Buckner and Booker

Buckner Mountain (9,112ft) and Booker Mountain (8,280ft)

Sept 3, 2022

25 miles, 11kft gain

3am to 7:30pm

Buckner Mountain is the 14th highest peak in Washington, the highest point in Skagit County, and one of the few 9,000ers in the state. However, the location of the true summit of Buckner is not known with certainty. Buckner has two summits separated horizontally by about 600 feet, and both lie within the same 9080ft-9120ft contour lines on the USGS quad. The northeast summit is surveyed as 9112ft on the quad but the southwest summit is not surveyed.

As I’ve discovered in the past (on a trip to Buck Mountain), the surveyed location on the quad is not necessarily the summit location. It may just be a location with favorable line-of-sight view to another surveyed point. So the quad does not necessarily indicate the true summit.

The two summits are very close to the same height, and the only way to know for certain which is the true highpoint is to take measurements. Interestingly, it is not trivial to get between them. The standard and easiest route to Buckner tops out on the SW summit. But it is a 3rd class scramble with a bit of exposure to continue to the NE summit. If there is snow on the ridge it can get more difficult. In practice almost all climbers stop at the SW summit without tagging the NE summit.

As far as I’ve researched, there have only been three instances of measurements taken to try to settle the controversy. Edward Earl analyzed a picture taken from the SW summit looking toward the NE summit. By knowing elevations of peaks in the background and the distance between the peaks he could estimate the angle between the camera and the NE summit, and then estimate the height difference. He estimated the NE summit was 1ft shorter.

In 2018 Greg Slayden and Jobe Wymore took 5x sight levels to Buckner. From the SW summit looking at the NE summit they both measured the NE summit a little shorter. Greg scrambled to the NE summit and backsighted the SW summit and measured the SW summit a little higher. He estimated 1-2ft. (Jobe didn’t back sight).

At face value this sounds definitive, that the SW summit is higher. But I wasn’t completely convinced. In my experience with 5x sight levels it’s possible to at best resolve about 0.1-0.2 degrees of angular inclination or declination. With a 600ft horizontal distance, using a bit of trigonometry, a 0.1-0.2 degree angular declination results in a 1-2ft height difference. So the measured difference is right at the border of the resolution of the measuring device. But, without a proper tripod mount, a 5x sight level is a bit more prone to error from hand vibrations and roll angular error. That could be significant when operating very close to the resolution.

As far as I’ve heard, the photo analysis was only in one direction – SW looking towards NE summit. I would have much more confidence in this measurement if it were backed up by one from the NE looking at the SW summit, and if error bounds were given. I would also have more confidence if more than one sight level measurement with backsighting measured the SW summit higher, since it is so close to the resolution of the device. Or if more precise measurements were taken.

John Roper was also not entirely convinced, and he encouraged me to go collect more data, since it is such a significant peak. I’ve done quite a few measurements of peaks over the past few years, using a variety of tools. I’ve used a Trimble Geo 7x to survey two highpoint candidates in Saudi Arabia, concluding Jabal Ferwa is the true country highpoint (not Jabal Sawda as previously thought). I’ve brought a Trimble GeoXR with Zephyr 2 antenna to west africa to survey country highpoint candidates in Togo, Ghana, Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Gambia. This unit is capable of 1 inch vertical accuracy if a one-hour measurement is taken with good overhead visibility. On this trip I found new, previously unknown, true highpoint locations for Togo, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. I’ve used a sight level to find the true summit of Lenin Peak, a 7000m peak in Kyrgyzstan (the summit marker is in the wrong place). And in Washington I’ve used a sight level to measure and update the true summit locations of Sherpa Peak (balanced rock is 2ft shorter),  Buck Mtn, Mt Berge, and  Armstrong mountain.

Unfortunately I don’t currently have access to the Trimble units, so could only bring my 5x and 1x sight levels. So it was unlikely I could definitively measure which summit was highest, given the resolution of the devices. But, at the very least, if my measurements were consistent with the other measurements, that would increase confidence that the SW summit is higher. If they were not consistent that would strengthen my resolve to acquire better measuring equipment and return for more measurements.

I’d already climbed Buckner in 2018, my final peak on the Bulger list, but hadn’t thought to take measurements then. Last fall I told John I’d take measurements, but I was thwarted by marginal weather in September and October. If I was going to go all the way in there I wanted a reasonable chance of being able to see from one peak to the other to actually take a measurment. Then it started snowing and I knew I’d have to wait. I wanted to measure the height of the highest permanent rocks, not the height of seasonal cornices.

By June when the summit cornices would likely melt off I had to leave for a summer expedition, so this September was my first real opportunity. The weather looked good, summits were likely snow free, and I had a day free, so I decided to do a day-trip and re-climb Buckner and take some measurements. Based on my past experience it didn’t seem like it would take all day, so I decided if I was feeling strong after Buckner and still had time I’d continue and tag Booker. Booker is a top 200 peak I needed farther along the ridge, and it makes sense to do this time of year. I hadn’t done a day trip this long since K2 summit push over a month ago, though, so there was still a little uncertainty how my body would hold up and whether I was fully recovered.

I researched some excellent beta on Booker from John Porter and Eric Eames, and was ready to go. I would follow the standard route up Sahale Arm for the approach. This was the same route I took in 2018, so I was very familiar with it. I expected the route to be mostly snow-free, but brought my aluminum crampons and whippet just in case. I remembered a steep snow section just past Sahale Camp in late August 2018 that had warrented crampons. I would bring trail runners since most of the route was off-snow, though.

Friday night I drove to the Cascade Pass trailhead to sleep. I hadn’t been on Cascade River Road since January when Duncan and I had snowmobiled in to climb Forbidden. It was fun driving the road now and comparing all the memorable sections to winter. I particularly wanted to see the remains of the big 6ft diameter tree that had stopped us on the snowmobile around MP 15. But all evidence was completely gone even from the side of the road! Maybe it was just covered by undergrowth.

I was asleep in the back of the truck by 10pm, then up and moving by 3am. I wanted to time things so I would reach Sahale camp around sunrise so I could navigate the off-trail section in the daylight and so I would see a good sunrise view. I made good time up the trail, and passed through many fresh spider webs. As expected I made it to Sahale camp a little before sunrise and was treated to great views to the south. I think the haze from distant forest fire smoke makes for more colorful sunrises.

I traversed through the camp, then scrambled down to the east to the edge of a permanent snowfield. I recalled last time I had donned crampons here and downclimbed the slope. But this time I managed to get around it without putting on crampons. I scrambled down the skiers right side where it met the top edge of a cliff. Then I delicately traversed a narrow sliver of melted out rock between the base of the snow and cliff. I used my whippet as a dagger placement in the snow to my left, and made it across.

I then made it to the southeast rib and scrambled down some 3rd class blocks to the snow finger gully. It was snow-free this time of year, so I descended on loose talus and scree, then crossed the low-angle snowfield on the other side. From the snowfield I ascended slightly to gain a flat shoulder at 6600ft. I followed this until it ended at an old mine with tailings beneath. From there I made a gradually rising traverse until I hit the gullies between cliff bands coming down the southwest slope of Buckner.

The leftmost gully had a snow-free route, which I took. It was a little annoying to clamber up through the scree, but I didn’t want to put my crampons on for the longer snow gully on the right. I soon reached the main summit ridge and dropped my poles and extra gear. I decided to first visit the NE summit, so when I came to the SW summit I could write my findings from both measurements in the summit register.

The route to the NE summit looks a little intimidating at first, but I would say isn’t actually that bad. I would rate it class 3 if you follow my route, and class 4 if you stay exactly on the ridgecrest the whole time. There is significant exposure to the north face, but this is avoidable by my route. I started along the ridge and crested the first rise in the ridge, then descended right onto the southeast face on ledges to get around a few intermediate gendarms. I had to traverse around a rib on ledges, then gained a col and scrambled up to the last peak, which was the summit. It took about 10 minutes.

The summit was marked by a small rock cairn. The cairn is to the side of the highest rock and shorter, so doesn’t increase the apparent height. The farther summit beyond the cairn is lower (as I verified with my sight level). I dropped my pack and whipped out my 5x sight level. I set it to zero degrees, layed it on the highest permanent rock (not the cairn), then pointed it towards the SW summit. I find this is the best way to start a measurement, just verifying whether the opposite peak is higher or lower first, before measuring an exact angle. But I measured the SW summit exactly level with the NE summit. When the line in the viewfinder was on the top of the summit it lined up with the middle of the bubble with the tilt set exactly to 0 degrees. So there was zero degrees inclination or declination. I looked away then took the measurement again two more times and got the same result.

This was surprising. I expected to measure it a little taller like Greg Slayden had. But there were more measurements to take before I trusted this. I took out my 1x sight level and also measured a zero degree inclination/declination. I took three measurements with the 1x level and they were all the same. This was making me lose confidence that the SW summit was higher, though I still had to back sight to verify this.

I packed up my bag and started back, but then returned to the NE summit. If I were going to report these findings I had to be absolutely certain. So I again whipped out each sight level and took two more measurements with each. Still, I measured the SW summit exactly level with the NE summit.

I then packed up for real and retraced my route scrambling back. I scrambled up to the SW summit and again whipped out my sight levels. I started with the 5x as before and measured a 0 degree inclination/declination angle looking towards the NE summit. I also measured 0 degrees with the 1x sight level. I repeated the measurements for a total of five measurements with each device, and always got 0 degrees.

This was surprising and a little bit intriguing. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are the exact same height. It means the height difference is within the resolution of the measuring device. If I assume the smallest measurable angle with these sight levels is 0.1 degrees, then since the two peaks are separated by 600ft, the smallest measurable height difference is 600*tan(0.1 deg) = 1.0 ft. This means, based on my measurements, the peaks are within 1.0ft in height, but I can’t definitively say which is higher.

Given that no more precise tool than a 5x sight level has been used on Buckner, I would say it is still unclear which peak is the true summit. Until a more precise measurement is made, I would personally only feel comfortable claiming a Buckner summit after visiting both contenders.

Measurements need to be made with <1.0ft vertical accuracy, and ideally accuracy within a few inches. I know if I took a Trimble Geo XR with zephyr 2 antenna up and mounted the tripod setup on each summit for an hour I should be able to get about 1 inch vertical accuracy. But I don’t currently have access to one of those units (they can be rented for ~$200/day, but I’m not sure I want to invest that in this project yet). Alternatively, a hose level could get 1 inch accuracy, but that is not practical because it would be way to0 heavy to lug so much water up to fill a 600ft long hose. If anyone has access to a different measuring device with the necessary accuracy I’d be happy to haul it back up and take more measurements.

I took a break then to eat a snack and sign in on the register. The views were great to Boston and Forbidden to the north and Logan and Goode to the east. It was only 9:45am then and I was feeling strong with plenty of daylight, so I decided I’d go tag Booker also. I descended the same way, then at the bottom of the scree gully I started angling down to the left. I crossed easy scree and talus slopes to hit the next ridge at a 6500ft shoulder as mentioned by John P and Eric E. I then rounded the corner and scrambled up talus in the next gully. This was snow free and provided an excellent water source.

At the top of the gully I crossed a flat snow slope and then hiked up the slope to the right. It looked tempting to just gain the Buckner-Booker ridge and follow that directly to the summit, but I was concerned about getting cliffed out. From Buckner this had looked like a good route, but it wasn’t possible to be sure. I figured if the route looked good from Booker looking back I would take it as a shortcut back. But I would follow the longer known route to get to the summit.

At the bench above the snowfield I turned right and rounded a small rib, then made a gradual descent on grassy slabby terrain to meet the south ridge at 7000ft. The south ridge is flanked by cliffs on the east except for this one spot that allows passage. I crossed over, then scrambled down a narrow ledge and got past the cliff band. There the terrain eased, and I crossed snowfields, scrambled talus, and walked up slabs in a beeline directly for Booker.

In the gully below the col to the west of the summit I scrambled a short 3rd class section, before cutting right to gain low-angle talus and scree slopes. I then followed these to the summit by 1pm. The summit is the highest maximum on the west end of the summit ridge. It looked like the maximum on the east end of the ridge might be higher, but I measured it significantly lower with my sight level. (I didn’t feel the need to back sight when the angular difference is >0.5 degrees, which is much more than the resolution of the device).

I stopped there for a longer break. The summit register was soaked, so I took out all the pages to air them out. There hadn’t been any sign ins this year, but I think Josh Henderson did climb it in July. So I’m probably the second summiter of the year. Not a popular peak!

I had thought Buckner felt remote, but Booker is even more so. This makes it a more appealing peak in my mind.

Unfortunately I couldn’t stay too long, though, since I needed to be back home in Seattle at a reasonable hour that night. By 1:30pm the pages were all dried out, so I signed in and carefully inserted them back in the register. I then retraced my route down, making a few detours to boot glissade and save some time. I traversed across Horseshoe Basin at 6500ft and made it back to the rib coming down from Sahale camp.

After eating a snack I scrambled up the rib, then across the narrow ledge below the snowfield and up to Sahale Camp. Somehow I was still feeling strong and energetic, and I considered tagging Sahale Peak just to get another summit for the day. Maybe there’s a tiny bit of K2 acclimation still left in me. But I started doing the math and that would put me home after midnight, which was too late. So instead I stopped briefly to admire the view. It was actually pretty amazing. A sea of clouds filled the cascade river valley and was pouring through cascade pass like a waterfall into the clear valley on the other side. Johannesberg and Formidable were sticking out of the undercast clouds like islands.

I took some pictures, then headed down. I soon dropped below the clouds and it got windy and dark. I jogged down to make better time, and reached the trailhead at 7:30pm, in time to get home at a reasonable hour.

Video of clouds streaming through cascade pass:

 

 

 

 

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