Mount Misch and Mount Buckindy
July 2-5, 2015
Mount Misch (7435') Mount Buckindy (7320')
Fay, Kevin K, Eileen, and I spent Independence Day Weekend climbing Mt. Misch and Mt. Buckindy, two major peaks in the Suiattle drainage. The approach to these peaks has a reputation for difficult sidehill travel. We found that it is nothing short of a sidehilling sufferfest...but worth the agony.
Day 1 involved toiling up the newly re-accessible Green Mountain Trail in 90+ degree heat. This trail is in fine condition despite little use since 2003, and the lookout cabin once again stands proudly on the summit. Several hundred feet below the cabin, we crossed over the ridge and dropped into a little basin. The ridge gave us a first look at our objective peaks and the general traverse route. Those vivid green slopes look so inviting, you get a sense that this will be pretty straightforward. It isn't.
First view from Green Mountain ridge
A couple hours later, we found ourselves contouring across frustratingly steep and slippery vegetation en route to Lake 5371. Trekking poles and ice axes helped to maintain an upright position, but it was still just a long succession of slips, slides, and falls. At the lake basin (5.9 hours from car), we met a party of three---Mark, Tom, and Tehoot---setting up camp. They were surprised that we intended to push on beyond the scenic basin. In retrospect, they had it right; we should have planned for another day.
Traversing slippery green slopes
Exiting from the lake basin required several hundred feet of "scrambling" up ridiculously steep forest duff to gain the crest of a spur ridge. This duff was equivalent to Class 4 rock. Between the heat and steep angle, we felt thrashed upon reaching the crest. A muddy basin on the other side tempted us to stop for the day, but we decided to keep going for the sake of a strategic campsite. More steep greenery and super-steep forest got us to a 5760-foot saddle and a faint climber's path that led up Point 5890 for a nice view of Buckindy and Misch.
Mount Buckindy and Mount Misch from Point 5890
From Point 5890, we hiked down the crest to an agreeable campsite closely above a 5360-foot saddle (10.6 hours from car). It had been a strenuous day, and we were well past being ready to stop. A tiny puddle provided us with much-needed water, which had the color of a fine Kentucky bourbon even after being filtered. Fortunately, the sunset views of Dome Peak and Glacier Peak compensated for this.
Spire Point and Dome Peak from low saddle camp
Day Two began with a change in our climbing strategy. Rather than packing up and moving camp over toward Buckindy and Misch, we decided to leave camp at the saddle and instead attempt to day-trip over to the peaks. In case things ran longer than expected, we all took bivy sacks and a little extra food.
A vague climber's path went northward up the ridge crest and gave us a look at the remarkable crags of Mt. Chaval.
Mount Chaval from Green-Misch ridge
We ascended to Elev. 6300 feet and then dropped down to the left.
High point on Green-Misch ridge
More unpleasant traversing ended at a delightful 5200-foot basin below Mt. Misch (3.4 hours from saddle camp).
Mount Misch above basin at 5200
We ascended a gorgeous lupine slope toward Mt. Misch, then traversed moderate snow fields over to the peak's west ridge.
Ascending lupine field to Mount Misch
Traversing snowfield to Mount Misch
Once on the rock of Mt. Misch, we made good use of a detailed trip report by Paul Klenke. He accurately described a traverse into an initial gully, followed by another traverse into a larger gully on the mountain's southwest face. Although this latter gully has a reputation for being extremely loose, we found it to be fairly typical in terms of loose rock, but steep enough (with lots of Class 3+ scrambling) to keep things fun and interesting.
Scrambling up SW gully on Mount Misch
We reached the summit in mid-afternoon (7.9 hours from saddle camp) and enjoyed a full half-hour on top.
Kevin, Fay, and Eileen on Mount Misch summit
The summit register includes a foreword by Peter Misch, the eminent North Cascades geologist and U.W. professor. He never climbed his namesake peak but was alive to see its official dedication.
Foreword in Mount Misch summit register
We made two rappels down the gully, then scrambled back to the snowfield. It was getting to be late afternoon, but we elected to head over to Mt. Buckindy while in the neighborhood.
Rappelling down Mount Misch gully
In a little glacially carved bowl closely south of Mt. Buckindy, we encountered a strange cluster of wooden timbers and metal debris. Are these are the remnants of a previous geological exploration? We might never know.
Ruins below Mount Buckindy
A steep snowfinger on the western side of Mt. Buckindy ended in a small notch between its north and south summits. One long pitch of Class 3-4 climbing ended on the south (true) summit.
Climbing west snowfinger on Mount Buckindy
Views from the summit were a bit better than from Mt. Misch, owing to its more central position. The warm evening sunlight enhanced to red hues of the oxide-stained metamorphic rock.
Mount Misch and Glacier Peak from Mount Buckindy
We descended by scrambling over the north summit and then plunge-stepping down sandy slopes adjacent to the snowfinger.
Kevin on north summit of Mount Buckindy
A south-trending descent of talus, scree, and green slopes dumped us into the 5200-foot basin at 10:20pm. Mark, Tom, and Tehoot were asleep in their tents as we stumbled through their camp. We fell into our bivy sacks and shivered through a surprisingly chilly night.
Come morning of Day Three, we quickly packed up and headed back toward our saddle camp. About halfway along our traverse, we encountered Stefan Feller and Mike Collins, who were going in to climb Mt. Misch. They had camped in the same saddle as us and were planning to day-trip over to the peak. We took Stefan's car key to help out with a car shuttle from Green Mountain TH to Downey Creek TH.
Back at saddle camp, we rested for several hours before packing up and starting a hot traverse over to Lake 5371. The crux of our afternoon was a descent of the inhumanely steep forest duff slopes above the lake basin. We managed this descent by making four full-length rappels and then down-climbing one pitch of Class 5 dirt (no kidding). Two ice tools would be very helpful here.
Our last night was spent in a meadow below the lake, and Day Four was a blur of horrible vegetative traversing back to Green Mountain. We all agreed that this was a trip that is well worth doing once---but never again.
Approximate stats: 20 miles traveled; 11,600 feet gained and lost.