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Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 6:12 pm
by Bosterson
As my car was stolen from out front of my house Thurs night/Fri morning :shock: , I hitched a ride onto Peder's annual Whittier trip in order to get into the high country this weekend. I got my friend David to come, and was psyched to be hiking with Ben again since our schedules don't match up anymore. Steve, and, of course, Peder, the man himself, rounded out the lineup.

We left Portland at 4:30am and got to Norway Pass around 7. Everything was socked in as we began the hike.

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But we broke through the clouds up at the junction with the lakes basin trail.

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Ben and I stopped to do a little alpine climbing.

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Then we hit the lakes basin.

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View of the backside of the Whittier ridge from the west end of the lakes basin, before we started up to Whittier.

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Ben and I did a little scrambling to gain the ridge.

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Checking out Coldwater Canyon.

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We were hit by occasional gale force winds.

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Gaining the summit.

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Ben and David on the south summit. (Mt. Margaret in the background.)

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Rest of the group back on the regular summit - possibly looking for a bottle of champagne Peder said Roy was going to leave up there for us? No dice!

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South summit fun.

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Then down to the three gendarmes. (L-R: south, middle, north)

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Ben and I went up north first.

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Good rock but bad exposure. Don't try this at home, we're experienced rock climbers, etc etc.

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David above the "scary" part of the trail, below the south gendarme.

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On top of the south gendarme.

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A camouflaged Ben downclimbing.

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Great wildflower action out there right now.

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These elk hunters were pushing their gear up the hill on mountain bikes. They were going to push said bikes across the Whittier ridge until Peder informed them that would be impossible and had them turn around...

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Hikin' out.

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The 14-15 mile loop went pretty fast, and we were back at the car by midafternoon. Huckleberries are out and about but not ripe to my satisfaction yet. Ben crossed the ridge two weeks ago and apparently the snow has substantially diminished - it's mostly gone now, and we never had to walk on it. The Whittier trail itself also seems to have been further improved since I last did it two years ago - there are more rock steps in place, and the trail in general seems to be well worn in. This diminishes a bit of the adventure that it used to be back when it was a "closed" trail, but it's still a blast as usual.

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 6:51 pm
by pablo
Nat,

Sorry to hear about your car, bummer - looks like you had a great day to take your mind off it. Really dramatic photos of you guys climbing all that rock. How does what you did fit into the scramble class rating system?

Thx,

--Paul

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 6:52 pm
by jointhedance

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 7:16 pm
by Eric Peterson
Dang, sorry I couldn't make it on this one, good stuff guys! :)

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 7:19 pm
by Roy
Bosterson wrote:bingAs my car was stolen from out front of my house Thurs night/Fri morning :shock: ,
The Whittier trail itself also seems to have been further improved since I last did it two years ago - there are more rock steps in place, and the trail in general seems to be well worn in. This diminishes a bit of the adventure that it used to be back when it was a "closed" trail, but it's still a blast as usual.
Peder kindly hinted I bow out of this one and a wise thing it was I did the a trail it wasn't that bad I had nasty drizzly fog so my camera stayed in a water proof pouch all day I ruined one on similar day about 3 years ago I have nothing prove any more.

Glad you said the trail has improved I thought it was pretty easy compared to the Ellinore Washington traverse we did less than a week ago.Its rated third class that was going to prep me for this but not so.(I did not do the loop tho just the traverse in and back)

I did leave a treat i guess in the wrong place up there visibility was bad at times I dont own a gps either ,the only photo I took at Norway pass trail head.I was trusting my old Altimeter it lies somewhere up there now.

Somebody gets a treat.

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Sorry to about your car I remember coming out to go to work and I did not have a car.Thats a empty a feeling got mine back a week later some body needed to get Camas about 15miles a way, they burned the stater by not disconnecting wires when they hot wired it.

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 8:04 pm
by Peder
Roy wrote:Somebody gets a treat.
Tom - Now I know where not to find the bottle of Chateau de Tomroy! I may look for it on other suited high points later this month!

Other than some of us being delayed by climbing (and in Nat's case extreme wind gusts), we were also delayed by delicious huckleberries and strawberries!

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 9:03 pm
by Eric Peterson
Peder wrote: I may look for it on other suited high points later this month!
Keep me in the loop, was thinking of doing a big loop from Coldwater later this month or maybe
on Labor Day weekend...

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 9:17 pm
by mjuliana
Wow. What an adventure. Love the photos. What was your route? Up the Lakes Trail and back down on the Whittier Trail and then back to Norway?

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 9:50 pm
by Peder
mjuliana wrote:Wow. What an adventure. Love the photos. What was your route? Up the Lakes Trail and back down on the Whittier Trail and then back to Norway?
Yes!

Re: Mt. Whittier and lakes basin - 8/3/13

Posted: August 4th, 2013, 10:31 pm
by Roy
Eric Peterson wrote:Dang, sorry I couldn't make it on this one, good stuff guys! :)
Go Eric! Forget the acrobatic photo's it does not represent this unique trail as far that stuff take it to a climbers forum where they will critique you and not stroke your ego.
This is PH.org? No need to detour people from this wonderful hike.
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These represents the hike and its difficultly and any strong confident hiker is very capable of this.

I guess you can tell chest beaters piss me off he,he.