Adrienne, Caroline, and Kat have been doing "
estro fests" for 3 years know. This year she invited me and encouraged me to invite a friend. I excepted her invitation and
invited Chris. Adrienne and I spent some time dreaming up a trip and
eventually settled on
skiing Mt. Challenger from
Hannegan Pass. After
assembling everyone and the
necessary equipment we set out for
Bellingham and the
Hannegan trail head. Within less than a mile after turning of HWY 542 we encountered
our first challenge, a tree over the road. A little probing in the mud and some eye balling the size of the van and the
clearance below the log and we decided to give it a go. Chris eased the van under the log while I directed. With less than an inch we
succeeded in slipping beneath the log then continued what would have been a long two more miles until we encountered snow on the road at around 3,200 feet. A somewhat quick gear
explosion in the mixed snow and rain and then we were skinning up the road
towards the
trail head and the pass. We moved slowly under heavy packs but meandered on all the while knowing we had just set out on what was to be a very long trek. The sun made an
appearance not long after passing the trail head and
I even felt so warm as to ski in shorts for a quick time. We past some young climbers returning from an attempted on Mt.
Sefit then
proceeded up valley. After passing threw the long Ruth Creek valley we climbed steeply to
Hannegan Pass under failing light and snow. We made camp on a small
plato near trees on the northwest side of pass then settled in for the night. Clear skies and a warming trend
greeted us the following morning as we broke camp and headed down the
Chilliwack River drainage
towards the base of Easy Ridge, Mt
Watcom and eventually Mt. Challenger. After only a few miles we encountered Hells Gorge. Hear we made a steep decent into a canyon, crossed a small snow bridge and boot packed our way up what was to be only the first of two gorges that make up Hells Gorge. Hear after Adrienne and
Caroline spent some time scouting a way
around the second gorge we had a group pow wow and came to the
consensus that we were moving to slowly to reach Mt. Challenger and return on our planned
itinerary. With a bit of
impromptu trip planning we settled on a route up between the two gorges to the ridge between point 6701 and
Hannegan Peak. We
ascended threw the rest of the early afternoon until we nearly topped out on the ridge
then made camp in a hollow at about 6000 ft. where we enjoyed the late afternoon sun as it set behind the
Skagit Range. The following morning was very cold as the sun had not crested the ridge above our camp until well into
breakfast. After rounding up all of our stuff we continued up the ridge to great
views of the Picket Range. We skied west down the ridge
towards Hannegan Peak as the snow
softened to the consistency of mash
potatoes then a slushy. After a short, steep, exposed, climb of the east ridge we gained the summit of
Hannegan Peak then paused for a few photos. A quick ski to
Hannegan Pass and we had lunch while pondering our next move. We decided on camping high on a
saddle just north of
Ruth Mt. after racing under hanging cornices and steep rock under a small sub peak. Cool camp as we
deemed it was just that very "cool" but also very cold. Here we dug and enjoyed amazing views after the winds died down in the evening. The next morning we found high overcast skies and what looked to be an impending front on our door steep. We anxiously waited in hopes the snow would soften then packed camp to avoid having the ravens pick threw our stuff before heading up Mt. Ruth.
After only and hour of skinning we reached the summit and where
greeted with breath taking views of the
Nooksack Cirque, Pickets,
Icey Peak and the rest of the
surrounding Cascade peaks. Again a few photos and we were off skiing amazingly good boot top cold snow nearly all the way to camp.
In fact the snow was so good the ladies convinced Chris and I and to head back up our recently installed skin track for another glory lap. We returned to camp packed our bags a day earlier than planned and return the six miles down the Ruth Creek to waiting beer and salty chips. A great trip albeit not what we had planned on.
