Argonaut Peak

Argonaut Peak (8,453ft)

The first view of Argonaut from the pass at the top of Fourth Creek

September 2, 2018 10am-4:30pm

Eric Gilbertson

I had just climbed Pinnacle and Emerald peaks on September 1 and was sleeping in the car at a pulloff on Entiat River road. I got up at 5am and was soon driving south. I had previously climb Argonaut in May 2017 with Matthew, but needed to reclimb it to tighten my Bulgers finishing time.

I made it to the Beverly Creek trailhead and was moving up the trail by 10am. I recalled using a rope to rappel from the summit ridge last time on Argonaut, though that was in early May when the snow went most of the way to the ridge. By late September I expected most of the snow to be gone on the standard south side route, thus exposing a longer section of rock to rappel. I packed my 30m rope, harness, and a few pieces of rock pro in case I needed to rope solo up to the ridge.

The chockstone gully leading to the summit ridge

I hiked up the Beverly Creek trail to the wilderness boundary and got my first glimpse of the summit. I descended down to Ingals Creek and easily crossed. This was a lot different than in early May, where the creek was a raging river and we had to scoot across on a fallen log!

Across the creek I started bushwhacking directly from the Ingalls Creek trail intersection, heading basically straight up the south slope of Argonaut. The woods were mostly open with blowdowns down low. As I got higher I started following game trails, and noticed there were fresh human footprints on the trails also. I would later learn that my friends Jake Robinson, Trace Gough, and Dave Goliath had just summited the previous day.

The faint use trail turned out to be pretty good, and I eventually reached the broad south gully of Argonaut. I dropped into the gully and started scrambling up. I had hoped there would be snowmelt to fill my empty Nalgene, but the gully was dry. After looking around for quite a while finally found a fist-sized puddle filled with mosquito larvae. I was desperate, so filled up half my Nalgene and put a double dose of treatment tablets in.

The view from the summit

I scrambled higher, and somehow the bugs were still squirming around the water after 30 minutes. I carefully drank around them and stayed hydrated. After passing a few rap anchors on steep class 3 terrain I reached the chockstone

Rainier in the distance

below the summit ridge. This was the fourth class section I planned to rappel. It seemed short enough and descent enough holds that I was ok soloing up it, though it would be sketchy soloing down.

I left my rope and rock gear at the old rap anchor behind the chockstone, then scrambled up the ridge to the summit. There was one tricky section in the tunnel that required some careful scrambling, but I soon reached the summit.

After adding my name a second time I scrambled back down to the rap anchor. I had brought extra gear, so added some cord to the anchor and rapped down. The 30m rope was a perfect length. I scrambled down the rest of the gully and retraced my route back to the trail, then hiked back to the car by 4:30pm.

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