit thin--we had to weave around some rocks, and frequently we could hear the sound of water rushing beneath us...We made it up to a little saddle at 7000 ft. where we met up with Skip, Cass, and Justin. The boys went up a bit higher (~7300? 7500?) while I took a little break at the saddle. We made a point to turn around by 1 pm. Up above, we could see the col of Silver Star, under a few more clouds than before (but not much), which would have to wait until next time.
The 800 ft of vertical that I got and the 1000+ that the boys got was not the most glorious snow on earth. Though it had been in the sun all day and was soft, the snow was unconsolidated and sloughy. Skip was able to set off a small, slow slide. Apparently beneath 7000 was better than what the boys skiied up above.
We made it back down to 6000 by 2pm, where we took a little break and prepared for the long slog down. The boulder hopping began again, however this time we were able to avoid all snow patches (no more sink holes, phew!), and even found a bit of a trail by staying lower than we had on the way in. After the boulder fields came the shwacking, endless alder and thick brush, but this time we had the added delight of mosquitos! As it is better to forget about un-fun times, I won't go into detail about the descent except to say that we did not get back to the car until a couple minutes before 7 pm.
The work we do to find snow! At least we had good weather and good company. Besides some minor scratches and bug bites (well, in Justin's case they weren't so minor...), we came out alive without injury. Way to go team!
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snowshoe?? why would you??
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sheispiste
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Posts: 223
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Allyson.
Great report. Looking forward to photos. Way to go get some snow on this pre-solstice, nearly full moon weekend!
ski ya soon?
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any day in the mountains is a good day in the mountains
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jt
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...followed a climber's trail alongside of Silver Star creek (~3400 ft)...The primitive trail we were following suddenly petered out, and there was nothing left to do but shwack...
Just curious, why did you decide on the Silver Star Ck. approach instead of over Burgundy Col? I remember that approach up Silver Star Ck. as a pretty good grunt (having done it 3 previous times to get to 'Clean Break' on Juno Tower) and the trip over the col a bit easier and faster. Good fitness and beautiful valley though the way you went.
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jt
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carter
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Allyson et al.,
looks like a typical epic kam designed car to car. Wish I had been around to join you. I would say Burgundy is faster, but it's much steeper. Looks like it was a beautiful day up there.
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all things are possible, except skiing through a revolving door. -anonymous
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jdclimber
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Posts: 263
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Good trip kids!
Fortunately the skin grafts were successful, so I am back to having no excuses for being so funny lookin'. 
Next time can we napalm the approach before we go up?
Cheers-
Justin
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cascadesfreak
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Good times with a fellow masochistic crowd 
Photos are posted here.
Fortunately the brush-schwacking "battle scars" seem to be healing quickly (though I probably lost more blood through mosquito bites; ouch!!, my eyeballs!!!).
Possible quote of the day: "It's a 'climber's path'!" (i.e. slightest hint of a clearing in the slide alder, dense huckleberry, dry place in the swamp, etc.) . No complaints though for 25% on the "Joy-O-Meter" (~1,000 vertical feet skied divided by the ~4,000 vertical feet ascended/schwacked), even though the skiing was in "crummy cream corn" (Kam: have you figured out how to factor in bushwhacking to your "Joy-O-Meter" calculation?).
Burgundy Col may be a more logical approach choice this time of year as the boot-path on that route doesn't 'peter-out' into thick brush. Although I find that the Col route has its disadvantages as well (i.e. much steeper (as Cartier mentioned); higher rockfall potential; and having to hike back up 2 sections on the "descent" (fortunately the Silver Star Creek route was down-hill the whole way out). The density of the brush up Silverstar Creek was a bit surprising as well as how fast the well-worn climber's path "disappeared", since I've previously only done that approach when the brush and boulders are well-covered with snow (which at that time I found to be much easier and enjoyable than the Burgundy Col approach; but what a difference the schwack/boulder field makes when there's no snow cover!).
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Kevin Steffa
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Posts: 86
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Kam, Cass - that looks like Spickard all over again!
The skeeter-brush combo is certainly one of the more insidious of backcountry tortures - I am going to Alaska in a few weeks so I might get to share some similar tales...
- Kevin
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- Mossman
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kam
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...I think I'm going to categorize Kam in the same group as the Hummels and Philfort; the one to be extremely wary of if ever invited to join in an adventure But seriously, I'm not interested...
what do you mean you didn't bring skis!?
Kevin: Spickard was much thicker, i thought. and more fun  .
Casswipe: i'll try to come up with a better JOM that takes into account schwacking, etc... even so, i thought our 25% this time was a lot.
more photos
1. "guys, can you help me find my contacts..."
2. you know, schwacking isn't that bad. remember how beautiful it was?
3. Cass traversing a steep and loose moraine crest.
4. Skip likes to whine, oops i mean, he likes wine.
5. Justin drops low, and into the basin.
6. Cass, Mr. "i like rocks!"
7. Skip carves his way to 'patches-all-year'.
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What do you mean you didn't bring skis?
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Paul_Russell
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Posts: 234
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Thanks for the report Allyson, looks like you guys had a fun trip as always and really pegged the JOM with that approach! Great pics Kam, thanks for sharing. Gotta love skiing those patches.
- Paul
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« Last Edit: 06/20/05, 03:49 PM by Paul_Russell »
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Michael
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WOW!! When I talked to Kam on the phone and he told me about a f$%*$# boulder field, I did not expect THAT! This make the boulder field at Eldorado look like a walk in the park ;-)
Guys, if you are into this S&M stuff, there are some good stores on Capitol Hill you may want to check out - you don't even have to drive 3 hours ;-)
Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun though...and nothing beats getting out to ski - regardless of how big the boulders are...
Here is a picture taken very close to where Chris is on Kam's shot: http://www.trommsdorff.org/Michael/SilverStar/imagepages/image9.htm. This was on May 26th (2003)...a month earlier on a normal snow year...
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JW
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I want you guy's to know Jeanette, Ron and I also racked up quite a few torture points Sunday..... Here we had to cross a talus field and then do some heavy bouldering  Great report!
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« Last Edit: 06/21/05, 02:44 PM by JW »
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