Armstrong, Windy, Arnold, Topaz, Haig, Caprock, Chopaka, Hurley, Snowshoe

Nine WA Top 300 Peaks Car to Car – Armstrong (8,140ft), Windy (8,333ft), Arnold (8,091ft), Topaz (7,785ft), Haig (7,865ft), Caprock (7,858ft), Chopaka (7,881ft), Hurley (7,808ft), Snowshoe (7,818ft)

Eric Gilbertson

48 miles, 15kft gain

June 12, 12am – 9:30pm

(Results summary: Highpoint of Armstrong summit massif is unnamed point in Canada, 1-3m taller than named point on US side)

The list of top 200 highest peaks in Washington currently has one wild card peak – Armstrong – that has a bit of controversy around whether it should be included or not. The problem stems from the true location of the summit. Armstrong Mountain straddles the US-Canada border and has two candidate summit locations about 2000ft apart, one squarely in each country. Armstrong is high enough (8,140ft) and prominent enough (1,001ft) to be in the top 200 list of Washington. However, if the true summit is in Canada then the peak isn’t really in Washington.

The topographic maps show both candidate summits enclosed in small 2,480m (8,136ft) contours, with the US summit surveyed at 2481m (8,140ft), but the Canada summit unsurveyed. As far as I’ve researched nobody has carefully determined which peak is higher. Generally climbers working on the Washington Top 200 list go ahead and climb Armstrong (both summits), just in case it should be included.

I’d actually already made two trips to the Armstrong area in the past, but never took careful measurements. In October 2019 I did a big 59 mile 28 hour car-to-car loop tagging what I thought were all the top 200 peaks in the northeastern Pasayten. At least, I tagged all the peaks on the official Bulgers WA top 200 google doc. I skipped Armstrong at the time because it was 10pm then, I was 19 hours into the trip, postholing in knee-deep fresh snow, and didn’t feel like tagging on optional bonus peaks.

But within about a week or so of me posting a trip report the official list got updated to include Armstrong. That was unfortunate, since it would have only been a mile or so detour, and I would have done it had I known. So I had to go back.

Fred and I returned in January 2020. That time we did a huge 53 mile 32-hour car-to-car ski trip getting first winter ascents of Armstrong, Arnold, and Horseshoe and the second winter ascent of Windy Peak. I unfortunately didn’t think to take any measurements to settle the controversy on Armstrong. It probably wouldn’t have been possible anyways since the summits were in low visibility at sunset then.

Recently John Roper convinced me it would be a worthwhile mission to try to take careful measurements and settle the controversy on Armstrong. There was a nice weather window predicted Saturday in eastern Washington, and I thought maybe I’d go pay Armstrong another visit. But it felt like kind of a short day to just hike out to Armstrong and back. I played around on caltopo for a while and figured out a big 48 mile loop that would tag six new peaks for me on the Washington top 300 list. I could make short side trips to throw in Windy, Arnold, and Armstrong and get nine of the top 300 Washington peaks in one push, which sounded fun.

The loop would require some significant off-trail travel for at least 20 miles. It was hard to tell in advance how fast this would go. The above treeline portions could be slow going on talus or fast in grassy meadows. The below treeline portions could be very slow going in recent burn zones, and a tossup in non-burn zones. Caltopo shows historic fire zones and I would definitely be passing through some.

I planned to start at the Iron Gate trailhead and hit Armstrong about 2/3 of the way through the loop. This way if my bushwhacking speed was slower than hoped for I could bail early and take a trail back directly from Horseshoe basin nearby. If I was making good time I could continue the loop hitting a handful more peaks. I planned to do the loop counterclockwise. This had the advantage that I could do a long trailed below-treeline section early in the dark and hit my first above treeline section around sunrise.

Satellite images showed very little snow in that area, and I was kind of excited to do my first trip completely in trail runners since last October. Skis definitely didn’t make sense, but I brought microspikes and gaiters.

I drove out Friday afternoon, reaching the Iron Gate trailhead around 8:30pm as it was lightly snowing. There were two trucks in the lot, and based on the trailhead register the three of us were the first ones there this season.

I got a few hours sleep, then was up and moving by midnight. The rain and snow had stopped as expected and I was treated to clear starry skies above. The boundary trail was in good condition, but the deer park trail was full of fresh blowdowns that slowed me down. Near the 14-mile recreation site I took a short cut on an abandoned road, requiring a tricky crossing of the north fork toats coulee creek in the dark, but I soon popped out on FS 39-100.

After a quarter mile up the road I arrived at a trailhead with a magnificent wooden trail map. I saw a trail going directly up Corduroy Creek to Cold Springs trailhead, which was on my route. That trail wasn’t on the quad and I was a bit skeptical it was maintained and followable at night. I started up to test it out, and it was indeed very difficult to find in the dark. So instead went back to the road and followed my planned, though much longer, route.

The road was soon gated, but I continued up to the Chopaka Mountain Trail, where I turned off on the right. This trail was in good shape and looked wide enough to ride a four wheeler on. I was technically in the Loomis Natural Resources Conservation Area, which probably gets all kinds of different uses. By sunrise I reached the Cold Springs trailhead and took my first break.

I soon followed a jeep trail north from Cold Spring, then when it veered left I continued up bushwhacking through mostly open forest. Above treeline I encountered small fresh snow drifts from the previous day and a fresh dusting on the rocks. The summit had a massive register, and had great views to Palmer Lake below. I could see peaks farther west were stuck in clouds but I was in the sun.

I dropped down the gentle north side, then hiked up to Hurley Peak by 6:30am. This one had a smaller register and only a few sign ins in the past few years. I returned to the Hurley-Chopaka saddle then followed an old road west . I made an unplanned side trip to tag Joe Mills Peak, then dropped back down to the road. I roughly followed the old road down Olallie Creek, then started bushwhacking up the southeast ridge of Snowshoe.

The blowdowns were pretty bad down low and progress was slow. But above 6800ft the terrain opened. I finished with some fun talus scrambling to top out on Snowshoe a little after 9am. By now clouds were hitting the summit of Chopaka. I hoped they held off for Armstrong so I could get some good measurements.

I dropped down the north ridge then bushwhacked down to Snowshoe Meadow and back up to the east ridge of Arnold. Travel was easy above 7000ft in mostly open meadows. I continued in the meadows up the east ridge to Arnold. The last time I’d been to Arnold was at 11pm in deep snow in October. It was a much more pleasant experience this time.

I descended the west slope down to Snehumption Gap then kicked steps up a snow slope to the US summit of Armstrong Peak. I breathed a sigh of relief that visibility was good and I could take some measurements. I whipped out my surveyors level, layed down on the US summit, and pointed toward the Canada summit. The elevation was really close, but I did detect a slight inclination up to the Canada summit. I took a picture of the measurement so I could zoom in later and see the exact number (it was about 0.3 degrees).

Next I packed up and hiked over to the Canada summit. I looked back toward the US summit and measured a very small declination. I took a picture of the measurement and later determined it was about 0.1 degree. The measurements should theoretically be the same, but of course there’s some human error that will lead to slight differences. But the measurements were consistent that the Canadian summit is a bit taller. Given that the summits are 607m apart, using some trigonometry this means the Canadian summit is 1-3m taller.

I was a little disappointed since I kind of wanted the US to have claim to Armstrong Mountain. Maybe some future group will need to go build a 4m tall cairn on the US summit to claim the highpoint. It was about 12:30pm then and I was doing good on time still, so I decided to continue with the loop.

I dropped down the southwest face of Armstrong then followed the boundary trail west, following a set of fresh boot prints. I soon diverged and hiked up to the summit of Caprock Peak. This one had a fun little boulder scramble on the summit. I bushwhacked back to the boundary trail, followed it a bit farther west, then left when it diverged south. I postholed up some soft snow to gain the southwest ridge, then tagged the summit. Views were great to the west looking at snowy peaks in the Cathedral and Amphitheater area.

I had kind of a decision to make for the next leg of the loop. I originally planned to bushwhack straight across the valley to Topaz. The area hadn’t burned in recent decades, so could be fast going. But it could also be really slow. I could also hike back along the boundary trail to Horseshoe Pass. That would be about 3 times longer, though, and went through recent burn zones.

I decided to go for the bushwhack. I descended straight south, and encountered easy open terrain to Horseshoe Creek. On the other side the bushwhacking got pretty dense and my speed slowed considerably. I decided to make a beeline toward the Windy Peak trail, which I knew was at least followable back in 2019 when I’d done it before. As I got higher the trees opened up a little bit, and I eventually made it to the edge of the burn zone.

From there I decided to skip the trail and just go through the burn zone. I hiked up to the Topaz-Windy col, then plunged through some snow to the summit of Topaz by 6pm. A few summits looked similar height, so I whipped out my surveyors level and confirmed I was on the highest. I scrambled back down, then met up with the Windy Peak trail. It was a relief to know I would be on trail for the rest of the day.

By 7pm I topped out on Windy, my final peak for the day. This was actually my fourth time summitting Windy, and the first that was not in a snowstorm! There were fresh boot prints and I looked in the summit register, but it was such a jumbled mess I didn’t bother trying to find a scrap of paper to sign.

To hike out I continued south, crossing a big snowfield, to 7,000ft, where I turned off on Clutch Creek Trail. Around 5,800ft it got really slow going crawling through a jungle gym of blowdowns. I passed by a group of hikers camped out near the Middle Fork Toats Coulee Creek, and they were the only people I saw all day.

By 9:30pm I reached the car and scarfed down some pasta I’d left myself. I started driving 5 minutes later, and made a slight detour to Cathedral Driveway trailhead to say hi to Jason before he started his Bulger project the next morning. Unfortunately I was supposed to be in Seattle by Sunday morning, so I started the long drive home that night. I took a nap at Blewett Pass and made it home by 7am.

 

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