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Van, BC
Canada
2793 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 11:27 AM
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Photoset:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realaworld/sets/72157625086830632/with/5048061000/
Saturday I made it to the subsummit of Silvertip and Mark+Frank made it to the summit. (I'm starting to see an unfortunate trend here.)
Big thanks to Marek for his track, and really big thanks to Jeff/Steph for doing such a good job with the bushwack flagging.
I met up with Mark in the 'Wack and we headed down the Skagit road. The spur for Rideout/Silvertip is the second one on the left after Maselpanik Creek (where we went for Finlayson 2 weeks ago); we decided to car camp at the first spur to the right (slightly after the Rideout/Silvertip one).
I'm kicking myself for not having brought my tripod. We were far from the light pollution of Vancouver, and it was a cloudless night. The milky way was incredible above us. I managed to creatively balance my camera on the XTerra and got a few half decent shots:
  
It was a pleasant night, and we were ready to go by ~sunrise the next morning.
Elevation profile:
Google Earth birdseye:
Google Earth 3d:
 
Note that the access spur road and the logging cut block are not shown on Google Earth (whose imagery for this area is from 2004). Drive up the road, park in the well cleared roundabout, and head straight up the cutblock:
Google Earth 3d - bushwack up the ridge:
There are many prickly things in there. I really have to learn to wear long pants and sleeves when I bushwack. The cutblock isn't as bad as you'd think though, as there are various routes up. Stick to the middle to climber's left and soon enough you'll pick up Jeff/Steph's flagging. The cutblock (and flagging) trends to the left a bit, and the route climbs up a bit and into a sort of gully.
In Marek's TR he mentioned two tricky spots, one being a "steep dirt step". You know that if Marek felt it worthy of mention it might be a problem. Sure enough, we found this steep dirt ramp and had problems. Mark was leading and couldn't get a single solid foot or hand hold - loose dirt/loam and tear away moss. Frank made it up (of course), but we couldn't. We scouted around a bit to the left but couldn't find a good route up out of the gully. Only one option left - keep going up the gully and see if we could find a better path. I had Marek's GPS track, so I knew we'd be able to join up with the proper route if we could make out detour work.
I'm not sure how much my description will be of help for anyone coming after us. We kept going up the gully. Loamy, treed, but not horrible bushwacking. The top of the gully was cliffbands, so we went to the right and trended along the base of the rock looking for a way up. In the middle of nowhere on a mossy rocky bluff was a cairn - so old that it itself was mossy:
(Neither of us saw it on the way up, but on the way down we noticed a number of very old faded flags marking our exact same route, so we were not the first taking this path in the middle of nowhere.)
After traversing along the cliffs, we came across a section that wasn't bad - veggie belays, ground you could kick step in (you know you're bushwacking when you have to kickstep steps in the dirt) and pretty good exposure. We got to the top of that, flagged it well, and quickly joined up with the Marek track and the Jeff/Steph flagging.
The flagging is excellent - easy to follow, and generally uses decently well defined game trails. They even flagged the antlers of what must have been a very large buck:
At ~1620m you get to a bluffy area which you tackle from the right (east-ish), and doesn't present much of a problem. We found a small snake here:
Mind the drop off to your left once you get to the top of this part. We found that the flagging pretty much disappeared here, and we went into the trees to climber's right and kept heading up the slope. Soon enough we were out of the trees on the grassy top of the ridge.
Above the clouds:
Mark and Frank:
A hawk was flying by and stopped close by to check out these strange humans:
 
Video panorama - out of the trees and above the clouds:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realaworld/5047093697/in/set-72157625086830632/
At this point we realized we might have a problem. We had both underestimated how hot it was going to be. It was a solid low-mid 20's with pretty high humidity. Mark was out of water. I had enough water+gaitorade to get the 3 of us back down no problem, but not enough to get me (let alone the 3 of us) through the alpine to the summit and back down. We figured that the slopes we we would be ascending would have streamlets, and agreed to go see. If so, we would fill up; if not, we would have to turn back.
Climb the grassy top of the ridge to its top and then traverse across the grassy slope to your right (there is a faint goat track up top):
On the far end of that slope the goat track becomes fairly well defined as it swings north and heads towards the slopes of Silvertip and the ridge connecting Rideout and Silvertip:
Sure enough we hit water and we filled up and debated the path to take. We were on the path that Marek took on his descent. His route was on the broad grassy slope to our left (which we would climb and then follow the ridge to the right to get to Silvertip). Mark liked the look of the more direct route to our right, picking a path through ramps and little cliff bands. We set off for that:
Google Earth 3d - alpine meadows and scree:
(Marek's (and my) descent on the left; our ascent (and Mark's descent) on the right)
Video panorama - slopes of Silvertip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realaworld/5047731202/in/set-72157625086830632/
During our water break Mark mentioned having seen something that he thought was a bear way up the slope. I hadn't seen anything (had been looking), but agreed that this huge grassy/meadowy area would be perfect bear habitat. After we set off from the waterbreak I was scanning the Marek descent slope when I saw a shadow that didn't look right. It was too black, and there was nothing that should have been casting a shadow there:
It was too far away to tell for sure. I took a pic with max zoom and then zoomed in on the picture. Finally after a few pics from a few different angles as I walked along, I made out what had to be a head:
   
Called out to and caught up to Mark to discuss. The bear had noticed us (Frank was playing with a rock and was therefore making his usual strange noises), but it was just sitting there. Decided to set off a bear banger to see if we could get it moving along. The loud explosion echoed off the surrounding mountains, but it didn't move. At first. I neglected to take into account the speed of sound - after a few seconds when the sound actually reached the bear, it got up and took off to the right (towards where we would be climbing) and disappeared into a treed/bluffy area.
Not too long afterwards, it reappeared with cub in tow and galloped across the slope infront of us. It was a big slope, so we were able to watch the two for quite some time:
 
Videos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realaworld/5047103951/in/set-72157625086830632/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realaworld/5047096659/in/set-72157625086830632/
Mark made good progress up the scree and threading his way through the cliffbands and ramps. My lungs and legs felt like bricks, so I fell back. The Rideout-Silvertip ridge is very pleasant, and once I got on top of that, it was an easy walk to the Silvertip subsummit. I could see Mark and Frank continuing on towards the main summit, and I knew that I didn't have it in me. (Not to mention the lack of daylight - I wasn't looking forward to a bushwack by headlamp, so thought it best not to push it.) Besides, the views were splendid from where I was:
       
1) Silvertip summit (Mark/Frank are visible as specks)
2) Outram
3) Sumallo valley
4) Maselpanik valley w/ Finlayson
5) Baker
6) Rideout
7) Ridgout-Silvertip ridgewalk
8) Tarn on plateau between Rideout and Silvertip
Video 360 Panorama - Silvertip subsummit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/realaworld/5047107821/in/set-72157625086830632/
Mark looked like he was making good progress towards the summit. With my knees I descend slowly, so I figured it best to start heading down and let the speedy Mark catch up to me. The Marek grassy slope looked appealing, and the ridgewalk to get to it looked even more appealing, so I decided to try that variation. Sure enough it was wonderful - I'd recommend taking that path up for anyone coming this way.
As expected, Mark caught back up to me on the goat trails traversing the grassy slope. The bushwack down was much quicker than the bushwack up. We were fortunate to make it down and through the cutblock just before headlamps were required. Quick walk to the cars and we were done.
-Ryan
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Trail running, bike hucking, fast packing, beer drinking collector of pine cones on a day pass
AKA
Dances with Trees
Forest Gnome Cabin
Canada
13057 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 11:35 AM
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Great report, Ryan, I always enjoy the way you find interesting things to photograph on the approach .
I've had a couple of days like that too this year. Still better to have gotten out there, and the summit isn't going anywhere, so you can always give it another go  |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
1114 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 12:56 PM
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| quality! |
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Peak bagging, bushwhacking, zamboni driving, snowshoeing, self portrait artist, and speed demon who loves to hang out on Mt. Seymour
4000 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 1:10 PM
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It looks like you guys are working north up the Silver-Skagit from the border whilst I'm working south. Maybe we'll meet up in the middle somewhere.
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
606 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 1:22 PM
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| This looks like very nice ridgewalk, I'll put it on my list -- even if I really dislike bushwhacks (BC special!). Frank is quite amazing, isn't he -- I had pleasure to hike with them on Tricouni last fall, although I'd be a bit nervous with bear and cub on the horizon. Great TR and super photos! |
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671 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 1:44 PM
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Ryan, great TR, you always tell a good story, here is my pics
pics on the way up
        
summit pics
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 | Mr. B
Intermediate Member
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Popkum, B.C.
Canada
629 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 6:44 PM
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Very nice, excellent long day. Enjoyed this report. I think this is Silvertip on the right in this photo from Frosty on the day you were up there.
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Maple Ridge, BC
Canada
489 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 7:04 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Ryan.in.yaletown
That is a great capture of a special bond.
p.s. the other photos are great too |
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1355 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 8:15 PM
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Well done, guys.!!! Thanks for the beautiful fall picturs. |
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Vancouver
349 Posts |
Posted - 10/03/2010 : 9:07 PM
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Thanks for finding the detour of dirt slope. That part could be problem for backpacker with heavy overnight gear to go up and down. Glad to hear you guys had a wonderful day out too! |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
150 Posts |
Posted - 10/04/2010 : 1:17 PM
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| Another great trip report on another great trip. |
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832 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2010 : 10:46 PM
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Great outing guys, good job handling the bears.
I remember those buck remnants, regretted later not taking a picture. |
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Silvertip - 2010-10-02
