“The hike in kicked our (my) butt… never laid eyes on the mountain. Very humbling.”
– KD
“He speaks true.”
– Offwidth
The plan of course (and as usual) was very grand. Very grand indeed. We had been working on this for a while. The idea first surfaced in October 2016 as an objective for the summer of 2017. That trip never happened as I sustained a shoulder injury that precluded me from training. Here is part of an old e-mail I dredged up…
From: Offwidth
Date: Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 5:48 AM
Subject: Summer 2017
Yes…hard to believe but it’s that time again. Time to start planning for an alpine trip for next summer…
Mt. Challenger… aptly named. This is one of the most remote ‘major’ peaks in the North Cascades. It has a cool name and incorporates classic Cascades climbing… Long approach, bushwhack, extensive glacier travel, and a nice summit that has a pitch of 5.7ish. It’s a peak that’s been long on my ‘list’… It needs to get done soon guys; global warming is taking its toll on the glaciers and soon they may be impassable. (At least in the summer months!)
This is a chance to get the band back together as there is expressed interest in us attempting it in the summer of 2017.
As peaks go, it is fairly low in elevation at 8,207’. As mentioned it is remote and travel into it does not break up into convenient units. It’s either one very long day, or a long day and a very short second day to any conceivable base camp. Much of it is on trail however; but not all. There is some minor bush, cross-country travel and a small river crossing to contend with.
The climb itself as I mentioned is ‘classic’. There is a heavy glaciated approach. So some route-finding skills will need to be used as well as ensuring we have adequate crevasse gear. The summit is a bit of 4th class scrambling topped off by a short pitch of 5.7ish. By short I mean 50-60’.
Because of the glacier earlier in the season would be preferable to later. By early I mean mid-late July. Any earlier and weather stands a better chance of being inclement. Any later and the glaciers may not be easily negotiable.
This would be a great summit to have in anyone’s resume. What do you guys think?
Flash forward to September 2017…
From: Offwidth
Date: Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 4:51 AM
Subject: Where in the world…
To: Billy Backhoe, Renee, KD
Okay gang… lets start throwing about some ideas.
My ‘preferences’….
Alpine
Some easy snow/ice/glacier
Some easy low class 5 rock (I like to hear the snap of a karabiner gate now and again)
Of course additional wishes would be… perfect weather, un-crowded, easy approach, dancing girls, good coffee….
ow
_____________________________________________________________________________________
From: Billy Backhoe
Date: Fri, Sep 29, 2017 at 7:22 AM
Subject: RE: Where in the world…
To: Offwidth; Renee, KD
Well, there’s still Mt. Challenger. It kinda meets some your criteria:
Alpine? – tick.
Some easy snow/ice/glacier? – Messner would call it easy
Some easy low class 5 rock? – I think it’s class 4 (and could involve carabiners, which sound pretty much like karabiners)
Perfect weather? – hmmmm….
Un-crowded? – possibly
Easy approach? – hmmmm…maybe at one time, but hopefully still not too outrageous for sexagenarians…I think
Dancing girls? – maybe, if the Holy Smoke is still open
Good coffee? – available within 200km
And as you can imagine we just started rolling from there. There must have been over one hundred e-mails back and forth on the topic. These covering all things various and sundry, including: time of year, approaches, weather, gear lists, training, permits, travel and other logistics.
I’ll touch on some of the preparation before I go into details on the trip proper.
Training
Training is one of my favourite topics as regular readers will know. The majority of my training consisted of just the stuff I do on a fairly regular basis. Running; mostly of the LED (Long Easy Distance) variety. This is a staple with me, as it easily aligns with my at times chaotic travel schedule. It provides a steady state cardio base, and some leg conditioning. Cycling is not only a passion for me, but it also provides excellent cardio base training and additional leg conditioning. Upper body work consisted, again, of stuff I regularly do; mostly kettlebell swings, Turkish get-ups, and pull-ups.
As this was not going to be an involved highly technical climb I did zero specific rock climbing training. My meagre diet of cragging, bouldering, and gym climbing would have to suffice. As it turns out… ‘twas more than enough.
Once we were getting within a couple of months of our departure date I started to do some rucking to get use to carrying loads. I started easy; once a week, with about a 10kg load. Over time I progressed to upwards of 4 days per week and at one point 30kg of load. I did these rucks wearing mountain boots, over varied terrain including sandy and rocky surfaces, and in temperatures that at times approached 44C. Each ruck varied from 50 to 70 minutes in duration. In retrospect more and longer rucking may have been indicated. The extreme heat where I live very much restricts hiking steep rugged trails at the time of year I needed it most.
I had several sessions of weighted box steps and some trail runs to round off the training for me. I can’t comment on the rest of the team, other than I know they put in whatever training time they felt was required. Although I’m sure that Mr. Backhoe only walked the dog.
Gear
We would require such gear and food that would allow 4 people to backcountry travel for 4 to 5 days, as well as approach and climb a heavily glaciated summit (requiring roped protected climbing to the summit) in a remote wilderness setting.
A favourable weather forecast at the last minute allowed us to ditch some heavier clothing. The packs were still too heavy for our liking so we additionally jettisoned helmets*, and some food to lighten the loads. Obviously we were reducing our margin of error in doing these things.
Personal Gear…
| Item | Description | Qty |
| Boots | Scarpa Mountain Boots | 1 |
| Socks Inner | Polypro | 2 |
| Socks Outer | Smart Wool Light | 2 |
| Gaiters | Black Diamond | |
| Pants | Mammut Alpine | 1 |
| Shirt | Patagonia Capiline Mid Wt | 1 |
| T-Shirt | MH | 1 |
| Jacket Fleece | Patagonia R | 1 |
| Belay Jacket | Patagonia Nano Synthetic | 1 |
| Rain Jacket | Marmot Precip or Patagonia HnO | 1 |
| Rain Pants | Marmot Precip | |
| Gloves | BD Light wt. | 1 |
| Balaclava | Smart Wool Light wt. | 1 |
| Pack | BD Speed 50 | 1 |
| Pack Cover | REI Ducks Back | |
| Sleeping Pad | Thermarest Z-lite or Blue Foamie | |
| Sleeping Bag | Marmot Synthetic | 1 |
| Headlamp | BD | 1 |
| Knife | Trango Piranha | 1 |
| Cup | Titanium | 1 |
| Spork | Titanium | 1 |
| Water Bladder | Platapus | 1 |
| Water Bottle | Nalgene | 1 |
| Water | 1.5 | |
| Harness | BD Alpine Bod | 1 |
| Chicken Sling | Metolius PAS | 1 |
| Cordollette | Bluewater | 1 |
| Prussicks | 2 | |
| Pulley | 1 | |
| Crampons | Grivel | 1 |
| Ice Axe | BD Raven Pro | 1 |
| BRD | Mammut Smart Alpine | 1 |
| Helmet | Petzel Elios | |
| Lockers | Miscellaneous x 3 | 3 |
| Spare Batteries | Lithium | |
| First Aid | Various Personal | 1 |
Group Gear…
| Item | Details |
| Tent 1 | Mountain Hardware |
| Tent 2 | MSR |
| Ropes | Mammut Twilight Double/Twin 60M |
| Rock Rack | Wires: c/w 2 biners |
| 3 hexes c/w biners | |
| 2 cams c/w biners | |
| Rappell Rings (2) | |
| Ice Screws (4) | Black Diamond |
| GPS | |
| Spot Device | |
| Bear Spray | |
| Camera | Lumix |
| Camera (Spare?) | iphone |
| Stove | Jet Boil |
| Fuel Cans (3) | |
| Water Filter | Platypus |
| Paper Maps | |
| Alpine Draws Long (2) | |
| Alpine Draws Short (3) | Omega Pacific |
The group gear was to be shared amongst the 4 of us. It was hard to divvy it up evenly. I believe KD took more than his share however.
Food…
| Description | Qty |
| GU | 10 |
| Cliff Bars | 4 |
| Rx Bars | 4 |
| Tuna | 2 |
| Freeze Dried Dinners | 3 |
| Electrolyte | 4 |
| Instant Coffee | 4 |
| Gorp | 0.6kg |
| Jerky | 0.4kg |
All in all, my pack including about 1.5L of liquid weighed in at approximately 15kg. Not too bad I suppose. However I felt quite naked and exposed, and at the end of each day it still felt heavy enough.
*dumb idea kids… don’t do this at home…
Approach Decisions
They don’t call it Challenger for nothing. It truly is one of the most remote places in the North Cascades. Although there are many approach variations there really is no easy way to get there. The two main approaches are via Ross Lake to the east, or Hannegan Pass to the west. And either of those approaches only get you in the relative vicinity of the mountain. There is still some serious backcountry travel to be had via a variety of options.
Speaking of options… we opted to approach from the West. This involved 23 long kilometers to our intermediate camp. (More on that later)
Traditionally many people cross the Chilliwack river somewhere near the easy creek drainage and make their way up easy ridge and around the western flank of Whatcom Peak, and up into Perfect Pass where they set-up a high camp. It is from this high camp that they make their summit bid from. We on the other hand had heard of an approach that went from Whatcom Pass and skirted around Whatcom Peak on the east side. This way had the advantage of an easier crossing of the river and avoided some of the un-pleasantries associated with gaining Perfect Pass from the west. The disadvantage being, that it was not well documented.
Overview of our route
Proposed route around Whatcom Peak
I had wanted to keep the team size to a manageable 4. Any more becomes overly burdensome in organizing schedules, and adds complexity in actual climbing logistics. Any less might compromise safety on the glacier portions of the trip. With the group set and the high level decisions made we carried on through the spring of 2018 training on our own, and corresponding frequently as noted earlier. One action item was to obtain the appropriate backcountry use reservations from the NPS. This is used for the most part to reserve a tent site at one of the approved official camping locations along our approach route. This could be (and was) done over the internet. We got in our application the earliest we could, but there was of course no guarantee we would get the location we had asked for; or any at all for that matter. Had that been the case we would have had to figure out a ‘plan B’. Fortune smiled on us for at least this part of the tale, because after a month or so of anxiously waiting we received confirmation of our selection. Which was good, because of course we had no plan B whatsoever.
By this point we were all set. We had plane tickets purchased, our gear and routes sorted out, and our backcountry reservation in hand. Everything was falling into place. It was only a few scant days before our arrival in the area that we realised that we had neglected something. You see, we had the aforementioned reservation, however it needed to be ‘converted’ to a Backcountry Permit. This had to be done in person by the trip leader (me) at a specific ranger station in the area; no earlier than the day before the trip. Because we needed an early start on our first day, we would have to do the conversion the day before. This of course necessitated finding a place to doss in the area the night prior. So there was a slapdash flurry of e-mails and phone calls trying to find a nights accommodation. None of us were really excited about pirate camping, so we were relieved when Bill found us some sweet digs at the last minute.
The plan had Renee and I flying into Vancouver, and Bill picking us up. We would stay the night at his place and meet KD in Glacier the following day. This is exactly what we did. We had some grub, some tasty adult beverages (not too many mind you…), sorted group gear, and got an early night.
We were on the road at sparrows fart, and parked at the Hannegan Pass trail head 30 minutes later. All we needed to do was lace up the boots, hoist the packs and start walking. This of course is when it started to come off the tracks. One could argue however that it really started to derail in October 2016 when the whole gambit was hatched.
We made slow but steady progress uphill to Hannegan Pass. The day was warm, and getting warmer by the minute. I had been into this pass twice before. Once in 1977 in an early attempt on Ruth Mtn., and a second time as a day hike in 1983. One thing had not changed. Flies. Small bothersome little buggers everywhere. We took a brief break for water and a bite to eat, and then began the long descent down into the headwaters of the Chilliwack River. It was certainly weighing heavily on our minds that we would be faced with this long uphill climb at the very end of our trip.
The trail was in excellent condition, although overgrown in a few places. But it was stifling hot and humid especially in these bushy sections. We ran across only a small handful of hikers and some porters that had been resupplying a school group. No other climbers. The day slowly wore on and we slowly wore down. It turns out our pace (including rests) was averaging about 2.0 kph. Slow, so very slow. There were also previous injuries on most of us that were also starting to flare-up, along with new things like blisters to keep us company. At some point a kilometer or so past the ‘U.S. Cabins’ camp we had more company. I was in front when what did I notice not far ahead of us on the trail, but a mother black bear and cub ambling towards us. This of course brought us to a standstill. We got the bear spray ready to deploy and cautiously starting moving forward clapping hands and talking loudly, by this time mom and cub had skedaddled uphill through the brush, obviously not wanting anything to do with us. This was a bit of a highlight for Renee as she had never seen a bear in the wild before. I could have done without the experience, having seen plenty in my time.
Not long after this we came to the spot where we had to cross the river. There were two choices. One was to ford the river, the other was to take the rickety hand powered cable car. We didn’t even discuss it. The cable car was it! And I think a first for all of us. The north bank of the river was much lower than the south. This meant the platform was on a tower. There was a 4 or 5 meter ladder we had to climb to get to the car. It was interesting to note the lower rungs and frame of the ladder grizzly bear claw and tooth damage. Hmmmm?
The car was on the far side so first we had to pull it across. Renee and I went first. We were fairly high above the turbulent current, but I was too focused on pulling the rope to notice our position. Renee had to assist at the far side, but within only a few minutes we had ‘docked’ on the far side. Bill and KD pulled the car back, and repeated our effort and soon we were together again. We also took this opportunity to filter some water. At this point the water sources were pretty fast and clear, but we took no chances. The new gravity water filter worked exceptionally well, and in a short time we had topped up.
Cable Car
We still had over 4km to go to our camp and we were dog tired. There was nothing for it but to keep putting one foot in front of other. Suddenly the trail virtually disappeared. Apparently there had been some extensive trail erosion due to spring run-off. Cairns had been placed, but were difficult to spot and follow. At one point we had to dig out the GPS to validate that our camp was nearby. Which, thankfully it was; and not a moment too soon as we had been on our feet for over 11 hours. There were only a few sites at this camp in the first place, and most of those had been damaged, but we were able to find two suitable platforms, and close to the river as well. I started filtering water down by the river, while the rest were setting up the two tents.
We fired up the Jet-Boil and were soon enjoying some tasty rehydrated meals…mmmm. It was at this point we had had the difficult conversation. Collectively we were hurting. It had been a pretty tough day. The next day although expected to cover less distance was also expected to be much harder than this one had been. This is when we would be leaving the well maintained trail and have to head out cross-country, with some sizeable elevation gain and loss and gain to be encountered. We discussed various options, but nothing really made much sense that would support any decision to carry on.
There wasn’t too much more to say or do that evening. We cleaned up dinner, filtered more water, hung food in the trees, and excavated a water channel to route a small stream of water away from the camp. We had been plagued by flies all day long. Now the mossies started to come out. It was a quick escape into the tents for us. It was still sweltering hot and light out but sleep came pretty early, although it was a fitful night. Contributing to this were the skimpy (but light) and ineffective sleeping pads we brought. Neither Bill nor I had to get up in the night, which wasn’t surprising given how stinking hot it was; we must have been pretty dehydrated.
View from camp
Now it might have been heat exhaustion or just plain exhaustion, but somehow we didn’t communicate effectively as a team, because in the morning we weren’t aligned in our understanding of which direction we were going. I should have done a better job the night before; plain and simple. There were a few awkward moments, but we got it sorted, and soon with heavy hearts, and even heavier packs we started the long trek out. The return trip was pretty much just the reverse of the trip in. We had to take the cable car. We had another bear encounter. It was hot. There were some differences. We found what KD thought was wolf scat on the trail. Pretty unusual. The flies seemed more obnoxious on the way out, and we were faced with significant uphill followed by significant downhill right at the end of the march. It took longer this way and we clocked in at 12 hours by the time we hit the cars. Footsore, thirsty, and each of us nursing some injuries, aches and pains, both physical and mental.
Vintage photo of Challenger from 1976
Grudge match peak? Going back? Not likely…